Today let’s delve into one of the biggest underdog stories from the past quarter century of the NHL. The 2021 Montreal Canadians. The NHL looked vastly different entering the 2021 season. With new divisions and restrictions from the global pandemic, the Canadians like others had to navigate the complex climate that faced them during that time period. They managed to put together a good season to earn the final playoff berth of the season, and from then on they shocked nearly every opponent they faced. But just how good were the 2021 Montreal Canadians? Today let’s breakdown their incredible underdog story to determine the legitimacy of this unexpected playoff run! Subscribe to Jimmy Hockey for more NHL News and Breakdowns.
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50 Comments
Carey!
Carey!
Carey!
Thats how the Habs made it to the finals.
Montreal had a superstar, wasn't a Foward and he did everything except scoring goals. Carey Price.
People saying the Canadian league was weak was a terrible take.
Due to the parity of that league, none finished super high. This doesn't mean the teams were weak, it means the division was competitive. Hence you get Habs making the finals.
Its pretty clear imo.
I was never a hockey fan before 2021. As a montrealer, thats insanity. I gave it a try during the cup final run and never looked back. It made me a fan to this day, and ill never forget it
"Defence wins championships" has sadly never really been understood by a lot of teams, Toronto comes to mind, but the Oilers are guilty as well. Goaltender being #1, defence #2, forecheck & PK #3, but D-men & checkers get paid the least? Weber & Price made it all possible.
In my opinion, I dont think its possible to "luck" your way to 3 playoff series wins. Team definitely deserved to be in the finals that year. Only fluke was them making the playoffs at all.
you forgot to mention the avalanche won the presidents trophy that year 6:33
bro they weren't young, the only U25 players on their main roster were Suzuki, Caufield, Kotkaniemi, and Romanov who was scratched for most the playoffs. People also seem to forget how good they were before injuries and everyone went onto covid protocol. Like they were right up there with Toronto for the first third of the year once Price went down it was tough and most of their depth had covid.
Caufield-Suzuki-Toffoli
Lehkonen-Danault-Gallagher
Byron-Kotkaniemi-Anderson
Armia-Staal-Perry
Tatar-Evans-Frolik
Deep but lacked star power
Plus they had a good d-core Weber, Petry Chairot, Edmundson was a pretty balanced d core Petry was like a top 10 dman that year. People act like they were a fluke but they were just as good as Winnipeg and Vegas was definitely a surprise and Toronto is well Toronto.
Good enough to knock off the chokers from Toronto 😂
Bro with Corey Perry on the team we all knew what was gonna happen(kings are gonna be cooked)
Love your role in breaking bad
I mean, this is a real surface level analysis. You fail to mention Caulfield coming in the leafs series making a huge impact as a rookie, the blue liners absolutely abusing guys like stone, matthews, marner, etc. Perry/Staal line putting up huge numbers despite being a bag of bones line, phil danault giving an absolute masterclass in what a 2-way center game should look like (barkov probably took notes – thats how good it was), and the goat tyler toffoli was in his prime and elevated everyone he played on a line with. People who say Price carried are only partially right because there were so many other specific and just perfect pieces.
The answer is that the Canadiens didn’t deserve to make the finals, but Carey price did.
Great content. Liked and subscribed.
As a, gulp, hockey fan of 5 decades I am so tired of hearing the weak division argument. after all over these five decades I have seen different playoff formats a different divisional alignments. Despite their playoff success or lack of those teams like Toronto and Winnipeg were fairly large hurdles to overcome you can argue whether they are truly dangerous now based on having more recent data to see how Toronto and Winnipeg continue to struggle in the postseason set the time regardless of divisional setup they would have been talked about as being contenders. Put goaltending especially superstar goaltending can change everything. And there are at least dozens of examples of that. Connor McDavid is the best player in the world and he's got some pretty good supporting players around him but when you run into a superstar goaltender who is also on a hot run then you've got yourself a problem. And even though I am not a huge Price fan I can still acknowledge that he was a superstar goalie. (Note that the hockey part of my DNA is mostly goaltender so I may overvalue the position)
One thing I disagree is calling the north division "uncompetitive" because we had aloth of teams with low points league wide.
I would argue the opposite, the fact that it was competitive explains this fact. No punching bags in the division.
The teams did not play outside there division, so comparing points totals is just stupid.
They weren’t really good. Price was though. He was very good.
Although Price played a significant role in their success, they still outscored their opponents.
It was simply a format that suited the team well at that time. And that final reignited my interest in hockey ever since after almost 10 years of casual catch-ups.
People like to point out how badly they fell the next year to justify their claim Montreal didn't deserve it too. They lost their 3 best players at every position that offseason. Two will be first ballot hall of famers, Price and Weber. Danault was their #1 centre and he was gone too. Most teams wouldn't recover from those kinds of loses to their core.
On top of that, they had more games lost to injury than any other team in the league that year AND the next.
I think what proves how good they were was how quickly they're rebuilding.
They made the playoffs in year 3 of a rebuild. That's crazy fast. That only happens when you have a good base of talent to start with.
One often forgotten fact is that Toffoli was playing like a stud in 20-21, ended 7th in the NHL in goals. He had 28 in 52 thats a 44 goal pace !
Petry was also top10 in points and 3rd in goals among defensemen.
Looking back at it, the team was surprisingly deep, full of vets and with a couple grade A quality rookies/young players like Caufield, Suzuki, Romanov, Lehkonen and dare i say Kotkaniemi.
Very far from a Price only show.
I would of like for you to talk a bit more about their roster, because I feel like looking back at it their roster was somewhat a lot better than we gave credit for. Sure a part from Price we didn't have any superstar but the depth at all position was incredibly solid. To prove my point, one of our best point producer during the season in Tomas Tatar was healthy scratch for almost the entire playoffs just because they didn't know who to remove from the lineup. Suzuki and Caufield both very young but already core players just as now. Weber and Petry both top defenseman in the league at that time and tough to play against. Toffoli who was at the prime of his career and scoring clutch goals. Very solid responsible two-way forwards in Danault, Evans, Lehkonen, Byron. Some toughness and gritiness in Anderson, Armia, Gallagher, Perry. And on defense Edmundson, Romanov, Chiarot and of course Weber. All around a team built for the playoffs with players that are tough, responsible defensively, players that have heart and some underrated skills up front. And with the best goalie in the world. Bergevin was maybe not the best GM but he sure knew what kind of players is needed in the playoffs.
The habs had a superstar, albeit at the twilight of his career, Carey Price is everything of a superstar. He was the backbone of the Canadiens for a vast majority of his career, as Carey Price goes, so went the Canadiens.
As a Habs fan we were shit exepted Price in 2021
Like the Leafs can pass a first round
Hellebuyck is trash in playoffs
DeBoeur can not pass a conference final
Also we had Perry
This playoffs was just about plot
People who thinks Price is overated needs to watch every single game of this playoff run – I'll always be sad we couldn't get this man a cup
Note Toronto lose Tavares and Muzzin due to injuries
First time I've watched one of your videos. Great write-up, and great video. Keep up the good work
7:35 Almost THREE* decades later
Pretty sure Muzzin still has nightmares about Josh Anderson
Saying the habs didn't have a superstar is one of the dumbest things I've ever heard. They absolutely did. The same man who'd been their superstar for years at that point. Carey Price. You don't need to score goals to be a star.
Considering Price was basically playing on one knee, and Weber was completely broken but played through it, it was an amazing run. Both have never played again since the last game against tampa. Im too young to have known the glory days but old enough to remeber 1993. Was outside the bell center when Lehkonen scored the game 6 winner vs Vegas. That was just as crazy as 1993…
Correction: the Habs did have a superstar. #31
Shae Weber, Shea Weber,
Shae Weber, Shea Weber,
Shae Weber, Shea Weber,
Shae Weber, Shea Weber,
He left his body on the ice for the team. Had to retire. Thank you Shae.
The Habs had a superstar. Carey Price #31
When you need to reach your minimum word count
Good thing the lightning won the cup. !! 👏🏾👏🏾👏🏾😶🌫😷🥵🥵
This is a ten minute video but honestly, you don't say anything of value. You never answered the titular question, you essentially said "were they good enough to make the finals? Yes, because they made the finals". Like we know what the pandemic was, but you spent more time describing that than you did analysing the roster. You should really re-evaluate how you approach making content to make sure you aren't just providing a surface level recap but rather providing thoughtful insight and analysis. This video would have benefited from a deeper roster dissection (looking at each line and what their role was), analytics (even comparing the regular season to the playoffs to see if it was a complete turnaround or just a timely improvement), and their tactics and formation (with some video analysis). The beauty of doing a retrospective is that there is a wealth of information and interviews to draw on, Weber and Price for example have had some interesting conversations and interviews you could pull some quotes from. There's no one way to do it but based on what the title was, I was expecting a deep dive into the merits of the Canadiens that year.
You should had mention the serie against Pittsburgh prior..
You should had mention the serie against Pittsburgh prior..
Bro please learn how to say Montreal before making a whole ass video about them. Mon like Monday
If there was one person who DEFINITELY deserved the Stanley Cup that year…it was Carey Price. He will always be an amazing person, player and goalie. He was definitely a great addition to MTL. As a Habs fan all I have to say is…thank you Carey for an incredible hockey career in MTL.
I remember watching the first game of the Vegas series and thinking "holy shit this is levels way above Toronto and Winnipeg, that was fun see you next year". Vegas fumbled that series way worse then Toronto did. They were a 100% better then us.
That team fell back to earth so fast 😂
no superstar ?
Carey Price best goaler to ever hit the ice…
But yeah no forward or D man superstar
June 24, 2021 is forever engraved into my memory. I mean, on our national holiday here in Quebec, seeing the Habs go to the Finals for the first time in 28 years (and first time in my lifetime!) it felt like hope. It felt like the pandemic was on it's way out in some way, because that cup run brought all of Quebec together again. I can't wait to live a cup run with a full Centre Bell, and to high five everyone on Sainte-Catherine street.
The Habs did have a superstar Carey Price was his name.
The only trophy montreal has never won and could never win. The Campbell cup. Another MTL stat that can never be broken
Saying that the north division was the weakest was always the dumbest shit ever, yeah sure the division with McDavid and Matthews in it is so bad. Flames and Canucks might have fumbled but they were still competitive teams. Every other division had at least two bottom feeders in them. The only “bad” team in north was Ottawa but they still had over 50 points
you forgot 2 major thing that happen in those playoff. Tavares getting injured, and the hit on Evans. THat change both series in favor of Montreal
As a habs fan. In 2021, they were not good..😢
Look at us now tho : Hutson (Calder winner) , DemiGod, Hage, Dobson , Bolduc , slaf, WE ARE GONNA BE TOP 3 in the NHL believe me 🔵⚪️🔴💪🏻