The Chicoutimi Cucumber

Agree. The complication is if, as rumours suggest, the Habs are looking to add an impact FW. At that point you MAY need to ship out one of the D men you’d rather keep. Hopefully not, but it’s a possibility; and it’s at that point that you really need to cross your fingers that player eval is accurate.

Fascinating backlog. Savard is gone next season and Kovicevic’s crest has fallen considerably since last year. Mattheson may prove less disposable because of his borderline elite offence, at least in the short term. I don’t know what advanced stats say, but Harris has not impressed in his sophomore year, and Struble seems to have fallen back since his impressive debut earlier this season. Weeding out may not prove as hard as it first appears…

What is the deal with wives who want cable?? In the case of my missus, it's channels like Makeful and the Food Network that compel me to shill out, LOL. I like the shout out to Mike Johnson! I've said many times, he is ridiculously underrated in the hockey commentary community. One of the few guys you can listen to and actually learn something from.

If you don’t have cable at all, then what you say makes sense. Unfortunately my wife wants cable in addition to our various streaming services. 😬 So I was waaay better off under the old model.

I do love Ferraro. So there’s that 🤔

It’s only “reasonable” if you forget what it was like before Sportsnet took over. I used to get almost all Habs games on RDS as part of my cable package for a grand total of $5/month. So: far superior coverage and commentary than the crap SN throws at you for Habs games, at 1/3 the cost.

The same concerns were expressed about Hughes, though. I haven't studied Hutson, but Hughes is on a 92 point pace (!!!!). He is an absolute master. So he is probably not a fair comparable. What is reasonable might be to say that Hutson is the same kind of player as Hughes. I mean, if he came in and developed into a 70-point D man, I'd call that good, LOL.

Commandant can speak for himself, but I took his point to be that the team knew it was in tough against a powerful opponent, was coming off a difficult loss against EDM, and that under those conditions the "ticky tacky" calls sapped the energy and morale needed to really give Van a go. On a human level, that makes sense. It's just contrary to the brand that MSL has instilled of being a team that fights to the finish, win or lose. Even Canucks commentators were saying that "the Habs are a team that doesn't quit" and expressed surprise, therefore, that the third period was so completely dominated by Vancouver.

Well - the "big move" could take the form of a Dach-style trade. I would regard as much more likely than a UFA signing, certainly over 2024-25 anyhow. I hear you on Panarin, but I also think the idea that players don't want to play in Montreal is greatly exaggerated. Some guys don't like Canadian markets, true, but plenty are perfectly happy to play here. So yeah, we're not NY, but we can be legitimate players in the UFA market. Eventually.

Always appreciated Allen and felt that he was given a bit of a rough go from some fans in the later stages of his time with us. Nice to see him flourishing - he's a consummate professional and did the CH proud.

Well, remember, I recognized above that this game was likely an outlier. Nevertheless, it's accurate to say that the team as currently constituted is garbage. And a game like that really underscores he yawning gap between these guys and a contending group. The organization is not garbage, however. Lots of young talent in the pipeline and lots of assets to use as leverage in deals that can help us get better.

Well, yes - I’m not denying that! Thank God we’ve been maximizing assets, because the team we have is garbage. This was probably an outlier game, i.e., an especially lacklustre performance from a team coming off a disappointing loss in EDM, missing its iconic coach, and with nothing to play for. Nevertheless, it was an abject lesson in how truly far away we are from being a serious team.

Interesting reference re: Panarin. This management team clearly has an eye on the Big Move that will kick-start the rebuild to the next level - it’s a question of timing. It might or might not be this summer, but I would not at all be surprised if we do see some really major move(s) before October.

Well, that was one of the worst performances by a Habs team I’ve had the misfortune of seeing live. The first 10 minutes were good. They were competitive. Then Vancouver gradually took over. The hinge moment was probably when DeSmith stopped Gally in close from a beautiful Suzuki feed. After that it was all downhill. What I was startled by was just how physically dominant the Canucks were. Bigger, stronger, and extremely businesslike, they won most of the board battles and basically manhandled the Habs the entire night. I think you’d have to have been there in person to fully appreciate the extent of this domination. I didn’t see much pushback either, including from the guys you might expect to bring it, i.e., WiFi, Slaf, Anderson, etc. It was a game where the extent of Vancouver’s control was so overwhelming that you could almost feel the self-belief draining from the Canadiens as the night ground along. The Canucks I saw last night were scary - a team in complete command, clamping down defensively, getting all the goals they need, and grinding the sh*t out of the opponent, shift by shift. That looked like a squad ready to go deep, playing Rick Tocchet hockey. By contrast, the Habs had waaaaaaaay too much dead weight, especially in the bottom 6. Whether it’s Gally or Anderson (LOL) or Pearson or White, etc., etc., these are duds who simply cannot hold their own against a strong and determined squad like Van was last night. That third period was utterly listless. Impotent. It’s easy, when you look at the 38 one-goal games or whatever it is, to think that we are one major additional FW away from making the playoffs. But last night’s spectacle suggested a team that needs quite substantial improvement up and down the lineup - a team that is a LONG way away. The only particular positive that jumped out to me was Newhook. His speed is something to see, and he’s making plays with it.

Yep. He's entering into a new phase of the rebuild in that sense. So far he has been about adding young assets and picks and creating a sound developmental structure. This next step will be a major part of where he builds his legacy or sullies it. Both Gainey (Beauchemin, Ribeiro, MacDonagh, Streit) and MB (Sergachev) made grave errors in moving out prospects/young players, with serious repercussions for their entire tenure. Hughes has done well so far, and now comes this next test. If he makes the right moves in this phase, we should be a playoff team within at most two years. The he will face the final phase - i.e., seeing if he can actually build a winner.

Franchise of Futility vs Franchise of Forever Projected line combos, courtesy Daily Faceoff Canucks exceed the Habs in every way, except in net, where I assume Casey DeSmith will be between the pipes owing to Demko's injury (as well as the fact that you'd dress him anyway, against a bottom-feeder like Montreal). I will be at this one, along with the 18 000 or so other local Habs fans who always swarm the arena when les boys come to town. GO HABS GO!

We’ll see about Beck, but I agree re: Evans. Can someone explain to me how it is that Armia spent years being complete dog poop, then gets sent down and comes back as a completely different player? What the hell happened? Did he stare into the abyss of career failure and have a transformative, “come to Jesus” moment? Or has he just been on the longest hot streak of his career and will eventually revert back to his norm of stinking out the joint?

This org stills needs top-pairing-quality young D. Even Guhle has not clearly established himself as being at that level. So, although he wasn't a sexy pick, this kid is an important piece. Here's hoping he makes the jump to Laval and flourishes.

Reading the earlier parts of this thread, it's clear that a lot of us were worried that HuGo had gone for size over skill. I was also bothered by the "W over C" aspect of the choice. The Slaf we've seen over the second half has plenty of skill, with room to keep growing in that area...and his physical strength and power look really impressive at times. Cooley may end up outscoring him, but it's hard to see, at this juncture, where Slaf doesn't look like a realistic bet to be at least as valuable as Cooley. As 2024 winds down, it looks like HuGo knew exactly what they were doing. We should revisit this thread next season around the same time and see how things stand then!

Maybe it’s unwise to paid Guhle with Mattheson. Or maybe Guhle’s recent issues have nothing to do with MM. Mattheson has 47 points in 67 games (!) - almost a 60-point pace - and as you note, his skating gets him out of many of the jams his defensive limitations create. That latter is an important consideration for me. Unlike some more Puritanical hockey people, I don’t care if a guy screws up IF he has the wheels to correct his own lapses. (That was one reason why I always thought young PK Subban’s errors were way overplayed; people would focus on the error, and ignore the fact that 95% of the time he got himself out of the trouble they created). So we seem to be in the position of saying this team somehow should not have good players on it, unless those good players exemplify 100% the virtues of all-around hockey players. Now I can certainly see the case for moving out Mattheson on the grounds that he will fetch a handsome return and will be too old by the time this team is contention-worthy. The other side of it is, none of our young D have shown themselves to have ANYTHING like his offensive chops. So, we’re back to the old “tank” question. The Habs are one of the worst teams in the league. Without MM, we would probably be intolerably terrible. Some people want that. Others think our young players benefit from the experience of being competitive in games, day in and day out. If you think the latter, then you don’t see Mattheson as a net negative. He may be best thought of as a placeholder until Hutson comes on stream. But what seems clear is that unless we replace MM, either internally or via free agency, this team is never going to become elite. You need D who can move the puck and drive offence.

Oh, no. That would be terrible. Any parent knows that there can be no greater nightmare than something bad happening to your child. All the best to MSL and his family.

Very cool review. There really is no substitute for seeing players live - although the danger, as you note, is drawing sweeping conclusions from one game. I’ll be seeing them in Van later this week, and will keep your reflections in mind.

I will never want the Habs to lose to Boston. GO HABS GO

Very true, but it’s intriguing that the Habs ships out Allen and the very next game he plays, he steps in and bags a SO. That’s the “statement” part: “you FINALLY made room for me? Well watch this.” Of course, if he gets shellacked next time, then the statement is somewhat annulled. But on its own terms, I think it was an impressive moment for the young man.

I didn't watch it, but it seems to have been a statement game by Primeau, no?