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This is becoming a disturbingly familiar scenario. It’s spring in Montreal and there’s top-drawer, super-intense hockey being played but, sadly, yet again they’re hockey games not featuring your Montreal Canadiens.

This is the 24th straight year the Habs will not win the Stanley Cup. It is also the 24th straight year the team will not be in the Stanley Cup final. But who’s counting, right?

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In the 24 years since Montreal last won the Cup, Les Boys have made it to the conference final only twice and, both times, they got smoked. It was worse in 2010, when an ordinary Philadelphia Flyers team crushed the Canadiens, with journeyman goalie Michael Leighton shutting out the Habs in three of the Flyers’ four victories. The other conference final appearance was in 2014 and that one ended before the final whistle in the first game — Rangers forward/villain Chris Kreider smashed into Carey Price and, in a nanosecond, the Habs’ chances of advancing went up in smoke.