Can the Montreal Canadiens reach the Stanley Cup Finals in 2022? We examine the NHL odds and serve up way too early predictions. Bookmakers have gone to press with NHL futures for the upcoming 2021-22 NHL season, and most notably, the Montreal Canadiens don’t appear to be amongst the top five best bets in the league to win the Stanley Cup, raising the question whether they can reach a second straight Stanley Cup finals.
In theory, the Montreal Canadiens can accomplish the feat. It’s impossible to say a team cannot do it because there’s no such absolute certainty in sport of any kind. Moreover, on the back of their magical run this season they’ll be inspired to do so again, at least initially when the new season gets underway. But will the Canadiens do it is another question entirely, largely depending on many factors, some of which are as yet unknown or unconfirmed. These include any restrictions due to the ongoing coronavirus pandemic, NHL scheduling and whether a break for the Beijing Winter Olympics will take place amongst other things.
The 2020-21 NHL season was an anomaly, a one-off that was driven by an unprecedented global pandemic. It’s fair to say that the Montreal Canadiens benefited from changes that were forced on the league – from the substantially altered NHL format, reshuffled divisions and watered down schedule – that were mandated by regional and international travel restrictions imposed by governments in the US and Canada. Had it not been for the unusual nature of the year, who’s to say whether the Canadiens would have be able to plough through the postseason as they did, defying the NHL odds along the way.
The 2020-21 season was reduced to 56 games and an intra-divisional schedule was designed that pitted teams solely within the division against each other over the course of the regular season. Thus, the Montreal Canadiens spent the entire season playing within Canada and only against neighbouring Canadian teams. That format continued through the first two rounds of the playoffs too where the Canadiens faced the Toronto Maple Leafs and the Winnipeg Jets. Only in the last two rounds of the playoffs did Montreal face opposition outside of its own national borders – first the Vegas Golden Knights in the semi-finals and then the Tampa Bay Lightning in the finals.
In another interesting pandemic-induced twist, the Canadiens clinched the Clarence S. Campbell Bowl, a trophy traditionally awarded to the winner of the Western Conference Final. The other semi-final which featured the NY Islanders and the Tampa Bay Lightning, was awarded the Prince of Wales trophy as it fell in line with a traditional Eastern Conference matchup.
The NHL is hoping for a return to normal in 2021, taking encouragement from signs of current restrictions being eventually loosened between Canada and the United States. The league is planning for an October-start date (as per usual) and the return of an 82-game schedule that features divisions going back to their former makeup. The NHL and the NHLPA are in the midst of negotiations, discussing agreements on the rules and procedures for the upcoming season, including the protocols for vaccinated and unvaccinated players.
If the NHL returns back to normal, it will not only see a return to an 82-game schedule and its previous divisional alignment, with the Metropolitan Division and Atlantic Division in the Eastern Conference and the Central Division and Pacific Division in the Western Conference, but it will also require each team to play all the others at least twice.
For the Canadiens, this means a return to the Atlantic Division alongside this year’s playoff contenders that included the Boston Bruins, Toronto Maple Leafs, Florida Panthers and, importantly, the…. drum roll…defending…drum roll…Stanley Cup champions….drum roll….the Tampa Bay Lightning. That’s a tough group to keep up with normally, as evinced by Montreal’s record in the division in recent years. Never mind the rest of the field that includes the Buffalo Sabres, Ottawa Senators and Detroit Red Wings, all sides that will be keen to improve next season.
The Montreal Canadians did well to bank on the opportunity that was presented in 2020-21 and they ran with it all the way to the Stanley Cup Finals. Betting on the Canadiens to repeat in the coming season though is a long shot bet. Arguably, longer than the current Stanley Cup Futures would suggest at the moment.