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hockeyrealist

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Everything posted by hockeyrealist

  1. Regarding your last statement, likely a little of both. Late blooming goalies are not overly uncommon, I’m optimistic he will work his way into convo given his progression and the team should be better overall in two seasons.
  2. The two season’s thing is why I can see him working his way into the convo. Apparently Jason Bourne also sees this potential, article came out one day after my post, somewhat related, but even closer than Olympic dates iirc. https://www.sportsnet.ca/nhl/article/projecting-team-canadas-2025-four-nations-faceoff-roster/
  3. Title sums it up, but curious as to the thoughts from the board on this. I am a late convert to believe Montembeault is a legit NHL starter, and with his current trajectory I can see him being in contention for a spot on Olympic roster. He did a great job at world’s last year if I am not mistaken. The options for goalie as forecasted by various reporters is quite weak, I recall Carter Hart was always touted on national scene, and who knows how that shakes out long term but the talent pool is surprisingly thin at goal for team Canada, popular names lately include: Adin Hill, Logan Thompson, Tristan Jarry, Stuart Skinner, Devon Levi, Darcy Kuemper i see Montembeault being at or near the level of most of these names already and has steadily improved since he arrived in Mtl, if he keeps that up I don’t see how he isn’t a viable option. Thoughts?
  4. Suzuki has been poor for more than just this game, likely burnt out and perhaps nursing an ailment of sorts. Be is an iron man but perhaps he needs to be rested and healed up, when he isn’t driving that line CC has hard time driving offense. Anderson def doesn’t seem to fit with them but the bashing he takes on here is ridiculous, cam’t pass? One of the nicest set ups of the year just this week on Monahan’s winner. is he elite passer? No, is he a legit NHL passer and overall player, #### yeah. Team has been shit for two years so evaluating anyone is tough, but he was huge in playoff runs and if given some consistent time with good players will likely be a consistent 20-25 goal man, that’s not nothing. Way too much dead weight on the forward group, Anderson is not one of them. You’d think he was the worst player on the team given the talk on here from “fans”, meanwhile about half of the forward geiup has produced less in past month or two and there an many other well paid fw’s not producing and actually hurting the team: looking at Gally… Give #14 a break, need an “injury” to keep him home from all star bs, but he will be there and be an excellent team rep, the guy is a beauty
  5. Good point. This feels rushed and counter to smart player development. Seems generally accepted that outside of elite talent it is best to let players marinade in minors for a couple seasons, numerous success takes of this. Habs for some reason keep ####ing this up and wondering why our player development sucks…??? Hopw for the best for he kid but feel this is way too soon and putting the kid onto a loser team with crap supporting cast is gonna set him up for failure.. Who is he gonna play with? Cant see him getting first line time, so best hope is he plays with Monahan, who isn’t gonna be around long so seems stupid to pair these two, or he gets to play with Evans ?? The black hole of offense? This is a terrible idea and makes me lose a lot of faith in current management. The season is supposed to be a loser, give the kid time to adapt and grow so he can have sustained success. Look at Calgary and the Zary kid, 4 years in AHL, finally gets to come up and is third fasted flame to 30 points next to Gaudrea and Iginla, same pattern many successful teams follow. Roy likely doesn’t need 4 seasons in minors but should definitely be finishing out this one and see where he is next year. This move shows lack of forethought, inability to stick to a plan and desperation from Habs management. Not good qualities in leadership. Losing lots of confidence in management.
  6. One thought on the ten thoughts article: garbage. This “writer” continues to bring down the overall content level of the site. He sucks. His blatant hate-on for Anderson undermines any credibility in player critique and his articles are worthless. Every article he takes a dig at Anderson who was definitely not the problem last night, was one of the few consistently noticeable Habs. Piss poor defence who cannot clear the zone with authority is an ongoing problem. Soft chips up the boards where they don’t make a pass and also aren’t clear ong the zone is happening over and over. Baron, Harris and Steiner all guilty of it many time over past handful of games. Mathewson continues to be allowed to play piss poor defensive hockey because he generates some rushes, while constantly getting himself out of position, losing attackers in his own zone and generally being a poor veteran presence. These ten thoughts articles are a bad replacement for the general post-game review and this current writer is the worst of them all. He glorifies mistakes and cannot hide his bias towards some players.
  7. I get that this is tournament play so shit happens, but don’t like commentators saying how this is better for world hockey, yada yada when in reality the much poorer team is moving on. Canada dominated the flow of play for last 40 minutes. shots were totally lopsided and o zone possession time as well. Canada couldn’t capitalize so they lost which is fair but the overall level of hockey heading into medal rounds is significantly lower with Czechia moving forward. Canada appeared to need some more time together, bringing individuals together right before tournament leads to individual style of play. More time to get habituated would have lead to a lot more finishing. regarding commentators, Not sure how that is better for world hockey. I get the idea that it spreads around attention, money, etc but viewership is obv gonna be way down and having tried to watch other games (non US or Canada) it was almost a challenge to pay attention to the tedium, and lower quality. Obv some other strong teams but not all of them are. Sweden obv quite strong.
  8. Yeah, I’ve noted this over the course of the season. Brady has slipped in leadership department, takes far too many penalties at bad times, especially when team is already down, he waits until game is essentially out of reach and starts having tantrums, the entire team appears to be playing for contracts, individual stats. Their tenders have been brutal to boot. The whole org is a joke right now, new owners insist on stability and the. Pull the cheesiest, sloppiest coaching replacement since Florida made Gerard Gallant wait for a can post game when sacked. They say they want consistency and stability yet bring in an old, lame duck coach that everyone knows is not there long term, hmmm seems stable to me, pfft. I’ve never like the sens but I almost feel bad for their fans, not sure why anyone would be. Even my friends who live there begrudgingly say they’re Sens fans but only b/c they live there. I go to games with them and any Canadian team has more fans there than the Sens do, even some American teams. Lighting at their rink sucks, the arena is not very nice and a terrible location if you want to have a full city experience like I do when travelling for games (although one of my biz partners lives in walking distance so kinda handy in that case as we enjoy hanging out) but heaven forbid you want to enjoy Ottawa and catch a game on same day you arrive. Can be in Mtl an hour or town before the game and still experience la joie de vivre, see some historic stuff, hit a pub and make the game on time. Dozen of accommodations within a ten minute walk from arena, jeepers I wonder why that is the common approach and works well? Ottawa doesn’t deserve the franchise.
  9. Nice write up on the game, I can be overly negative on main page content , but that ten thoughts was good read and substantial info/insight.
  10. That didn’t look good, looked like his right knee bent the wrong way when trying to back check stats player. hopefuly it is just a strained muscle or small tear but looked like it could be a major knee injury as well so fingers crossed.
  11. So, is Slaf permanently first line now? I don’t think he consistently belongs there, shows flashes but feel he’s being given the spot moreso than earning it. I suppose lack of other options is part of the factor, think Monahan should be there personally.
  12. Get a kick out of posts dumping on Savard and then saying he’ll fetch a decent return in same breath. A playoff team would love him as a depth option. Habs now have no one capable of playing top pairing on right side. Baron has been a big problem, playing Harris on his wrong side def isn’t helping his development and his progress has been stagnant. Kovacevic is what he is by this point, decent third pairing, short stints as a #4 is realistic in emergencies. There is nobody else capable of filling his role, so I don’t see him moving this year. I don’t see an internal solution ready next year either, but figure one of Reibacher or Mailloux is the longer term plan for first pair right d. They will likely get their chance next season once Savard is traded after New Year, can see another team’s injuries impacting this timeline more than anything else. Montembault has also seen the shine wear off lately, can’t be allowing any softies.
  13. Since it worked last game, gonna continue to erroneously crap on Evans and Anderson in top 6. And am happy to have been wrong about Slaf this year, can see him potentially being a player like Nickushkin, who has blossomed late but is but, strong, pretty fast and learning to play with talent. Go Habs Go!
  14. Jets have seemed to have a decent offensive group for quite some time, imo they’ve underperformed given their forward group (and decent d/excellent goalie) over the past 3-4 seasons. Scheifelle (Boo!), Ehlers, Connor (obv out), and some depth in Neideroeiter, Lowry, etc. When they had Wheeler and Laine as well as the three listed first I expected cup contenders with their back end that was tough to play against.
  15. Man what terrible optics. Sens bring in Martin as a “consultant” or whatever and everyone speculated thatthe next move would be replacing Smith with Martin. Smith, ever the soldier, gives the admirable responses about welcoming the experience, etc. Now we are what 1-2 weeks later and they pull this move? What an embarrassment of an organization to treat your long-tenured coach(es) like that. New owner, same old clown show in Ottawa. Sens have too many solo artists looking out for their own stats, contracts, Brady has not been a good leader this year, they have someone cherry picking for offense all game long, Smith was not the issue but I get and expect that a new voice will kick off some positive response and wins. Glad I am no Sens fan, go to a lot of games in Ottawa and man it is a relatively poor fan experience compared to the other pro rinks I’ve seen games at. Complete junk franchise, would be better of in Quebec City.
  16. Ugh @ Evans playing top 6. Dont get why Monahan isn’t playing that spot and Evans goes back to his 4C spot. Stephens hasn’t been bad, but also doesn’t bring much. Evans/Ylonen could be together for a while and perhaps a long run together could establish a future third line duo. They do well with Pezz most of the time, rarely is that line the problem given the expectations. Monahan at C insulates Suzuki in a way as well b/c teams are not worried about game planning for a second line centre by Evans; whereas, one with Monahan at C demands attention and focus that detracts from attention given to 14/22/20. Ugh, side note : The spell check/auto correct part of this forum is horrible to deal with on mobile.
  17. I kind of hope so, and that he slots in for Anderson in a top 6/9 role rather than on 4th line. Anderson has never stopped working but just thinking a shift in view/perspective may help and don’t want Henineman on fourth line.
  18. He was given an excellent opportunity there and obv will get more chances with the length of his contract. The plan was and season began with him at 2C (playing with Moore and Fiala) and Danault was slotting in at 3C but the underperformance of PLD combined with the excellent play of Danault got Danault promoted to play with Moore, Fiala line they have become the second line and one of most consistent in league and PLD plays third in a role with lower expectations, PLD was also off the PP for a while but is back on PP2, but he is also playing under 15 min/game a lot of the time in past month. I say all of this b/c imo he was given excellent opportunity and didn’t seize it, continues to struggle offensively but is strong enough overall to centre a decent shit down third line that will indeed make the Kings a very rough out. They are deep and good and the questions about goaltending seem to have been answered so far.
  19. I’d trade Mattheson for a quality return any day. I have lots of respect for his skills, professionalism he has shown with Habs, but…. 1) he is not a number one dman, or even top pairing player on a cup contender so no need to plan long term around him. 2) he is too old to plan long term around him when compared to the core that will be expected to contend for cups, some of which is not even on Habs yet so again no need to plan around him. 3) he is injury prone throughout his career, and now, related to number 2 above he is likely even more susceptible to injury. 4) he is not cheap (he has provided value when healthy, but regardless of value he is a contract slot and money that should go to younger core players rather than holding onto him into his final year. I’d like him traded this offseason or next season. 5) he is not good positionally, chases the play far out of position and can recover due to his speed, agility so it is an asset for him to play like a rover defensively but, I don’t like younger players having to play with him doing that. It sets a bad example, puts them in awkward spots when he is in their area and also creates opportunities for opponents on the weak side (Mattheson’s side). This is mainly why he is not best suited as a top pairing guy, rather someone who should be used when offense is needed, and at 5v5 used against bottom/ middle six versus the top line. He really reminds me of Petry, can fill in as top pairing guy but you don’t want him there for long. Mobile, good offensive instincts although I think Petry was more physical at that age range. Ive been critical above but do like the player, think he has been a bright spot in some dark times. He will fetch a great return as long as he stays healthy. He has been a valuable player for Habs and I am fine with parting with him is simply because we need the quality return to be had from moving him, we have young dmen that are soon ready to be challenged with more duties, his age is a little high for the team’s trajectory. Don’t see how picks help at this point so hopefully they receive a high ceiling (floor of top 6) forward in return from a team with injuries, need for speedy D. Wit no research can see Vegas, Dallas, Minnesota, Arizona (crazy to think) as teams with need for adding players for a push this year or next. Jersey need d help now, Calgaryay if they move out Hannifin and Tanev, so I believe there will be a healthy market for a prime Mattheson, even with a couple years left on his deal.
  20. Pfft, what a bs thing To say about an NHL calibre player. additionally, when it comes to taking abuse/blocking shots: If it isn’t Savard doing it, it is going to be Guhle even more so than he already has to. He will be the one on IR and is far too valuable to be taking on that primary penalty kill, shot block load. Mattheson is not that type of player (he does block a decent amount of shots). you need a vet that can lead the way in that regard and defend a third period onslaught. Every winner has dmen sacrificing themselves for the team, acting like it isn’t essential is ignorant. Some players are better than others at understanding the angles/lanes and how to make themselves big, it is a skill set in its own. Savard blocks have won the Habs many a game, late and defending the lead. Takes some serious balls to know the gap is too big and still stand in front on an Ovie one timer. Savard has proven to be much better than I’d personally anticipated in his all around game.
  21. Why? Not at all a Habs related article and seems to offer no point. Why is that on a Habs page and why bother, no news, no info, just a puke of words. Since the site is covering other teams and their players. Why no article about Ovi’s struggles this year, or why not another Leafs article since we are desperate for topics apparently…? Because Huberdeau is from QC? The content on the main page has dropped in quality, this article and the ten thoughts are bad ideas. Move on.
  22. good point, I can’t help but wonder if betting on Dach is wise though given he has had a lot of injuries so far and wondering whether that trend continues or simply the wear and tear becomes too much…? I don’t think I’d bet my future on him at this point, not b/c he isn’t capable but injuries are such a big deal and some players seem more prone than others whether due to their style of play, physical build, etc. Max PAC is a god example of older player who Dach reminds me of, had some good years, decent size, is a producer but I wouldn’t want to be dependent on him being around for whole seasons. Sam Bennet is another player who has a lot of tools but can’t stay healthy. Hard to plan future around players with history of missing significant time. Def need to keep Monahan now that I think on this.
  23. Yes, it was commented on by a few media people. Guhle confirmed it in an interview, said an opponent’s knee landed on back of his head during a pile up (forget which game, but the one he left early) and he thinks it was a freak accident, symptoms were not bad and felt fully recovered. The tinted visor was not mentioned but interesting catch.
  24. It seems like he doesn’t always recognize how much time he has and rushed his pass into traffic or off track. That should continue to improve as he adjusts, easy to forgot how young he is and I have to remember to have patience and manage expectations with him. Had great seats for this game and seeing his eyes was very telling, he looked scared with the puck a couple times when he was near my seat, looked like a younger me trying to get the nerve to touch my first boob. I think some of the big hits he has taken has left a memory. So much time for him, but it is I possible not to see that he has been rushed. Should have stayed in Europe last year, maybe AHL this year. It was obvious live, much more so than when I’ve watched televised games.
  25. Armia did look good, was never in wrong place, made some smart plays and is a boost to penalty kill. Hopefully he’s recognized the need to perform consistently. Harris had a rough game, still get out muscled too often, seems overwhelmed at times. Think I liked Lidstom’’s play game more over recent stretch. Could be b/c Harris has often been on his off-side. Stupid fight for Pearson to engage in, lost momentum that Habs had just gained. Bad opponent to allow himself to get sucked in by, Jet player had him by short before scrap even commenced. Allen was obv the difference, hard to believe a goalie can allow three and still be the reason a team wins, but he was sharp and seemed to allow very few rebound chances. Habs were very sloppy to start game, first period particularly seemed like nobody wanted to hold puck and just looked for immediate passes and didn’t connect on any. Was tense in the building and players seemed tense as well. They improved as game went on and third period was their best. Habs were often putting a fw out past centre when puck was in their zone, cherry picking sort of, found it odd but obv they had their reasons b/c it was obviously a strategy and many players were using it even at 5v5, it did not lead to any scoring chances tho so seemed like a poor choice. Would rather see our forwards back helping dmen and making short breakout passes, building lots of speed as they exit out zone. Character win tho, nice to see most of young Dmen progressing.
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