Canadiens Receive Good & Bad News From Tough NHL Schedules

The Montreal Canadiens are a quarter through the season and have both good and bad news regarding the rest of their 2022-2023 NHL schedule.

According to the ever-popular Tankathon website, the Canadiens currently have the 11th and 13th best odds to win the 2023 NHL Draft Lottery.

Owning both their own and the Florida Panthers’ 1st round picks, the Canadiens are in a really good position to select two strong prospects in late June.

The Canadiens were projected to be bottom-feeders again this year, but have surprised almost everyone across the NHL with some inspiring hockey.

Unfortunately, their remaining NHL schedule presents them with some bad news, with a side of good news, that will make things pretty interesting.

Hard Times For The Canadiens

According to Tankathon, the Canadiens have the second most difficult schedule from here on out in the NHL.

They’ve had a relatively easy opening quarter to the season in terms of opposition and travel as it stands, and are about to embark on one of their toughest stretches in the season.

The Canadiens will play 12 of their next 16 games on the road, half of which are against playoff teams.

It’s one of the reasons why many outlets, including The Athletic, continue to predict the Canadiens will eventually run out of gas and return to the bottom 10 of the league by the NHL Trade Deadline.

Some may view that as good news, but the Canadiens players are likely not going to be enthused with a negative outcome.

It may help management with their rebuild come the 2023 NHL Draft, though.

But that’s not even the good news.

The Good News

Having the second most difficult schedule in the league moving forward is a tough challenge to overcome for the Canadiens, but it could be worse.

You could be the Florida Panthers, who have the most difficult schedule out of any team in the NHL left to play, according to Tankathon.

Currently sitting 10th in the Eastern Conference and chasing the Detroit Red Wings and Pittsburgh Penguins for Wild Card spots, things haven’t gone to plan in Florida.

Despite having one of the league’s more favourable schedules to start the year, they’ve stumbled out of the gate and have just one win in their last seven games.

The good news? The Canadiens own their 2023 1st round pick, meaning that the Panthers’ potential woes are Montreal’s gain.

Should the Panthers continue on their path, or do any worse, they would be offering the Montreal Canadiens a second crack at possibly winning the NHL Draft Lottery and getting their hands on some of the top players in this draft.

If you’re Montreal, you got to like those odds.