Montreal season wrap-up and Playoff Preview
Montreal season wrap-up
It was a season of mild disappointment, but much anticipation for the playoffs. As the reigning Stanley Cup champions, much was expected out of this star-studded lineup, yet it was not so long ago that people were wondering whether Montreal might miss the playoffs.
After a GM change early in the year, CP returnee Josh Vickers was relatively active throughout the season in making adjustments to his lineup, before drawing widespread criticism for a quiet trade deadline. When questioned about this, Vickers had this to say: "We just made our deadline deals a little early this year. With our playoff spot in question, we jumped on UFAs Morrow and Martin, as well as Dustin Penner to bolster our lineup through the end of the regular season as well as playoffs, and were rewarded with an extremely strong finish, despite losing key players Kopitar, Leino, and Plekanec for significant stretches. With these players back, we feel confident that our depth is almost unparallelled, which is so crucial in a long postseason, and which made it possible to not overspend at the deadline."
Win or lose, it is likely that reviews of this season will point to Montreal's trade of Ryan Miller to Columbus for Pekka Rinne and Michael Latta. After reportedly turning down CBJ GM MJK for weeks, Vickers suddenly traded the top goalie in the CPHL for a struggling Pekka Rinne. While it appears that Rinne has improved his confidence of late, there is little question that Ryan Miller is the force that propelled Columbus into a spectacular second half of the season. This was a short term gamble for a long term gain, but it will be difficult for Montreal's fans to consider the big picture if Rinne does not stack up in the Playoffs.
Playoff Matchup: Washington (3) vs. Montreal (6)
In the series thus far most often predicted to result in victory for the lower seed, it will be interesting to see how these two teams stack up.
While Washington finished the season with two more points and their division lead, Montreal actually had three more wins, as Washington benefited from 11 points in losing efforts to Montreal's 3. Too bad for them that OT points don't count in the playoffs.
Washington won the season series 2-1:
Day 93 Game 744: Montreal 3, Washington 4
Day 102 Game 819: Washington 5, Montreal 3
Day 116 Game 925: Montreal 5, Washington 3
Montreal will need to find a way to shut down Rich Peverley, who managed 5 points in these three games.
Tim Thomas was in net for Washington for all three games, so we'll see how Backstrom stacks up. Rinne went 1-1 against the Caps as a Hab this year.
Last edited by Superfraggle; 04-01-2012 at 03:06 PM.
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