from Sports Illustrated,

Talk to any hockey fan in Montreal (which means pretty much anyone in Montreal) and they’ll tell you their team is on the cusp of a championship.

They have goaltender Carey Price, who, unlike other false prophets with names like Jose Theodore and Cristobal Huet, seems poised to join the ranks of Jacques Plante, Ken Dryden and Patrick Roy in returning this storied franchise to its former glory.

They also made the Eastern Conference Finals in 2014 (which perhaps they would have won if Price hadn’t been injured) and were very competitive against a Tampa Bay team that advanced to the Stanley Cup Final last spring.

Through this lens, Montreal’s roaring start this season seems like a continuation of a trend that’s been bubbling the past couple of years.

Habs fans can be forgiven for spinning this narrative. But it just isn’t true.

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