Montreal Canadiens: Next Four Games Will Have Huge Impact On Habs Division Seeding

The Montreal Canadiens have been cruising along in a postseason position for the entire season so far.

Some of that is based on strong play, especially to begin the year, and some of it can be attributed to poor performances from the Ottawa Senators, Vancouver Canucks and Calgary Flames.

Currently, the Canadiens sit in fourth place in the North Division, a fine spot since four teams will qualify for the playoffs from this division. They also are well up on the fifth place Canucks as the Habs have eight more points and have played two less games.

So, there is room for error to still sneak into the postseason, but there isn’t much room for error if they want a better seed than fourth. They still have time to move up with about five weeks left in the season and the fact that the Canadiens have played four less games than all three teams ahead of them.

However, if they want to make a move up the standings, they might have to start right now.

The Canadiens next four games are a pair of contests against the Toronto Maple Leafs and two games against the Winnipeg Jets. Both of those teams are ahead of the Habs and so are the Edmonton Oilers, who the Canadiens defeated in overtime on Monday night.

Right now, the Canadiens are 12 points back of the Maple Leafs for first, and six back of the Jets for second in the division. Keep in mind the Habs have played four less games, and they have a good chance of finishing second in the division and starting the postseason on home if they can perform well against the teams ahead of them.

That is going to have to start tonight. The Habs have three games left against the Jets and can’t afford to be losing in regulation to them. They also have six games remaining against the Maple Leafs and will need to win at least four of them if they have any chance of winning the division.

Even if the three teams behind the Habs somehow won all of their games the rest of the year, the Canadiens would need to go 15-6-0 to make the playoffs. Going 15-6-0 is unlikely, but the Canucks or Flames winning close to 20 in a row won’t happen obviously, so it’s going to take a miracle for the Canadiens to miss the playoffs.

However, if they want to go into the postseason with a better seed than 4th, they are going to need to play well in the next six days when they play the Maple Leafs and Jets a total of four times.