From Eric McErlain:

The league would have been better off if the Florida Panthers, a team and an organization in desperate need of the sort of boost a playoff appearance could have provided, had qualified instead of the Habs.

W4E say: McErlain is by no means the first to have mentioned this alternative over the past few days, as reaction continues to roil over the Canadiens' hasty playoff exit.

The question begs, though, whether the reverse scenario indeed had taken place, would love for the Cats really have been that widespread? In essence, would the pundits come out against the Panthers during the over-hyped Montreal Centennial year and the Habs' presumably God-given right to the eight spot or better?

Suppose the Habs had missed out by the now infamous season-series victory tiebreaker.

Would it have been mass hysteria in Quebec? Calls to the league offices? Overturned police cruisers?