I'm super curious why everyone seems to think montreal is going to be so good.

you swapped domi for anderson, which i think you lose on and you signed toffoli and edmudson and upgraded backup goalie.

what am i missing?

Not only MTL got better but idk but Boston got a little worst on defense

montreal barely beat out buffalo for a playoff spot and buffalo added eric staal, taylor hall and cody eakin while subtracting some of the worst forward in the nhl from our roster.

I mean buffalo was playing marcus johansson as 2c and at time curtis lazar and evan rodrigues too. michael frolik, vlad sobotka, wayne simmonds, jimmy vesey all saw significant minutes

jeff skinner had the worst season of his life, our starting goalie got hurt, so did a bunch of other guys and montreal still barely edged us out and possibly only due to games in hand.

IMO MTL is in the same boat as FLA. Overpaid goalie (Bob, Price), subpar defence with a nice bright spot (Ekblad, Petry), weak F corps that's strong on the wing, so I think they finish 5-6.
TBL
TOR
BOS
BUF
MTL
FLA
OTT
DET

Rangers aren't better than the Isles or Blue Jackets - they are going to be a lot worse than people think

no way toronto ends up second
They didnt rly upgrade that much compared to others

Montreal was struck with horrible bad luck last year, a rested Carey Price since he will actually have a goalie that can play behind him, good depth at forward and a solid defense core, they should be a much improved team, they addressed every area of need, not to mention further progression from Suzuki and KK.

You're probably right.

Just because Montreal doesn't have a superstar forward, doesn't mean their forward core is weak.

its mediocre

Potential 20 goal scorers with a 82 game schedule :

Gallagher
Toffoli
Anderson
Tatar
Drouin
Suzuki.

Not to mention it wouldn't shock me to see KK or Armia hit 20 (or the same ratio 20 under a shorter schedule )

The forward core has good depth and 3 lines that can score, complemented by a good shutdown 4th line.

Alot of this is just based on the playoff performance. They had young guys jump forward and now everyone is treating Suzuki and jk like they're Crosby and Malkin . Montreal will be better but they'll still struggle to make the playoffs.

"should "
" potential "

Prove it first, then come talk with the big boys

The guys a habs fan. They’ll be junk again.

Montreal could very well suck, I ain't betting my house on them being good, just my opinions, jeez.

Says the Toronto fan

Injuries are 1 thing that really hurt us last year, so that could be a factor depending on how much better luck we have health-wise.

Kotkaniemi showed a lot of growth in the playoffs, and he wasn’t really a factor in the regular season. Suzuki got better as the season went on, he’ll be more of a factor this season.

Toffoli is a 20 goal scorer that we added without subtracting anyone. An actual half-decent backup goalie should do wonders for our team (by getting wins on his own, and helping Price rest). And Romanov could (big emphasis on “could”) be a difference maker this year.

As for the differences between this team & the team that beat Pittsburgh in the playoffs, Suzuki & KK are the same. However Domi who was a non-factor in the playoffs, is replaced by Anderson who can hopefully help. We replaced the depth we sold off at the deadline with better players, so people like Weise, Ouellet, & Lindgren are replaced with Toffoli, Edmundson, & Allen.

I don’t think we’ll finish ahead of BOS, (or in the top 3 of the Atlantic) but this team will definitely have a better record than last year, and should make the playoffs, unless we have the same type of bad injury luck again.

ShOuLd

Exactly, like honestly Montreal has a good team on paper, doesn't mean they'll preform like it, but they could also boom and look amazing as well, I think we'll be good, but apparently that opinion makes me a fool according to this section.

Honestly, 2,3,4, 5 are a toss up depending on injuries.

Pretty sure Montreal was also the top 2 or 3 teams in 1 goal losses last year. So they are close, not like they were getting blown out most nights. That suggests moderate improvement should turn a bunch of 1 goal losses into 1 goal wins. Still doesn't mean they will finish in 2nd or 3rd, but it does mean that they are not too far away from being a contender.