Montreal Canadiens are the most successful Canadian franchise in the last 20 years

[bobholly39]

I'm a Habs fan.

Make fun of the Habs all you want - there certainly are reasons do. But Habs have definitely had a different type of vibe/energy than most Canadian teams in lockout era.

Teams like Leafs, Oilers, Jets, Canucks, even Calgary or Ottawa - at certain points, were expected to win, and they disappointed and lost.

Habs are opposite. They were never expected to win, they are/have been underdogs for the past 20 years. The one good thing is they often actually exceeded expectations. Whether it's beating Boston in playoffs, or Toronto recently, or Capitals/Penguins in 2010, etc. Carey Price was a huge part of that. So - it bodes well for winning a few rounds, but not so much for prospects of going all the way to win a cup, let alone multiple.

Is that a better position to be in? I duno about that. It's a lot more fun to follow a franchise whose entering seasons with players like McDavid, Draisaitl, Matthews etc, where at least you can hope.

In the lockout era - Habs have had 1 single season of a player above ppg (Kovalev in 2008, 1.02 ppg). 1 season out of 429 total times players have accomplished this. In comparison:

Calgary - 12x
Edmonton - 21x
Ottawa - 17x
Toronto - 23x
Vancouver - 15x
Winnipeg - 17x

 

[CristianoRonaldo]

Un sticker du 18-25 (blabla 18-25, une section du forum JVC (jeuxvidéos.com)

Repose en paix RISITAS

Un khey sur hfboards sérieux

L'élite de la nation est partout, incroyable.

 

[Rob Sense]

Honestly it's not surprising. The Habs were mostly a playoff team that could do some damage and had a few good runs throughout the period. Others have had long basement stints it feels like and/or fewer deep runs. Not that the bar is very high though.

agreed but I would not trade the Habs history against any other team's history... Habs rock by a lot!

 

[Petey O]

not if you ask Canucks fans last night

How dare Canucks fans enjoy a playoff win after a decade of the worst front office the franchise has ever seen.

 

[Golden_Jet]

Whenever I see stats like this I always wonder about the cutoff. Why 2005? So the stat maker can get the outcome he wants. If you include any years before, or cut it off to any years after, the stat might be different. It's effectively meaningless.

Poster chose after all the rule changes and lockout, and OP also mentioned since cap introduced, even though 2005 there was no cup awarded, because of lockout.

 

[mr figgles]

Hilariously, coach Jorts has 4 series wins in the same timeframe, and is considered great, so these franchises are doing pretty pretty good by the standards of some here.

 

[klefbombs shoulder]

Crazy that with the decade of dankness only 2 Canadian teams have won more series in this time. Been a bleak 20 years for Canadian NHL fans.

 

[John Mandalorian]

Recently Habs fans seems to have been behind the idea that a proper rebuild means being bad for a while and that being mediocre doesn’t amount to much.

With that in mind, if that’s mediocre it’s not too bad.

That could be one positive spin if you’re looking for one.

 

[Canadienna]

I get a kick out of people being surprised. I don't blame y'all. If you looked at those rosters and skipped over the #1 Goalie you'd be hard pressed to explain how they had any modicum of success.

 

[Laveuglette]

L'élite de la nation est partout, incroyable.

:noel:

 

[The Gr8 Dane]

we've probably had one of the weakest rosters on paper in that span which makes it even funnier

 

[Magic 8 Ball]

The owners would define success by how much money they made. For a lot of them, the hockey is an afterthought

 

[Ducer]

Depends if you where a kid in the 70's when the Habs where a dynasty it was either a cup win or the season was a failure and failure wasn't to be tolerated in Montreal.

 

[Kevin27NYI]

Well 2 don’t count 2020 they were in the expanded bubble playoffs 24th ranked team, or around there

2021, they were 18th, probably not a playoff team in a normal year. Habs fans don’t like it when that gets mentioned. But it’s the truth.

Why wouldn’t it count?

 

[HabsQC]

It's both funny and sad. Damn Canada - isn't this "your game"?

Well if you did players who won the cup since then, Canada will be top 1 for sure

 

[Colezuki]

Why wouldn’t it count?

Because some idiots on here like to pretend that because they we're 18th in total pts that year they wouldn't have qualified, Essentially they think the north was garbage, but the north was just more balanced. Conveniently neglecting small details that they ignore to make that point, like the North having the highest points of the bad teams of any other division.

Then they say we would've finished 18th
2024 playoffs - Capitals would've finished 17th
2023 playoffs - Panthers would've finished 17th

This happens every year, a team gets in that's worse then someone (or 2) in the other conference and people think it means anything. I had a great time on the Habs run, and no matter how much someone screeches "iT's ThE nOrTh" doesn't change that fact.

 

[HabsQC]

All of that with 1 ppg player in 1 season (Kovalev with 84 pts in 07-08)

Because some idiots on here like to pretend that because they we're 18th in total pts that year they wouldn't have qualified, Essentially they think the north was garbage, but the north was just more balanced. Conveniently neglecting small details that they ignore to make that point, like the North having the highest points of the bad teams of any other division.

Then they say we would've finished 18th
2024 playoffs - Capitals would've finished 17th
2023 playoffs - Panthers would've finished 17th

This happens every year, a team gets in that's worse then someone (or 2) in the other conference and people think it means anything. I had a great time on the Habs run, and no matter how much someone screeches "iT's ThE nOrTh" doesn't change that fact.

And most of all, nobody knows what the standings would have been if we played against all the other teams maybe we would've been 15th, maybe 23rd, no one knows.

 

[SheldonJPlankton]

It should be mentioned that in addition the Habs were President's Trophy runner-ups in 2015.

 

[The Gr8 Dane]

Watching the Habs in those 20 years was really painful, depressing and made me question my love for the game... I can't imagine what the ROC had to go through, i don't like you guys and i hope you suffer more, but damn...

Right? I thought we had it bad , having to watch a garbage juice team all these years . My goodness.

 

[hamzarocks]

I'm a Habs fan.

Make fun of the Habs all you want - there certainly are reasons do. But Habs have definitely had a different type of vibe/energy than most Canadian teams in lockout era.

Teams like Leafs, Oilers, Jets, Canucks, even Calgary or Ottawa - at certain points, were expected to win, and they disappointed and lost.

Habs are opposite. They were never expected to win, they are/have been underdogs for the past 20 years. The one good thing is they often actually exceeded expectations. Whether it's beating Boston in playoffs, or Toronto recently, or Capitals/Penguins in 2010, etc. Carey Price was a huge part of that. So - it bodes well for winning a few rounds, but not so much for prospects of going all the way to win a cup, let alone multiple.

Is that a better position to be in? I duno about that. It's a lot more fun to follow a franchise whose entering seasons with players like McDavid, Draisaitl, Matthews etc, where at least you can hope.

In the lockout era - Habs have had 1 single season of a player above ppg (Kovalev in 2008, 1.02 ppg). 1 season out of 429 total times players have accomplished this. In comparison:

Calgary - 12x
Edmonton - 21x
Ottawa - 17x
Toronto - 23x
Vancouver - 15x
Winnipeg - 17x

The habs were expected to win and were trying to contend from 2013 to 2017 period.

They choked to the Sens in R1 in 2013, lost in ECF in 2014 after price injury ti rangers, 2015 I think they lost in R2 to Tampa, and 2016 price missed most of the year and team collapsed, with final contending year being 2017 when habs won the division and choked to rangers

 

[The Gr8 Dane]

The habs were expected to win and were trying to contend from 2013 to 2017 period.

They choked to the Sens in R1 in 2013, lost in ECF in 2014 after price injury ti rangers, 2015 I think they lost in R2 to Tampa, and 2016 price missed most of the year and team collapsed, with final contending year being 2017 when habs won the division and choked to rangers

Ah yes expected to win with David Deharnais as our 1 C for like half a decade of course! And when it wasent davey it was Danault or Plekanec!

All those teams were absolute dog meat , those years weren't some *good old days* they were awful , we had bottom 5-10 rosters on paper every single year. Goaltending certainly hid it.


I mean Molson sold to the casuals that we were *expected to win* I'll give you that. Why rebuild when you can retool compete for the playoffs and fill the building , a cup was never a serious achievable goal for them.

We never stood a chance with the roster we went into those years with , completely wasted years.


We now have a management who's goal is to rebuild the team into an actual contender and sustainable hockey program and not go into so called *contending* seasons with like 5% chance to win the cup and sell to the fanbase that anything can happen in Da Playoffs! Like they did under Gainey and Bergy

 

[rahad]

Wtih McDavid and Leon, I can see Edmonton passing us very soon. I just can't see prime McDavid not winning a single stanley cup.

 

[hamzarocks]

Ah yes expected to win with David Deharnais as our 1 C for like half a decade of course! And when it wasent davey it was Danault or Plekanec!

All those teams were absolute dog meat , those years weren't some *good old days* they were awful , we had bottom 5-10 rosters on paper every single year. Goaltending certainly hid it.


I mean Molson sold to the casuals that we were *expected to win* I'll give you that. Why rebuild when you can retool compete for the playoffs and fill the building , a cup was never a serious achievable goal for them.

We never stood a chance with the roster we went into those years with , completely wasted years.


We now have a management who's goal is to rebuild the team into an actual contender and sustainable hockey program and not go into so called *contending* seasons with like 5% chance to win the cup and sell to the fanbase that anything can happen in Da Playoffs! Like they did under Gainey and Bergy

The habs played a defensive style of hockey common with many teams in that era

They had Pacioretty, Subban and Gallagher who were high end players

Had markov, and a couple other nice D-man at that time

The Habs were missing a better 1C but on paper they tried to emulate the 2011 Bruins team by being a deep, defensive and physical (not as physical as bruins still) team who had great goalies (price wasnt able to reach 2011 thomas level)

 

[bobholly39]

The habs were expected to win and were trying to contend from 2013 to 2017 period.

They choked to the Sens in R1 in 2013, lost in ECF in 2014 after price injury ti rangers, 2015 I think they lost in R2 to Tampa, and 2016 price missed most of the year and team collapsed, with final contending year being 2017 when habs won the division and choked to rangers

Bolded #1 - absolutely not.
Bolded #2 - maybe.

But that's difference. Habs enter a season and are like "if only we make the playoffs, we may have a puncher's chance with Carey Price in nets". We don't enter playoffs as a contender, but as an underdog who can do damage.

Habs have never had a core of Matthews/Marner/Nylander + Tavares UFA signing that was expected to win. Or a McDavid+Drai. Or Vancouver in 2010 and 2011 (and arguably again now, with all of hughes, EP, etc).

 

[FerrisRox]

Well 2 don’t count 2020 they were in the expanded bubble playoffs 24th ranked team, or around there

2021, they were 18th, probably not a playoff team in a normal year. Habs fans don’t like it when that gets mentioned. But it’s the truth.

So you don't want to count them as making the playoffs... in a season that they went all the way to the Stanley Cup Final?

Seems like a really clever take on it.