As Eagerbeaver and myself pointed out all season long the habs should have made every effort possible to finish as close to the bottom as possible.
It won't be much different next season, folks!
It was so predictable that this was a team that was good enough to just miss the playoffs. The Habs are in a perpetual “just miss” or “barely make with no real chance” mode. It’s a calculated strategy designed to keep attendance up and money coming in to pay the bad contracts. What amazes me is how successful the Montreal Canadiens organization has been at bamboozling the fans into a faux belief that the team can somehow compete for a Stanley Cup. Even a reasonably intelligent fan like Gaby has proven this bamboozlenent with the postings in this thread.
For other professional sports teams with very high expectations, such bamboozlemenf would never happen. If the Yankees finished 82-80 and missed the playoffs the GM and Manager would both be fired, probably within days of the elimination. It should happen to at least the GM here, but he did an amazing job convincing fan base and media that the team is better than it actually is and that the prospects for the future are better than they actually are.
I had urged a Cashman 2016 strategy- tear it down and rebuild but don’t sell the fans that this is what you are doing. Sell the fans that the team is reloading. He pulled it off.
Another strategy is what the Knicks have done this year, in order to take Zion Williamson with the #1 pick in the NBA draft. Complete tear down, trading of the high priced star of the team (Porzingis) and several other high paid underachievers like Tim Hardaway. The Knicks plunged to the bottom of the NBA standings like a lead anchor, were totally uncompetitive (double digit losses were the norm), but because of cleared out cap space ($75 million) they can sign 2 max free agents (think Kevin Durant and one of Kyrie Irving or Kemba Walker) AND draft Williamson. For this reason the tear down was sold to NYC fans of the Knicks who are considerably more demanding than the Habs fans. They are waiting for the offseason on the edge of their chairs with baited breath.
Do the Habs have Jack Hughes and max free agent signings to come to their rescue? Why not? These are questions for you to consider. It could have been made to happen. Instead the Habs have a team good enough next year to miss playoffs by 2-10 points.