xXx..CK..xXx

Therrien’s second tenure with us was statistically the best coach we’ve had in the 21st century. In fact, pretty much since the late 1970s and early 80s with Scotty Bowman and Claude Ruel.

My only comment for now is how much I really appreciated having Chiarot on the team. He worked hard, remained focused and was always a nuissance to play against. Hopefully someone like Romanov can help fill some of that void. All the best.

How’s everyone feeling about Caufield? 😇

As I was doing my rounds today, I found it Interesting to note that Wild defenseman John Merrill (4g, 12a) has the same amount of points as our leading point getter on defense, Ben Chiarot (7g, 9a). Perhaps when we discuss the long list of leaders we lost between last season and this year, his name should be included.

A few things come to mind… 1) There should be no expectation of an NHL coach to come in and say “Hey boys, we lost our leadership crew and have many unfortunate injuries heading into the season. Let’s go out there, have some fun and make mistakes, regardless of the outcome”. Sure, it is true that quite often effort can be more important to a coach than results, but to think that a coach should come in and quite literally have a tanking mentality (which is how I interpret this) is out of the question. For me, there is absolutely nothing wrong with having had a coach who was trying to win (even) this season. I would want nothing less from my coach in any given season. 2) While it is well known to everyone that the Habs had the above stated unfortunate reality of having lost a leadership core which included Price, Weber, Edmundson, Perry, Staal, Byron, as well as losing some players like KK, this does not excuse the coach from performing. Sure, we can get caught up in rebuttling those who use strong words such as “moron” and refute them. As an example, from personal standpoint I can say that I’ve never agreed with such strong words being used towards Therrien. However, the fact remains that many people were asking for a change when it comes to Ducharme and after having not won 2 games in a row all season, we have now won 5. Everything that was mentioned outside of Byron returning is still the case and so to me it is clear that the team was playing under their potential. The one major change? Coaching. While I was not happy with our results, I admittedly did not spend my time over analyzing Ducharme’s failures. With that being said, our results this year both before and after his firing, the treatment of KK last playoff leading to his departure, as well as Caufield’s recent resurgence do lead me to have specific questions in terms of Ducharme’s method. If players were tuning his system out? Well, that just makes things 20x worse. For me, it’s not about him being a moron because I am sure he is not. With that said, I am and was happy to see him go.

Forgot Perreault was on the team.

Although it is safe to assume that the Habs won’t win in almost any given season, just like any other team, I personally dislike the approach of going into a season acting like we know it won’t happen. Last year will be the permanent example. There were people on these very boards insulting the Habs and saying things like we shouldn’t even be a playoff team as late as rounds 1 and 2 last year… Then we made the final and they disappeared… Some forever… With that being said, I understand your point but I disagree that we as fans can have such a crystal ball as to guarantee that we do not have a chance in any given future season. To me it almost seems as though in the modern age of analytics and tanking, we’ve become too smart for our own good and it could even be to our own detriment. I am not saying we are likely to win a cup next year. Personally, I feel as though that would only be a realistic possibility if Price was back to form as well as having shored up our defense. What I am saying is that we should strive to be competitive in general. We lost a lot of players so management do indeed have a lot of work to do, but for me it’s not out of the question that we have a team that performs next year. As always, I’ll know how I feel by September or so.

I could see him being a hybrid of Parise and St. Louis but not quite each player in their own right. Either way, 40+ goals in a season, as well as 38 goals for their second best season. I’ll take it should it come to fruition. The comparison I was making to Matthews & Kessel is in regards to the following: https://www.usahockeyntdp.com/records Either “Career” or “Single Season”. Take your pick. I apologize for leaving Patrick Kane out of my “comparison” of Caufield. He’ll be a 1st liner.

On another note, it’s nice to see how well Rem Pitlick has done when it comes to rookies in the league this season.

Oh nice, debate something that does not need to be debated and then follow it up by incorrectly answering your own question. Typical style of yours. In regards to accurately answering your first inquiry here is a direct quote: “The guy we’ve seen since training camp is just another rookie, nothing special at all. Some folks in this discussion are already downgrading him to, like, a 2nd-line guy who will maybe get 25 goals some day, acting like that was the reasonable expectation all along, and also acting satisfied with that (because, you know, the ONLY stars in the NHL are the guys drafted first overall, which is a proposition so obviously false it scarcely warrants rebuttal). But that was NOT the expectation. He was billed as a future star of at least the “Mike Cammalleri” ilk. Timmins was shocked at his good luck in being able to draft him where he did; he expected him to go higher. CC was one of the only Habs rookies about whom I believed the hype, based on what I saw in the playoffs. Yet now he looks like Sven Andrigetto and now we’re being told that’s OK. They made the right decision to send him down early this season and that’s where he should have stayed. This is not to call out the initial post as that would be a d@&k move. With that being said, the post compares Caufield to Sven Andrighetto. Is Sven Andrighetto good? It also states that people are downgrading his potential so obviously there has been somewhat of a lukewarm discussion concerning Caufield, at best. Third of all, him being downgraded in this context is to the second line so I am obviously aware that no one said he is not good. They are simply underwhelmed based on their high expectations of him. There’s nothing wrong with that; I am merely in a different camp concerning Caufield. I think he is the real deal and have never waivered. For some reason that seems to bother people. As for the second part, here is the direct quote. “For what my opinion is worth, Caufield will always be a player who I can use in the same breath as Phill Kessel and Auston Matthews when it comes to goal scoring ability. If not only because of his performance with the US junior development program and the records he broke there. While Kessel has taken his share of criticism over his career, both he and Matthews have shown the ability to perform on the 1st line in the NHL.“ One can choose to nit-pick one sentence from what I wrote, use it out of context, and choose to scold me for whatever reason. With that being said, because the point clearly went over your head, the point is that Caufield’s strength is his goal scoring ability. He broke goal scoring records with the US developmental program that included players like Auston Matthews and Phil Kessel. IF ONLY for that reason, I will always use him in the same breath as them. If Matthews ends up with a career high of 52 goals and Caufield 38, it wouldn’t surprise me (Kessel’s is 37). The post was also in direct response to the expectation that he may only score 25 goals in the league and belong on the second line. My opinion is that he will end with more than that in general. In case you stopped reading at Auston Matthews take a moment to read the last line of my quote. Long story short… Auston Matthews, 1 line winger. Phil Kessel, 1st line winger. Caufield’s future? 1st line winger. Now from your part, would you like to do some research and share where I said no one said Caufield would be good? Or would you like to simply take this loss? I never said that. The army I was referring to are those who argue with me every time I say something positive about Caufield. It’s not my fault you take what I am saying out of context and try to create a debate out of thin air.

Not one to toot my own horn but I told you guys about Caufield. It felt like I was battling an army on here when I talked about his positive future only two weeks ago. While the recent sample size is small, I still feel confident bringing it up because I already know he’ll be something nice, and hopefully mostly for our organization.

The response conveniently overlooks the #3 pick that had been mentioned in the quoted post and only referred to the #1 and #2 pick…. but although he hasn’t proven much at the NHL level as of yet, Caufield > Galchenyuk & Kotkaniemi. No one is trying to change anyone’s opinion but of course any of us would be cheering on and would be excited about having a 1st overall pick come draft day. The mere point is that there has never been a single season in our history where the tankist pipe dream has come to fruition for the Habs organization. i.e —> 1) Play a terrible season and end near the bottom of the standings 2) Achieve a high pick during the lottery 3) Draft an elite organizational changing player As a result perhaps this is something best left to draft time to discuss. The thought is that it has never worked in such a perfect way for us and yet the topic is something that has been discussed on a yearly basis. As a result, it seems as though it is something not worth actively rooting for since it is something that is so rare in occurrence. This is all without repeating the long list of teams who have recently drafted extremely high and have done absolutely nothing come playoff time.

My main concern is that Marty takes us on a deep playoff run this season due to the influx of fresh blood. Only for his true colours to come out next season, in turn bringing our team back to earth. Oh wait, that already sort of happened to us.

First positive news in some time.

If Pierre Gauthier were GM, Ducharme would have been fired in the middle of the game.

Gallagher back in I believe?

Coming from someone who still watches every game, I agree that the team is playing with a higher intensity. The games have been more entertaining as of late as well. Better or worse? It is up for debate but the results speak for themselves and we are obtaining points unlike earlier in the season.

Here’s to a good game.

Pavelski: 9 shots on goal Seguin: 9 shots on goal Hintz: 9 shots on goal

Pezzetta’s goal to penalty minute ratio is diminishing.

Yes, and once he does succeed at the NHL level, I guess it seems as though it would have been “impossible to predict”. I know we’re all rooting for him as long as he’s wearing the blue, white and red but I look forward to it coming to fruition. This is an off season because he has only scored 1 goal. Of course he will score more this year but 1 goal in 26 games will be well off his career average. Perhaps we have a different definition of off year.

Cool story. The context of the discussion began as a result of a statement as to the reality that there was a lot of hype surrounding Caufield prior to him having started with the Habs. “Now fans are saying that they will be happy if he scores 25 goals as a second line winger.” My response is simply stating that I am one of the fans who hasn’t changed my stance on him simply because of his underwhelming season, which I have acknowledged myself as I watch. I have already stated that I am personally not someone who overly hypes prospects but whether I said it explicitly or not, Caufield was someone I was excited about in a similar fashion to how I felt after drafting Subban. My very simple point is that my opinion has not changed on him simply because of this season. If I thought he would be able to score 30+ goals and be a first line winger on his draft day, then I would still believe that now. If some have reduced expectations, I am not one of them. It seems needless to point out that what I was suggesting was in regards to his future in the league so there is no need to state that what I have said is “nuts” or “outlandish” because it is merely nothing more than a prediction. One that I believe in, but could obviously not develop into reality. I am still confident he will be a first line winger in the league, and will score more than 30... it could even be more. I understand that Matthews is a higher level player than Caufield but it will not surprise me if things get closer between them in terms of goal scoring in the future. It’s impossible to make these predicitions without sounding out there but just wait for the season where Matthews has 36g and Caufield has 34g... I’m not stating that Caufield will turn out to be in the same ball park as Matthews overall but when it comes to goal scoring, Caufield will be in the conversation. In the end, time will tell. Like you said, Caufield is having an off year and 24 goals is closer to his regular outlook than 1g. I am sure there are those who disagree and I welcome their opinion.

Not that I had seen this before, but it just takes a little research. https://www.usahockeyntdp.com/records Therefore, I am not nuts. I was merely making an accurate observation which one could argue will not translate at the professional level. I happen to believe it will.

For what my opinion is worth, Caufield will always be a player who I can use in the same breath as Phill Kessel and Auston Matthews when it comes to goal scoring ability. If not only because of his performance with the US junior development program and the records he broke there. While Kessel has taken his share of criticism over his career, both he and Matthews have shown the ability to perform on the 1st line in the NHL. Regardless of which side one chooses to place their stance, Caufield belongs in the conversation with them. I am personally one who favours proven veterans over the potential of a draft pick but I still believe that Caufield will be a premium goal scorer/(hopefully) point getter in this league. At this point in his career, one can believe the hype surrounding his name, or one can question whether or not there was a valid reason for him to drop on draft day, as well as whether or not the current season is an indication of how he will develop as an overall player. I personally still promote the hype surrounding him and have not changed my mind about his future promise simply because of this season. It’s pretty baseless of me to make any statistical predictions, but if anyone will score more than 30-35 goals in the future, it would be him or Hoffman. He’ll be a first line player. My belief in him is strong.

I’m the same. I’ve always preferred, and always will prefer being a bubble team rather than a team finding its way to the basement. The entertainment value is a must and it’s not like I will ever take my future child aside as he excitedly awaits the game after a long day at school and whisper in his ear, “there’s nothing to get excited about Billy, this is a tanking season.” I am happy that never happened to me in my youth and I hope sport doesn’t develop in such a manner... where players, coaches, management and fans develop a losing mentality... though it already has infiltrated certain subsets of the community.