Canadiens a game away from eliminating Penguins and everyone has lost their mind

Jackie Spiegel

Canadiens a game away from eliminating Penguins and everyone has lost their mind image

After a 4-3 come-from-behind win Wednesday night, the Canadiens are a game away from clinching a spot in the Stanley Cup playoffs first round and eliminating the Penguins.

No one predicted it. 

No one expected it.

Why? Because, as a 12th seed, Montreal shouldn't have even had a sniff of the playoffs; they were not a good team.

When the NHL's 2019-20 season was paused on March 12, the team was at .500 (31-31-9) and nine points out of the postseason with three teams between them and the last wild-card spot. They were tied for 18th in goals for (212), tied for 23rd in goals against, in the bottom third on special teams and on a three-game losing streak.

Well, the time off was good for the Le Bleu-Blanc-Rouge. Sure, they have Vezina and Hart Trophy winner Carey Price in net and defenseman Jeff Petry scoring ridiculous game-winning goals, including this shocker in Game 3:

But still.

They're thisclose to knocking out Sidney Crosby and Evgeni Malkin (Game 4 is 4 p.m. ET Friday on NBCSN and SN) from the 2020 postseason — and giving Pittsburgh a good chance at getting phenom Alexis Lafreniere in the draft.

Twitter, of course, has lost its collective mind over all of this:

Jackie Spiegel