I wrote a blog about a month titled" "Injuries aren't an excuse, they are a reality." As this team begins to get healthier, it's starting to look like that it was the case.
First let me start off with some interesting stats that just cannot be ignored.
With Markov in the line up, Montreal this year has 20 wins, 9 losses and 3 losses past regulation. Moreover, Montreal this year has played only 8 games with a lineup that has been 95-100% healthy and have won 7 of 8 games. The sample size of the latter statistics is rather small, so it should be taken with a grain of salt as the win-loss ratio will certainly balance out. But the sample size of the statistics with Markov in the lineup is just too big to ignore.
You can slice it all you want, when you consistently lose key players for long periods of time, no team will do well. This is precisely why Boston and Detroit(two of the best teams last year) are having so much difficulty this year as both have yet to play a fair amount of games with a healthy line up. Not coincidently, Detroit since the Olynpic break have had all their players return from injuries and are winning more consistently.
Let's be honest, the Canadiens do not have a Stanley Cup contending team, but what does that really mean? San Jose has had arguably one of the best teams on paper for the last 3-4 years and have not gone any further than the Canadiens. Other teams are in same boat such as New Jersey and most recently the Canucks. There's one thing that people need to realize about the playoffs is that it's anybody's game. Every year we see one team that surprises everyone like the Hurricaines last year and Edmonton a few years ago.
Am I saying that the Canadiens will win the cup? No. But what I do want to say is that the Canadiens have a great core moving forward in the future, one which people do not give them a lot of credit for.
Montreal is solid in goal. Price and Halak are one of the best 1-2 tandems in the league(note that I say one of the best and not the best). Whether we keep one or both next year, we are still in a great position because we have Cedric Desjardins in Hamilton who is starting to look he will be able to be a solid goaltender in the nhl as well.
Montreal's top 6 is solid as well. Pouliot-Gomez-Gionta and Cammalleri-Plekanec-Andrei can carry this team offensively. We have played only 1 game this year with all six in the line up and that was against Florida on New Years Eve and surprisingly the Canadiens scored 5 goals.
We have a very good core on defense as well. Markov, Gorges, O'byrne and soon to be an nhl player P.K Subban gives Montreal stability on the back end for years (If we can extend Markov).
The most important thing moving forward is to move one big salary and by this I mean either Hamrlik or Spacek. All it takes is one salary and Montreal is in a pretty good position next year to tweak important areas of their team like the Bottom-6. It needs to get bigger and grittier. There are some good players that will be on the Unrestricted free agency market next year(atleast for now) that could help fill the need for grit and size like Manny Maholtra and Colby Armstrong.
All in all I don't want to start talking about next year too much as we have yet to have finished this season. As it stands, Montreal is in a very good position in the Standings with two very important games coming up against Boston and the Rangers. Montreal needs to win at least the one against the Rangers because the Rangers hold 9th place and a Canadiens win will be a huge blow to the Rangers. Hopefully, after these two games Montreal can start looking ahead in the Standings as they are only 4 points out of 5th place.
First let me start off with some interesting stats that just cannot be ignored.
With Markov in the line up, Montreal this year has 20 wins, 9 losses and 3 losses past regulation. Moreover, Montreal this year has played only 8 games with a lineup that has been 95-100% healthy and have won 7 of 8 games. The sample size of the latter statistics is rather small, so it should be taken with a grain of salt as the win-loss ratio will certainly balance out. But the sample size of the statistics with Markov in the lineup is just too big to ignore.
You can slice it all you want, when you consistently lose key players for long periods of time, no team will do well. This is precisely why Boston and Detroit(two of the best teams last year) are having so much difficulty this year as both have yet to play a fair amount of games with a healthy line up. Not coincidently, Detroit since the Olynpic break have had all their players return from injuries and are winning more consistently.
Let's be honest, the Canadiens do not have a Stanley Cup contending team, but what does that really mean? San Jose has had arguably one of the best teams on paper for the last 3-4 years and have not gone any further than the Canadiens. Other teams are in same boat such as New Jersey and most recently the Canucks. There's one thing that people need to realize about the playoffs is that it's anybody's game. Every year we see one team that surprises everyone like the Hurricaines last year and Edmonton a few years ago.
Am I saying that the Canadiens will win the cup? No. But what I do want to say is that the Canadiens have a great core moving forward in the future, one which people do not give them a lot of credit for.
Montreal is solid in goal. Price and Halak are one of the best 1-2 tandems in the league(note that I say one of the best and not the best). Whether we keep one or both next year, we are still in a great position because we have Cedric Desjardins in Hamilton who is starting to look he will be able to be a solid goaltender in the nhl as well.
Montreal's top 6 is solid as well. Pouliot-Gomez-Gionta and Cammalleri-Plekanec-Andrei can carry this team offensively. We have played only 1 game this year with all six in the line up and that was against Florida on New Years Eve and surprisingly the Canadiens scored 5 goals.
We have a very good core on defense as well. Markov, Gorges, O'byrne and soon to be an nhl player P.K Subban gives Montreal stability on the back end for years (If we can extend Markov).
The most important thing moving forward is to move one big salary and by this I mean either Hamrlik or Spacek. All it takes is one salary and Montreal is in a pretty good position next year to tweak important areas of their team like the Bottom-6. It needs to get bigger and grittier. There are some good players that will be on the Unrestricted free agency market next year(atleast for now) that could help fill the need for grit and size like Manny Maholtra and Colby Armstrong.
All in all I don't want to start talking about next year too much as we have yet to have finished this season. As it stands, Montreal is in a very good position in the Standings with two very important games coming up against Boston and the Rangers. Montreal needs to win at least the one against the Rangers because the Rangers hold 9th place and a Canadiens win will be a huge blow to the Rangers. Hopefully, after these two games Montreal can start looking ahead in the Standings as they are only 4 points out of 5th place.
We're in the final stretch of the season and it looks like it's going to be an exicting one, Go habs Go!.
very true....
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