Bubble team (without lights out CP) is quite generous.
015 - 2nd - with lights out Carey
016 - 22nd - Price out (team played dead last .400 hockey without him)
017 - 4th - Careys back.
018 - 27th - Price playing average/or out of line up
The squad MB assembled is a lottery team outside the crease.
The eye test has shown this for years .........the above numbers and the $$$ kings ransom he felt compelled to give Price simply supports that.
09-10, Markov misses half season, 88 pts, with Hamrlik as the only replacement. 15-18-3 before Markov comes back. 24-15-7 when he's back.
10-11, Markov gone the whole season, Subban & Hammer replace him the best they can, 93 pts.
11-12, with Markov absent for the first 70 games, Hamrlik on his last leg, a young inconsistent Price and a sophomore Subban taking the entire load on his shoulders, and a team gutted of it's coach replaced by an incompetent, habs set a
league record for most points by a 28th place team in an 82 games season, with 78 pts.
12-13, Price is still inconsistent, finishing the season with a meager ,905 save %, but Markov is back to make an upgrade over the loss of old man Hammer. Subban and Markov carry the Habs with a fast paced transition and a versatile offense to a prorated season of 108 pts.
13-14, a change in strategy occurs, and the system is concentrated on a "better" defensive approach to reduce scoring chances. Markov, Subban and Price carry the team to 100 pts.
14-15, rinse & repeat with better results, 110 pts.
15-16, dominate the league in the first 20 games, both Subban (almost ppg) and Price are at the top of their game, but Price's injury take its toll as the system was based upon him and
no suitable replacement could support the workload on a long term basis, no matter the defense. Internal strife was probably magnified by the tactics of a dinosaur coach who couldn't adapt the team to the loss of Price. And to this day, I still believe this is where Therrien's relationship with Subban started really falling apart. It seemed like PK disagreed with the defensive approach as it would be ineffective without someone suitable to replace Price and wanted to go back to what they did in 12-13.
16-17, Habs have Price back and still have two first pairing Dmen in Weber and Markov. Habs finish with 103 pts.
17-18, No more Markov, Price is there though, but the team completely crumbles without a bonafide top pairing pmd.
The underlying factor of success here is not Price alone. It's great/good goalie + 2 top defenders.
Mark my words, Price will never be as dominant as long as Markov's departure isn't properly handled by either replacing him or getting a bonafide top center.
Having two top defenders can compensate the lack of a top centerman. It's not the way to build a team, but it does bring results, contrarily to being a lottery team.