If Montreal Wins the Stanley Cup - Biggest Fluke in NHL History?

[Braunbaer]

I don't know if it'd be a fluke.

They won after trailing 3-1 against one of their arch enemies, they swept round 2 and they beat a top 3 team in the league.
They might have to beat the best team in the league to win the Cup.

If they do so, kudos. Well deserverd.

Thank God I don't hate that team as much anymore.

 

[haseoke39]

The regular season was the fluke this year.

Montreal played six teams all year, any of which could've made the playoffs if they realigned to the right division. They started strong, fired a coach at the first sign of trouble, and then changed their entire system in the middle of a ridiculously condensed COVID schedule, when they played 25 times in 43 days and couldn't even practice what they were implementing, even while several key players were out with injury.

If all you do is skim standings and pretend they mean something, oh yeah, big fluke.

If you think about what happened this year at all, Montreal was due to rise.

 

[Habs Icing]

They still have a long way to go, but it's hard to think of a more "out there" Stanley Cup champion than if Montreal managed to win this year. 4th place team in a 7-team division that was considered by many to be the weakest in the NHL before and during the season. Weren't given a chance to do anything this postseason by most pundits. Not a team that was considered particularly good, dangerous or on the rise on the season. On paper, a team with a great goaltending (who is red hot) and not a whole lot else. They've had some fluky (not sustainable) things like their PK that would likely not hold over a very long sample size but in short series are more possible as well.
.

Maybe you should spend more time watching hockey games than reading what so-called experts have to say.

 

[Sidgeni Malkby]

Biggest fluke in NHL history is probably a huge statement, and I would say No.

Biggest surprise this year? Definitely!

This is off topic but for us with teams no longer in it...
The question comes to mind how this would change the winning model moving forward. Right now there is a move towards heavy clutch and grab hockey.

The Habs aren't the biggest team, but they have big D. Their best players are tiny and fast, but they do have a bigger slower veteran 4th line.