Florida Panthers are this year's Montreal Canadians

[pb1300]

Yeah no, the Panthers are not that Montreal team. They took their President Trophy team last season, saw the flaws in it, and began to tweak it into what wins playoff hockey games. While still an obvious work in progress, we can definitely see the difference between last years team and this years.

The Habs were a Cinderella team in just an overall f'd up season and playoffs, due to Covid.

 

[dukeofjive]

Habs had a bubble team and Carey price.

Florida has stars on there team.

 

[Louie the Blue]

None of the recent one-off SCF teams are similar to Florida. St. Louis had a similar arc, but Binnington's story was nothing like Bobrovsky. LA was a much better team that won two Cups in three years. Besides the obvious point that Florida hasn't even made the SCF.


That's correct. Habs' run was unexpected, which has nothing to do with a 'fluke'. A fluke is when a goal bounces in off the ref's ass. The 2021 Habs were hit hard during the season, but that roster was loaded with talent and earned every win in the playoffs. Unfortunately, bad contracts and injuries ensured it couldn't last.

The Canadiens missed the POs 3 of the 5 seasons leading up to the 2021 post-season and had not won a PO round since 2015.

They lost their last 5 regular season games before the POs and barely made it.

The next season, Weber was LTIRetired while Price didn't play until April before going back on LTIR and likely is retired.

Bergevin and the interim HC who led them to the SCF, Ducharme, were also fired.

The 2021 Canadiens are the epitome of a fluke. The Canadiens earned every win during that postseason, but there was no indication before or after that PO run that it was anything but an anomaly.

Also, I'm going to challenge your claim that the Canadiens were "hit hard" in 2021. My rebuttal is that the Canadiens were amongst the teams with the fewest man games lost in 2021, as seen here:

 

[Roksta]

They just had a 58 wins season 1 year ago. Chill with the cinderella and habs comparison. Habs are always garbage so it was a surprise

 

[BLNY]

The clock hasn't struck midnight yet for this Cinderella team. They are firing on all cylinders by committee while Bob makes the big stops like Price did back in 2021.

They're far deeper than the 2021 Canadiens.

 

[Lshap]

The Canadiens missed the POs 3 of the 5 seasons leading up to the 2021 post-season and had not won a PO round since 2015.

They lost their last 5 regular season games before the POs and barely made it.

The next season, Weber was LTIRetired while Price didn't play until April before going back on LTIR and likely is retired.

Bergevin and the interim HC who led them to the SCF, Ducharme, were also fired.

The 2021 Canadiens are the epitome of a fluke. The Canadiens earned every win during that postseason, but there was no indication before or after that PO run that it was anything but an anomaly.

Pointing to seasons before and after is a weird argument that has nothing to do with the 2020-21 team. As I said, it was a totally unsustainable roster. But for that one season it worked.

Montreal outplayed three teams to get to the finals. No luck and not a single fluke involved.

 

[Louie the Blue]

Pointing to seasons before and after is a weird argument that has nothing to do with the 2020-21 team. As I said, it was a totally unsustainable roster. But for that one season it worked.

Montreal outplayed three teams to get to the finals. No luck and not a single fluke involved.

The only reason why I bring it up is because the roster was still largely the same going from 2019-20 to 2020-21 in which some benefit of the doubt could be given to a lackluster regular season with success from prior seasons (e.g., 2022-2023 Florida Panthers).

And I'd also challenge the notion that it worked for one season. The Canadiens had a point percentage of .527, which would translate to ~86 points over the course of a full 82 game season, which isn't "good".

They had a good 22 game stretch in the POs and I will acknowledge that, but that's about it.

 

[Three On Zero]

These two teams are not in the same realm. Silly comparison

 

[Hamilton Bulldogs]

Habs would beat em.

Nobody thought they’d beat Vegas, Toronto or Winnipeg either.

Price was a much better goalie than anyone the panthers have faced so far

 

[sxvnert]

The clock hasn't struck midnight yet for this Cinderella team. They are firing on all cylinders by committee while Bob makes the big stops like Price did back in 2021.

Agree but the road for the Panthers will end with the Hurricanes. Boston got goalied, leafs shit the bed as usual, but the canes will destroy them.

 

[PoutineSp00nZ]

The Habs were a bad team where the stars aligned. The Panthers won the Presidents trophy last season and made a couple big changes that took time to get used to.

They aren't comparable at all

 

[Finlandia WOAT]

I mean, they won the President's Trophy a year ago. They underperformed this year because they had a ton of injuries and had to adjust to a new coach's new system mid season. They're not a bad team, especially since Bob is playing up to his contract.

 

[Panteras]

While we all agree that this Panthers team is not that Canadiens team, I don’t think it’s fair to keep bringing up about last year’s President’s Cup winners as some sort of precursor or a catalyst to our current success like a “no surprise” “told you so” “we’ll yeah they were last years best team” reason.

I say this because we lost a TON of important depth, plus a new manager, and made a blockbuster trade that sent shockwaves by braking up our core. I certainly did not imagine this run when the season started and thought we were exactly where we were supposed to be halfway through the season. I mean, on paper we were nothing more than a Frankenstein team of cheap mercenaries Zito had to scramble to put together just to ice a team due to the cap constraints. We were playing a man down for a bunch of games this season. Our D was a laughing stock to these boards specially after losing Weegar who was supposedly the second coming of Orr that we had lost but then again nobody foresaw Montour’s rise. Again, everyone thought were were supposed to regress even if we hadn’t lost all of our players because it was impossible to recreate the monster season we had. Plus everything I just mentioned above and I can’t see how we can equate our current success because of last year’s team.

Sure, through the season there were some underlying numbers that said this team wasn’t as bad as the standings reflected, but I attribute that more to the systemic change that Maurice was trying to implement and the Tkachuk effect. So actually, our success is due to new additions not present in that team from last year.

Props to Zito, he has a knack for reclamation projects. Guys like Nick Cousins are paying dividend and even Marc Staal or Mahura have been solid. But cmon, nobody saw that and at the start of the season guys like these were seen as CLEAR downgrades, so again, last year’s President’s Cup has nothing to do with this current playoff run.

 

[SheldonJPlankton]

The Habs are the example that proves the League should expand to 32 team playoff format.

How cool would it be to see a SC winner be a non-traditional team that pumped themselves super-hot for a playoff run. Especially since we have "playoff" teams, like the Leafs, who consistently prove themselves frauds unworthy of a playoff berth. Let the true warriors emerge.

 

[Bleedred]

I'm sure it's already been said but this Florida Panthers team is considerably better than that 2021 Canadiens team.

That team seemed to be more about Price firing off one last round before riding into the sunset. They were a playoff miss for several years before that (they definitely wouldn't have been in if the 2020 season weren't paused, unless you think they were gonna go undefeated in the remainder of games and even that may not have even got them in) and have been back to missing after it.

I know they lost Price and Weber, but that was gonna happen anyway. Even if they still played I'm sure they would not be very effective by now, due to age and serious injuries.

 

[Bandit]

I’d say the Florida Panthers are this year’s Florida Panthers, but what do I know.

 

[BB79]

Ewww, don't insult the Panthers

 

[Lshap]

The only reason why I bring it up is because the roster was still largely the same going from 2019-20 to 2020-21 in which some benefit of the doubt could be given to a lackluster regular season with success from prior seasons (e.g., 2022-2023 Florida Panthers).

And I'd also challenge the notion that it worked for one season. The Canadiens had a point percentage of .527, which would translate to ~86 points over the course of a full 82 game season, which isn't "good".

They had a good 22 game stretch in the POs and I will acknowledge that, but that's about it.

FWIW, during the last two months of that 2020/21 season, Montreal was missing Price, Weber, Danault, Gallagher, plus two or three other guys I think. Naturally, the regular season numbers took a major hit, but getting their best players back and healthy for the playoffs was worth it. Nobody could've predicted that playoffs would be the end of Price and Weber's careers. Kinda' sad, but it's nice to know both players had that great run.