Heading into the 2018-19 season, the Montreal Canadiens were the laughing stock of the league. Now, they’re surprising everyone.
It may be less than a month into the NHL season, but there have already been plenty of surprises. The Vancouver Canucks are second in the Pacific Division, the Carolina Hurricanes are leading the Metropolitan Division, and the Montreal Canadiens are good.
Before the 2018-19 season started, it seemed like the Atlantic Division would be the easiest one to predict. The Tampa Bay Lightning, Boston Bruins, Toronto Maple Leafs, and the Florida Panthers would make it while Ottawa, Buffalo, Detroit, and Montreal watched from the outside.
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The Canadiens lost their key defenseman and new captain Shea Weber to a major injury, they traded their old captain Max Pacioretty and their scoring leader Alex Galchenyuk for some young prospects and picks. They did nothing to solve their lack of center depth, and Marc Bergevin was in some scalding hot water with the way he dealt with Pacioretty.
It seemed like nothing the Canadiens did could go right and it was just a dark pit of negativity among the players, media, and management.
However, everything changed once the regular season rolled around. They opened it up with a game against their age-old rivals, the Maple Leafs and dominated. The Canadiens ended up losing in overtime, but their speed and relentless pursuit of pucks shocked the Leafs and Jesperi Kotkaniemi looked like the real deal.
The next game was against the mighty Pittsburgh Penguins and they ended up pummeling Sidney Crosby and company 5-1. Currently, their record is 4-1-2 and they are two points back of the division leader, the Toronto Maple Leafs.
Their team is much younger, much faster, and extremely talented. Combine that with the best goalie in the world (Carey Price) and you have a recipe for success. Their center depth issue has looked better with the acquisition of Max Domi and the talent of Kotkaniemi. Now, they have a center core of Phillip Danault, Max Domi, Kotkaniemi, and Peca (Tomas Plekanec is out for weeks with a back injury). This established group takes away the uncertainty that other players have about their positions and allows them to flourish.
Jonathan Drouin can rest knowing that his time as a test subject is over and he can play the position he dominated in, on the left wing. Tomas Tartar has refound his groove again and has 8 points in 7 games.
Their defense was a big question mark with the loss of Shea Weber, but veterans have stepped up and rookies have shined. Mike Rielly and Jeff Petry play 23 minutes a night and sophomore Noah Juulsen has taken on a bigger responsibility, playing almost 20 minutes a night on the second pairing.
The most dangerous teams are teams that have nothing to lose and the Montreal Canadiens are one of them. There are no expectations for this team and anything positive they do is an added bonus. In many ways, they are like the New Jersey Devils team from last season, who surprised everyone with their speed and intensity. They’re also very similar to the Auston Matthews‘ draft winner Toronto Maple Leafs of three seasons ago. That team had nothing to lose and all the rookies were having fun.