This is the right time of the year for the Montreal Canadiens to start playing well. After all, they did it last year in turning the Stanley Cup playoffs upside down.

The Canadiens are 7-3-0 in March, winning two of their past three, to pull within one point of first-place Boston in the Northeast Division. Montreal opened March with four victories in a row and are one of just four Eastern Conference teams with 40 victories.

Sitting sixth in the conference standings with 86 points, getting ahead of Boston and winning the Northeast would vault Montreal into the third seed. If the playoffs started today, the Bruins and Canadiens would face off, but Boston would have the home-ice advantage.

That shouldn’t faze Montreal if that scenario plays out this spring. Last season, Montreal just barely squeaked into the playoffs as the eighth and final seed in the East. All the Canadiens did was upend Washington and Pittsburgh, winning two Game 7s on the road during a shocking run to the Eastern Conference finals.

The Canadiens can take a big step toward winning the Northeast on Thursday when Montreal plays at Boston. Washington, second in the East, comes to Montreal on Saturday.

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The Montreal Canadiens got a third-period goal from Benoit Pouliot Tuesday night, snapping a 1-1 tie and snapping the New York Rangers’ three-game winning streak in a 2-1 victory in New York City.

Pouliot’s ninth goal of the season came at the 6:03 mark of the third as Montreal capped a rally from a 1-0 deficit. New York scored first on Brandon Dubinsky’s 17th of the season just 4:15 into the contest.

Down 1-0 after a period, Montreal tied the game on Jaroslav Spacek’s second goal of the season with just 1:11 left before intermission. That set the stage of Pouliot’s go-ahead goal in the third.

Alex Auld stopped 25 of 26 shots for the Canadiens. Henrik Lundqvist was almost as good for the Rangers, making 36 saves.

Montreal, which avoided overtime for the first time in five games, is 4-0-1 in its last five. The Canadiens are tied with Atlanta for seventh in the Eastern Conference with 51 points, two points behind the sixth-place Rangers.

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Sure, everybody remembers who won the Stanley Cup and most people remember who lost it. As for the earlier rounds? Usually the memory fades sooner rather than later.

But in Washington and Pittsburgh, there will be no forgetting the havoc stirred up by the Montreal Canadiens in last spring’s NHL playoffs.

The Canadiens squeaked past several mediocre teams in the Eastern Conference to claim the eighth and final playoff spot. From there, Montreal turned the sport upside down, knocking out President’s Trophy winner Washington and defending Cup champion Pittsburgh with two stunning, on-the-road Game 7 victories.

The run ended with a five-game loss in the Eastern Conference finals to seventh-seed Philadelphia.

That was then. This is now, and one of the big reasons behind Montreal’s spring surge is no longer wearing the Canadiens’ sweater. Goaltender Jaroslav Halak won 26 games a year ago, and nine more in the playoffs. But the pending free agent was dealt to St. Louis over the summer.

Leader scorer Tomas Plekanec (70 points) inked a six-year deal in the offseason for Montreal, which opens the season at Toronto on Oct. 7. The home opener comes Oct. 13 against Tampa Bay.

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Laraque, who had missed time with injuries, was heading into the final year of a three-year contract worth $4.5 million.

The 33-year old was known as the team’s enforcer, something virtually every team in the NHL has to have.

The Canadiens have banished him from the team because they considered him to be a distraction.

He was still on the roster, but was not seen at games or practices. If you are getting paid but told to stay away, you must be causing some serious problems.

The Canadiens were in control, up 4-1 and 4-2 in the third period, and 5-4 with just minutes remaining before letting the Capitals tie it up and ultimately prevail in overtime.

By all accounts, Montreal outplayed Washington for the majority of the game. But even after the Caps came storming back to tie the game at 4 apiece and grab all the momentum, the Canadiens didn’t blink, regaining the lead late in the third period to stun the home crowd. But they couldn’t close the deal, allowing John Carlson to score with just over a minute left and Nicklas Backstrom net his third goal of the game in the first minute of overtime.

Montreal wasted Andrei Kostitsyn’s hat trick and will need a strong showing at home to regain control of the series. Could the Canadiens be coming back down to earth and playing like the No. 8 seed that they are? Or can they find another gear and shock the league’s best team? Monday’s Game 3 could not be more important.