In Canada, hockey rules, but unbelievably, the last time a Canadian side won the Stanley Cup was back in 1993 when the Montreal Canadiens defeated the Los Angeles Kings 4–1.
It’s now been over thirty years since a team from Canada brought the Stanley Cup back home, and during this lean period, the Canadiens, Oilers, and Canucks have all fallen in the Stanley Cup Finals. With the Oilers falling in game seven last season, many from Canada’s finest hockey circles are wondering when the Stanley Cup curse will finally be lifted.
An Unlucky Start
Unfortunately, for fans of the Montreal Canadiens, the wait to see their team lift one of the most famous trophies in sport looks like it will continue. With the NHL almost a quarter of the way through the season, the Canadiens find themselves propping up both the Atlantic Division and the sixteenth-ranked team in the Eastern Conference.
So far, the Canadiens have had a slow start to the season, which is not looking good for their Stanley Cup odds. Sports betting sites—like the ones spotlighted on GambleOntario.ca, a trusted review platform—aren’t sugarcoating it either; the team’s chances are shrinking by the game. Launched in 2022, GambleOntario provides impartial reviews of online casinos and betting platforms, covering everything from live and mobile casinos to sports betting on events like horse racing and the NFL, and is quickly becoming a go-to for Ontario sports fans.
Like the predictions of Canadiens fans, the team is now facing an uphill task of ending their season in glory, but that’s not to say that all is lost. And, if you’re looking for a flutter, you will find many different markets available through gambleontario.ca, as they recommend the best sites around.
With over 60 games to be played in the regular season, there are still plenty of wins out there for the Canadiens to start accumulating.
Although their road to the 2025 Stanley Cup looks arduous and littered with obstacles, in this article, we’ll take a look at what the Canadiens need to do in order to turn themselves from their current role of pretenders and into the contenders they hope to become.
Tighten Up Defensively
There is an old adage across some of Northern America’s most popular sports that “defense wins championships”. Over recent seasons, it is the teams who have been able to find the back of the net regularly whilst still keeping it tight at the back that have gone on to taste Stanley Cup glory.
Despite goals being an issue (more on that later), currently, it is the defense that seems to be the Canadiens’ real Achilles heel.
Through nineteen games of the regular season, the team have conceded 71 goals, and across the NHL, only the San Jose Sharks have conceded more. What’s more, since the start of the regular season, the Canadiens have conceded 5+ goals on six occasions.
Whilst keeping clean sheets in hockey is an exceptionally hard thing to do, the team is currently shipping way too many goals, and that makes being competitive and winning games so much tougher. If this trajectory continues, it’s hard to see how the Canadiens can harbor any serious hopes of going on a Playoff run.
However, there is some cause for optimism.
Since the team’s 3–0 defeat to the Minnesota Wild, Martin St. Louis seems to have found a better blend on the ice between the offensive and defensive parts of his team’s game. And in the victories over the Columbus Blue Jackets and the Edmonton Oilers, the team conceded just one goal.
In those wins, the team proved that they can be a decent outfit, and St. Louis will hope that the team’s newfound confidence in their defense, and the imminent arrival of Patrik Laine, will continue into the latter parts of the season. If it does, they could be a force.
Goals, Goals, and Goals
It’s no secret that goals win games, and if the Canadiens are to continue the theme of giving up goals, they need their forwards to put the puck in the back of the net.
Through the team’s first nineteen games of the season, the Canadiens have conceded almost four goals per game. All of those goals are putting an immense amount of pressure on the forwards, and at the moment, the forward lines are failing to deliver.
Whilst the team aren’t the lowest scorers in the Eastern Conference, only the Red Wings, Bruins, and Islanders have scored fewer goals. And with the team looking to find a middle-of-the-pack defense, the hope for Martin St.Louis and the rest of the Canadiens coaching staff is that they can power their way to victories courtesy of the goals that they can score.
Better Consistency is Needed
With so much hockey still to be played, fans of the Canadiens should take massive comfort from the fact that, as it stands, the team is just three points off the Eastern Conference Playoff spots, and just three points off the Buffalo Sabres, who occupy the final playoff spot in the Atlantic Division.
The season is still very much alive and kicking, but there is a huge difference between being simply just a playoff team and being a genuine contender. Even if the team were to sneak into the playoffs later in the season, there is a huge chance that they will simply go one and done.
In order to propel themselves into the conversation when it comes to being genuine Stanley Cup hopefuls, the team needs far more consistency, and they need to stem the tide of losses that has so far plagued their season.
Two wins from their first three games was a great start to the year, but since then, the team has gone on losing streaks of four and then six games.
Unable to pull themselves out of a slump when things are going against them, the Canadiens need to do a better job of responding to adversity, or find a way to win when they aren’t playing their best.
Thankfully, we are still in the early stages of the season, so these runs of hefty losses are by no means terminal, but if the Canadiens can’t find a way to win matches when they aren’t playing their best hockey, fans of the team may find that their season is over before it has really begun.
Young Guns Could Help Lead the Canadiens Back to the Promised Land
Although this season hasn’t started in a way that many Canadiens fans would have wanted, there can’t be any denying that the team contains a young and exciting core of talent.
The reason fans should be excited is that earlier this month, the Canadiens were voted as the number one team in the entire NHL for players under the age of 24.
Headlining that young nucleus of the team is Cole Caulfield. At 23, Caulfield is an elite player who could do a job for any team in the NHL, and the American has already chipped in with twelve goals and four assists. He has a long way to go to catch someone like Jonathan Huberdeau but the young man has certainly made an impressive start.
With plenty of optimism that Caulfield could well lead this team for years to come, he should get even better as he works his way toward the peak of his powers later in his career.
At the other end of the scale is Lane Hutson. At just 20, Hutson has emerged as a surprise contender for the Calder Trophy and has hugely impressed with his superb puck-handling skills and stout defensive work. Hutson seems to be one of the draft’s best steals and a player packed with quality.
There is also plenty of excitement around the displays by Juraj Slafhovsky. A big, imposing figure when on the ice, he has brought a toughness to the team that should only increase as he gets up to speed with this new group of Canadiens players.
One man who fans of the Canadiens are unlikely to see this season is Ivan Demidov. Picked fifth overall in the 2024 NHL Draft, the Russian is currently tearing it up in the Russian KHL but is likely to complete the season with SKA St.Petersburg before making the move to Canada for next season.
A right winger who simply dazzles with the puck, it’s believed that Demidov could perfectly complement Caulfield on the other side of the ice, and the two could help move the Canadiens forward line onto a whole different level.
Slow Start Doesn’t Hinder Canadiens
Despite the team being absent from the Playoffs for the last three years, and with the 2024/25 campaign getting off to a slow start, there are still many shoots of optimism for Canadiens fans to cling onto.
The wins over the Blue Jackets and Oilers have shown signs that the team is beginning to click into gear at both ends of the ice.
Led by a nucleus of young, exciting talent, the future is bright, and some of those young foundational pieces are already proving themselves and helping the team find its feet.
While there will still be stumbles, the team seem to have learned their lessons from their tough start to this campaign. And although a 25th Stanley Cup could be beyond them this season, there is no denying that the Canadiens could find themselves as perennial contenders for the next few years to come.
