The Montreal Canadiens may not be dead yet, but nothing short of divine intervention will bring them all the way back. General manager Marc Bergevin had best recognize that very real fact right away, because failure to act now and either improve the team drastically or sell off all unnecessary assets brings the Habs ever closer to a truly lost season. Only Four Points Behind? Sure, the Canadiens are only four points behind the New York Islanders for the final spot entering action Tuesday night and a climb back up the standings is possible. It’s just so inherently unlikely, with New York holding three games in hand, that nothing short of a superstar will alter this team’s collision course with a fire hydrant to bring about an early spring. According to stats compiled by Elliotte Friedman, only three total NHL teams four points out of a spot on November 1 between 2005-06 and 2011-12 were able to recover. Sure, it’s a separate post-lockout era, but, considering the Habs haven’t been playing all that well and no one really knows when Carey Price will be healthy again, Montreal really has nothing but a prayer on it side. Superficially speaking, the two weekend wins are all nice and good for morale, but those came against the Edmonton Oilers and Carolina Hurricanes and, regarding this latest stretch of seven straight games vs. non-playoff teams, the Habs still finished just 3-4. Something’s Amiss Needless to say, when Montreal Gazette columnist Jack Todd writes a piece entitled “Bergevin’s stand-pat approach to Habs’ protracted slump pays off”, something is clearly amiss. Two wins don’t make a season. Unfortunately, neither do the nine with which the Habs opened the season. While editors and not Todd may have written that unjustifiably giddy headline, he did that “The result of Bergevin’s stand-pat approach was better than he could have hoped… If they can duplicate the 19-4-3 run they had at the beginning of the season… the Canadiens would be sitting on 97 points with two games left…” Really? All the paper was missing was a sarcastic font. Todd may as well have strung up a “Mission Accomplished” banner instead, when all the two wins (the first instance of two straight wins since November) proved was that Montreal can use grade-A goaltending of the consistent variety from here on out. - See more at: http://thehockeywriters.com/its-now-or-never-for-montreal-canadiens/
