Montreal Canadiens: Can they still make the Stanley Cup Playoffs?

By Jasmine Yen |

Photo by David Kirouac/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images

As the playoff race heats up, the Montreal Canadiens have started to fall off the wagon. Do they still have a shot?

As the NHL regular season winds down, every point becomes magnified. The Montreal Canadiens need every point they can get and right now, they’re whiffing it. They’ve gone 4-6-0 in their last ten games and after the Columbus Blue Jackets beat the Carolina Hurricanes on Friday night, the Canadiens have fallen out of the final wild-card spot.

After a dominant 8-1 win over the Detroit Red Wings on February 26, the Canadiens have not scored more than four goals in any game. At one point, they lost to the bottom-feeding Anaheim Ducks 8-2. When you allow the Ducks – a team that averages 2.3 goals per game (last in the league) – to score eight goals, you’re doing something horribly wrong.

Carey Price has been pretty steady for the team but the offense has been inconsistent at best. Andrew Shaw had things to say after the 2-1 loss to the New York Islanders two days ago.

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“We haven’t had a game where every guy in the room has been going the same night … We need to be playing hard, every line, all D, the goalie. Everyone’s got to be playing like this. But every night, lines are taking nights off, players are taking nights off.”

These are some strong words from Shaw and he is exactly right. The biggest reason why the Canadiens have had such a good season up until this point was that they took everyone by surprise with their relentless puck pursuit and speed.

They outworked teams and played hard hockey. Now, they have become more sloppy, made horrible decisions, and all around are not playing with the same intensity as before, which is odd considering their overwhelming time pressure.

And it doesn’t get any easier for the team either. 7 of their final 11 games are against teams in a playoff position, with their last three opponents being the Tampa Bay Lightning, Washington Capitals, and Toronto Maple Leafs.

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The clock is ticking on this team and they need to be playing with even more urgency than they’ve ever played with before. Their effort against the Islanders was unacceptable and if they continue to play like that, they’ve got no shot. Lucky for them, the Columbus Blue Jackets have not performed up to their expectations as well. The Canadiens still have a shot, but they need to start playing like a playoff team if they want a chance of making it there.

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