After
spending more than half of the season battling around the playoff mark itself,
acquiring multiple goaltenders, and fighting through injuries to key players,
the Montreal Canadiens managed to claw their way to the top of the mediocre
Atlantic division in the last week of the season.
Injuries occurred to both Filip Chlapik and starting goaltender Garret Sparks
during the final stretch, but the last minute key acquisition of rental goalie
Keith Kinkaid turned out to be an important decision that helped the Habs land
in top spot at the last minute. The 31-year old league minimum (at rental)
tender finished with a 5-2-2 record and a 907 save percentage, playing crucial
games with starter Sparks went down.
Sparks is ready to go, and will start the opening series game against Toronto,
but after what they saw in the short but recent sample size… one should not
expect any Montreal playoff run to not include both netminders at some point.
Montreal also made maximum use of the salary cap and penalty rules around them
in the final days of the season. Starting with the “biggest game of the year”,
a match against the 2
-in-Atlantic Florida Panthers saw Montreal
intentionally play above the salary cap to dress their best possible lineup to
try and secure their banner. They would play 2 of the following 3 final games
this way and earn themselves a total of $1,000,000 in fines for doing so… but
many would call that a price worth paying.
Hugo Has and Noel Acciari are expected to draw in for Di Giuseppe and Michael
Benning to give the lineup a bit of added punch for what’s expected to be a
coin flip series against the Leafs. Hab fans should be confident in their
ability to score as many or more goals their opponent, but the “more” part of
that will more likely be determined by how well the team’s own goaltending
manages to hold up.
12/31/2023 - 299 words
