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Why the Habs are so hot right now

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Look, you don’t need to dig too deep to start raining on the Montreal Canadiens’ parade.

On one hand, the Canadiens enter Sunday’s action as the third seed in the Atlantic Division. That said, it’s easy to poke holes in that, as while Montreal has 29 standings points, they’ve done so in 28 games; the Boston Bruins are right behind them with 28 despite having only played 24.

And you could argue that management is still making unforced errors.

Still, considering how dour things were for so long in November, forgive Habs fans if they’re merely shaking their heads in shocked joy while muttering “five straight wins.”

At 13-12-3, the Canadiens are rolling and, at worst, can consider themselves reasonable contenders for one of the East’s two wild card spots. With four games remaining against the Bruins this season* and other Atlantic teams struggling, they might feel like they can “control their own destiny,” as weird as that is to consider in early December.

We could debate their standing in the East for quite some time, but let’s instead look at their five-game winning streak and ponder how things are turning around. PHT will also consider what lies ahead, too.

1. Carey Price, duh.

From the Dept. of the Painfully Obvious, the Canadiens sure are a lot better when a healthy, focused Carey Price is in net. Yes, that’s some hard-hitting analysis.

During this five-game winning streak/return, Price recorded one shutout and also limited opponents to a single goal on three other occasions. Overall, the superstar netminder has only given up six goals in five games.

2. Resurgent scorers

Even so, Price is far from the only talented Habs player who’s heating up.

Paul Byron lorded his speed over his opponents to collect a hat trick recently while piling up six points in five contests. Despite getting fairly modest ice time, Alex Galchenyuk is on fire with eight points during this run, including four assists in Montreal’s blowout win over Detroit. Max Pacioretty and Brendan Gallagher are heating up, while Jonathan Drouin was looking dangerous before dealing with some injury issues lately.

3. Special teams, indeed

Montreal’s penalty kill has been perfect in four of the five games of this winning streak, while the power play has generated at least one goal in ... four of five games.

Now, that’s the sort of stat that you can chalk up to luck quite a bit, although it’s probably also true that the Canadiens were due for some bounces.

[Claude Julien on things starting to turn around about a month ago.]

4. Home cooking

The Canadiens have played four of their last five games in Montreal. That’s not the extent of this cozy stay, either, as Montreal’s domination of Detroit began a five-game homestand. If you want the Canadiens to enjoy consistent success, it will need to come despite a very hot-and-cold schedule, as they’ll face long homestands and lengthy road trips for some time. Let’s consider December and January, alone:

Tue, Dec 5 vs St. Louis
Thu, Dec 7 vs Calgary
Sat, Dec 9 vs Edmonton
Thu, Dec 14 vs New Jersey
Sat, Dec 16 @ Ottawa
Tue, Dec 19 @ Vancouver
Fri, Dec 22 @ Calgary
Sat, Dec 23 @ Edmonton
Wed, Dec 27 @ Carolina
Thu, Dec 28 @ Tampa Bay
Sat, Dec 30 @ Florida
Mon, Jan 2 vs San Jose
Wed, Jan 4 vs Tampa Bay
Sat, Jan 7 vs Vancouver
Fri, Jan 13 vs Boston
Sun, Jan 15 vs NY Islanders
Tue, Jan 17 @ Boston
Thu, Jan 19 @ Washington
Fri, Jan 20 vs Boston
Mon, Jan 23 vs Colorado
Wed, Jan 25 vs Carolina
Mon, Jan 30 @ St. Louis

Overall, that’s a pretty favorable schedule going forward, though, right?

Ultimately, it remains true that the Canadiens dug themselves a pretty deep hole with early-season struggles, but not to the point of burying their 2017-18 season altogether. They probably shouldn’t read too much into their positive clippings now (just as they might want to scroll past the negative stuff in the darkest times), but this stretch is about more than just a 10-point boost in the standings.

* - They might as well circle/highlight one week in January as especially huge, as they face the Bruins three times, with two of those meetings coming in Montreal:

Fri, Jan 13 vs Boston
Sun, Jan 15 vs NY Islanders
Tue, Jan 17 @ Boston
Thu, Jan 19 @ Washington
Fri, Jan 20 vs Boston


James O’Brien is a writer for Pro Hockey Talk on NBC Sports. Drop him a line at phtblog@nbcsports.com or follow him on Twitter @cyclelikesedins.