The Montreal Canadiens started the season with a hope of making the playoffs. They had missed three of the past four years and were hopeful they would not stretch that into four out of five Aprils without playoff hockey taking place in Montreal.
With just under half of the season remaining on the calendar to play, missing the postseason for a third straight year is all but a certainty. They have 45 points in 46 games played. Going 26-10-0 over their final 36 games wouldn’t even guarantee a playoff spot. It would be a one point improvement on last year’s 96 points, but that wasn’t enough then and 97 might not be enough now.