Montreal Canadiens GM Marc Bergevin has a great offseason that will lead the Habs to the playoffs.
The 2020-2021 season will be different for a lot of teams, especially for the Montreal Canadiens. Last week the NHL officially announced the start date for the regular season, which is set to begin on January 13th, 2021. All training camps are set to begin January 3rd with no pre-season games to be played.
However, the most important change for this season is the realignment. The Board of Governors and NHLPA agreed to form four new divisions (North, West, Central, East) where the league will be split into divisions of 7-8 teams.
Each team will play within their own division for a total of 56 games. The top four teams in each division will be granted playoff spots at the end of the season. These drastic changes were made to facilitate travel around the league due to restrictions set by the Canadian government amid the current COVID-19 pandemic.
One of the most intriguing divisions is the North which will feature all seven Canadian teams playing 8 games against each other throughout the season. The advantage here is that none of them have to play against the reigning Cup champion Lightning and President’s Trophy winner Boston Bruins. However, each Canadian team proves to be a formidable opponent, with 4-5 teams being of equal quality and strength.
Each team made improvements to their roster during the offseason but none more so than the Montreal Canadiens. GM Marc Bergevin made a point that the team needed to be harder to play against. He addressed both forward and defensive issues as well as fixed their backup goalie situation.