Skip navigation
Favorites
Sign up to follow your favorites on all your devices.
Sign up

A lesson learned: Habs vow to ignore the hype

Montreal Canadiens v Arizona Coyotes

GLENDALE, AZ - MARCH 07: Goaltender Carey Price #31 of the Montreal Canadiens is congratulated by Brendan Gallagher #11 after defeating the Arizona Coyotes 2-0 in the NHL game at Gila River Arena on March 7, 2015 in Glendale, Arizona. (Photo by Christian Petersen/Getty Images)

Getty Images

The Montreal Canadiens set a franchise record a year ago, starting the season with nine straight wins. They lost their 10th in Vancouver, which was no big deal. But the game after that, Carey Price got hurt, which was a huge deal. He got hurt again a month later, and that was it for the season.

The Habs would eventually collapse, finishing 38-38-6 and out of the playoffs.

Which is to say, a great start is good, but it’s all about how you finish.

“I think everything that we learned last year, everything that we went through, it’s given us a good understanding,” forward Brendan Gallagher said, per NHL.com. “I think last year everyone was saying so many good things about us, I think we started to believe it a little bit too much.”

The Canadiens, of course, are off to another torrid start, and it seems like nothing can go wrong. They’re 8-0-1 heading into tonight’s home game against Vancouver, the very same side that stopped their streak last year.

Though adversity may not come tonight against the Canucks, who’ve dropped five straight and have the NHL’s worst offense, it will come at some point this season, and the Habs will be tested in their pressure-packed market.

How they handle that adversity may very well determine the future of both head coach Michel Therrien and GM Marc Bergevin, the latter of whom acquired Shea Weber to not only play great hockey but also for “his attitude, his behavior, the little details that show he’s a real leader.”

So far, so good. But the season is still very young, just ask the Habs.

Related: In talking about Weber, Bergevin said plenty about Subban

In other news, the Canadiens sent 18-year-old defenseman Mikhail Sergachev back to his junior team yesterday. With Zach Redmond already sidelined with a broken foot, the club has been left with just six healthy defensemen on the roster, i.e. the bare minimum.

That’s led to speculation that Bergevin may be looking to add a top-4 d-man. Which sounds like a tough task at this point in the season, when all 30 teams are still technically in the playoff race. But perhaps Bergevin has had something in his back pocket all along, just in case Sergachev wasn’t NHL-ready.

We’ll have to wait and see on that.

Related: Habs send Sergachev back to junior