Why The Montreal Canadiens Are WAY BETTER Than You Think

Why The Montreal Canadiens Are WAY BETTER Than You Think

This NHL team has gone from rebuilding to becoming one of the most promising futures in the NHL. Let’s be honest, rebuilding can be hard. It requires patience, a lot of luck, and most importantly, hope. Hope that the players you are drafting can somehow turn your franchise around. Most of the time, this type of restructuring can take years, if not decades in some cases. And yet, the Montreal Canadians are showing that when you get many of these pieces right the first time around, you can not only put your franchise back on track, but actually set yourself up for years of success. The Canadians look unbelievable to start the season. Currently, they’re at the top of the Atlantic division and are near the top of the league in winning percentage. So today, I want to not only talk about why Montreal has one of the best teams in the NHL right now, but also explain why this is just the start of what’s to come for the Canadians. So, if you guys have been enjoying the content lately and want to see more videos like this, be sure to hit that thumbs up now and subscribe to the channel. And let’s get right into today’s breakdown. So, I have this video broken up into two different parts. The first half is basically going to be me just glazing the Canadians and all of the stuff that has made them so successful to begin the year. The second half is basically going to be breaking down their future and why I think they have done this rebuild perfectly as opposed to other rebuilding teams around the league. Right now, as I’m recording this, the Canadians are 93 and one and have a division leading 19 points. They also have a game in hand on the Colorado Avalanche and could actually get themselves to the top spot in the league if they keep up this type of play. Statistically, there’s not really a lot to pick apart with Montreal. They are putting pucks in the back of the net. They’re keeping it out of their own net. And of course, things like their special team seems to be clicking at a high rate and their defense has been stellar through the first 10 or so games. It’s honestly quite unbelievable if you look at the start from last year and compare it to this one. It’s night and day how the Canadians have come out of the gate and I think that this is super important for a team that was looking to build off of some of the successes that they found last season. Now looking at their numbers, the Habs are second in goals for per game at 3.69. They have the sixth best power play in the league at 30.8% and a best team shooting percentage in the league at 14.8%. And defensively, they also look really strong to start the year. I think some people were concerned about the Noah Dobson and Lane Hudson experiment. How are those two guys who play very similar games going to blend together? And it seems like Montreal has done a really good job of balancing out both of these two talents and figuring out a way for them both to be impactful not only on the offensive end, but in the defensive end as well. The only thing that I could really find that maybe some would consider to be polarizing is their goalending. And the reason I’m saying polarizing is because half of their goalies and Jacob Domez has looked really good while Sam Montenbull hasn’t exactly been at his best right now. Looking at their team goalending numbers, they ranked 24th in save percentage at 891 and 18th in goals against average at 3.08. Individually though, if you compare the two guys, it’s unbelievable how Dobas has started the year. While looking at Sam Montenbos, like I said, there has been a bit of a regression. I will say this is something that I was expecting. I made a video, I want to say a few months ago, saying that Sam Montenbo played well above average last year, but I didn’t think that he was going to be able to put up the same numbers and that Dobz was eventually going to take over. And that’s exactly what we’re seeing. Now, maybe some of you could see this as a bad thing, but I don’t. I think Montenbo is going to get his numbers back up to average. And if you have him playing as a solid tandem player behind Dobz, I think that that’s going to be the best trajectory moving forward for the Canadians. though it’s a great thing to see DAS playing well obviously we would like to see Montbo playing a little bit better behind him but when you look at the team’s overall record it hasn’t hurt them and if he’s playing this bad and they’re still winning imagine how great the Habs are going to look when he finally starts to get himself back on track stats aside though I don’t just want to continue reading off numbers all video or talking about individual performances what I would rather do is talk about the thing that’s impressed me the most which is how they’ve played as well a team the chemistry history, particularly in the few examples we’re going to look at in a moment from their game against Philadelphia, was unreal. And I think I want to kind of show you guys a few examples to show you why this team is going to have sustained success moving forward. So, the first one we’re looking at, the player that I want you to pay the most attention to is Lane Hudson at first. He receives the puck along the boards and creates space with this shifty move to get in deep. Right here, though, is the most important part of this play. Notice Kirby Doc is positioning himself in front of the net for one of two options. A, a potential tip/screen if Hudson decides to shoot right here. Or B, which ends up being the actual play, blocking out the defender, allowing Hudson to get in behind the defense, send the puck out front where Doc is now free to tap in a goal because Cellar has to play the puck behind the net and approach it differently because Hudson is such an impactful player. The second goal we’re looking at is another power play opportunity for the Habs that begins with, you guessed it, Blaine Hudson. Now, Hudson fumbles the puck a bit along the blue line to start this play, but quickly is able to recover and sense that Slokovski is off to his right so he can send a pass along the blue line where now Slaf is open because Philly decided to double team lane on this play. Because Philly pressed so hard to get the puck out of their own zone. This now leaves two different skaters from Montreal against one Philadelphia defenseman. Now, this is where Ivon Demadov receives the puck from Slowsky, forcing the defenseman to not overcommit to either the shot or the pass. And it’s here where Demadov now has three options. The first, he can send the puck back to a rushing Cole Coughfield behind the defense, which would likely get picked off. The second would be to send the pass to Nick Suzuki, who’s on the other side of the hash. But instead, the correct option that he chooses from is C, which is to shoot the puck high right side over Var’s shoulder because he notices that he has the space and the time to get this shot off. Demod shoots the puck, gets it in the back of the net, and Montreal now has the go-ahead goal in this game. These are just a few examples of what Montreal has been doing through their first 13 games of the season. They’re playing fluidly. They’re playing with a lot of chemistry and I think that better exemplifies what this team is rather than talking about just individual stats like Nick Suzuki being top 10 in points or Cole Coughfield being top five in goals. I think we all know the individual talent of these players, but when you combine it all, it has just worked out so perfectly with this group that it’s just something you have to give Montreal praise for. Now that we’ve recognized how well they’ve been playing in the present day, it’s here where I want to talk about the future and expand a little bit more on why Montreal is going to be able to sustain this success for half a decade to potentially a decade. I love to bring up this fact because I really think it shows just how ahead Montreal is in their rebuild. They have an average roster age of 25.8. That’s the youngest in the National Hockey League. Nick Suzuki is 26 years old and is four years into an 8-year deal, making under 8 million per season. Cole Caulfield’s 24 and like Suzuki is making under8 million on an 8-year deal. Lane Hudson’s 21. He just signed an 8×8.5 million extension. Dobson’s 25, signed a 8×9.5 million deal. And Slowsky is 21 and also signed an 8-year deal under an $8 million AAV. Essentially, this entire core is signed to deals under 10 million. And traditionally, there’s a stat that says teams with players making under 10 million usually win the Stanley Cup. And Montreal has taken this very seriously. Having good contracts and signing your players to below market deals is absolutely a recipe for success. But Montreal takes this even a step further with not only how they’ve been drafting in the past, but what they’ve set themselves up with in the future. Looking ahead at the next two seasons, the outlook for Montreal is extremely promising. Next year they’re projected to have over 20 million in cap space and the following year that number jumps all the way to 60 million. Because the Canadians have done such an excellent job locking up their core players to team friendly contracts, they’ve created an incredible amount of flexibility. Essentially, they’re going to have the freedom to pursue any player that they want. So if there’s a guy like say Artamei Paneran who becomes available because he’s looking for a new contract, Montreal could essentially pay him well above market value and still have more flexibility with their lineup and their projected cap. That’s how well they’ve structured these contracts and that’s how well they’ve structured this team. Then there’s this last thing, their draft capital management, which has been just as strong as the other things we’ve been listing off. Montreal has picked near the top of the draft in recent years, talking about names like Demodov, Rybacker, Skovski. They’re all firstrounders who are already making an impact. And the best part is that the Canadians didn’t have to trade away any of their assets to acquire these picks. That means they still hold their full set of draft selections for the foreseeable future, which gives them a ton of flexibility to either continue building through their own farm system or trade the picks to get NHL ready talent when the time is right. And when you put all of it together, this is what Montreal has for their future. A young roster locked into below market contracts. producing at a high level across the board, backed by some incredible cap flexibility and a full cupboard of draft assets. And when you combine all of that, what you get is a team that could be nearly impossible to match, not just now, but for the very foreseeable future. But this is why I believe Montreal has one of the best future outlooks in the NHL. But as always, I want to hear from you guys. How do you feel about the Canadians future? And are you buying into the success that they have found so far this season? Let me know what you guys think in the comments below. And as always, if you’re enjoying the videos, be sure to toss this one a thumbs up. Subscribe now. Really helps support all of the stuff that I do. I also have a few other pieces of content for you guys to check out if you’re bored and want to check out more of my stuff. Again, thank you guys so much for all of the love and support. I will see you in the next upload.

The Montreal Canadiens are the hottest team in hockey right now, but what is even more impressive is just how bright the future of this organization will be. Today let’s breakdown how the Canadiens have become so successful early in the season and also talk about why their future outlook is the brightest in the NHL. Subscribe to Jimmy Hockey for more NHL News and Breakdowns.

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