The Montreal Canadiens actual season is off to a very rocky start, so let’s turn to the virtual world to see if we can find a reason for optimism.
EA Sport’s latest instalment of the NHL franchise was released earlier this month, with that guy from the Toronto Maple Leafs as the cover athlete.
Nonetheless I decided to pickup the game to play around with franchise mode, and see how EA thinks the Canadiens season will go. At the time I am writing this article the Habs are 1-5-0 after an explosive win against Detroit.
After simulating the entirety of the season it took me only one in game week to figure out that EA might be wrong about the team, as the Canadiens collected its first win in game 2. By the end of the season in fact, the team finished with a record of 43-30-9, and made the playoffs. It is going to take quite a turnaround for this team to get there, but the virtual reality of NHL 22 is on its side!
During the regular season, Brendan Gallagher lead the team in points with 54, and tied Nick Suzuki for the lead in assists with 37. The team’s goal scoring leader was Tyler Toffoli with 22. Generally your leading scorer should rack up more than 54 points, but then again the team had eight players go over 35, so maybe it is just a matter of rolling four lines and spreading out the scoring.
Since many people seemed to be VERY interested in him leading up to our game against the Carolina Hurricanes, Jesperi Kotkaniemi finished the fictional season with just 26 points in 78 games. Ouch.
Do you think the real life Habs can get to 43 wins and a playoff appearance? Or are you counting down the days until we reach for another centre at 3rd overall in the 2021 NHL Draft?