Three Reasons Montreal Canadiens Season Is Huge Success
The Montreal Canadiens are not going to make the playoffs this spring. They won't be offically mathematically eliminated for weeks, if not months, from now, but it just isn't going to happen for them.
And that is just fine. While most teams measure success by whether or not they make the postseason, or based on how well they perform in the playoffs in the spring, that isn't the measuring stick for the Montreal Canadiens in 2023-24.
Instead, they entered the year just hoping to show improvement from the previous year, and to have their young players develop. Things got off to a tough start as Kirby Dach was lost for the season in the second game of the year due to a knee injury. Young players like Alex Newhook, Rafael Harvey-Pinard and Jordan Harris miss considerable time with injuries as well.
The Canadiens are now sitting 7th in the eight team Atlantic Division with a record of 22-25-8 and have 52 points after playing 55 games. They are ten points back of a playoff spot and would need to go on quite a run in the final third of the season to get anywhere near a plyoff spot.
However, although some young players have missed time and the team is not going to win any playoff games, this doesn't mean the season has been a disaster. In fact, there are several things that have happened in the 2023-24 season that should make Canadiens fans believe that successful seasons, including playoff victories, are not that far off into the future.
A few tweaks of the roster here and there and the continued development of players already in the organization are going to ensure the 2023-24 season is the springboard to success for the Montreal Canadiens.
Here are the three main reasons why.
Atlantic Division Isn't The Powerhouse We Thought
The Canadiens sit near the bottom of the Atlantic Division, but it shouldn't remain that way for long. At the beginning of this season, the division was shaping up to be an absolute powerhouse for the foreseeable future that would have been difficult to ever crack the top three.
Now? Not so much. The Boston Bruins and Florida Panthers are having great seasons, but the Panthers are going to have to find a way to keep Sam Reinhart, Gustav Forsling and Brandon Montour if they are going to remain this good as all three are pending unrestricted free agents and they all play huge roles.
The Bruins have somehow survived the retirement of Patrice Bergeron and David Krejci as well as trading away Taylor Hall but both the Bruins and Panthers have dealt a boatload of draft picks recently and the cupboards appear bare for the future.
Meanwhile, the Toronto Maple Leafs and Tampa Bay Lightning have taken steps back this season. Both teams would have been put right up there with the Bruins and Panthers at the start of the season, but the Leafs have had more ups and downs than the Scotiabank Center elevators, and the Lightning are starting to show their age.
Both teams have dealt many top draft picks over the past few years as well, and the Lightning are on pace for a 95 point season. The end of the Bolts dynasty is in sight for the first time in about a decade.
Also, the Ottawa Senators, Detroit Red Wings and Buffalo Sabres were all supposed to take huge steps forward this season, but only the Red Wings have moved in the right direction. They are still outside the playoffs, but the Sabres and Senators are no further ahead than the Canadiens right now, even though many picked them to battle for a playoff spot this season.
The once fierce Atlantic Division is showing signs of being more meek than we thought it could be. This opens the door for the Canadiens to take a big step forward in the next couple years.
The Blue Line Just Needs Time To Be Dominant Force
There are different ingredients to every Stanley Cup winning team as some rely heavily on goaltending while others have a deep group of forwards that grind their way to wins. What is indisputable is that the old saying "defense wins championships" keeps being used for a reason.
Every Stanley Cup winner has a great group of defensemen that can get the job done at both ends of the ice to make the team a winner. The good news for Canadiens fans is there is no question they are going to have an elite group of defensemen in the very near future at the NHL level.
Kaiden Guhle has taken another step forward this season and has displayed a tremendous skating stride to go with his 6'3" frame which makes him a monster to go up against. The 22 year old is going to be on the Canadiens blue line for a very long time and will be difficult for the opposition to deal with.
Jayden Struble has burst onto the NHL scene as a 22 year old rookie who played 21 career AHL games and looks like he has been playing pro hockey for a decade. He is exceptional defensively and a bull on skates as he runs over opponent's before heading up ice with blazing speed. He started the season well down the team's depth chart but has proven to be a key piece of the future.
Arber Xhekaj just turned 23 and is showing signs of defensive improvement while becoming one of the more feared skaters in the entire league. He was asked to go down to the AHL this season and work on the defensive side of things and he did exactly that and looks like a much more seasoned all around defender this year.
Beyond the NHL level, Lane Hutson is making a run at the Hobey Baker as college hockey's best player. The 20 year old has scored 12 goals and 37 points in 28 games for Boston University, one of the top teams in the country. He appears to be a point producing phenom in the near future.
Logan Mailloux has been having a tremendous rookie season in the AHL with the Laval Rocket. He has scored 11 goals and 35 points in 48 games and is leading the AHL in points by a defenseman in his first season of pro hockey. There were plenty of questions about his all around game when this season began, but those questions have disappeared as he dominates the AHL.
We haven't even mentioned Jordan Harris, Johnathan Kovacevic, Justin Barron, Bogdan Konyushkov who is playing well in the KHL or Adam Engstrom who is faring well in Sweden or veteran Mike Matheson who is 30 but having a career year with the Canadiens.
The possibilities for the future blue line pairing are endless, but there is no question anymore that this will quickly turn into an elite group of defenders.
The First Line Is Here, And It Is Amazing
The best teams in the NHL each season always have a top line that is dominant. They need to have that first line that can dominate the opposition and help the team win many games, and even fire a couple of quick goals in an otherwise sleepy game.
We see this in Colorado where Nathan MacKinnon and Mikko Rantanen pair up to form a tremendous first line. They were forced to move on from Gabriel Landeskog when he was injured and have found chemistry with others in the meantime, but it always remained a dominant trio.
The Boston Bruins were one of the best teams in the league over the past decade and most of that saw Patrice Bergeron centering Brad Marchand and David Pastrnak. The Maple Leafs are a great regular season team with Mitch Marner and Auston Matthews carrying the first line though their left winger is a revolving door.
There is no revolving door needed on the Canadiens top line anymore. First overall pick Juraj Slafkovsky has been paired up with Nick Suzuki and Cole Caufield and the trio has been excellent together.
Slafkovsky, a 19 year old winger, has scored ten goals and 22 points in his last 24 games. In that same time period, Caufield has scored 11 goals and 23 points while Suzuki leads the way with 12 goals and 27 points.
The Canadiens have not had a point per game player since Alex Kovalev scored 84 points in 2007-08. Suddenly, they have three young players all playing near that rate. It has been only about a third of a season, but there is more reason to believe they will get better together than fall off their current pace.
If nothing else happens in 2023-24 other than the birth of an elite first line with the Canadiens, the season will have been a complete success.
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