After starting the season 2-6-1, the Montreal Canadiens have steadied the ship a little bit, but not nearly enough to convince fans that this team is ready to make the playoffs, let alone a run at the Stanley Cup.
Montreal (16-16-4) enters the Christmas break having won two of its past three games, and currently sits in 12th place in the Eastern Conference. There's plenty of season left, but it's now or never for the Canadiens, who are separated from a wild card spot by four teams, and are seven points behind the Bruins for third place in the Atlantic Division, and have played two more games than Boston.
With that said, here are four gifts Canadiens fans will be wishing for this holiday season.
Good health for Carey Price
Montreal’s goaltender has been one of league’s best the past decade, but Carey Price has also suffered his fair share of injuries over the years. This season has been no different, and Price sat out for three weeks in November with a lower-body injury after a lackluster start to the year. In his first 11 games, Price posted a 3-7-1 record with an 3.77 goals-against average and an .877 save-percentage, while Montreal struggled to score and things went south north of the border.
Since getting healthy and making his return to the lineup, Price has returned to form. In his past 11 starts, he is 8-3-0 with a 2.38 goals-against average and a .927 save-percentage. Consequently, Montreal has slowly begun to climb its way back into the playoff picture.
Keeping Price healthy is vital to any chance Montreal has at cracking the East's top-eight this season, but more so Price is the centerpiece in the franchise's long-term plans. The 30-year-old signed an eight-year, $84 million contract extension this offseason that runs through the 2025-26 season. Counting $10.5 against the cap annually, the Canadiens have invested a major piece of their pie in Price and simply will not have the salary cap flexibility to be able to win without him.
A Radulov re-do
It was a quiet summer in Montreal in terms of personnel moves. The Canadiens lost Andrei Markov to the KHL, and didn't make a big splash to bring in a defenseman in his stead. But one player who left whom GM Marc Bergevin would love to have back is forward Alexander Radulov.
After passing on Bergevin’s take-it-or-leave-it offer, Radulov signed a five-year, $31.25 million deal with the Dallas Stars. In 37 games this season, Radulov is third on Dallas with 12 goals and tied for second with 17 assists. He has helped Dallas to a 20-14-3 start, and his offensive production and chemistry with Max Pacioretty is missed in Montreal.
While Radulov is on pace to exceed his stat line from last season in his NHL return as a Canadien, his absence can be most seen in Pacioretty's down year. After scoring 30-plus goals in each of his past four seasons, Pacioretty has eight through the first 36 games. The 29-year-old is in the midst of a nine-game goal drought and has one goal in his past 18 games.
Sans Radulov, the Canadiens tried Pacioretty on a new line with the newly-acquired Jonathan Drouin — a winger turned center — to start this season. The Canadiens best line in 2016-17 was undoubtedly that of Pacioretty, Radulov, and Phillip Danault. Pacioretty and Danault have since been re-uinted, but one of the best lines in the NHL was broken up with Montreal losing Radulov to Dallas, and has scrapped for answers since.
Pacioretty has talked a lot about missing Radulov's ability to possess the puck, which helped free him up in the offensive zone. Without him, Pacioretty has been carrying the puck more, but hasn't translated that into goals. Brendan Gallagher (team-high 14 goals) has tried to pick up the slack as Montreal’s superstar struggles to find his scoring touch, but that hasn’t been enough. The Canadiens average 2.69 goals per game this season, ranking 25th in the NHL.
An answer in the middle
The Canadiens traded defensive prospect Mikhail Sergachev to Tampa Bay for Jonathan Drouin this summer with the hopes of Drouin becoming the team’s No. 1 center, but so far Drouin has yet to acclimate to that role. A career winger, Bergevin said Drouin would be moved to the middle as soon as he was acquired, but the explosive 22-year-old Quebec-native hasn't produced at the levels expected of him.
While center Phillip Danault leads Montreal with 21 points and Tomas Plekanec has been reliable in his usual third-line role, Drouin has yet to fill the skates of the true 1C role. It remains to be seen if Drouin can continue to progress and become that player, or if Bergevin would be best off looking externally for that type of player.
A proficient penalty killer
This gift may be less exciting and easier to obtain, but could play an important role in engineering Montreal's turnaround. The Canadiens entered the Christmas break having allowed power-play goals in three consecutive games, including two in a wacky 7-5 win against the Vancouver Canucks last week. This recent display has summed up Montreal’s performance on special teams so far this season.
The Canadiens’ penalty kill has been successful 77.1% of the time this season, ranking 28th in the league. That represents a four-point drop off from the 2016-17 team, which finished the in the middle of the pack at 81.1% and 14th overall.