Montreal Canadiens: Three Players Poised To Be Far Better Post All-Star Break

The Montreal Canadiens wrapped up the first half of their season with a hard fought game against the Pittsburgh Penguins.

The Canadiens lost that game in overtime, but battled throughout against a playoff hopeful and earned a point in the standings. It gave them a record of 20-21-8 as they headed off for their All Star break.

Nick Suzuki represented the team in the actual All Star Game but the rest of the team was off for a vacation as that game against the Penguins was on January 27, which is now ten days ago. The Habs are back in action tonight as they face the Washington Capitals before having three more days off for some reason.

Then they play three games in four nights and five games in eight days. But I don't make the schedule, I just point out the insanity of it from time to time.

Of course, we call it the first half but the team is playing Game 50 tonight and they only have 33 to go.

The team suffered three consecutive losses shortly before the break that included a couple of beatdowns at the hands of the lowly Ottawa Senators and a disastrous 9-4 loss to the Boston Bruins. They also have traded Sean Monahan since we last saw them on the ice so expectations have dropped for this team in the past couple weeks.

While we all now expect them to miss the playoffs, and we kind of thought that all along, it isn't all doom and gloom.

There are a few players who are on the cusp of breaking out or are on the verge of seeing their offensive numbers take a big jump. We may not see a lot of wins in the final 33 games, but we should see a lot of points from these three players compared to their production before the All Star break.