Despite the third round loss to the New York Rangers, the 2014 Habs playoff run is not a fluke, as this club will be talented for years to come. The Montreal Canadiens future looks bright.
The Montreal Canadiens entered the 2013-2014 NHL season as one of seven Canadian teams in the 30-team professional hockey league, along with Toronto, Ottawa, Winnipeg, Calgary, Edmonton and Vancouver. But, at the start of the Stanley Cup playoffs, they remained the only club from north of the border to be polishing visors between playoff shifts… And not golf clubs between swings.
After following extensively ‘Les Glorieux’ for roughly 82 regular season games plus 17 playoff matches from head coach Michel Therrien’s side, there are many statistics signalling that the much wanted 25th Stanley Cup for the 105-year-old franchise, shall be coming soon.
The team’s offence produced 209 goals throughout the regular season, well enough for a mere 21st most in the league, with only Minnesota (199) and Los Angeles (198) lighting the lamp less times but still qualifying for the spring dance. Even worse about this fact, is that they were even lower in the league, at 23rd, with 143 even strength goals. Again, the Wild and Kings were only playoff teams to score less goals on 5-on-5 or 4-on-4. Max Pacioretty, the leading scorer (excluding Thomas Vanek who played 18 regular season games, scoring 6 times for the team) finished 4th in the league, with 39 goals. In 73 games, ‘Patches’ accounted for 18.7% of total goals and 19.6% of even strength goals. Having to rely on one of the 21 different goal scorers, to score 1 in every 5 goals, is just not good enough.
However, the numbers in this situation may tell the truth about the present but are lying about what is yet to come in the future. The Canadiens have a very young and upcoming forward group that could drive the team for the next few years. Alex Galchenyuk (20 years old), Brendan Gallagher (22) and Michael Bournival (21) seem to be the prospects with the brightest future as they all got their first NHL goals before reaching legal drinking age in the United States. Galchenyuk in particular looks to be a future stud. The former third overall pick joined the team at 18, and is continuing to develop at the pro level. He has incredible playmaking ability, a great shot, and just loves to play the game and put up points. Everything about him screams future #1 centre.
The aforementioned Pacioretty is 25 and has yet to reach the prime of his superstar career. David Desharnais could be the veteran in the group in a couple of years, being 27 years old right now, is Max’s main set up man and the two go together like peanut butter and jelly. Lars Eller is 25 and had early success in the season with Galchenyuk and Gallagher.
These 6 forwards will be the core and nucleus of the offense by the 2016-2017 season, possibly playing with other young prospects, who will be full-blown NHLers by then, such as Michael McCarron, Jacob De La Rose, Arturri Lehkonen, Tim Bozon, Sven Andrighetto, Martin Reway, Charles Hudon and Christian Thomas.
The Canadiens defence and goaltending was probably one of the best in the league, for the present and for what will happen in the near future. With a lowly 201 goals against (2.42/game, 8th best in league), Habs fans didn’t have many chances to get down and negative throughout the year, because of the defence.
The defence is led by shot-blocking stalwarts Andrei Markov (180 blocked shots), Josh Gorges (177), Alex Emelin (125) and PK Subban (115). Not bad for 4 guys who also produce 470 hits, and only 49 of those from Andrei Markov.
Subban and Markov lead the team on the powerplay, being the quarter backs for whatever forwards are put in front of the during the man-advantage, finishing with 4 goals, 17 assists and 2 goals, 18 assists, respectively. Subban is just recently turned 25-years-old and already has a Norris Trophy, as the NHL’s best defenceman, and an Olympic Gold Medal in his trophy cabinet. In the playoffs, he led the team in scoring, and showed a new maturity in the Canadiens run. The way he raised his game against the challenge of the Boston Bruins showed that he is a big game player, and he still has the potential to be even better than he already is.
Meanwhile, three young d-men that spent much of the year in the minor leagues of the system have a ton of size and physicality, to match a sample of the current defence. That group includes Jarred Tinordi, Nathan Beaulieu and Greg Pateryn. Beaulieu in particular played a lot in the last two games of the Bruins series and in five of the games in the Rangers series getting him some good experience under fire going forward.
None of the team’s success can happen without their Olympic gold-medalist goalie, Carey Price. He was absolutely stellar for the Canadiens this season, stealing games they had no business winning, the team is notorious for such theft. Despite not having a Vezina nomination after working towards a 34-20-5 record, Price finished with 0.927 SV% (3rd in league), 2.32 GAA (14th) and 6 shutouts (2nd).
Despite some great young goaltenders waiting in Carey’s shadow, such as Zach Fucale and Dustin Tokarski, who proved he is ready to make the jump to the NHL when Price was hurt, the starting job in Montreal will be Price’s for a very long time. After-all he is one of the best goaltenders in the world.
With all this talent donning the iconic sweater of ‘les Habitants’, there is no debate or question on why they have reached the NHL final four. However, the players waiting in the wings of soon-to-be-retirees playing for the Habs, will certainly be players who 29 other teams will just hate playing against, because they will be exceptionally skilled. Fans in Montreal are dying for a 25th Stanley Cup- for the first one since 1993- but they will not have to wait much longer, it is coming, as Marc Bergevin continues to build this team going forward.
With a core including a top goaltender in Price, a top defenceman in Subban, a top goal scorer in Pacioretty, and a potential franchise centre in Alex Galchenyuk, along with a number of solid prospects and young players to compliment the four cornerstones, the foundation has been laid. It is now up to Bergevin to complete the job of complementing that core and ensuring the Montreal Canadiens future delivers on the promises of the present.
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