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1-1 mid-game, Aves outshooting Dallas 21-8

Caufield 2a Guhle/Rohrer 1a

Who knows what to believe regarding rumours, that would have been a phenomenal trade for the Habs, pretty one sided.

Zadorov has played well, but stirring the pot a bit doesn't accomplish anything. He must enjoy pumping up the fans.

It is POSSIBLE that MB et al might have been smart enough to draft Matthew Tkachuk or even Clayton Keller ... imagine ... Draisaitl, Nurse and Matthew.

https://www.thescore.com/nhl/news/1052198 Also: https://www.habsfanatics.com/nhl/trades/Leon-Draisaitl-and-the-Montreal-Canadiens-a-monster-trade-offer-has-just-resurfaced-and-dates-back-to-2016 Here it is: To Edmonton: - P.K. Subban - 9th overall pick (which became Mikhail Sergachev) To Montreal: - Leon Draisaitl - Darnell Nurse - 4th overall pick (which became Jesse Puljujarvi) I remember the rumours on Edmonton around Subban, and just before Draisaitl sent by to WHL team his first year

Rumour was that MB really wanted the oilers pick to draft PLD for Subban. When Karkaleinin snagged PLD instead of his fellow Finn the deal fell apart.

Bergevin liked big men that throbbed with character and he fell in love with a mountain man 🧍‍♂️ Crazy if true because the Habs needed forwards badly and we could have had a great one like Draisaitl?

As the rumour goes , Bergevin turned down Subban for Draisaitl trade🤔

Draisaitl doesn’t get enough praise. The guy is in conversation for top three best player in the league. My god I would love to have him on the Habs

Carolina is on the horse tonight and Andersen is solid. My hopes for a Ranger sweep are being swept away 🧹 Pick it up Rags

I thought Edmundson was actually really great against Boston. He caused an enormous amount of pain to the leafs. I have no idea what the leafs problem is but the two things stand out to me. All season long the leafs play high octane, high forecheck, puck possession game. Come the playoffs the leafs completely change their approach to a dump and chase team. I think it was the HNIC crew that were talking about this. The other thing is Keefe did a poor job coaching this year. Bad decisions at key times. Definitely not the reason the leafs lost but those bad decisions took opportunities away. Treliving is going to make a big move this offseason. I can only hope for a mistake. Marner for Anderson

Marner's production in the playoffs hasn't been great but not awful either (50pts in 57 games). The biggest problem in my opinion is that their blueline is not nearly good enough. Reilly, Brodie, McCabe, Benoit, Edmundson, Lybushkin?? It's not even close to being as good a blueline as Carolina or the Rangers, not even close. They need to spend less on forwards and more on the blueline.

It's almost like he being made the scapegoat without any real evidence.

I get why people don't cheer for the Oilers. They had more #1 picks than any one team deserves. It's a little surprising they got Draisaitl at #3 although Reinhart and Ekblad were decent picks, he is such a beast, so strong physically which makes him hard to contain.

Totally agree, tons of ability, great work ethic and compete level. He is a gamer and a leader. Maybe the most underrated player in the game. The kind of guy every coach wants on their team, can't say enough good things about him.

One thing we don't hear much about (and why would we?) is the incredible acumen of Van's management group. Cap-strapped because of the innumerable stupidities of Jim "Couldn't Get Around to Signing Toffoli" Benning, they had to choose whether to prioritize Miller or Horvat's contract. They chose Miller, then traded Horvat rather than overpay based on an outlier contract season. Fan howled. They made the right decision. Saddled with goombah Boudreau as coach and not permitted to immediately fire him, they rode it out for a while and then brought in Tocchet. Fans were unimpressed. Tocchet has been a BRILLIANT hire. He has done a masterful job of reconstituting the team's entire identity. Recognizing team D as a weakness, they completely remoulded the blueline and now have a strong 6-man unit with considerable size and sufficient mobility. Seeing that they had an unexpected contender, they went out and added Zadorov and Lindstrom. Both have been critical to this run; Zadorov has been an absolute monster. Rutherford won Cups with two separate organizations - quite a rare thing for a GM - and Alvin is his protege. They've put on a master class in organizational transformation. (Whether it can be sustained is another matter; the Canucks have a busload of impending UFAs. However, if I were a fan, I'd be reassured knowing that key decisions are in the hands of this management group).

The way Edmonton dances around the Ozone is genuinely impressive. As CC noted above, when McDavid and Draisaitl are on the ice, the Canucks are just trying to survive. It’s the only reason I don’t want Edmonton to win. The Oilers get the greatest hockey player to ever play the game and Messier for a side kick. Now the Oilers draft the most skilled player to ever play the game and have Draisaitl as a side kick. Let’s go Vancouver - they haven’t won a damned thing.

That PP goal for Pettersson will hopefully drive him to score more. He was in good position for that one timer shot a few times last night. Nurse had some really hard hits on Pettersson and he has to find a way to avoid some of those. I love JT Miller and wish he was a Hab.

The Oiler - Canuck series has been really fun to watch. The refs did miss a couple but that's the way it goes. It's been a very physical series. The Canucks deserved to win game 1 the Oilers deserved to win game 2, looking forward to the next games. I am still not convinced Skinner is the guy, the 3rd Canuck goal was horrible. Vancouver has impressed me with their team speed and their discipline, they realize they need to stay out of the penalty box and have kept the number of PP chances to a minimum. Obviously Tocchet has done a great job.

Because if there was no penalty called on the play, they can't go to review. One of the four officials would have had to have seen the initial high stick to get a penalty on the board which could then be reviewed. Since that didn't happen, it couldn't be reviewed.

Almost all of those are one series only (Leafs, you know) so it may be how the opposing team plays against Matthews-Marner. The Bruins certainly contained him, but maybe some of those other teams (2018, 2022, 2023) did not. Not sufficiently motivated to analyze my theory, though! 😊 But, in a sense it's a small sample as almost every year it's only against a single team.

Why wouldnt they call a penalty from an obvious stick to face, from very quick video review? Those 2 oilers are pretty good.

Funny thing about Marner. He’s had dud playoffs, but he’s also had productive ones (2018, 2022, 2023). Regular Season Playoffs Season Team Lge GP G A Pts PIM +/- GP G A Pts PIM 2012-13 St. Michael's Buzzers OJHL 6 1 3 4 0 14 3 1 4 0 2013-14 London Knights OHL 64 13 46 59 24 38 9 3 6 9 4 2014-15 London Knights OHL 63 44 82 126 53 36 7 9 7 16 8 2015-16 London Knights OHL 57 39 77 116 68 45 18 16 28 44 8 2016-17 Toronto Maple Leafs NHL 77 19 42 61 38 0 6 1 3 4 0 2017-18 Toronto Maple Leafs NHL 82 22 47 69 26 -1 7 2 7 9 4 2018-19 Toronto Maple Leafs NHL 82 26 68 94 22 22 7 2 2 4 2 2019-20 Toronto Maple Leafs NHL 59 16 51 67 16 6 5 0 4 4 2 2020-21 Toronto Maple Leafs NHL 55 20 47 67 20 21 7 0 4 4 4 2021-22 Toronto Maple Leafs NHL 72 35 62 97 16 23 7 2 6 8 2 2022-23 Toronto Maple Leafs NHL 80 30 69 99 28 18 11 3 11 14 2 2023-24 Toronto Maple Leafs NHL 69 26 59 85 18 21 7 1 2 3 2 NHL Totals 576 194 445 639 184 57 11 39 50 18 I heard one suggestion that he would do better in a non-Canadian market and I have a feeling that may be true. If he wound up in, say, Carolina, I would not be surprised at all to see him writing a second half of his career where he quietly emerges as a regular season AND playoff star. Or, it may just be that he needs to get out of TO, like Kessel did. Anyway, he’s 27 so outside the Habs’ window. Forget it.