It is February and the Montreal Canadiens just won their 10th game
By Jim Lynch
The Montreal Canadiens won their tenth game of the season against the New York Islanders on Sunday night in New York. This win gives the Canadiens their tenth win of the season, and it only took them until February to get to that number.
The Montreal Canadiens certainly have fallen off the cliff from making it to the Stanley Cup Final last season.
The Canadiens were just three wins away from winning the Stanley Cup in 2021, and this year they find themselves at the bottom of the standings with a lot of missing pieces in their lineup.
The NHL has seen some pretty bad seasons, but this year we might see one of the worst seasons of the last 20 years. The Canadiens are competing for the title, and they need to win a handful of games to not go down as one of the worst seasons historically speaking.
The Canadiens are obviously missing some big players: Shea Weber, Carey Price, and Joel Edmundson all have missed the entire season thus far, and the Canadiens have had a handful of other injuries to some key personnel throughout the season. They definitely have fallen far from going to the Stanley Cup Final, but without the key players and the fact that they probably were not the best team to make it to the final in recent years makes this season look less shocking.
This team is under new management with Kent Hughes as general manager and Martin St. Louis as the head coach. With that new group in place, winning right now definitely is not at the forefront of the plans. Building for the future is. That is why one can expect some more trades and more draft picks added to the team for the future as the season goes on. The trade deadline is in one month, and the Tyler Toffoli definitely isn’t the last time we will see this team make a move.
The Canadiens have an opportunity to finish at the bottom of the standings and get the best odds for the first overall pick in the upcoming draft. Considering the Canadiens traded away their first-round pick to Arizona, they definitely are hoping for it to be a top lottery pick otherwise that pick will belong to the Coyotes.
What is the worst NHL season you remember in recent history by a team? The Avalanche in 2017 is one that always comes to mind for me.