Peter Vitality/Linked Press
The Montreal Canadiens are wait on within the playoffs for the 2nd straight season. The 24-time Stanley Cup champions sealed a berth within the postseason with a 4-3 beyond unusual time defeat to the Edmonton Oilers on Monday.
Forcing the additional interval turn into adequate to receive the job performed without reference to the sport’s result.
With the Canadiens in, three teams dangle now certified from the North Division, with four teams from every division transferring on to the subsequent stage.
Certified Playoff Teams
Central
- Carolina Hurricanes (80 functions)
- Florida Panthers (79 functions)
- Tampa Bay Lightning (75 functions)
- Nashville Predators (62 functions)
East
- Pittsburgh Penguins (77 functions)
- Washington Capitals (75 functions)
- Boston Bruins (73 functions)
- Current York Islanders (71 functions)
North
- Toronto Maple Leafs (76 functions)
- Edmonton Oilers (70 functions)
- Winnipeg Jets (59 functions)
- Montreal Canadiens (58 functions)
West
- Vegas Golden Knights (80 functions)
- Colorado Avalanche (76 functions)
- Minnesota Wild (75 functions)
- St. Louis Blues (57 functions)
Montreal will be having a watch to achieve past the principle round, one thing it hasn’t executed since 2015. It upset the Pittsburgh Penguins within the qualifying round of the amended 2020 postseason earlier than falling to the raze-seeded Philadelphia Flyers in six games.
Signing Tyler Toffoli to a four-year, $17 million deal seems to be admire a masterstroke as he has registered 28 targets in his first season with the workforce, tied for sixth-most within the NHL. The offensive enhance for him has been considerably lacking, though, with Jeff Petry the one varied Canadiens player to dangle now not lower than 40 functions to this point. Montreal’s 2.91 targets per sport awful 14th.
Carey Model has persisted a tricky ride of it as properly. His efficiency (.901 place share and 2.64 targets-in opposition to moderate) is stable however below what you will inquire of the NHL’s absolute best-paid goaltender at $10.5 million yearly. Model has additionally been sidelined with a concussion.
In most cases, the fanbase would potentially be bellow with a streak to the 2nd round. The workforce’s a success share has elevated pretty of from .500 to .538 coming into Monday, and there are encouraging signs for the long shuffle.
Just regarding the total Canadiens’ key gamers are returning subsequent season. Cleave Suzuki has supplied stable returns (13 targets, 26 assists) in his 2nd year, and 2019 first-round prefer Cole Caufield made his NHL debut April 26 in opposition to the Calgary Flames.
Caulfield, 20, scored his first aim on Can also 1, turning within the decisive blow in beyond unusual time in opposition to the Ottawa Senators.
While the arrow is pointing upward for Montreal, or now not it is potentially too early to inquire the workforce to receive a amount of noise within the playoffs.
