A Winning Habit
Fansided

Reasons for Optimism Abundant for Habs Despite Playoff Exit

By Sebastian High

MONTREAL, QC - NOVEMBER 01: Jesperi Kotkaniemi #15 of the Montreal Canadiens celebrates a victory with goaltender Carey Price #31 against the Washington Capitals during the NHL game at the Bell Centre on November 1, 2018 in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. The Montreal Canadiens defeated the Washington Capitals 6-4. (Photo by Minas Panagiotakis/Getty Images)
MONTREAL, QC - NOVEMBER 01: Jesperi Kotkaniemi #15 of the Montreal Canadiens celebrates a victory with goaltender Carey Price #31 against the Washington Capitals during the NHL game at the Bell Centre on November 1, 2018 in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. The Montreal Canadiens defeated the Washington Capitals 6-4. (Photo by Minas Panagiotakis/Getty Images) /
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TORONTO, ONTARIO – AUGUST 16: Montreal Canadiens (Photo by Elsa/Getty Images)
TORONTO, ONTARIO – AUGUST 16: Montreal Canadiens (Photo by Elsa/Getty Images) /

The outcome of these playoffs may not seem all that great for the Montreal Canadiens on the surface: they couldn’t get past the first round and lost out on the 9th overall pick, now picking at 16. But considering that this is a strong draft and that Cole Caufield dropped to 15 last season and Alex Newhook to 16, a real gem could still land in Montreal.

Aside from the draft, though, there is no downside in the run the Habs just had, I’d go as far as to say that the experience gained from it is worth far more than picking 7 spots earlier in this year’s draft.

Nick Suzuki is already cementing himself as a first-line centre in the NHL, Jesperi Kotkaniemi gained an incredible amount of confidence due to the huge step he took during these playoffs, as did Brett Kulak, Jake Evans proved that he is a very good 4th line centre and that he can chip in further up the lineup, Shea Weber, Carey Price and Jeff Petry proved beyond a doubt that they are still dominant players and Jonathan Drouin proved to himself that he can still become an offensive force in this league.

Of course, all this will factor into the further development of individual players and raise their confidence, but it also makes a statement to players around the league that this Canadiens team should be taken seriously and will be competitive this upcoming season, and will remain competitive for a really long time.

Next. The Habs did Trotz and the Islanders a favour. dark

Montreal is on the rise, and they used this opportunity gifted to them by the league to prove it to both themselves and the league as a whole.

All player statistics are taken from NaturalStatTrick.com unless stated otherwise.

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