Montreal Canadiens
Canadiens Strength Of Schedule & NHL Draft Lottery Implications
The Montreal Canadiens have a difficult stretch of games to close out the season, and that may be good news for their Draft Lottery outlook.
The Canadiens have their work cut out for them; as their final few games are against the Florida Panthers, Carolina Hurricanes, Boston Bruins and Toronto Maples; just to name a few.
Even other future opponents like the Washington Capitals and New York Islanders are still in a heated battle for the final Wild Card spot in the Eastern Conference, and will be playing do-or-die games until the end of the season.
According to Tankathon, the Canadiens actually have the second most difficult schedule in the NHL to close out the season; and that’s notwithstanding what’s going on internally.
The Canadiens also have to finish the season without some key elements along the way, as Kaiden Guhle and Josh Anderson are now sidelined for the rest of the season.
It’ll be a tough road for the Canadiens, who face the Panthers on Thursday night, followed by the Hurricanes on Saturday; but you just know they’re not going to go down without a fight as they continue to push their opponents to the limit on a nightly basis.
Montreal Canadiens Draft Lottery Rivals
Meanwhile, other clubs like the Philadelphia Flyers and the Arizona Coyotes, who are directly above the Montreal Canadiens in the NHL standings, find themselves with one of the lighter schedules in the league.
The Coyotes are set to face the Seattle Kraken thrice in the next two weeks, while also the San Jose Sharks, Anaheim Ducks and Vancouver Canucks down the stretch.
Meanwhile, the Flyers, who have two games in hand on the Canadiens, finish their season with two games against the Columbus Blue Jackets and the Chicago Blackhawks.
It’ll be a true race for the 28th place, or rather the 5th-best odds in the NHL Draft Lottery, as the Canadiens, Flyers and Coyotes are all separated by only four points.
However, the Canadiens’ difficult schedule, coupled with the toll this season has taken on many of its players, might be the final nail required to secure a bottom-five finish for the rebuilding club.
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The issue with playing all those tough teams to round out our season is in all likelihood, those teams will be resting players to prepare for the playoffs. Boston is locked in at 1st overall. By the time we play Toronto, they’ll have home ice against Tampa locked up. Don’t be surprised if we play playoff bound teams with lots of minor leaguers (especially in net) peppered throughout the lineup to rest all their best players before they begin the 2 month long grind through the Eastern Conference. Just think back to our 10-2 shellacking of the President’s trophy winning Panthers in our final game last year. They iced a minor league team against us that night.
Completely Agree! By the time Habs get to Detroit, Wings may be done with playoff chances, then same for Caps. Then Leafs, Isles, and Bruins will likely be resting players at that point. I am VERY concerned Habs get passed by both Ariz and Philly in draft standings, due to this unfavorable scheduling anomaly…
I wouldn’t say there is an unfathomable scheduling anomaly since it happens every year, but I am concerned about passing teams in the standings. Factor in a crazy draft lottery scenario where 2 later drafting teams win the lottery and instead of drafting 5th where we are now, we could be all the way down to 9th! 😬Yikes
In my analysis of available rankings as of now, I observe that the prospects ranked #7 to #14 are quite close. My consolidated rank grades for these 8 prospects range from 8,91 to 11,96 (a spread of only 3,05). While there’s a good consensus for a top-6 consisting of Bedard, Fantilli, Michkov, Carlsson, Smith and Benson, there are 6 other prospects who got at least one expert ranking them in their top-6.
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The issue with playing all those tough teams to round out our season is in all likelihood, those teams will be resting players to prepare for the playoffs. Boston is locked in at 1st overall. By the time we play Toronto, they’ll have home ice against Tampa locked up. Don’t be surprised if we play playoff bound teams with lots of minor leaguers (especially in net) peppered throughout the lineup to rest all their best players before they begin the 2 month long grind through the Eastern Conference. Just think back to our 10-2 shellacking of the President’s trophy winning Panthers in our last game of the season last year. They basically iced a minor league team against us.