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Paul Byron watched the St. Louis Blues win the Stanley Cup on TV Wednesday night with his 5-year-old son, Brysen, and thought about what might have been.

The Blues, who beat the Bruins 4-1 in Game 7 of the Cup final, finished the NHL regular season with a 45-28-9 record in the Western Conference, only three points better than the Canadiens, who were 44-30-8 and failed to make the playoffs in the Eastern Conference.

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It has been more than two months since the Canadiens played their final regular-season game, beating the Toronto Maple Leafs 6-5 in a shootout at the Bell Centre on April 6.

Photo by John Mahoney / Montreal Gazette

“It’s been hard,” Byron said after finishing a gym workout Thursday morning at the Bell Sports Complex in Brossard. “Columbus beating Tampa (in the first round), watching Carolina go to the Eastern Conference final and coming so close. Looking at St. Louis winning the Stanley Cup … we finished one win short of them and three points back. It kind of stings a little bit. I definitely would have liked being in the playoffs and experiencing what the city would have been like. I think it would be a real cool experience. We’re trying to do everything we can for that to maybe be us next year.”