There's an age old adage in the NHL that states that "In the playoffs, anything can happen." And in a way, that is true. Can you remember when the best team in the regular season, the Presidents' Trophy winner, won the Stanley Cup? It was 2013 and the Chicago Blackhawks. And since 1985-86, the Presidents' Trophy winner has only won 8 Stanley Cups. And the Montreal Canadiens are not going to win the Presidents' Trophy any time soon.
But, could they win the Stanley Cup?
First off, I don't want to get anybody's hope up. There is an infinitesimally small chance that the Montreal Canadiens will be able to do anything in the playoffs, and there is still a small chance that the team will even make the playoffs. But a small chance is still something.
There is some precedent to a very low seed making it far in the playoffs. In fact, we just need to look two years ago. The Stanley Cup Final was between the Western Conference best Vegas Golden Knights and the second wild card team in the Eastern Conference: the Florida Panthers.
The Panthers finished the regular season with 92 points, one less than the New York Islanders, and the lowest point total to qualify for the playoffs. The Panthers knocked off arguably the best regular season team of all time in the Boston Bruins, then beat the Toronto Maple Leafs and swept the Carolina Hurricanes before losing to Vegas in the Final.
A few years later, the Nashville Predators were in the same position, being the second wild card team in the Western Conference and making the Stanley Cup Final. The Predators swept the Blackhawks, beat the Blues and the Ducks before losing to the Pittsburgh Penguins in their second straight Stanley Cup win.
And then, of course, there was the fantastic run of the Los Angeles Kings in 2012. This was before the NHL adopted the wild card playoff format, and the Los Angeles Kings finished in the 8th and last seed in the Western Conference.
And the Kings dominated the playoffs. They lost just 4 games going through the Presidents' Trophy winning Vancouver Canucks, sweeping the Blues and beating the best ever Coyotes team to handily beat the New Jersey Devils in 6 games.
But it's not just other teams. In the recent past, the Montreal Canadiens have a big history of punching above their weight and making it further than they technically "should" in the Stanley Cup playoffs.