What happened?

Il est clair que les médias sportifs dominants s’attendaient à une saison désastreuse pour le Habs. Je pensais qu'ils auraient plus de chances de participer aux séries parce que les équipes ont tendance à rebondir après une saison extrêmement médiocre et que les athlètes sont fiers et apprécient le rôle d'outsider.   La réalité, c’est que l’habs a presque fait les séries et que les habs ont également un record décent. Les leafs, qui étaient et sont considérés comme des prétendants à la coupe, termineront avec moins d’une avance à deux chiffres sur l’hab. Les matchs entre ces clubs étaient serrés, l’habs a dominé dans tous ses matchs et le résultat aurait pu se passer de toute façon. Si les Habs les avaient gagnés, ils participeraient aux séries éliminatoires.                                     ...

Clearly the main-stream sports media expected this to be a disastrous season for the habs. I thought they would have a slim shot at the playoffs more because teams tend to rebound after an extremely poor season and athletes do have some pride and relish the underdog role.     The reality is the habs almost made the playoffs and the habs also have a pretty decent record. The leafs, who were and are considered cup contenders, will finish with less than a double digit lead on the habs. The games between these clubs were close, the habs outshot the leafs in all their games and the outcome could have gone either way. If the habs had won them they would be in the playoffs.   The important things Bergevin did last off-season were more who he subtracted from the habs than who he added. Galchenyuk was clearly not working out both with his defensive liabilities and his off-ice antics. His offensive capabilities were minimized by these liabilities. Pacioretty who ha...

The season is almost over and you know what that means... Time to review my beginning of the season predictions and whine. I consider these predictions a moral victory: 1) Nathan MacKinnon will win the scoring championship if he stays healthy. In the top ten I expect to see Tavares, Stamkos, Mcdavid, Marner, Barzal, and Drouin. Is this the year somebody reaches 130 points again? Well 4 out of 7 ain’t bad. Ok so I missed the Kuch and Kane and Gaudreau. The big disappointment is Drouin. He has had his moments but not close to the top tier of forwards. He may not even be in the top tier of habs forwards this year. As the brooklyn dodger fans would say annually ‘wait till next year’. As for MacKinnon he did his annual disappearing act in the second half and it is duly noted. At least he revived for the playoffs. 2) I am not confident about the Norris. The wild card is Karlsson and how he fits in with San Jose and Brent Burns. One of them might win it. Subban and Hedman have a shot at it de...