Montreal Canadiens
Canadiens Are Already Winners of 2020 NHL Playoffs
The Montreal Canadiens should already be considered winners of the 2020 NHL Playoffs
Anything can happen in professional sports.
It’s an age-old saying that’s often considered to be a cliche more than anything. Still, it’s a statement that’s proven to be true time and time again across all sports.
For the Montreal Canadiens, nothing could be more true given what they’ve accomplished already since the NHL has resumed playing in 2020.
A team that was destined to miss the playoffs and have a draft pick in the Lottery, the Canadiens were instead given an opportunity to play in the NHL’s qualifying-tournament to determine which teams would play in this year’s postseason.
For some, it felt ridiculous to have teams like the Canadiens and even the Chicago Blackhawks competing in playoffs given where they finished in the standings during the regular season when the season was originally paused. Still, both teams were given a chance to compete which ultimately conflicted their respective fan-bases knowing what was on the line in the Lottery.
With the way the Lottery balls fell, one of the eight-teams being eliminated from the qualifying round would earn the right to the first-overall selection in the 2020 NHL Entry Draft, giving each team a 12.5 percent chance at likely selecting a generational talent in Alexis Lafreniere.
Though fans may have been inclined to hope for the Canadiens failing to qualify for the postseason with such a good chance at getting a talent like Lafreniere, the team had other plans in mind.
Canadiens Turning Heads in Postseason
The Canadiens would eliminate the Sidney Crosby-led Pittsburgh Penguins in just four games in a best-of-five series. The Penguins finished in fifth-place in the Eastern Conference heading into the bubble in Toronto and many expected them to beat the Canadiens with ease.
To the shock of just about everyone, though, the Canadiens would win the first game of the series and create a dialogue around their potential to win the series against all odds. It was going to be an uphill battle regardless of the outcome of the first game, but this team even taking a win in the first game was enough to create chatter.
It should be noted that the Canadiens were also dealing with a depleted roster due to the team selling off some of their pieces at the Trade Deadline.
For the Canadiens, a game plan put together by head coach Claude Julien would limit the Penguins’ opportunities off the rush and in high-danger situations. It was a calculated effort that worked to his team’s advantage and the Canadiens would ultimately come away with the series as victors.
The internal conflict for Canadiens fans was then put to an all-time high as they went from the potential No. 1 or No. 9 selections in the Draft to being eligible for the 16th pick in the Draft as their new best-case scenario.
Still, the team was going to be playing in the real postseason. For die-hard, life-long fans of the team, that’s all that mattered.
Canadiens Tasked With the Most Difficult Match-Up of the Playoffs
Unfortunately, that trip to the playoffs also meant the Canadiens would be matched up with the NHL’s hottest team both before the NHL season paused and after the season resumed in the Philadelphia Flyers.
Leading up to the pause, the Flyers were on a 9-0 run, losing only their last game of the regular season to the Boston Bruins. Following the pause, The Flyers would pick up right where they left off, winning all their exhibition games against the Penguins and then going 3-0 in the qualifying round against the three best teams in the Eastern Conference in the Boston Bruins, Tampa Bay Lightning and Washington Capitals.
Though the match-up was a tough one for the Canadiens, the biggest underdog in the postseason would keep turning heads by staying right with the Flyers in Game 1 and only lost the game on a late third-period goal in a close 2-1 matchup.
This alone was huge for the Canadiens as they had shown they weren’t just a fluke coming out of the qualifying round.
The team may have done their part to slowly change the narrative, but an unfortunate issue with head coach Julien would lead to concern from around the league. Julien, 60, was taken to the hospital with chest pains following Game 1.
The Canadiens and general manager Marc Bergevin would announce that this wasn’t COVID-19 related and that the team didn’t expect Julien to be available for the remainder of the series.
Julien would have a stent inserted into his coronary artery Friday and would return to his home in Montreal to rest with doctors expecting a full recovery.
In Julien’s place, Kirk Muller would take over the role as the head coach of the team in an interim fashion for the remainder of the series.
While this may seem like the turning point in a Cinderella-story that could have been, a motivated Canadiens team would actually use this to fuel them to one of their best games of the entire year.
Coming out with Julien in mind, the Canadiens would score just over one minute into the game courtesy of winger Tomas Tatar. Both Tatar and Jesperi Kotkanimi would each score a pair of goals with Joel Armia scoring a goal of his own for good measure as the Canadiens downed the Flyers 5-0 in Game 2.
This type of performance was something that nobody could have predicted and it proved as a reminder that the Canadiens still had a lot to gain by being present in Toronto for the postseason than many gave them credit for.
Should the Canadiens have been in this situation under normal circumstances? Absolutely not. Are they making the most out of this opportunity because the circumstances are anything but normal? It would be foolish to think otherwise.
On the one hand, this exposure to playoff hockey is nothing short of amazing for young players on the team to gain experience in a setting unlike any other. Fortunately, players like Kotkaniemi and Nick Suzuki have taken full advantage of this so far and are proving that they’re more than just young pieces on a rebuilding team.
Canadiens Young Players Gaining Valuable Experience
For Kotkaniemi, the 2019-20 season was a rough one. Making his debut with the Canadiens as an 18-year-old a season prior and scoring 11 goals and 34 points in 79 games, many were expecting big things from Kotkaniemi in his sophomore year.
Instead of building on his successful rookie campaign, though, Kotkanimi would score just six goals and eight points in 36 regular season games and even saw himself play 13 games with the Laval Rocket in the AHL. While with the Rocket, Kotkaniemi would score one goal and 13 points in 13 games and slowly built up confidence again after struggling mightily at the NHL level.
A four-month break did Kotkaniemi good, it would seem, as he’s already scored four goals in six games in the bubble and seems to be far more comfortable than he did during the regular season.
It’s a small sample size, but what fans, coaches and teammates have seen from Kotkaniemi has already created a much better picture for the 20-year-old’s future than what we saw during the regular season.
For the Canadiens, the future is certainly bright. Players like Kotkaniemi, Suzuki, Victor Mete, Jake Evans, Artturi Lehkonen and others are getting the opportunity to play in games that mean the most and they aren’t disappointing thus far.
The Canadiens certainly aren’t expected to win the Stanley Cup this season and it’s even way too early to predict that they’ll come out on top of a 1-1 series against the Flyers, who as mentioned, may be the best team in the NHL right now.
Still, the situation heading into the bubble for the Canadiens was never going to be Stanley Cup-or-bust. Instead, it was going to be making the most of the opportunity and seeing how far they could make it as currently constructed with improvements still needed in the future.
The importance of playing in the postseason cannot be overstated for young players, even if the typical atmosphere with fans in attendance cannot be replicated with a backtrack of fan noise.
With players like Cole Caufield and Alexander Romanov on the horizon for the Canadiens, the team has a real chance to keep the good times rolling next season, they’ll just need everyone to buy in as they already have done this postseason.
It isn’t just the young players who have bought in and propelled the Canadiens to this point, though. Veteran leadership on the team has gone a long way and players like Shea Weber, Carey Price, Brendan Gallagher and Jeff Petry have done their part to lead both on and off the ice for this team.
Veterans Leading the Way for Montreal
Intangibles aren’t just some made-up concept that coaches talk about for the sake of talking. A player’s ability to succeed on the ice in the long-term can often come down to their make-up as a person and their willingness to learn and adapt regardless of the scenario.
Related: Canadiens Shea Weber: A Humble Leader By Example
This is why having leaders and veterans on a team goes a long way for the development of young players. It’s also the reason team’s who have a plethora of young talent and few veterans is unlikely to succeed against established players regardless of the skill-gap between them. Talent isn’t the only determining factor when it comes to succeeding and learning is all part of the journey.
A nice mix of young talent and veterans on the roster has been good for the Canadiens and this run has already shown the team that they’re better than the 2019-20 regular season indicated.
In the end, the team effectively got a full offseason under their belts during the pause and they were able to step up in a big way when the games resumed. The confidence the team is gaining on a game-by-game basis is enough to make the Canadiens big winners of the 2020 NHL Playoffs regardless of what happens next.
The Canadiens could lose the next three games in blow-outs to the Flyers and still feel proud of what they accomplished and excited about the future.
For fans, this should also hold true. Even if losing is disappointing, the expectation was that the Canadiens would already have been steamrolled by the Penguins and then again by the Flyers. Clearly expectations have already been crushed and that alone is worth dropping from the ninth pick to the first pick, even if there was a chance at winning the Draft Lottery.
The 12.5 percent odds were nice, but it would be silly to pretend like the team didn’t have an 87.5 percent chance of losing the Lottery at the same time.
The Canadiens bet on themselves and they’re getting tangible benefits from playing as hard as they have and with as much heart as they’ve displayed. Sometimes, that’s worth more.
Next: Canadiens Coach Claude Julien Hospitalized With Chest Pains
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