I don't think so. They're playing a style that cannot be sustained all year. And Price cannot steal games at that pace for 82 games.
This is a team that was 24th last year and on pace for 4 years without playoff appearances. We added some solid pieces in the offseason though.
Plus, A lot of personel changes:
Negatives:
- Tatar, Drouin, Danault, Perry, Staal, Armia are all UFA
- our 3rd pairing in D is UFA and still awful
- Toffoli will come back to earth
- Can Petry have another career year or will he shows signs of aging?
- Losing someone to Seattle - potentially a D like Chiarot, with no replacement in sight.
- Aging core players like Price/Weber/Petry/Gallagher
Positives:
- Growth of KK, Suzuki, Romanov
- Addition of Caufield
- good UFA additions ?
So, are we a bubble team next year? I think that these teams will finish comfortably ahead:
TB
CAR
TOR
NYI
WSH
And then those I expect to be better than Montreal:
FLA
BOS
NYR
PIT
And you have a couple of wildcard like
PHI
NJD
OTT
There's only those guys I can't see challenging for the playoffs:
DET
BUF
CBJ