xXx..CK..xXx

Lock him up 🔐🔴🔵

Let’s not forget that if we follow some advice at the opposite end of the spectrum and go ahead and trade away our best players such as Weber and Price, a bubble team may be too high an aspiration for the team that would come out on the other end of that. That team could very well be bubble/lottery for years.

It’s unlikely that the return for Kovalchuk would be as valuable as he could potentially be. Other teams will know that we got him for nothing and won’t offer anything special regardless of his recent play. The opposing argument is that getting a 3rd rounder for Kovalchuk would be great because we got him for free. My argument is getting Kovalchuk for free is more valuable than getting a 3rd round draft pick for free. There are other ways to obtain a 3rd rounder.

Seriously though, no one has rebutted the fact that tanking ensures nothing based on the modern day percentages. I don’t have a child but when I do, I can’t imagine turning over to him during a teaching moment and stating, “Don’t worry Jimmy. It doesn’t matter that we’re losing 5-1 to the Toronto Maple Leafs on this Saturday night. This is a tanking season. It’s better for our team to put in worse players and exert less effort, so we can lose and drop down in the standings. We want to draft high. I want you to remember to play that way when you make the NHL, Jimmy. Promise me that. Always think about external circumstances. Don’t focus on personal growth and doing your best every game when it’s better for the team to lose in the long run.” It’s only in recent years that I’ve witnessed teams wanting to lose in various sports, and even worse, fans. I’m glad that I was oblivious to it when I was younger because even when our team was bad, I remember looking forward to hockey games during school hours when I was a kid. I consider it borderline trolling, because it’s been stated that tanking ensures nothing. Perhaps in the last 10 games of the year, it could be something to look at when your team is out of the race, but not so early in the season. Jimmy won’t be allowed to come read these forums during our down years.

I wonder if Martin Brodeur would think it a good option to build a franchise around a goalkeeper. On another note, it’s pretty crazy to see Ryan Poehling with a 0 and 0 stat line after 19 games played. Not that one would have thought of him as an offensive threat, but it’s quite the contrast when compared with coming into the league with a hat trick in your first game, in addition to a shootout goal. I can’t think of many positives that go along with what he must be going through right now.

Happy for Kovalchuk. Lock him up. 🔐🔴🔵

Okay, so don’t trade him. Nor did I ever say that’s what he would fetch. I said I don’t want to move him for anything less.

Well, if we make the playoffs it’s going to be one hell of a ride.

I wanted to come in and tell you that Price tends to play well against some Western Canadian teams and that he did well this year out west against every team outside of..... Edmonton. But instead I will share this quote with you: “6. Despite the Oilers having the fewest wins in the NHL since 2009, they have owned Price. He is 3-8-1 in his career against Edmonton with a .859Sv% and 3.70 GAA. Some stats are inexplicable and this is one of them. His career Sv% is .917 with a 2.49 GAA, yet the Oilers have lit him up. He had a .960SV% in a win on March 12th, 2017, and a .906Sv% in a win on March 10th, 2009, but in his other ten starts he’s posted a .889Sv% or lower. Amazing. His best performance came against the playoff bound Oilers in 2017. Against those other teams, who floundered near the bottom of the standings, he struggled.“ ... and tell you that I have super powers. Price will play well tonight. Enjoy the game 🙂

I think I’m the only one who wants Kovalchuk to spend a little more time with us. Admittedly, I’m still not over losing Radulov, and to a lesser extent Vanek, after such short stints with our team. If Kovalchuk somehow brought us a player and a draft pick, or a 2nd rounder+ then by all means, manage your asset. If the most we could get was something along the lines of a 3rd rounder, I’m not all too excited about seeing him go at the deadline.

No. On a separate note, I have a decent feeling about tonight. If Gallagher is indeed back, I’d like to see what the lineup looks like on paper. I never bring this up, but I expect a solid game from Price tonight. My spider senses are tingling on that topic.

I don’t see Price getting moved. There’s too much sentimentality going around when offering up the suggestion that we should trade him. Things along the lines of “let’s give him a chance to play on a team that can contend” should in no way, shape, or form come into consideration when deciding whether or not we should move him. I believe that on a contending team, Price will be able to win a cup for many years to come. Including a contending Habs team. Hasek won the Stanley cup in 2002 at the age of 37, and 41 year old Dwayne Rolloson brought an 8th seeded Edmonton team to the cup final in 2006. While the Hasek comparable is more accurate than the latter, the point is that Price will certainly be capable of winning a championship in even 5+ years. Partially because like the fact that Hasek was Hasek, Price is Price. Let’s forget about his window because while it sounds nice, it isn’t there. This is coming from someone who acknowledges that Price hasn’t been himself on and off for years.

At first I had something like: “Be Victor-ious like Mete” but went with “Compete for Meat”, wrong pronunciation and all 🙂 The Habs don’t have many names that rhyme with winning, or fighting words.

I was just thinking that while I think Price has been off his game for a long time, there still aren’t many goalies of Price’s caliber throughout the league. Perhaps anywhere between 0 and 6. I worry about the time that comes after Price’s departure. It’s funny to me that in certain areas Halak seems to still be one of the better goalies in the league statistically. Why couldn’t we have kept both? (rhetorical) Then again, he’s on a solid Boston team. This ties in with my sentiment that there aren’t many goalies in the league that I would trust on the Habs any more than Price. He hasn’t been great but there are some other goalies in the league who look better than they should, due to the team in front of them. It’s not only him, but I’ve always felt that way about Murray on Pittsburgh as an example even though he had a good junior career as well. It’s also entirely possible that Price is on a permanent downswing, and in that case moving him would be clever. I don’t have that crystal ball though and can only imagine that our next goalie of the organization will fare worse than Carey Price.

Kovalchuk pays off in playoffs Lord Byron meet Lord Stanley Mr. CHARI(sudden death)OT Compete for Mete Go far for Tatar