Montreal Canadiens: If Habs Miss Playoffs, It Will Be Due To Last Four Games

The Montreal Canadiens are on a four game losing streak. Not only have they lost, they have lost to weaker opponents. These games could be the cause of the Habs missing the playoffs.

The Montreal Canadiens hit a high on Friday, November 15th when they beat the Washington Capitals. They didn’t just beat the Capitals, they went into Washington and dominated the best team in the league with a 5-2 statement performance.

It was the kind of game that makes you change the way you look at a team. Before that game the Habs were a good team but one that lost to some bad teams and looked to be one of many teams that would battle for a wild card spot in the Eastern Conference.

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After the game, you started to think they could be one of the best teams in the conference. They had already defeated the Boston Bruins and Capitals who are the top two teams in the east and had a record of 11-5-3. That’s 25 points in 19 games which had them on pace for 108 over the full season. 108 points would obviously be enough for a playoff spot, would definitely be enough to start the postseason at home and would have them in the running for first in the Atlantic Division.

The New York Islanders can’t play a game without adding points in the standings so the Habs wouldn’t be able to win the Eastern Conference.

Since then, the Habs have lost four straight. Not only did they lose four games, but they dropped all four to teams that are not in a playoff spot. This putrid week started with a 4-3 overtime loss to the New Jersey Devils. It was the second game in as many days and a controversial no-goal call in the dying moment of the game denied them a win. So, there was little cause for concern at that point.

The Habs followed that game up with a disappointing loss to the Columbus Blue Jackets. The Canadiens seemed to carry the play for most of the game and had the better scoring chances, but blew a 2-1 lead and allowed the Blue Jackets to score four unanswered goals in the second half of the game to win 5-2.

One night later and the Habs lost 2-1 in overtime to the Ottawa Senators. The Senators are playing better lately, but like the Blue Jackets are a handful of points outside the playoff picture and don’t look like a strong team. Picking up a single point against those two teams wasn’t great but the worst was yet to come.

Saturday night, the Habs were on their heels in the first few shifts of the game. A bit of a lucky bounce led to a Max Domi goal to open the scoring and some poor goaltending from the Rangers gave the Habs what should have been an insurmountable 4-0 lead.

We all know what happened next. The Habs went up against four division rivals that are struggling in the first quarter of the season, and came away with just two points in the standings. The Devils, Blue Jackets, Senators and Rangers rank 12th, 13th, 14th and 15th in the 16 team Eastern Conference right now and they all beat the Habs in an eight day span. The only team worse than them is the Detroit Red Wings and they spoiled the Canadiens home opener.

Now, after playing 23 games, the Habs have a record of 11-7-5. That’s 27 points in 23 games which suddenly has them on pace for 96 points. Remember last time they had 96 points? If not, it wasn’t that long ago. They missed the postseason by two points last year when they had exactly 96 points. So, four bad games has dropped them from looking like a Stanley Cup contender to a team that is going to be battling for every point to try and scratch and claw into the playoffs at all.

The Canadiens showed by beating the Bruins and Capitals, as well as twice taking out the defending Stanley Cup champion St. Louis Blues that they have the talent to be a playoff team. If they fall short once again, we will look back at their last four games and ask ourselves, how did they let those points slip away in November?