Okay, hear me out. I know that it is sacrilege to compare the Toronto Maple Leafs to the Montreal Canadiens without finding the team in blue sorely wanting. Its a rivalry about as old as the game itself, and only rivaled by the Boston Bruins in intensity.
But in this day and age, there is a lot worse to be than the Toronto Maple Leafs. There is better, and we will get to why the Canadiens might be in a better spot than the Leafs were back when they were a surprise playoff team against the heavily favoured Washington Capitals.
There are really clear comparisons between the 2010 and 2025 Montreal Canadiens. Both are the same team, and both face the Washington Capitals, who won the Eastern Conference.
But the Montreal Canadiens are quite similar, being a young team on the rise who were not expected to make the playoffs yet, but surprised and got in ahead of schedule.
2017 was the rookie season of Auston Matthews, and he had an immediate impact as expected of a number one overall pick. 40 goals, and won the Calder Trophy for best rookie with ease. I mean, people were talking about a goal drought of 7 games, for a rookie.
Mitch Marner also made his debut in the 2016-17 season, putting up similar numbers, just in assists, and it was clear Toronto had its dynamic duo of the future.
Then you add William Nylander, who played just 22 games the season before, who also had a strong campaign, being the third Toronto rookie to score 60 points that season.
There were high expectations for each of those players, especially Matthews after being first overall above Patrik Laine, but they were all shattered. Older forwards Nazem Kadri and James van Reimsdyk also had strong seasons, and newly acquired Frederik Andersen carried the team to the post-season.
The young Toronto team kept up with the older, more experienced Capitals, even taking the lead 2-1 after game 3. Each game was decided by a single goal and 5 of the 6 games went to overtime. Talk about taking the heavy favourites to task.
And would you look at that: the Montreal Canadiens dropped Game 1 against their series against the Washington Capitals in overtime. The Habs lost 3-2 in overtime. The Maple Leafs? They lost 3-2 in overtime. If Montreal beats Washington 4-3 in double overtime then I'll start to get freaked out.
Again, comparing the Montreal Canadiens today to where the Maple Leafs were 8 years ago is not a bad thing. Toronto is consistently one of the best regular season teams in the league, and it does look like new coach Craig Berube has gotten the players into the best mindset for success this postseason.
But there is a bright spot if being compared to the Toronto Maple Leafs isn't good enough for you. The Montreal Canadiens might be in a better spot than Toronto was at that point today.
Look at those names mentioned above: Auston Matthews, Mitch Marner, William Nylander. Those are all forwards, and those were the biggest names for the young Buds.
The Canadiens may not have anyone that quite reaches the heights of Auston Matthews, a generational goal scorer, but the Habs have a far more versitile and stacked cupboard.
Nick Suzuki and Cole Caufield are a bit older than Matthews and Marner were in 2017, but the Canadiens have a lot more prospects where that came from. Slafkovsky is developing into a nice power-foward, Ivan Demidov could prove to be the game-breaking talent the Habs have been searching for forever now, and depth pieces like Owen Beck, Michael Hage and Florian Xhekaj are coming up to fill the gaps.
And while the Toronto Maple Leafs just had Morgan Reilly and a rotating cast of increasingly cheap options for being right up against the cap, the Canadiens have plenty of diverse defensive prospects rising up the ranks.
There's probable Calder winner Lane Hutson this year. The elder Xhekaj brother Arber, Kaiden Guhle and Jayden Struble are already at the NHL level and are far from hitting their prime. And then 5th overall pick David Reinbacher is developing well, barring injuries, along with Logan Mailloux and Adam Engstrom.
Then there's the goalies. Samuel Montembeault is still just 28 years old, but he's not the goalie of the future. Jakub Dobes has shown good promise in a very limited run in the NHL. Primeau has struggled in the NHL, but has played fantastic since being sent down to the Laval Rocket.
And then there's Jacob Fowler, one of the most exciting goalie prospects that hasn't played in the NHL yet, and had a fantastic season with Boston College.
So while the Montreal Canadiens are in a similar position in 2025 to the Toronto Maple Leafs of 2017, the Habs might be set up for even better success in the future than we see in Toronto.