SPORTS TALK by Simon Tsalikis

Super Bowl Sunday has come and gone and the Montreal Canadiens have been all but officially eliminated from the NHL playoffs.
29 games remain in the regular season, there are 21 days till the trade deadline, but the Habs are 11 points out of eighth place. Yes, a nice winning streak of three or four games would theoretically put the Habs back in the thick of he race, but the reality is quite different.

The problem the Habs face is not just the eleven points, but that they are in 14th place in the conference. This means they have to vault over five teams just to get in a position to perhaps get the last playoff spot.
How hard will it be? Incredibly hard. Why? Because the NHL awards a point for overtime losses.
Take last Tuesday for example. While the Habs were busy losing in regulation to the Sabres at the Bell Center, the Rangers, Flyers, Leafs and Capitals all lost in overtime, giving all four teams a point the Habs did not get. The winners of those games, the Devils, Jets, Lightning and Penguins, all gained two points that the Habs failed to get.
Fans will have to accept that the Habs will be playing must win games every night the rest of the season, and that every conference game will feature teams that are ahead of the Habs. So not only are two points guaranteed to the winner, but every overtime game will be a double loss for the Habs, especially if they lose their own game that night.
But there’s no sympathy for the Habs on this matter of the overtime point, because they have nine such losses, second only to the Panthers in the Easter conference. So the Habs have benefited as much as anyone from the extra point.
If you figure 90 points gets a playoff spot, then the Habs will need 41 points in the last 29 games, which would require a winning rate of 70.6 percent. While entirely possible, it might be a better idea to assume the Habs will start selling their assets at the trade deadline.
If the Habs are to truly rebuild, they’ll have to trade reasonably priced players like Hal Gill and Travis Moen for draft picks, and also sell high salaried players like Brian Gionta, Scott Gomez and perhaps even Tomas Kaberle, even though he only joined the club a few weeks ago.
Gionta, Gomez and Kaberle may not yield much, if anything, at the trade deadline, but the benefit of extra space under salary cap would be worth it.
In short, it isn’t over for the Habs until they are officially eliminated, but if I were to guess, the chances are getting slimmer by the day.