The only reason people completely ignore the multiple key injuries on the Habs last year is because in their minds management and coaching are always the problem with Montreal.
It's a narrow, predictable, obsessive and fallacious viewpoint. It's a created narrative that basically says I was right that the coach sucks because when Price went down the team collapsed.
This is a team that had Barberio playing 25 minutes a night last year some nights with a sieve behind him. Barberio who has now cleared waivers and is in the AHL. This is a team that iced 15 different defencemen, 15! Guys like Joel Hanley, Darren Dietz, and Victor Barley combined for over 30 games played alone.
On forward Sven Andrighetto who also just cleared waivers play 44 games, Michael Brown 14 games, Lucas Lessio and Stefan Matteau 12. All guys that are not good enough to be on the team this year.
Habs lost the 3rd most man-games due to injury last year. Many of these were absolute key injuries.
They lost Jeff Petry for 31 games, Brendan Gallagher for 29 games, Subban for 14 games.
You have to look at the combination of these injuries and the snowball effect it has. Not just one injury. When you are already down a key player, losing another one just compounds the situation. If you just lose one, it's not as bad.
Outside of last year, Habs under the current management have consistently been one of the stronger teams in the East.
Yet here we have people still pushing the narrative that this team is terribad without Price. The only reason these people chose to go with that story is because it supports the ridiculous notion that Habs coaching and management is a monstrous problem. Is it perfect? Absolutely not. But it is far from being the disaster its being portrayed to be.