5 Key Montreal Canadiens questions for the remainder of the season
By Omar L
The NHL is off now that the All-Star Game is coming up, and the Montreal Canadiens have some questions that need to be answered on the direction of the team.
The Montreal Canadiens have been on their bye week since Sunday after beating the Vegas Golden Knights in a shootout. Since then, a sparse amount of teams have continued to play while the Habs got their opportunity to rest up.
Now it’s not the official halfway point of the season, but things do kick into gear once he NHL starts up. Once that happens, the Montreal Canadiens have a number of questions they’ll have to answer for themselves.
Can They Do It?
Nothing has really changed in the standings. The Montreal Canadiens are still sixth in the Atlantic Division with 51 points. Ahead of them, playoff wise, are the Florida Panthers who have strapped some more points together and have 61.
You could also look towards the race for the wild-card spots which is a three-way battle between the Columbus Blue Jackets, Carolina Hurricanes and Philadelphia Flyers. Either way, the lowest portion of the fight has Montreal out by the same number of points.
Asking the Montreal Canadiens to win five games isn’t a tall task. That said, they’ll need help from the out of town scoreboard which hasn’t worked in their favour.
What could help the Habs are the nights where those above teams are off. And most importantly, the matches against said teams are must-wins.
The Habs face the Panthers three more times and the Hurricanes and Blue Jackets once each. Those three games against Florida can really help their cause, but they’ll have to keep in mind the Toronto Maple Leafs and their goal to make the playoffs.
It’s not looking too good at the moment.