Canadien: unable to beat a better club in 60 minutes

The Canadiens are having a good season, but nothing more. The team has had its share of ups and downs since the start of the campaign, and that’s easy to see from their 11-12-3 record.

However, there’s one thing that stands out when you look at the CH’s results so far this season: they’ve never beaten a team that’s ranked higher than them in regulation time.

Here are the Tricolore’s five regulation-time victories this season:

3-2 win over Chicago on October 14
3-1 win at Buffalo on October 23
4-3 win at Anaheim on November 22
4-2 win in Columbus on November 29
4-2 win in Seattle on December 4

And that’s all. Only five regulation-time wins in 26 games, and all against teams with a worse record than Montreal.

See for yourself:

Worst of all, the Habs have never won by more than a two-goal margin this season. Only twice in 26 games have fans been treated to La Cage’s famous “five goals, eight wings” discount.

It takes more from the CH, and that’s exactly what Darren Dreger explained Friday morning on Montreal radio station TSN 690.

Geoff Molson let everyone know that he was pleased with the rebuild so far during the NHL executives’ meeting, but of course he wasn’t going to spit on his team’s work.

I’m not saying the Habs are doing a bad job, far from it, but there’s something missing. Darren Dreger explained it very well on the radio when he said that the Habs need to move on to another stage next season. Maybe not to the point of becoming a playoff team, but a team that can beat high-calibre teams.

For now, Montreal has yet to prove that it can beat a team higher than it in the standings. Hopefully, that will change on Sunday against the Nashville Predators, currently 17th in the overall standings.