Montreal Canadiens: A 100th Anniversary Disaster

What went wrong with the Habs this season? Well, to break down and examine this season might be painful for this franchise and city. The expectations of the team were set so high, and everything was blindsided.

Leaf fans this year realized even though the franchise wants Justin Pogge ready now, he isn’t. Regardless of the year he was drafted, he needs to get ready himself.

Same goes with Carey Price, he will have a breakout season in a few years and start becoming consistent, but he needs time. He was rushed into this whole glamorous “100th season."

He was asked to do something only two goalies in the history of the NHL have done—lead their teams as rookie goaltenders to Stanley Cup championships. Ken Dryden and Patrick Roy are the only two goalies to do so, coincidentally both played for the Montreal Canadiens.

The organization was hoping Price would have been the third goalie.

Was this franchise hoping on a miracle or dreaming? How could they possibly compare this Montreal team to the one that Dryden and Roy played for? What is it NHL2009 the video game?

In any league, you can't go based on "what if's." Yes, the Habs did have a glorious 2008 season, they were on a roll. A lot of the rookie's and sophomores were having breakout seasons, but when they got to the playoffs everything crashed.

It wasn’t evident at first, but when they got to the playoffs, the Bruins took the Habs to seven games, and the Habs squeezed out that final victory.

Then they got to the second round and were shocked by Philadelphia.

At that point, Bob Gainey should have looked at this team and really reflected on it. Yes, the younger Habs were having breakout seasons, but was anyone except Koivu and Kovalev ready on this team for the playoffs?

The Habs lost to a Flyers team that was exposed for its lack of defence and poor goaltending when they were crushed by the Penguins.

When the Penguins made the playoffs for the first time, everyone speculated them going far in the playoffs because of their young team. They played fast and were a high scoring team.

But stop! They hit a brick wall, and that was the playoff experienced Ottawa Senators.

The playoffs is a whole new ball game, we all know that. So what was Gainey really thinking when heading into the 2008/2009 season? Did Gainey roll the dice and just hope all goes well?

Well, he had Price in net, a young and promising line up of youth, solid defence, playoff experience, and one more important thing (the 100th season). How do you roll the dice on the last one? The expectations when this season started was astronomical, not even NASA itself could figure out what this franchise and city was hoping for.

My preseason predictions had the Habs barely making the playoffs followed by a first round elimination. I saw this coming because this team really did look like it was going on "what ifs and the 100th season."

The team had two rookie goalies, a sophomore coach, and one solid scoring line. I don’t feel that beyond the Koivu-Tanguay-Kovalev line was any other consistent solid dependable scoring lines, not even with the now notorious Kotstynsin brothers.

This was a recipe for disaster, what if Price got injured, and the team went into a scoring funk? Well that is exactly what happened—the team stopped scoring, and Price got injured, at one point Jaroslav Halak became the starting goalie.

Who? Exactly, now no disrespect to him—he won the team a lot of games—but without a solid confident set of defensemen in front of you, you won’t go very far.

Having Carbonneau didn’t help either, and this team just absolutely feel apart.

Come to think of it, the Habs weren’t that far from a team that could contend for a championship. Had Gainey seen the "stop sign" at end of the playoffs in 2008, something could have been done to help this franchise.

He wasn’t missing much: maybe a backup goalie, an experienced coach, two experienced solid defenders, and another dependable scoring line. It may seem a lot, but with Price as your goalie and having a better depth to rely on, well, I doubt they would have finished eighth.

They remind me of the Toronto Raptors, who put all their eggs in one basket and made a strong starting line up with no bench. Well, Montreal, in a way, did this too—put all their eggs in one basket.

And now this team has completed their 100th anniversary disaster. Now you have your recipe for a centennial let down: your 2009 Montreal Canadiens.