Montreal Canadiens May Have Just Enough To Make The Playoffs

habbies_0 It’s amazing how far some teams can fall from grace year from year.

The 2008-09 season has not been the friendliest for the Montreal Canadiens. After a resurgent 2007-09 campaign that catapulted the Canadiens to the top of the Eastern Conference rat race, injures have come to take out the race to be that top team once again.

A healthy 2007-08 team was the main ingredient in the Canadiens success then. The injuries to players such as Robert Lang, Carey Price, and others, has been the ingredient of mediocrity this season.

Yet, through it all, the Canadiens have found players stepping up to fill the voids. Youngsters such as Matt D’Agostini, Max Pacioretty, and Jaroslav Halak have been up to the challenge of the NHL.

And for their efforts, the Canadiens are now in the middle of the playoff race in the East, instead of on the outside looking in.

However, the Canadiens may have just enough to get into the playoffs. There will be no division championship this season, or home ice advantage for that matter.

Far behind their first round opponents from the previous spring, the Canadiens will be lucky is they end up playing the Philadelphia Flyers or the New York Rangers, if they can step it up in their final 13 regular season games.

With Bob Gainey 1-1-1 since he fired Guy Carbonneau and took over bench boss duties last week, the Canadiens are looking like they will be serious when it comes to contending for a playoff spot.

Along with the resurgent Rangers, who also have a new bench boss in John Tortorella, the Canadiens may be one of the teams making noise in the bottom half of the East standings.

With injuries lessening more and more in the returns of Guillaume Latendresse and Alex Tanguay in recent games, the Canadiens are getting their primary firepower back.

But as has happened every March, the Canadiens have put in mixed efforts. Can they overcome a mid-season slide and still make the playoffs?

Stay tuned, Mr. Gainey has the boys going back to the basics.