from Dave Stubbs of the Montreal Gazette,

“It doesn’t matter where you place in the regular season,” Canadiens defenceman Andrei Markov was saying, rubbing a lightly bearded jaw that’s likely to soon lose a battle with a razor.

“When you don’t get through the first round, everybody’s disappointed. It’s not easy, but at the same time, we have a good young group of guys who will improve next year, so we have a good future.”

In a few sentences, Markov nicely summed up a remarkable season for the Canadiens that met an ugly finish Thursday night with a 6-1 Bell Centre loss to the Ottawa Senators.

The Habs now head into summer having been eliminated in a five-game Eastern Conference quarter-final by the seventh-seeded Senators.

But they will — or should — find much silver lining to this dark cloud in the days ahead.

continued