The Montreal Canadiens season is a week away. They just missed the playoffs last spring, but here are the top five reasons they will be able to qualify for the postseason this year.
The Montreal Canadiens had a good season last year. It wasn’t an excellent season, that would require a length playoff run. It wasn’t a great season, that would have required at least qualifying for the playoffs. It wasn’t a poor season either though. We have seen a couple of those recently and know exactly what they look like.
It was just a good season, but not good enough. It was the third time in the past four years that the Canadiens missed the postseason. It was also the fourth straight year that they did not win a playoff series.
The Habs didn’t have the most impressive offseason of the 31 NHL teams either. They attempted to snatch Sebastian Aho away from the Carolina Hurricanes via an offer sheet, but they failed to acquire him as the Hurricanes wisely opted to match. They were rumoured to be in on several free agents and trying to dip their toes into the trade waters as well, but nothing major materialized.
They ended up signing Nick Cousins, Ben Chiarot and Keith Kinkaid to shore up all three facets of their lineup. The trio of free agent acquisitions will add some depth to the Habs compared to last season. Obviously none of them move the needle as much as a player like Aho would have.
However, there are reasons for optimism with the 2019-20 Montreal Canadiens. The team needs to be just slightly better that a year ago when they finished with 96 points and were one of the best teams ever to miss the postseason. Had they been in the Central Division, they’d have been battling for first place into the last week of the season.
So, what is going to propel them from just outside the playoff picture in 2019 to inside the postseason in 2020? What will ensure they aren’t just a good team, but a really good, or even great team?
Here are the top five reasons to be optimistic about the 2019-20 Montreal Canadiens.