With every end to the season, changes come along with it, and the Montreal Canadiens have a few players who likely played their last game with the team.
Being eliminated from the playoffs prematurely always comes with a wave of emotion for both fans and players. Fans will be livid, sad, annoyed, or a combination of all three imagining what went wrong or what could’ve been. Those on the ice will be disappointed and frustrated, especially if they were close, and it was their last chance at a Stanley Cup with that team. If you’re an NHL general manager, however, you can’t take that long to stew as the vision is to the following season, and that’s where the Montreal Canadiens and Marc Bergevin are at right now.
The Habs shocked the hockey world by defeating the Pittsburgh Penguins and pushing the Philadelphia Flyers to six games. But sitting in a retool instead of a legitimate rebuild means there is no room for moral victories.
With the salary cap staying flat, teams are going to struggle to be able to keep their teams together. That can likely change the dynamic of the league and leave windows for other squads to compete for a championship. Bergevin likes to through the “Just get in and see what happens line,” but that is going to come to be a fact in the next coming years.
Look at what is happening for the Vancouver Canucks right now. Anything is possible if you’re committed to actually being good.
The first and easiest thing to figure out is ‘change’. What is changing for the Montreal Canadiens exactly? And to be more specific, who on the Habs played their last game with the team. Most are obvious, while others are very likely given future events and what took place in the Stanley Cup Playoffs.