The entire NHL has seen some drastic change. Teams who had a lacklustre performance in the playoffs improved while teams who didn’t make it to begin with, made moves to better their roster in hope of a spot in the postseason. The Montreal Canadiens didn’t make the playoffs despite being in a spot for the majority of the year, but they were close only losing out officially in the final games of the season.
But with such a finish, fans were hoping for boosts of their own to give them further confidence in playoff contention in 2019.