The Montreal Canadiens season is going totally off the rails.
The team that was in the Stanley Cup Final a year ago sits at the bottom of the NHL standings with a 7-24-4 record this season.
I don’t know how many people expected them to make it back to the Stanley Cup Final in 2022, but even less people would have picked them to finish 32nd in the NHL standings this season. But that is where they find themselves after 35 mostly bad hockey games.
So, when it came time to announce NHL All-Star rosters today, the Canadiens team became that one kid who really doesn’t deserve a trophy, but since everyone gets one these days, they were also handed one. The NHL doesn’t want any teams to feel left out at All-Star weekend so they ensure one player is picked from every team in the league.
Even the very worst team.
With that in mind, the league announced that Nick Suzuki would be making his first All-Star appearance next month. With all due respect to the Canadiens young centre, he is a skilled and talented two-way player, but there is no way he really deserves a trip to the All-Star Game this year. He is just the chosen somebody from the poor Canadiens lineup.
Suzuki is the right choice considering someone had to go. But he has only seven goals and 19 points in 35 games this season. He is barely above half of a point per game. That has him ranked tied for 155th in NHL scoring at the moment.
Meanwhile, Steven Stamkos is sixth in league scoring but was not chosen for the All-Star Game since the Tampa Bay Lightning already have Victor Hedman and Andrei Vasilevskiy heading to the event. Brad Marchand has as many goals as Suzuki has points and more assists than Suzuki has points, but Patrice Bergeron is the lone All-Star from the Boston Bruins.
Also joining Suzuki on the Atlantic Division roster are Drake Batherson, Patrice Bergeron, Jonathan Huberdeau, Dylan Larkin, Auston Matthews, Rasmus Dahlin, Victor Hedman, Jack Campbell and Andrei Vasilevskiy.
The event takes place on the first weekend of February, with the Skills Competition taking place on Friday, February 4th and the All-Star Game happening on February 5th in Vegas.