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Regardless, Habs are in:

I don't have the lineups or anything else for you. What I do have is the facts. We need a point. Period. Get your butts out there and get'er done boys. Can't wait on Calgary losing to the 'nucks. 1st GDT of the season, hope it is not my last! Go Habs Go!!!

I’ll just put my cards on the table and say that it is a good thing to have some women’s voices in hockey and on the signature national broadcasts. Cassie Campbell and Jennifer B. were both pioneers of the women’s sport who played it at a high level for years. Neither is what I’d call a Grade-A analyst, but they are both better than many of the clowns and gasbags that have wasted those seats over the years, e.g., Glenn Healy. The entire culture of the NHL as a giant club for white hetero male “Good Canadian Boys” is tired, boring, and long past its best-by date anyhow as far as I’m concerned.

I don't care how many goals Primeau lets in or how many bad rebounds he gives up (which is why some of us have been saying he's not ready to be a full-time backup next season), he has to stay in. If Price isn't 100% for the playoffs and Allen is the starter, he can't go in tired. He's clearly tired right now so this has to be Primeau's game no matter what. By picking him to start, they're playing the long game. One truly awful period shouldn't change that.

Yes, and maybe their coach will actually spread the ice time around as a result. Have never seen a coach cater to one player so much, from double shifting, to putting him on with opponent goalie pulled and anything else to help him get to his “milestone”, meanwhile the rest of the team is watching. Through a connection the their organization (medical professional) I was told the teammates noticed it and were not impressed. I was told this is partly why there are very few interviews with teammates about how happy they are about McDavid’s 100 points. Apparently players open up during

"Let the big dog eat!" Final road trip of the regular season begins, and this is the last chance the Habs' will have to feast on a weaker team. A win here either vaults the team into 3rd or keeps pace with the Jets and drops the Flames out of the playoff race. Lineups changed at practice signaling a potential return from one of the injured forwards. More info to come...

Here is an optimistic take on things. You look at this team, they have been consistently in a playoff spot all season. They have a lot of old guys and may well be highly playoff-directed. So, the motivation in the regular season drops off; their entire aim is to just survive the season until the games really matter. Even though this group has been pretty insipid since the first dozen games, they have yet to end up in any real trouble in the standings. Instead they come up with 1-2 big wins when they need them, then revert back to plodding mediocrity. So, once the bell rings for the

Agree 100%, it more about getting ready for the playoffs at this point. Allen needs some rest.

It is impressive how you were able to turn a conversation about the Capitals vs Rangers and the subsequent lack of disciplinary actions, into a Bergevin diss. Never cease to amaze me

I said a paucity of *elite* talent. The Habs (except during the Lefebvre era) have seldom had any problem generating a pipeline of serviceable players. In organizational terms, we are subtracting elite-level Price and Weber and replacing them with...nobody comparable. That’s why I say that sustained mediocrity is the likeliest outcome.

Lets talk about how many goals the guy had while leaving out the fact he was leading our team in assists. You do realize hes a play maker, not a sniper. He also led our team in points in last years playoffs. But yeah hes either useless or a third liner, depending on who is writing about him.

It would be nice if Quebecers stopped electing this idiots. We have the same problem in Alberta, with morons like Kenney.

.917 is his career SV%. In the last four seasons, he has been below that average three times, with one season of .918 right at his average. So yes, it is true. He has brief flashes of his old self, but he is not the goalie he once was on a regular basis. He is an average NHL goalie now. I'm not saying he's not their best option, but we need to stop thinking of him as some kind of saviour.

This is an almost perfect representation of this season’s path to the playoffs. The only thing that could have made it better is the guy hitting his head in the side of the pool, before actually landing in the pool. I said around 4 or 5 weeks ago, there is no way we should not get in. However, I thought given how bad Calgary and Vancouver were, I thought we would have wrapped up thing earlier. Hopefully, the rest will do Price and Weber good, and they are healthy and ready to go along with Gallagher.

is that Lehkonen scoring ? Made me laugh, I am happy we made it to the playoffs, stumbling in, but in at last. All teams will have rested players and some injured players on the mend. But if the Habs go on a run like they did at the beginning of the season, It would be an enjoyable stumble to watch

Me too, the "made it" feel of the giff sums up the Habs season perfectly. @Trizzak great post.

This cracked me up. So fitting.

I don’t think Molson will fire him. I bet Molson give Bergevin a new contract. He hasn’t earned one but Molson isn’t doing anything about it. I sincerely hope Molson sells this team

Need to find a Tavares-type superstar who ACTUALLY wants to sign with hometown franchise, any french superstars with contract running out in next year or two on shitty neverending noncontending teams who may fit the bill?

Holy crap boys just clinch your damn spot already!

Gretzky is the all-time league leader in empty-net goals while Lemieux is fourth. https://www.statmuse.com/nhl/ask/who-has-the-most-career-empty-net-goals I do get your point about the catering though - I've noticed Toronto does it a lot too with Marner and Matthews. It's all about the stat-padding.

So what is a scrum? I remember maybe 7 years ago when lucic punched someone in the face in a scrum and everyone went nuts. If another person comes at you aggressively and starts pushing you around, you gonna not push back? Scrums kind of annoy me in the first place. If you want to jump in a scrum, you should probably be prepared for the result of what happens when you act violent but are incapable of violence. What Wilson did was over the top, but I don't disagree with bieksa entirely. I also don't disagree with the rest of the panel either. But if you want to act tough against a tough guy, an

100% agree

The remnants of last game came back to bite them. Allen was terrible on the first goal not tracking the shot and letting in a major softie and didn't track the puck well off the draw on the third goal. Tired goalies aren't sharp when tracking pucks. Why is he tired? Ducharme's stupid decision to put him in when the game was over on Thursday, taking away his rest day. I know the goal support wasn't there but I honestly believe if Primeau stays in on Thursday, Allen tracks one of those shots (probably the first one) and we're possibly looking at overtime at this point.

Caufield with OT winner and Oil gonna destroy Canucks so we in playoffs baby 🎉

I just want to watch a Habs game and enjoy it from beginning to end more than once a month. Get the lead. Keep the lead. Extend the lead. It's what good teams do.

A little more research shows sports and anti-trust have am interesting history in the courts ... other than the specific anti-trust exemption for MLB, and the general jurisprudence exemption for sports leagues to operate collectively and restrict entry, it seems that potentially litigious issues such as "one and done" have been allowed because they are collectively bargained ... I suspect they may not have been challenged because a draft-ineligible player would have to risk several years of a possible career in court before their case was finally resolved ... the situation may be further compl

All I can say is that Allen was the signing that saved the season. We all knew he would help, but who knew he would be the Habs’ #1 for half the season? Without him it would have been 2016 all over again.

Yeah, so ask a highly competitive professional athlete who is literally playing for his career and millions in earnings to lie and step away from action? He is not Ovie, he is trying to solidify himself, earn his next contract, starters job and all of these players are former champions with a ton of self respect. To ask a professional athlete to create an injury so he can hand the net to someone competing for one of the elusive NHL goalie jobs is not only unscrupulous and shady, but also contradicts everything a professional athlete has been raised on. Poor roster management is on mgmt

I hadn't thought of that until today... TNT/TBS has to get Charles involved in hockey in some way, right? I seem to recall him being somewhat of a hockey fan showing up at games when his schedule allows. I'll take Charles talking hockey over comet trails all day long!

Hey, I used to love hockey fighting too. Those Kordic-Miller duels were epic. I also used to love boxing. The trouble, for me, is what we have learned about concussions over the decades. Now when I see fights - and even worse, deliberate assaults like what Wilson did on Panarin, or that pig Chara on Patches - all I see is a young man suffering permanent brain damage. There is absolutely nothing entertaining in that as far as I’m concerned.

With those players healthy they will be the same team that was more or less exactly where they are now when those players started going out ... there is always hope ... mostly riding on Price getting back in TOP form ... which despite some good additions is still what Habs fans have had to hope ever since Carey became the Habs #1 ... I don't see the Habs winning if Price has a .914 Sv% like Billington in 18/19, or Quick's .911 in 13/14 or the Hawks with Niemi's .911 in 09/10 ...IMO it will take closer to Thomas in 10/11 (.940), Quick in 11/12 (.946) or Murray in 16/17 (.937) BTW ..

Right about now, I'm wishing that Allen would have had the true off-night and Lindgren would have been the backup which is something some teams (including Toronto) have done with their starters. That would at least have given them another option to turn to that wouldn't involve undoing the planned rest.

What difference would that make? It's more about the team in front of them that was awful last night and is off to a really bad start tonight.

We did both. I still believe KK can be a very good player - maybe a 20-25 goal Phil Danault - but not an elite talent that you target at #3. He'll still need to make a major leap or two to get to that potential, and there are several if not many players from that draft class who both have a higher floor and ceiling. We made a bad selection worse by bringing him over at least two years too early, and not giving him time to physically and professionally mature in the ways you outlined. It seems obvious that Bergevin made up his mind to draft for positional need instead of BPA, and subsequentl

Well did you hear Messier’s comments (who was also campaigning for a job with the Rangers), I hope Mr. MVP and Leadership never gets an NHL job!

In other words ... he should never have been drafted third overall

Haha indeed, so sick of people acting like the team and teammates are holding him back. Gonna be a decent two way, third line center who gets 40 points per season, maybe peak at 50 range. Not a team saviour, not an offensive threat, never was.

What a backwards league. Here is the issue... The NHL could be promoting Connor McDavid having the best season since Wayne/Mario.... Matthews lighting up the goal scoring.... young talented D like Hughes, Makar, Fox, etc.... Nathan MacKinnon etc. Nope, cause DOPS is a joke, the league becomes about eye for an eye violence again. And yes, current fans like fights and stuff. But this will be the image of the NHL tomorrow on every sports show, and sports fans who aren't NHL fans will never be exposed to the skill parts of the game and think th

Jeez, they've looked dangerous in the last 2 mins. If they can score they could do it again real quick and this could get interesting. or The Sens could score again. Crap.

Neither player has scored in the last 19 games and Evans has more assists than Kotkaniemi does in that span. Right now, neither of them are ideal scoring options but lately, Evans has done a lot more than Kotkaniemi in terms of driving the play.

just like KK, 4th liner

Funny ... that is what his wingers have been saying much of the season

Need Tatar and Gallagher back big time

KK sandbagged? The guy who hasn't scored a goal in like 2o games. he should be benched.

The team (well the players) started Bilbo.

This is the issue with the DOPS not doing their job. There are no real good deterrents to a guy like Wilson if the league isn't effective at bringing deterrance. It makes teams take things into their own hands. And then we get an eye for an eye justice that never ends. The Rangers go after Backstrom tonight, The Capitals then go after Zibanejad, the Rangers go after Ovechkin, etc... etc.... No one wins and the league is worse off as more stars get hurt. Its so short sighted by the NHL to handle discipline this way.

Let’s keep Triz making these for the rest of the session 🙌 Goal Caufield is gonna score again. You can’t stop talent like that.

Kulak is an interesting case. A lot of people, including analysts, quite like him, but others - such as the Habs' coaching staff - do not. He is quietly quite a divisive guy.

What a difference a week makes! Instead of looking over our shoulders, we can root for the Flames and Canucks to win their games tonight and tomorrow against the Jets and Oilers.