Ah, yeah, the Habs were still competitive enough, and some Montrealers still delusional enough, that lots of people still believed every Stanley Cup championship was pretty much the Habs' to lose. I remember well into the '90s that prevailing opinion was that the Campbell/Western Conference was the weak sister to the Wales/Eastern (probably not a wrong assessment either...). Even now eastern reporters still tend to have a very myopic view of the state of the NHL.
I think the argument was that the Flames' record was flattered by dominating their crappy division (17-4-3 combined vs. the Jets/Canucks/Kings), and the Habs had a better (relative) record against the Campbell Conference (18-10-2; .633) than the Flames did (24-17-6; .575) even with the benefit of all those wins against the Jets/Canucks/Kings. (The Flames' 6-7-2 record against the Norris was worst in the league.) Half the Campbell Conference were easily the worst teams in the league that year—Jets had 59 points, Canucks had 59, Maple Leafs had 57, Kings had 54 and Red Wings had 40—and three of those bottom-feeders made the playoffs!
In '89 they had reason to believe they were better than the Flames, as the Habs did lead the regular season standings a good chunk of the year.
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