Montreal Canadiens Could Benefit from All-Canadian Division, New Playoff Format

The 2020-2021 season will see both a divisional and playoff realignment. Could the Montreal Canadiens benefit from this new playoff format?

On Friday night, the NHL and NHLPA reached an agreement on the upcoming season with a Board of Governors call scheduled for the weekend. This tentative agreement would see training camp begin on January 3rd whilst the 56-game regular season would see the Montreal Canadiens return to play ten days later.

Although the dates may still be subject to change, it is expected there will be no exhibition games meaning the season will commence once training camp concludes. Furthermore, Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman revealed the playoffs would also see a reformatting. This is due to border restrictions between Canada and the United States.

The new format would see the top four teams in each division contend for the post-season, with the first two rounds of contention remaining within the division. As a result, Friedman mentions each of the four divisions will have one of its teams in the semi-finals.

Although this may be subject to change if no agreement is reached on an all-Canadian division, this new playoff format would result in two rounds consisting of all-Canadian matchups as well as a Canadian team being guaranteed a spot in the semi-finals. As one of the seven teams in the proposed all-Canadian division, the Montreal Canadiens could benefit from this new format.

Taking their acquisition-filled offseason into consideration, the Montreal Canadiens, on paper, have improved their roster in several facets. Acquiring an experienced backup goaltender in Jake Allen to alleviate the number of games played by Carey Price will prove to be beneficial in this sprint of a season.

There is also the trade that brought in Joel Edmundson, a defenseman who brings size to the team’s backend. Likewise, the hope amongst the organization is acquisitions and signings of Josh Anderson and Tyler Toffoli will give the Montreal Canadiens the scoring touch they require.

Ergo, it is not surprising to see that there is a lot of chatter surrounding multiple analysts of the type of season the Montreal Canadiens. If these new acquisitions mesh well with the current roster, we could see a significantly improved Canadiens team that struggled for the bulk of the 2019-20 regular season before impressing in an expanded playoff format last August. The top four teams in each division qualifying for post-season contention should then put the supposedly improved Montreal Canadiens in one of the said positions.

For the time being, this is nothing more than speculation as there is still no official agreement on an all-Canadian division playing in the 56-game regular season. Likewise, we have only been able to utilize projections to estimate how well of a season the Montreal Canadiens may have.

Last season saw many extended losing streaks sink the Canadiens’ chances of making the playoffs, and if it were not for the expanded format in the summer, they would have likely missed for the third straight. There will be no room for such error next season as the shortened schedule will surely make it a sprint.

Competing with the likes of Auston Matthews, Connor McDavid, Elias Pettersson, and many other elite players in an all-Canadian division will be no easy task. Nonetheless, the combination of their new acquisitions, paying dividends four teams from each division qualifying may be enough to carry them to the post-season.