Hockey

State of play: NHL ranks Habs as 6th best club in the league
Marc-Olivier Cook
State of play: NHL ranks Habs as 6th best club in the league
Credit: Screenshot / X

The Montreal Canadiens' start to the season has been surprising in one sense.

We didn't necessarily expect the team to be this good in the first stretch of the campaign, and the club's results may come as a surprise.

It also proves, on some levels, that the rebuilding is going the right way.

At the moment, the Canadiens occupy 6th place in the NHL standings. Only the Avalanche, Devils, Ducks, Stars (who will be at the Bell Centre tonight) and Hurricanes are ahead of the Habs in the standings.

And perhaps that explains why the NHL ranks the Canadiens as the 6th-best club in the league in its latest edition of the Strengths Report. The Habs are getting a lot of love these days… and deservedly so.

It's nice that the Habs are ranked so high. But…

But it will be especially interesting to see if the trend can be maintained in the coming weeks and months. There's still a lot of hockey to be played between now and the end of the season, and just because the team is off to a good start doesn't automatically guarantee a playoff spot.

That said, if the Canadiens find a way to keep up the pace, they'll not only finish near the top of the league standings: they could also go some way towards the next playoffs.

Expectations are starting to change with the club's recent success, and it sure would be nice to see the Canadiens continue their playoff run next spring.

Things are going well right now, to put it another way… and the elements are in place for things to go well between now and the end of the regular schedule.

But then again, we know how quickly things can change in the NHL…


Overtime

– Of note:

– They're good.

– I love the guys' reaction.

– News in MLB.

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