How far could the Canadiens’ magic take them if they make playoffs?
Could the Montreal Canadiens be this year’s Cinderella story?
With points in seven of their past 10 outings, the Canadiens are currently holding down the second wildcard seed in the Eastern Conference, boosted by back-to-back wins over the defending Stanley Cup champion Florida Panthers.
On Wednesday’s episode of Daily Faceoff LIVE, Frank Seravalli and Colby Cohen chatted about the Canadiens’ performance as of late and how the Atlantic Division could shake out as the regular season winds down.
Frank Seravalli: Let’s talk about a team that has reeled off some impressive wins. The Canadiens sweep a home-and-home series with the division rival Panthers, with some magic. You see Lane Hutson with just another casual three-point night. Nick Suzuki scores twice late, including the game-tying goal and then the overtime winner. This team seems like they’re now in a great position to lock down the eighth seed. They’re two points clear of the Columbus Blue Jackets, who are chasing them. Look, they’ve got some mojo going about them.
Colby Cohen: I agree that they do. I think hockey is better when Montreal is good. I think Hutson, what he has done and the company that he’s keeping with some of the things that he’s doing, you’re talking about legends of this game. Legends! The only thing I’m going to say is that you look at the bottom of this race and you look at these teams, and Ottawa is 5-4-1 in their last 10 games, Montreal is 4-3-3 in their last 10, Columbus is 3-6-1, and the New York Rangers are 4-5-1. Every time in the last three or four weeks when it felt like, ‘Okay, this team is finally grabbing the bull by the horns’, they’ve then gone and played poorly for three or four games in a row and they’ve given back any ground that they’ve made up. While I don’t disagree with your point, I’m just not ready to say it yet because these teams have just played a bunch of average hockey for way too long.
Frank Seravalli: I’m going to go against you a little bit and say you can knock the Canadiens at 4-3-3, but I’m going to look at it the other way and say that they’ve gotten points in seven of their last 10. Even on nights that they haven’t been perfect, they’ve found a way to claw out points, which is really the name of the game. Beyond that, look at the last opponent that they’ve played. The Panthers back-to-back, a team that has all the motivation in the world to try to win their division. In an odd way, if you think about the Atlantic Division, depending on how tonight and tomorrow night go, we could see the Tampa Bay Lightning in first place, if things go correctly for them with the games that they’ve got on the slate. The Atlantic is topsy turvy, and Florida has tons of motivation. They’re not just playing out the string. Yes, they’ve got injuries but Montreal takes them down in back-to-back games. I’d say that’s a significant step in the right direction.
You can watch the full segment and the rest of the episode here: