You shouldn't extrapolate that 2012-13 team given the circumstances surrounding that league year, not to mention the way the regular season and playoffs ended for the Habs...they weren't very good, they had low expectations and got off to a hot start in a lockout year.
As for the subsequent years...you can't really compare.
Do you think he might of been able to do that with the assets he would of received for #14?
The team has the same needs as it did then...
And I'm not sure how you can say they have no young core when the majority of their roster is 25 and under
Take #14 out of the equation and the oldest forward is Paul Byron and he's 28.
I also never said they were 1 or 2 moves away, they do need to rebuild/retool/reset...
And the moves they've done lately point to just that.
Your individual counterpoints to each sentence are good and all, but fail to address the overall point - that the team's aren't "almost identical".
The 2013 core included young players who were elite in their roles (goaltending, defense, goal scoring), capable of leading a team to a 100 point season.
The
younger part of this 2018 core includes a handful of 50 point wingers who wouldn't appear in any "top 50" lists, and are not good enough to lead a team to success. (also, "majority" is not the same as "core". MB still quickly points to Price and Weber when discussing the "core")
