Are the Canadiens giving too much ice time to Lane Hutson? One of the measuring sticks of the NHL season is the Thanksgiving break. A team in a playoff spot or close to one has a good chance of remaining competitive in the campaign's final days. Most of them will punch their postseason tickets, while teams at the other end of the spectrum won't be as lucky. According to data from MoneyPuck.com [https://moneypuck.com/predictions.htm], the Montreal Canadiens [https://thehockeynews.com/nhl/montreal-canadiens/], who won over the Columbus Blue Jackets on Wednesday night, maintain a slim 7% chance of qualifying for the Stanley Cup playoffs heading into the one-day Thanksgiving break. As the league's 29th-ranked team, with an 8-11-3 record, that's not bad odds, considering they remain ahead of the St. Louis Blues (4.5%), Anaheim Ducks (3.5%), Pittsburgh Penguins [https://thehockeynews.com/nhl/pittsburgh-penguins/] (2.1%), Chicago Blackhawks (0.8%), Blue Jackets (0.4%), and San Jose Sharks (0.0%). Meanwhile, Montreal maintains the seventh-best chance to win the NHL Draft lottery at 6.6%, something they last won in 2022 when they drafted Jurak Slafkovsky first overall. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Bookmark THN's Montreal Canadiens [https://thehockeynews.com/nhl/montreal-canadiens/] site for the latest news, exclusive interviews, breakdowns, and more.
