March 22nd, 2004
Montreal Canadiens Final Stats and Musings
The Canadien's offense was not as strong the last third of the season. The team still continued to out score opponents but the Habs dropped to 5th in the NHL offensively. Montreal did remain the best defensive team allowing just 1.71 goals per game.
Montreal continued to have the #1 goaltending tandem of
Bill Wolfenbarger and
Martin King. Wolfenbarger did finish the season playing at a .897 SV% and a 2.75 GAA in his final 10 games including getting pulled after just 7 minutes on March 4th when he allowed 3 goals on 9 shots. Martin King was consistant as a back up all season.
The Habs defense core is in good hands with youngsters like
Dominick Heatherington and
Vincent Lavoie. Heatherington was 2nd on the team with over 22 minutes played per game, only team captain
Steven Thornton played more. Lavoie led all Habs defenseman with 108 hits while the veteran Thornton led the team with 151 shot blocks. No Canadien defenseman has NHL playoff experience.
Montreal are going to be missing a couple of key forwards to start the playoffs. LW
Emile Boudreau is expected to miss the first round of the playoffs but is progressing nicely from his fractured cheekbone to be ready possibly during the 2nd round of the playoffs should the Habs progress that far. RW
Petr Klusacek is out with dizziness and nausea and is listed day to day, but he is still not ready to play. Only LW
Randolph Lott and LW
Emile Boudreau have NHL playoff experience. Lott played 6 games in 2000-01 with the Leafs and had 2 goals while Boudreau played 7 games with the Senators in 2001-02 and had 2 goals and 4 points.