2012–13 Montreal Canadiens season

The 2012–13 Montreal Canadiens season was the 104th season of play for the franchise that was founded on December 4, 1909, and its 96th season in the National Hockey League (NHL). The regular season was reduced from its usual 82 games to 48 due to a lockout.

Off-season
After a disappointing 2011–12 season, the Canadiens started over in the front office. Marc Bergevin was named the new general manager on May 2, 2012. Rick Dudley was then named as the assistant general manager. The search then began for a new head coach and on June 5, Michel Therrien was named the new head coach. This would be Therrien's second stint as the Canadiens head coach (previously coached team from 2000 to 2003) Scott Mellanby was hired as the director of player personnel and Randy Cunneyworth and Randy Ladouceur were relieved of their assistant coaching duties. Some other hockey operations changes included the hiring of Martin Lapointe as director of player development, Patrice Brisebois was hired as a player development coach and on June 15, Gerard Gallant, J. J. Daigneault and Clement Jodoin were added to Montreal's coaching staff as assistant coaches.

Montreal held the third overall pick in the 2012 NHL Entry Draft and selected Alex Galchenyuk from the Sarnia Sting.

Regular season
The Canadiens had the most power-play opportunities during the regular season, with 207. They also tied the Tampa Bay Lightning for the fewest shorthanded goals scored, with zero.

Playoffs
The Montreal Canadiens entered the playoffs as the second seed in the Eastern Conference by winning the Northeast Division with 63 points. The Ottawa Senators earned 56 points during the regular season, losing the tiebreaker to the New York Rangers in regulation + overtime wins (22 to 21) to finish seventh overall in the Eastern Conference. This was the first playoff series between these two teams, and the first playoff series between teams from Montreal and Ottawa since 1928, when the Montreal Maroons defeated the original Ottawa Senators in the Canadian Division Quarterfinals. The two teams split their four-game regular season series. The Senators would defeat the Canadiens in five games.

Player statistics
Final stats

Goaltenders
†Denotes player spent time with another team before joining the Canadiens. Stats reflect time with the Canadiens only.

‡Denotes player was traded mid-season. Stats reflect time with the Canadiens only.

Bold/italics denotes franchise record

Transactions
The Canadiens have been involved in the following transactions during the 2012–13 season:

Draft picks
Below are the Montreal Canadiens' picks at the 2012 NHL Entry Draft, held in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania on June 22 & 23, 2012.