BROSSARD, Que.— This is pain. Emotional, mental, and certainly physical. All-encompassing pain induced by a playoff dream being crushed on the penultimate night of the NHL’s regular season, delivered swiftly and mercilessly to the Montreal Canadiens.
They trudged through 81 games to accomplish their goal—bandaged, braced, and taped back together for many of them down the stretch—and to see it fall apart less than 24 hours before stepping on the ice for their last one cuts deep.
"You wake up with your body feeling terrible for the most part," said Jordan Weal, who came to the Canadiens at the NHL’s trade deadline and played some of the best hockey of his career to help them remain in the race until this point. "Now it’s body and mind. It’s tough, it’s really so disappointing."
How could it not be? This Canadiens team was pegged by just about everyone who watches hockey to finish as a Draft Lottery favourite, but they defied the odds all season long and were oh-so-close to accomplishing their goal before it was extinguished with a shootout win for the Columbus Blue Jackets over the New York Rangers on Friday night.
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On Saturday, hundreds of fans showed up at the Canadiens’ south-shore practice facility to show their support for a team that brought thousands out of their seats at the Bell Centre and captured the attention of hundreds of thousands with their play all year long. Management promised a younger, faster group that would be entertaining, one that would put in the type of effort that was lacking far too often en route to a 28th-place finish in the standings a season ago, and the players delivered for the most part.
In the process, Montreal beat some of the East’s best teams in Pittsburgh, Washington and Boston. They were one of 16 teams to beat the Presidents Trophy-winning Tampa Bay Lightning, they took four out of four points against the West-leading Calgary Flames and dominated the Central Division-leading Winnipeg Jets twice, too.
The Canadiens did it with goaltender Carey Price returning to the form that saw him sweep the NHL awards in 2015, with a defence that played way better than paper suggested it should, and with a 5-on-5 offence that was bested only by five other teams in the league.
They had fought to the bitter end—winning six-of-eight games and collecting a point for an overtime loss in another before finally losing control of their own destiny with a 2-1 loss in Washington on Thursday. As a result, they spent most of Friday on an emotional rollercoaster, feeling mostly helpless.
The Blue Jackets, who were tied in points with the Canadiens in the standings, were down 1-0 against the Rangers early on Friday night. Then they tied it up in the third period and took a 2-1 lead to wire before New York’s Pavel Buchnevich scored with just over six seconds left.
Overtime passed, and then in the shootout, after New York missed twice and Columbus once, Blue Jackets superstar Artemi Panarin put the puck into the roof of Alexandar Georgiev’s net. And Montreal’s playoff hopes were then officially dashed on a Tony DeAngelo miss at the other end.
"Guys were watching it, texting, we knew what the implications were of the game," said Canadiens assistant captain Brendan Gallagher. "It was a bit of up and down emotions, obviously. [New York] held the 1-0 lead for a while and then they tied it late and we felt like we had a shot. To be honest, that would’ve been a tough game for [Columbus on Saturday] going into Ottawa knowing they had to win. So I think if [New York] could’ve found a way to win that shootout, we would’ve been pretty optimistic talking to you guys today. So it’s pretty tough now."
It’s almost impossible to not think about what could’ve been. As Gallagher noted, there were points left on the table down the stretch, losses to the teams directly ahead of them in the standings that looked like they could’ve easily been wins.
He didn’t mention the Canadiens’ power play, which managed two goals in a game on just one occasion and failed on all but 30 of 233 opportunities this year, but surely it’s one of the things every member of the organization will review in hindsight with deep regret.
Those people will also have to come to terms with the reality of at worst finishing with the 15th-best record in the 31-team league but not being among the 16 teams to participate in the playoffs. That they could finish with 96 points and a win over a Toronto Maple Leafs team that’s resting four of its top-six defencemen and probably a couple of key forwards, too, and they’ll have nothing to show for it.
"We’re 14th, and there’s three teams behind us in the standings who didn’t have as good of a season and they’re in the playoffs," said Canadiens coach Claude Julien. "It’s tough to swallow, but that’s the way [the playoff format is] structured and you have to accept it."
And now there’s nothing left for this team to play for but pride. One more game that forces them to push the aches and pains aside.
Paul Byron out with a wrist injury he’s been dealing with for about a month
— Eric Engels (@EricEngels) April 6, 2019
"Everyone’s playing banged up for the most part, and players that aren’t banged up at all at this stage of the year—you kind of question their involvement," said Julien. "So everybody, I’m telling you, in that room has been in the clinic at one point getting some treatment. I can’t say enough about the character of this team, even though we’re not in that second season that we wanted to be in."
It’s character Julien said he hopes to see exhibited one last time this season, but he acknowledged it will be a considerable challenge for the players to conjure it up while nursing broken hearts.
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