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For those of you who have children in high school, I am going to give you some free advice on how to really annoy their current math teacher. When your child gets a low mark, tell the teacher, “Last year Marc got 80% in math and now he only has 65%. What is going on?”
After the math teacher pops 3 Advil with a whiskey chaser, they will calmly make you aware of 3 things.
First and foremost, any grade a child earned during the pandemic is not real. The classes were online and the government literally pressured teachers to go easy on the children. Furthermore, lazy students could mooch off the harder-working and brighter students in order to claim personal success.
Next, the math teacher will calmly explain that the environment is vastly different today. In-person learning forces the students to re-adopt habits that were lost during the pandemic.
Lastly, the math teacher will remind you a child’s success in math last year has zero impact on the current year because the new course is more advanced and requires more attention to detail. In fact, success in previous math classes is a reminder that you must work even harder in the future.
Habs fans and players need to contact their high school math teachers for a dose of reality.
Was any success in the playoffs the last 2 pandemic-seasons actually “earned”? In the 2020 NHL Bubble, the Habs only made it to the playoffs because the top 12 teams in each conference qualified; the Habs were ranked 24th overall that season. Last year they made the playoffs by riding a 7-2-1 start and a wave of mediocrity. The Canucks imploded due to Covid, the Flames forgot how to play hockey, and the Senators waited 2 months to start playing. Had any of those teams gotten their game together, the Habs would not have qualified for the playoffs.
Was pandemic-hockey a real environment? The 2020 NHL Bubble was clearly not. The 2021 season, although different, had less travel, no fans in the building and baseball-like series.
Just like the students who relied on their more diligent friends during virtual learning, so did the remaining Habs players of this season. Look at the dressing room environment today: gone or absent are Price, Weber, Kotkaniemi, Danault, Byron and Edmundson. On what planet, virtual or real, did anyone think the Habs could approach last year’s success with so many key players gone?
Lastly, the amazing success of last season’s run is further proof that it is easier to get to the top than stay at the top. Like the student who thinks they deserve an 80% just for showing up, the Habs are realizing that you have to work even harder to get back to glory.
Many players last year had career years which should be a red flag to begin with. What makes it a career year is just that - it won’t happen again. Do we judge real estate agents on their best year or their 20-year average? Look what COVID did to the average house price - is that a true reflection of the realtor’s ability or circumstance?
The Habs did not qualify for the playoffs in 2018 and 2019. They made it in 2020 because of COVID. They made it to the Cup Final in 2021. As for the 2022 playoffs? Right now they rank 29 out of 32 teams and show no signs of turning it around. The 2021 run is clearly the exception, not the rule.
Experts claim that if you aren’t in the playoffs by American Thanksgiving, you have little to no chance to make it by the end.
The Habs need not worry about that prediction - their turkey has been cooked since Canadian Thanksgiving.
By Waldo1947 | The Disgruntled Habs Fan | Sens Nation Hockey Staff
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