Canadiens Tank Tracker: Habs Creating Separation In Standings

The Montreal Canadiens have lost eight of their last nine games and are slowly cementing their place in the bottom ranks of the NHL.

After Thursday night’s 9-5 loss to the Florida Panthers, the Canadiens now find themselves firmly in 27th place in the NHL standings with 60 points, which is good for the 6th-best odds at the upcoming NHL Draft Lottery.

The Canadiens get set to face the Tampa Bay Lightning in a home-and-home setting this as of Saturday, followed by the potent Boston Bruins over their next three games; which is sure to be as challenging as the last handful of games in their schedule.

Their recent slide, coupled with some timely winning streaks from the Arizona Coyotes and the Vancouver Canucks, has created a three-point separation between the Canadiens and the St. Louis Blues, Coyotes and Canucks; who all have 63 points in the standings.

St. Louis and Vancouver also have two games in hand on the Canadiens, meaning that separation could further increase over the next week.

Race To The Bottom

Meanwhile, the Philadelphia Flyers find themselves with a razor-thin one-point advantage in 28th place with 60 points, and they have two games in hand on the Canadiens to catch up on.

Losers of their last four straight, the Flyers will be a hard team to catch, given the quality of their depth after serious injuries to key players, but finishing 5th-to-last is still not out of the realm of possibility.

Remarkably, the Anaheim Ducks and Chicago Blackhawks have caught fire as of late and sit in 29th and 30th place respectively with 54 points; just six points back of the Canadiens and each with a game in hand.

The Canadiens are unfortunately showing signs of fatigue of late; leading to the potential that they could very well finish lower than they currently are.

Given the incredible number of injuries this season and the high number of AHL-calibre players on the roster, it was to be expected.

South Beach Surfin

With their victory over the Canadiens on Thursday night, the Florida Panthers further increased their chances of punching their ticket to the NHL Playoffs.

They’re now only three points back of the final Wild Card spot in the Eastern Conference, chasing the New York Islanders and Pittsburgh Penguins who have each accumulated 78 points so far.

They currently sit in 19th place in the NHL, which would give the Canadiens the 14th-best odds in the NHL Draft Lottery if the season were to conclude today.

With the list of challengers in the Eastern Conference Wild Card race dwindling to just Florida, Washington and Buffalo; it will be a ferocious race to the finish over the next 14 games for the Panthers.