Leaderboard

Literally everyone acknowledges Markov would have slowed down this season, but most of us acknowledge the Habs would still be a better team with him than without him. The only one who isn't clearheaded about Markov here is the guy posting his top-ten-among-KHL-defenseman stats and concluding, "glad we didn't re-sign THAT guy to our offense-starved team, amirite!"

"If he's not scoring, he's doing absolutely diddly-squat to impact a game. " Not true at all Pacioretty's numbers for controlling possession and driving play, and being good in his own zone, have always been solid during his career. He's been one of the best wingers in the league in driving possession and playing two way hockey throughout his career. Not sure why no one gives him credit for it, but the numbers are there. Few wingers can drive play, he's one of them... which is probably why throughout his career he's been able to succeed with a centre like Desharnais, or Danault, or whoever.

Is my belief in occasional confirmation bias biased? CONFIRM ME! My inner hockey savant! I should try this backing up of my whimsical attachments with facts some time. But maybe not today.. why spoil my unblemished record .. Is dissonance a sound or the lack of a sound?

Patches' basic dilemma is characteristic of goal scorers. If he's not scoring, he's doing absolutely diddly-squat to impact a game. The same is not true of guys like Gallagher. My questions to those who want to keep Patches are these: 1. How do we acquire the assets to become a Cup contender without trading Pacioretty? 2. Do you really think Patches is going to continue to score at an elite level into his mid-30s? Because with his contract coming up, we will have to re-sign him for substantial dollars and substantial term. Myself, I have already raised concerns about whether he is loosing that extra burst of speed to pull away from defenders or pressure them to the outside (both classic Pacioretty moves we have hardly seen all season). Since we are nowhere near contending, it is not worth investing in him at this stage of his career. Trade him before 2018-19 for important positional/younger assets (i.e., a good young C). Reboot your FW core around those assets + Drouin, Galy, Gally, Lehkonen, etc.. Then turn attention to rebuilding the pathetic D with an eye to contending within about 3 years, as that young FW core hits its prime and Price still has a few years left.

Pacioretty may have only had 4 points in December but Gallagher had 3 points in the same time span.

I've got a lot of respect for Patches. I don't want to see him traded. We traded our heart (Subban) and lost our team (Markov) and drive, (Radulov). Patches was / is none of those things but he's a good man and a good captain and a good hockey player. We should keep some team members if we want a team.

Stop it. You guys are making me like Bergevin.

I think though Pacioretty is underperforming, he’s basically in an impossible situation right now. Almost zero newly minted captains will gain a good reputation for being a leader if their team isn’t performing. That at being said, I think Pacioretty has been an extremely mature leader during his time as captain, and is performing really well as an off-ice leader. But his style of game doesn’t scream high intensity ala Gallagher. This means when he isn’t producing, he looks quite ineffective. Is he the guy for Montreal at this time? Probably not. Is he captain material? I think so. It’s just not really going his way.

Frankly, i don't think it matters whether he is happy in Montreal. We NEED a rebuild. I don't think we need an Oilers/Buffalo try and finish last for 3 or 4 years rebuild. In todays' game the two most important positions are centre and defence. We have no centre and a defence that is not suited for today's game. Despite what some posters here said at the start of the year - this just is not a very good team. In fact is an extremely poorly constructed team for the way the game is played today. If Galchenyuk is not going to be given a real opportunity at centre, We need TWO centreman if Galchenyuk is not going to be given a real chance to be a at least a 2nd line centre - I don't see Drouin as a one of those centres - keep him at wing. Galchanyuk has shown he can produce at centre, Drouin has not. At a minimum we need to improve our #2 and #3 dmen - in fact I'd even argue that we need a #1. In today's game a solid skating, puck moving dman that can skate with the pick and help/control the transition game, should be your # 1 Dman. Dump and chase teams don't win cups anymore. In light of that, I don't think Weber is really a #1 and is better suited for the #2 role. I also don't see Petry as being that #3 guy, if this team is going to be a true contender (and Petry is still on the team, he would be the #4). If we keep Weber, maybe Mete can be that #3, not sure yet. Unless we move a significant core (or by some miracle Tavares has a brain cramp and sign with us over the summer - it would be awesome if he did, though I don't know why he would, given how this team is being run), we probably need to move draft picks - hell, even if we move a guy like like MaxPac, we would probably still need to add a #1 pick to get a true top centre. A team whose highest players paid are over 30 and signed for the next 8 years at over $8M cannot afford to be giving up draft picks, when a top centre is not one of those two players. I think if we are going to be a TRUE contender, we need to do a tear down and unload ALL of our veterans that over that 26 year old range - because its going to take at least 3 years for this team to be a contender. We need to accumulate picks and stop moving picks or prospects on band-aids and hail mary moves. While would be considered blashphamous to most I think we should move Weber, Price, MaxPac and Petry to ensure we build a core to secure that top centre and puck moving dman and look to contend in another 2 to 3 years, otherwise, I just see this team being a hamster on a wheel.

One of the worst Captains.. he's a floater. Rarely do we see a night of full effort from him. If he had half the drive that Gallagher does, he wouldn't have 17 game goaless droughts.