With this young exciting Canadiens team riding high near the top of the standings, suddenly everyone is on the Habs bandwagon.
Just contrast this with a year ago. Montreal had a brutal start to the season last fall. It was Year 3 of the rebuild and many were wondering if the bleu-blanc-rouge were going to ever find a way out of the basement. Of course, things turned out much better in the end, with captain Nick Suzuki putting the team on his shoulders and virtually willing them into the playoffs, thanks to a frankly unreal post-4 Nations surge. But last fall wasn’t pretty.
Flash forward a year. As of Friday afternoon, YOUR Canadiens were sitting tied with the Detroit Red Wings for first place in the Atlantic Division after 11 games with a remarkable 8-3 record. Ivan Demidov leads all rookies with nine points, Cole Caufield is tied for the league lead in goals with nine and Nick Suzuki is tied for the lead in assists with 14. Jakub Dobes is also positively rocking it with six wins and no losses, with a 1.97 goals against average and a .930 save percentage. That puts him right up at the top of the league in terms of goalie numbers.
They’ve looked great. On top of all the amazing stats, they’ve been playing exhilarating hockey, with many a dramatic finish. But is this what we can expect from the Canadiens for the entire season? Will they still be in first or at least right near the top of the division come April? Can Caufield keep up this torrid scoring pace? I mean, obviously, he can’t. Even the most starry-eyed fan has to admit it’s unlikely the young sniper will end up with 67 goals.
An aside. Forget the Habs’ success for a moment and can we just revel in the joy of seeing the Toronto Maple Leafs dead last in the Atlantic Division? How sweet is that? Pretty sweet is the answer. Maybe the Big Four window is closing now that the Leafs are now a Big Three team with Mitch Marner plying his trade out in Nevada.
My take is obviously things are going to get tougher in the next 71 games for Nos Canadiens. I don’t think they’ll be No. 1 in the Atlantic come April. But I do expect them to make the playoffs for the second consecutive year and it wouldn’t surprise me if they end up top three in the division. This team is for real.
Wesley Hayman, who was at McLean’s Pub this week, said he, too, believes in the team.
“They’re a young team and they’re all getting along well together,” Hayman said. “I think they’ll do well because they’re having a fun time together. They care about each other.”
Sukhy Gill, who was also at McLean’s, is less confident. He doesn’t feel the hot run can continue.
“I don’t think so,” Gill said. “We’ve had a lot of close finishes, a lot of last-second goals. That’s never sustainable. We’re still a small team. I notice we get bullied a lot. I think our goaltenders, especially Dobes, have saved us in a lot of games. That’s not going to keep happening. So I think we’re still going to be good, but maybe not first place. I don’t want to be too pessimistic, but they’re punching a little above their weight class.”
David Speller, sitting at the bar, said this is the most exciting team since the early 1990s. But there will be ups and downs, he added.
“They’re bound to hit a flat spot,” Speller said. “They’re a young team. At some point in the season, they’re going to have a crisis and go on a bad run. But I think overall they should finish a good few points ahead of last year. They’ll make the playoffs, just not in first place.”
Here are a couple of responses from Habs fans on BlueSky.
Adam Noodelman: I’d be very pleasantly surprised if they finish first in the division, but I think they can comfortably maintain a top 3 in the division spot all year.
JS Bryce: We’ve played what, two teams that made the playoffs last year? Lost both of them? It’s great that we are beating the rest so far, but it’s sure to get more interesting …
Robin Edgar: It’s always #GoHabsGo! until it’s #GoneHabsGone . . . 😉😇
Hey, there’s always a wisecracker in the crowd.
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