It's a dogfight

Collingwood, Ont. -- The Montreal Canadiens have vivid experience with life in the Eastern Conference, where the gap between contender and pretender is beguilingly small.

Two years ago the Habs rode hot goaltending and timely scoring all the way to the brink of the Stanley Cup finals, despite starting the post-season tournament as the eighth seed with 88 points.

Last season they overcame key injuries to the likes of Andrei Markov and Josh Gorges on defence, the awful Max Pacioretty incident and a complete no-show by Scott Gomez -- 38 points, a minus-15 and a $7.35 million cap hit -- and still managed to finish sixth in the East with 96 points.

They did exit in the first round, but the flipside is they took the Stanley Cup-champion Boston Bruins to seven games before Nathan Horton finished them in overtime.

In that respect the Canadiens are the quintessential post-lockout team -- one that could make a push deep into the playoffs or miss them just as easily.

"It's a dogfight when you look at the number of points you need to get in the playoffs and second of all when you look at the number of teams that are in the race to the wire," said coach Jacques Martin after practice in the Ontario resort town where the Canadiens were gathered for a few days of team bonding. "There's tremendous parity."

Montreal opens their season on the road against the Toronto Maple Leafs Thursday night and while general manager Brian Burke's ongoing renovation job has always been about building from the net out, the Leafs' traditional rivals have gone and done it.

Their punchers' chance at bringing the Stanley Cup back to Montreal for the first time since 1993 is represented by Carey Price, who staked the Canadiens to a 13-6-1 start through the first 20 games, making Habs fans quickly forget the departed Jaroslav Halak and his goaltending heroics in the 2010 playoff run.

Price's .923 save percentage was sixth in the NHL and he led the league with 72 games played and 38 wins as he finished seventh in the Hart Trophy voting.

But the real strength of the Canadiens is their defence corps -- providing they can remain healthy.

Markov blew his knee out in November and will start the season finishing off a lengthy rehabilitation, but Josh Gorges (knee) is back and proved his willingness to be feisty when he took on Ryan Malone in the Habs' final exhibition game after Malone leveled Chris Campoli, Gorges' defence partner and a late addition to shore up the defence in the absence of Markov early on.

There remains some significant upside in the form of P.K. Subban, who will once again be paired with Hal Gill in one of the NHL's true odd couplings.

If the young brash Subban can continue his rise he could give the Canadiens another elite blueliner -- not to mention team with Markov to help the Habs' potent power play -- but his growth will come under the 6-foot-7 Gill's considerable wingspan.

"Last year we had a pretty successful year and I think this year with one year of experience under our belt we'll be that much better," said Subban of his pairing with Gill, a true stay-at-home defenceman. "We continue to want to get better as a partnership as the season goes on. We watch video, we study other teams and that's why we're successful."

It's upfront that will be make or break for Montreal. Two summers ago the Canadiens seemed intent on cornering the market on skilled but small -- even tiny -- players; making 5-foot-7 Brian Gionta captain was a fitting symbol.

It would not have been an issue if they all played to their potential, but the Canadiens can't be expected to reach their goals if Gomez underachieves again. Meanwhile a return to the point-per-game production Michael Cammalleri managed in his last season in Calgary before signing as a free agent with Montreal in 2009 would be welcomed.

Helping the cause will be some added beef up front, most notably free agent signee Erik Cole, who will be looked on to take his 6-foot-2, 205-pound frame hard to the net while chipping in the 26 goals he had with Carolina last year.

"It's not that they didn't have hard-nosed players," says Cole of his new team. "(But) they didn't have a lot of have hard-nosed players with a little more size.

"Hopefully if I'm playing my game and the way I'm expected to it will open up some ice and a little more opportunity."

He won't be alone. Overlooked in the devastating injury suffered by Pacioretty at the hand of the Bruins' Zdeno Chara was that the first-year forward was well on his way to an outstanding rookie season (14 goals in 37 games played) after joining the Habs from the AHL's Hamilton Bulldogs.

Presuming he's fully healed mentally and physically from the broken neck and associated concussion his ability to throw his 200-plus pounds around could be a big factor over a full season.

"We feel we've improved our team in certain ways and so have other teams," says Martin. "We know we're going to be in a dogfight."

Michael Grange will provide insight and analysis on all the top stories in sports.