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The season at the 20% mark


tomh009

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Ian no expert, and I am probably wrong; but I would bring up Evans while Kotka is at the WJs and would send down Agostino when Scherbak is activated. 

We are not winning the cup this year, and the kids need to be evaluated at the NHL level. There is no doubt Kotka can play 3C. But the goal is to. Bring him to a 1C level and to find out where the other players fit

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8 hours ago, alfredoh2009 said:

Ian no expert, and I am probably wrong; but I would bring up Evans while Kotka is at the WJs and would send down Agostino when Scherbak is activated. 

We are not winning the cup this year, and the kids need to be evaluated at the NHL level. There is no doubt Kotka can play 3C. But the goal is to. Bring him to a 1C level and to find out where the other players fit

 

Hes not going to improve by sending him away to play against junior aged players though.

 

Thats not the way to develop a guy who is clearly proving to be an effective NHLer as the youngest guy in the league.

 

You need to keep playing him against the best players in the world and slowly increasing his challenges with more minutes and harder competition... but it will be a process.

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4 hours ago, Commandant said:

Hes not going to improve by sending him away to play against junior aged players though.

You are probably right commandant, but I had to post it since the CH did it for Mete last year. Kotka's play hasn't dipped like Mete's last year so he will probably stay.

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Not probably.... Certainly!

 

The logic isnt there. Im all for calling Evans up especially considering his elevated play in Laval for the last couple weeks. He is now the 1C jumping ahead of everyone since his return from that bad knock out blow. But it would be to play on the 4th line with Peca relegated. With that said, i would rather see Evans play another 30games as the #1 in Laval and if his play stays at this level then call him up for the stretch run and depth in “the playoffs”

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I  was one of the few who said that one or two surprises can change a team.  It seems to be happening.  Early on Domi Drouin and Tatar have been impact players.

 

 This team at forward could have a 2a 2b 2c forward group when Armia and Byron come back.  

 

Defense is another story.  A #1, #3, and 6 bottom pair defensemen.  I would put reilly with weber.  But I don't like benn oulet or mete on the second pairing.  This defense needs work.  I don't think coaching can fix it.  As fun as it is watching all the scoring, you have to defend too. It seems like Armia and Byron helped this.  The defense didn't look this horrible when they were playing. 

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3 hours ago, BCHabnut said:

This defense needs work.  I don't think coaching can fix it.  As fun as it is watching all the scoring, you have to defend too. It seems like Armia and Byron helped this.  The defense didn't look this horrible when they were playing. 

 

You have a point there. While our D wasn't fantastic then, either, it's been worse yet in the last few weeks with Armia and Byron out of action.

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On 2018-11-11 at 10:08 AM, tomh009 said:

We are one-fifth through the 2018-2019 season, and I think all (most?) of us have been positively surprised by the team's performance so far. And more subjectively, I love how they are playing. But let's look at the numbers at the team level.

 

The good:

  • 7th in league overall
  • 11th in league in goals scored/game
  • 11th in league in PK %
  • 10th in league in shots/game
  • 6th in league in shots against/game
  • 3rd in league in hits
  • 2-0 in shootouts

 

The bad:

  • 22nd in league in goals allowed/game
  • 26th in league in save percentage
  • 9th in league in minor penalties

 

The ugly:

  • 29th in league in PP %
  • 30th in league in FOW %
  • 4th in league in giveaways
  • 2nd in league in bench penalties
  • 0-3 in overtime

 

I believe the PP will improve when Weber gets back. Faceoffs will hopefully improve with experience (Kotkaniemi is a rookie and Domi has mostly played LW). The number of penalties and giveaways should be possible to improve with coaching. So I'm not too worried about those numbers.

 

The big question is really the goaltending: can Price up his game? Can Niemi shine like he did last year (.929 save %)? With strong goaltending, even with no other changes, even without Weber, we could be leading the eastern conference right now. Which really is a shock after the low pre-season expectations.

The thing I like the most is something stats don't show and that's body language. These guys back each other up, they're smiling on the bench and they look like they really enjoy playing with one another. Thats something we haven't seen in awhile.

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3 hours ago, alfredoh2009 said:

Now with the injuries th CH has time to makes personnel decisions. I still hope they bring up Evans before the xmas holidays 

 

Id continue to let him dominate the ahl.

 

No point to call him up for 4th line duty.

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23 minutes ago, Commandant said:

 

Id continue to let him dominate the ahl.

 

No point to call him up for 4th line duty.

Every year, the Habs bring up prospects for half-dozen games at a time. Usually in December-January, before the trade deadline.

 

Of the forwards, i think Evans would be one. But probably they will mostly bring Ds, to evaluate whom they may part with

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14 minutes ago, Commandant said:

2 things

 

1) has the habs development plan been good?  Why continue it?

2) how many of those prospects brought up were in their first year in the ahl? Who were they and did it work?

I'll go check the recall history and get back to you on #2.

 

And for #1, they have not up to this year but that (bringing players up) is something they just do.

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