While the focus right now is on the prospects at the top of the draft, there’s still a reasonable chance that at least one of their selections falls to the back of the lottery. With that in mind, here’s a look at three possible picks in that range.
The Habs returned home on Thursday following a tough road trip. However, things weren’t much better at the Bell Centre as Montreal couldn’t muster up much offensively, falling 4-1 to the Rangers.
The second half of Montreal’s trip to Florida saw them take on the Panthers on Thursday night. Once again, it was a struggle as Aleksander Barkov had a hat-trick in the first period as Florida skated to an easy 7-2 win.
The Habs were a bit sluggish coming out of the holiday break and that’s never a good thing against Tampa Bay. The Lightning came to play in this one, controlling the game throughout en route to a 4-1 victory.
The Habs made their first-ever visit to Mullett Arena in Arizona on Monday night to take on the Coyotes. The game was tied for the majority of regulation but Montreal picked up the extra point as Mike Hoffman buried the winner to give them the 3-2 victory.
The Habs played a strong first and third on Wednesday in Ottawa, but they fell asleep in the second period and allowed a parade to the penalty box to sink them as Ottawa’s strong power play sunk them with Montreal dropping a 3-2 decision.
An extended 5-on-3 and a four-minute 4-on-3 weren’t enough to get the Habs a power play marker on Monday night, but the Habs displayed a gutsy effort and killed a long list of their own penalties to finally be able to beat the Flames 2-1 in a shootout in what was a wildly entertaining game.
In a game that can only be described as uneven for the Habs on Tuesday night, they were still able to ride a hot start to the second period to a win in Seattle against one of the hottest teams in the league.
In a game decided by a score that looked more like a beer league game, the porous defensive effort finally cost the Habs as they fell 7-6 in overtime to the Canucks on Monday night despite being up 4-0 for a large portion of the contest.
Thursday was a big night for Sean Monahan in his return to Calgary but Jake Allen stole the show for the Habs, making 45 saves as the Canadiens were able to score just enough to beat the Flames 2-1.