It’s been twenty years since they raised the Cup, and over thirty since the dynasty years of the 1970s, so Montreal Canadiens fans have a significant sense of what have you done for me lately? And the answer in recent years has been, not so much.
The team rode a hot goalie to the Conference finals in 2010, but fizzled the next year in the first round to the Boston Bruins, their second opening round loss to the long time rival in three years, and then collapsed to have one of the worst records in hockey last season.
All these recent failures meant change was brewing, and this offseason saw it all come to realization. First, a change in leadership, tycoon Patrick Wayne bought the team and named himself general manager. Wayne then made a head coaching change releasing interim coach Randy Cunneyworth and hiring Michel Therrien, who coached the team from 2000-3.
The Canadiens also made sweeping changes to the roster, via trade and free agency, bolstering both their size and skill. In the nets, goaltender Carey Price was re-signed to a large multiyear contract. Over the last two seasons, Price has grown into one of the best tenders in the game.
With the personnel changes, the style of play should change dramatically, this is no longer a smaller team that will be bullied around, there is now size and strength throughout the lineup, which should help change the dynamics of the Northeast division where physical play is the norm.
Montreal will go as far as Price can carry them, but with a bigger, more skilled team in front of him, that could be far. Can they return to the glory days of yesteryear? Probably not right away but they will contend, and just getting to the dance puts you in position for anything to happen.
Opening day line-up:
CAPGEEK.COM USER GENERATED ROSTER
My Custom Lineup
FORWARDS
Erik Cole ($4.500m) / Joe Thornton ($7.000m) / Max Pacioretty ($1.625m)
Rene Bourque ($3.333m) / Tomas Plekanec ($5.000m) / Brian Gionta ($5.000m)
Alexandre Burrows ($2.000m) / Lars Eller ($1.325m) / Jannik Hansen ($1.350m)
Travis Moen ($1.850m) / Dominic Moore ($1.100m) / Colby Armstrong ($1.000m)
DEFENSEMEN
Andrei Markov ($5.750m) / Josh Gorges ($3.900m)
Keith Ballard ($4.200m) / Mike Komisarek ($4.500m)
Alexei Emelin ($2.000m) / Raphael Diaz ($1.225m)
GOALTENDERS
Carey Price ($6.500m)
Peter Budaj ($1.150m)
BUYOUTS
Scott Gomez ($3.524m)
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CAPGEEK.COM TOTALS (follow @capgeek on Twitter)
(these totals are compiled with the bonus cushion)
SALARY CAP: $70,200,000; CAP PAYROLL: $67,832,143; BONUSES: $0
CAP SPACE (20-man roster): $2,367,857
Full of guys I love to hate!!