Faith will be butting up against reality as the Canadiens pursue a playoff spot during the final third of the season.
There was some good news at practice Tuesday as Brendan Gallagher and Jonathan Drouin shed their non-contact jerseys, a sign they could be back in the lineup as early as Thursday’s game in Buffalo (7 p.m., TSN2, RDS, TSN 690 Radio, 98.5 FM).
While the prevailing wisdom says the Canadiens are out of the playoff hunt — the oddsmakers at sportsclubstats.com give Montreal a 1.1-per-cent chance of qualifying for the post-season — Gallagher and Drouin see a glimmer of hope.
“I don’t care what kind of odds you give us, we’re going to keep on fighting,” said Gallagher, who has missed 10 games with a concussion. “No one was supposed to be here. The chances of making the NHL are very slim and each one of us has dealt with doubt. People are going to doubt us but, as long as you have that chance, we’re going to fight.”
Drouin, whose career-best start — seven goals and 15 points in 19 games — was derailed by a wrist injury that has sidelined him for 32 games, pointed to a team that defied the odds last season.
“You look at St. Louis last year as an example,” Drouin said in reference to the Blues, who won the Stanley Cup after starting 2019 last in the standings.
Considering the way this season has gone, it would be remarkable if the Canadiens (22-22-7) went 21-10 down the stretch, but even that would probably leave them short of a playoff spot with 93 points. Last season, they collected 96 points and missed the post-season by two points.
Simple arithmetic says the Canadiens are still alive. They are 10 points behind third-place Florida in the Atlantic Division and 10 points behind Carolina in the hunt for the final wild-card spot. A Montreal winning streak and a collapse by some of the teams ahead of them and the picture changes, or so the Canadiens hope.
The problem is that the Canadiens have lost more games than they’ve won and their longest win streak has been three games. Florida and Carolina hold games in hand on Montreal and the Canadiens also have to pass three non-playoff teams — Philadelphia, Toronto and Buffalo.
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Seventeen of the Canadiens’ remaining 31 games are on the road which, for most teams, would be a disadvantage, but the Canadiens have a losing record at home (10-13-4) and are 12-9-3 on the road.
On the plus side, goaltender Carey Price is playing better and the return of Gallagher, Drouin and Joel Armia will give a lift to an underperforming offence.
Head coach Claude Julien has enough healthy bodies up front that he can employ four quality lines and his juggling skills will come in handy because, if the lines at practice Monday are any indication, Drouin could be returning on the third line.
There’s an urgency connected to the playoff push because the trade deadline is less than a month away. If the Canadiens haven’t closed the gap on their rivals, general manager Marc Bergevin will be open for business.
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