30 in 30: Montreal Canadiens
Last in the East to runners up, that’s the improvement the Habs made in last year’s shortened season. That big of a turnaround in such a short space of time in such a short season makes any sort of prediction precarious as it is difficult to decide whether they were merely a flash in the pan or are now on their way to emulating past glories.
In: Christian Thomas, Daniel Brière, George Parros, Nick Tarnasky and Douglas Murray
Out: Tomas Kaberle, Danny Kristo, Ian Shultz, Yannick Webber, Philippe Lefebvre, Michael Ryder, Frédéric St-Denis, Blake Geoffrion and Colby Armstrong
The main strength for Montreal last year, as absurd as it may sound, was their lack of superstars on offense. The unit seemed to click and operate with a functionality that is rarely seen without a core of players showing compete deference to a single player on their line. That backed up with a defence bragging Norris Trophy winner P.K. Subban, Andrei Markov and Alexei Emelin will always fare better than most.
The question this year will however hover around whether or not their attacking options can maintain their haul of last year – and whether or not Carey Price can maintain his composure betwixt the pipes whilst trying to perform in one of the most difficult vocations in hockey if not world sport.
The pressure heaped on him by the organisation and it’s fans may be leveraged somewhat by a man who many feel could be the most important off-season signing they made this summer in Stephane Waite.
Waite was Chicago Blackhawks goaltending coach since 2003-04 and in that time oversaw the development of both Antti Niemi and current ‘hawks ‘minder Corey Crawford. It has more or less been decided that Price will be the next ‘big thing’ in Canadian goaltending (possibly helped by the limiting of overseas goaltenders in the CHL). It is expected that with Waite’s expertise Price will cut out the inconsistencies that have bugged his game and hep him fulfill those expectations.
In open play the biggest signing made was obviously Danny Brière’s arrival from Philadelphia Flyers his 659 points in 847 appearances in the NHL regular season (286 goals) is impressive but it is his postseason record that the Habs are investing in. In his 108 playoff games he has notched 109 points with 50 of those being goals. For a team that made it to the playoffs before seemingly realising they had gone as far as they could in Round One. To Ottawa. In five games. For a team that finished second in the regular season in the East that is a huge disappointment.
Brière along with Alex Galchenyuk will be expected to build a regular season platform to hopefully improve on last year and they should be able to do just that. They are an organisation that is on an upward trajectory and with the addition of key personnel in their backroom staff as well as subtle improvements on the ice too I think they will go further in the post season whilst maybe slipping in their finishing position this regular season.
Verdict: Fourth in Atlantic Division