The Montreal Canadiens are Canada’s only hope of bringing a Stanley Cup back to Canada in the foreseeable future.
Not everyone will agree with me, but I think have a solid case.
In my opinion, there are key factors that make hockey teams successful and allow them to reach the promised land.
It starts with goaltending.
If you look back to previous Stanley Cup winners, you will see some of the world’s finest goalies.
Patrick Roy, Martin Brodeur and Dominique Hasek are some of the names to be engraved on Lord Stanley.
The Canadiens, right now, undeniably have the best goaltender in the entire world.
Carey Price.
Price is coming off a historic season which saw him win the Vezina trophy for the game’s top goaltender, the Hart trophy for the league’s most valuable player, the Ted Lindsay trophy awarded to the most outstanding player in the NHL and the William M. Jennings trophy presented to the goalkeeper with the fewest goals scored against.
Overall, Price dominates the NHL in his position and will play a huge role in raising a 25th Stanley Cup banner in Montreal.
Defense wins championships.
The Canadiens defensive core is among the top in the league and it all starts with P.K Subban, arguably the best defenseman in the NHL.
He’s a former Norris trophy winner for the league’s top defensemen and last year’s runner up.
Subban is an elite defender along with being a big time point producer.
However, he isn’t the only elite defensemen on the team.
Andrei Markov and Jeff Petry, two other members of their defensive core, are also highly skilled defensemen who add an offensive punch.
With that being said, for a team to be successful in the playoffs, they need legitimate scoring.
The Canadiens newly appointed captain leads the way in that category.
Max Pacioretty has scored 76 goals over the past two seasons and is on pace for over 35 goals this year.
Pacioretty scores the most goals of any other player on the team, but there are other players who contribute offensively.
Alex Galchenyuk, Brendan Gallagher and Thomas Plekanec racked up 20, 24, 26 goals, respectively a year ago.
Although it is still early in the season, the Canadiens are tied for first place in the overall standings, lead the league in scoring and have taken the most shots on net.
They are ranked second in power play goals and are tied for third in penalty killing percentage.
If they continue to play the way they are playing right now, the Canadiens will be Canada’s only hope of returning the Stanley Cup to the only place it belongs…Montreal.