tomh009

It's a wild one out there. Three goals in 95 seconds and now it's 5-4 Coyotes.

I have no argument with that. As I said, I think it depends on what deals Hughes makes in the summer and whether he thinks he has better options for those positions. I don't expect that Evans would make much more than his current $1.7M, and Armia would likely cost less than he makes today. Hughes gets paid the big bucks to figure out whether those two (and others) are worth extending, but (at least for me) it's impossible to determine the right choices without knowing what the other puzzle pieces are. The return for Evans, for example, will surely be just a late-round pick, which really doesn't have much value. And his salary is not onerous, so the big question is who will fill that role in 2025 and beyond. Maybe Beck will be ready? But that is not known yet this summer so I suspect Hughes would not move Evans until he has either another player for this role or higher confidence that Beck will be able to fill it.

Yes. But PK will be needed in in 2025-26 as well. Possibly after that, too. 🙂 My point really is that players like Evans and Armia do have value beyond their point production. And that we'll need some capable PK players as well. We'll see what Hughes decides to do in this regard.

Flames 3-7 in the last 10, Coyotes 6-4. So, maybe there is some hope there. 🙂

Need some additional PK skill on the roster, though. We don't have much beyond Armia, Evans and Suzuki now, and the gap will get bigger yet if we trade Armia.

It's a lot of assumptions (Armia, Evans and others); so much depends on whether Hughes' assumptions match yours (or mine)--and what deals they are able to make in the summer. Getting rid of Armia, Evans, Pearson and Ylonen, for example, will make our already-weak PK far worse yet, so that would likely be contingent on signing someone that can also take on that role. Hab's PK TOI this year.

It appears that the Habs have made an offer, but I don't think Tuch has signed yet.

OK, how about this: every one of those three Ottawa power play goals were on penalties drawn by Ridly Greig. What are the odds of a single player even drawing three penalties for three power plays?

All four Ottawa goals were on a man advantage (the last one with net empty) though. Our PK has been somewhat more respectable recently, how is it that the Sens managed to score four on the Habs?

The shootout loss is quite fine for me. The boys fought hard and played well, and yet we improved our year-end position.

Not quite as annoying as the FoxTrax but still ...

Definitely an entertaining period. Barron with a nice sliding block at the end. Armia with two great scoring chances. And Slafkovsky giving no quarter to Tkachuk.

The end of the season for Kapanen: 19:31 TOI but 0g+0a in a 3-1 loss to Tappara (at 34-13-13 the top team in the regular season). That's a 4-1 series win for Tappara and Kapanen is probably moving somewhere else (Laval or more likely Sweden) for next season.

Sadly, a prime exhibit how even a consensus #1 pick can be totally wrong!

Or the 2021 Habs!

Who will still be waivers-exempt? Struble and Xhekaj?

And Reinbacher is only 19. So, the right side likely needs to be some combination of Barron, Guhle, Harris and Kovacevic. My theory is that they have played Guhle on the right in order to give him the flexibility to play either side. If that's the case, it should be Matheson and Guhle as the two top D on the left, along with Xhekaj and Struble. Keep Savard until deadline? That's possible, but since Barron, too, will be waiver-eligible, we'll end up with the equivalent of the three-goalie-rotation but on D this time.

Have been thinking about what the Habs' D corps could look like for the next two years. Not the cup contender version, but the transitional team that should start competing for a playoff position. So, this is what I have on a (somewhat?) factual basis: Matheson has scored 60 points this season, no mean feat on a team that only has 224 goals, and does not look like he's slowing down Savard does look like he's starting to slow down Guhle is solid and reliable 1LD/2LD, now with some flexibility to play on the right as well Harris flexible on left/right, though better on the left Kovacevic is not stellar but quite reliable on the right Neither Reinbacher or Mailloux likely ready for NHL for another season or two Hutson is a wild card. He's only 20 and seasoning in the AHL would make sense but he'll surely be a target there Then we have Xhekaj/Struble and Barron I'm thinking that Matheson likely stays with the Habs, unless another GM is willing to pay a king's ransom to get him. For all his defensive warts, he is in the top 10 in D scoring in the league, and that's elite D scoring. Maybe pair him with Kovacevic for stability and balance? Our help on the right is a few years away, so does Hughes keep Savard? I suspect not, so that would mean that Harris and Barron need to be the other two RD, unless Reinbacher is stunningly good in training camp. I think very unlikely that they would bring him up at 19yo. So, need a defensive partner for Barron, and a more offensive one for Harris. Is that Guhle-Barron and Xhekaj/Struble-Harris? Or is Hutson really a viable option here? I would think not yet. Of course, if Hughes trades one of the young(ish) D, all this calculus will need to be redone. 🙂

Kapanen 0g+1a in 2-1 win, 19:38 TOI (second only to one of the D-men at 19:42). They now trail 1-2 in the semifinals.

Can we dress some guys that will take unnecessary roughing penalties?

Watching only the last five minutes of the period turned out rather well! 😂

One of the worst for sure. Things get better outside the top four, especially for D (Rielly, Lindholm, Trouba--and Matheson) but none of the the shiny top four picks turned out to be gold.

Mesar is pretty effective on the PP.

If we're going to blow the draft pick, might as well blow it in a big way!

I was away for twenty minutes or so and ... wow!