With the loss of Phillip Danault who got a huge contract with the Los Angeles Kings and Shea Weber, injured for next season, the Montreal Canadiens have lost a lot of depth. We can even add to that the departure to Tampa Bay of Corey Perry, who I saw as an interim "captain" to guide the troops. We are talking about three HUGE departures. Quickly done, like this, the Habs will have to hope that some teams stumble to make the playoffs...
This year, we'll be back to the normal divisional format, so it will be the return of the Eastern Conference. The Boston Bruins, the clearly improved Florida Panthers, the Toronto Maple Leafs who will have everything to prove, and even the Ottawa Senators, who don't want to play as extras anymore. The Lightning, Capitals, Islanders, Hurricanes and even the Penguins will certainly be top dogs in the East.
However, if the Habs want to stand out and honor their last playoff run, the recipe will have to stick. Mike Hoffman will have to get close to 30 goals, David Savard will have to be a defensive wall, Carey Price will have to be Carey Price, Jake Allen will have to repeat his performance of last season, Cole Caufield, Nick Suzuki, Jesperi Kotkaniemi and Alexander Romanov will have to continue their rise, and Quebecers Mathieu Perreault and Cedric Paquette will have to play like Steve Bégin.
It may seem big at first glance, but it's the key to the Montreal Canadiens achieving success and pulling off a 2021-like situation of winning the playoffs and hurting. In the case of Marc Bergevin, he must continue his colossal work in order to offer the best possible product to the Montreal Canadiens fans.
