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Remember last season? When the Habs got outshot every single night but still managed to go 50-22-10 and get the second best record in the league? And people gave Carey Price lots of big throphies and hugs because he dragged what would have been an otherwise mediocre team into elite territory?
And then, while the hockey world agreed the 2014-15 Habs were basically the 2012-13 Leafs taken to their logical extreme, all the Habs fans resented that analysis?
And now, remember how great the Habs were at the beginning of this season?
And do you remember all the articles like this one?
And this one?
And this one?
And then Price went down.
And then the denial got even worse.
"But Gallagher is gone too! You know, he's just as important as Price!"
Gallagher didn't give the Habs a 102 PDO last season.
"But the Habs are good this year! They're a slightly above average possession team!"
It's true, the Habs aren't getting outshot to heck like they were last year. Instead, they're a slightly above average team in terms of shot metrics.
But do you want to know what happens to teams that are only slightly above average who receive below average goal tending?
Those teams suck.
Since December 1st the Habs are 5-14-1, with a -20 goal differential (30th), are shooting 5.7% (30th), getting an .891 save % (28th). Yikes.
— Dimitri Filipovic (@DimFilipovic) January 17, 2016
And now the Habs suck. And I gotta say, I'm feeling some insane levels of schadenfreude right now.