Well, it’s finally here. Hockey is finally back. Before we get down into business, I hope everyone is healthy and safe with their families and friends. The impact of this COVID-19 pandemic has really affected the whole world around us, and we should all be taking every precaution to ensure that we are all safe and healthy. May the future hold nothing but great things to look ahead to.
Alright, enough of that now. The reason you’re all here: HOCKEY! Not just hockey, but sports in general. It feels good to be writing again, and I hope you’re all as excited as I am. Soccer returned early in May and June, Baseball just a couple weeks ago, and now Basketball and Hockey are starting off at the same time. Amazing news! Let’s get down to brass tax here.
The NHL decided to put together a 24 team playoff format, that the league and the players both agreed to, and now it’s finally coming to fruition tomorrow, August 1st. At the time, back in March, before the pandemic and the NHL putting the season on hold, The Montreal Canadiens, who at the February trade deadline, became sellers after all possibility of making the Stanley Cup playoffs went out the window. Trading away Nate Thompson, Marco Scandella, Nick Cousins and Ilya Kovalchuk. Even though the Habs were ten points out of the final wild card spot, it was going to take a lot of for them to beat out any team ahead of them going into the final stretch of the season. With this new format, the Canadiens barely snuck in, being in 12th place in the Eastern Conference when the season was put on hold, and are going up against a tough opponent: The Pittsburgh Penguins.
Sidney Crosby, Evgeni Malkin, Kris Letang, need I say more? These potential Hall of Famers have won Lord Stanley 3 times in the past 11 years, so you could already say the Canadiens have got their hands full with them. In almost every hockey category there is, Pittsburgh has the edge over Montreal, and the Habs are huge underdogs in this best-of-5 series.
But, that doesn’t mean Montreal will lose necessarily. Of course, if Montreal does lose, they will have a 12.5% chance for the #1 pick in the 2020 NHL Draft, and will have the opportunity to select Quebec-born Alexis Lafreniere, who’s considered as the slam dunk #1 player in the draft. This would help Montreal immensely and what every fan wants and is talking about, no doubt, but I want to look at this from sides. What if Montreal does beat Pittsburgh? Do they have a real shot at going all the way. Let’s analyze that.
When looking at the Montreal Canadiens, it starts with Carey Price and Shea Weber. Both are past their primes, clearly, but with 4 months rest, it’s a clean slate for them, not to mention the whole team and everyone else in the format. They played the Toronto Maple Leafs on Tuesday in an exhibition game, and the Habs lost 4-2, but it was expected that things were gonna be rocky at first, but everything will get better as time goes by. One thing is clear: EVERYONE will be healthy. From Jonathan Drouin, who started off the season hot with 15 points in 19 games, he’ll have a shot at redemption and show everyone that he’s capable of being an offensive force, Speedy Paul Byron will be back as well. The Canadiens will have their identity back of being that speedy balanced team that is tough to play against. Young players like Nick Suzuki and Jesperi Kotkaniemi will have a chance of making an impact offensively. The line of Tomas Tatar-Philip Danault-Brendan Gallagher will carry the load up front with their supreme 5v5 play and will look at locking down either Crosby or Malkin. Max Domi will look to bounce back after an up and down season.
If Carey Price can bring back his Vezina trophy form from a couple years back, and Shea Weber be that dominating force on the back end, with everyone contributing, Montreal can keep up with Pittsburgh, but everyone will have to step up in order for Montreal to accomplish the impossible. As a team that snuck into the format, the Canadiens really have nothing to lose now, so the mindset should be to go out and play.
Expect more to be coming soon! Lots of stuff to talk about.
JV Sports Blog 