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Everything posted by xXx..CK..xXx
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GDT Game 17 - Golden Knights vs Canadiens - November 16, 2023 - 7 pm
xXx..CK..xXx replied to GHT120's topic in Habs & Hockey Talk
I won’t be able to ever agree. It may be realistic to accept that we are not a contender but it’s getting to the point where any season we aren’t people are actually happy with losses. We are fans and are supposed to support our team. How many people actually attend a Habs game hoping we will lose simply because we have no shot at the cup? The draft is not the only way to acquire top end talent. Trades exist as well. Unfortunately with a cap and a growing number of teams in the league winning the cup is going to become even more difficult. If someone feels we should be tanking this year, they will likely feel that way 16 out of 20 years. Honestly, may as well find a different sport to watch with that perspective. This doesn’t even delve into the reality that some fans who will be wishing for losses are simply wrong about the potential of our team because they are just that, fans with their own opinion. Or maybe the fact that it would be good for the development of our young players to experience regular season success or even playoff failures. Happy with a 6-5 loss? Doesn’t matter that the 6 goals were against our developing goaltender, at least it was entertaining! Going even further, this was the same perspective of some the very year we made the cup final. Those same fans of our very own team then continue to point out that it’s not a valid comparison because it was the “bubble season”. We had a great playoff team that year and players fighting for Weber and Price’s final attempt. There’s no winning that debate or changing a tanker’s perspective so as I said, to each their own. -
GDT Game 17 - Golden Knights vs Canadiens - November 16, 2023 - 7 pm
xXx..CK..xXx replied to GHT120's topic in Habs & Hockey Talk
I thought the Habs played relatively well despite the score and amount of shots against. Being undisciplined was their biggest downfall. -
GDT Game 17 - Golden Knights vs Canadiens - November 16, 2023 - 7 pm
xXx..CK..xXx replied to GHT120's topic in Habs & Hockey Talk
Such a weird perspective but to each their own. Drafting high has really worked out well for us in the recent past. The modern fan to their aspiring athletic children after a loss: “Don’t worry, it’s better if our team loses. It’s all part of the plan.” -
I’m not defending it and have very little memory of Turgeon’s impact on the Habs but he did play parts of 3 seasons with the Habs and has the 3rd highest points per game average ever amongst Canadiens players. Behind Newsy Lalonde and Guy Lafleur. I know, only 108 games. Just saying.
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GDT Game 17 - Golden Knights vs Canadiens - November 16, 2023 - 7 pm
xXx..CK..xXx replied to GHT120's topic in Habs & Hockey Talk
I mentioned it the other day as well. Over the years I haven’t thought much of him but he seems to be attempting to seize the opportunity right now. I’m beginning to be a believer in him. It has nothing to do with the sample size because for me a lot of it has to with his focus and compete level. That should continue. -
Do I think Montembault played well last season? No. He was: 60th in the league in wins 82nd in save percentage 95th in goals against average When we had terrible seasons with Price, he would still hover around the top 30 in those categories at least. No, I am not comparing Montembault to Price. Yes, I understand that it is a team sport and do not blame Montembault for our results last year. Yes, some of the goalies ahead of Montembault on the stats I listed played a minimal amount of games therefore skewing Montembaults standing in those categories. Yes, I’ve seen Montembault have great games. No, I don’t think he has ever played very well over an entire season, in general.
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I just don’t get how so many people are so high on or even accepting of Montembault. In my opinion there’s not even a consideration of him being a flash in the pan because he’s never been good. This is coming from someone who usually defends our players so I am not, in general, a hater. I understand that there are many factors at play and considering he is currently on the team now we have to work with what we have but I can clearly see that he’s not it and I watch every game. Some people here were also anti-Price because as a result of having him we had to rely too much on our goaltending, but I saw that as a good problem to have. I don’t expect our next goalie to be Price and don’t hold Montembault to that standard but I believe our current tandem to be one of the worst in the league and would like to upgrade. Otherwise, we will have to expect very little over the next few years.
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GDT Game #16: Flames at Canadiens, 7 PM on Tue 14 Oct
xXx..CK..xXx replied to tomh009's topic in Habs & Hockey Talk
Happy and thankful Guhle’s alright after receiving that skate up high to his face. -
I mean the Habs brass are hopefully smarter and more informed than you and I so if they see something I don’t that’s fine, but you can see why they would want to extend Monty with his career .896 save percentage? I’d rather have Primeau as a backup goalie than be “stuck” with Montrmbeault as a 1a or 1b goalie for the next few years. That’s where I see the difference. With Montembault, I worry that we’re going to have a tandem in net rather than a legitimate starter. With Primeau, I see him as a backup. Allen is not the answer either but short term he’s more of a starter than the other two. There’s been mention in the thread about the “new age” NHL having more teams going with multiple goalies so call me old school. With that being said, I’d rather have a Shesterkin or Vasilevskiy in net than a Michael Leighton circa 2010 Philadelphia Flyers. Finally, even with a tandem, one of the goalies is usually superior to both Allen and Montembeault. I understand that it is unrealistic to acquire a Shesterkin or Vasilevskiy but my preference would be to look outward for our new starter or “1a goalie”. The Habs are obviously on a different page than I am though because even DeSmith is a higher quality goalie than what we have behind Allen. In sum, if Montembault is a backup goalie for the Habs I have no problem with it. If he’s one of our starters, then we’re going to have to build a Colorado or Vegas strong team in front of him or the next few years will be very long. That’s also where I differ… many people are willing to rebuild for the next three years (when in reality that timeframe just keeps extending and extending.) I’d like to contend, thank you very much.
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2023-24 Montreal Canadiens Discussion Thread
xXx..CK..xXx replied to GHT120's topic in Habs & Hockey Talk
Stat of the day: Habs have the same amount of regulation wins as the San Jose Sharks (2). -
Neither do I. I already stated when people were wishing Price out of the net that we may not have another goalie like him for another 20 years. Boggles the mind that we have to go years without a legitimate starting goalie.
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On Saturday the CBC cast (I believe Eliott Friedman) said that the Habs were working on Montembault’s contract and eager to extend him and then cited his better than expected save percentage when faced with high danger situations. Personally while I generally back all of our players, I would prefer sticking with Allen and Primeau as a tandem if I had to choose. I’m not a big fan of Montembeault, even though I understand I’m in the minority. I haven’t been a big Primeau fan over the years either but he’s somewhat impressed me this year. It seems as though he is playing every game as though “it’s his chance” this year.
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GDT Game 1 - Montréal vs. Toronto ... 7 p.m. - 2023-10-11
xXx..CK..xXx replied to GHT120's topic in Habs & Hockey Talk
I’m okay now that Caufield scored again -
18th Annual Regular Season Prediction Contest
xXx..CK..xXx replied to Peter Puck's topic in Habs & Hockey Talk
34–40–5-3= 76 points Atlantic = 7th League = 25th 20 Goal Scorers = 4 Suzuki = 72 Points -
My short opinion is that some put way too much emphasis on a single draft pick having such an influence on the future of our club. At one point or another, free agent signings as well as trades will have to be made in order to put any of our competitive clubs over the top. I am always optimistic but I don’t see our current club as a contender. My main concern in particular is our back end. (Goaltending) With that said, in any given year management can make moves to bolster our club. I don’t believe one draft pick of any capacity will be enough to do it. It’s like an addiction to some. “I wasn’t happy with 3rd, let’s go for 1st.” We get 5th. “I wasn’t happy with 5th, let’s go for 1st overall draft pick again”. Rinse and repeat. We didn’t make any major moves this off season so I have a tough time seeing us as a contender this year. Have an unexpected successful start to the season? Maybe some deadline moves make our team better than expected. Not this year? Maybe we sign some free agents next year and build off that. My educated guess was that we’ll make the playoffs again not this year but next. The team will go out there and try to compete this year. Tanking is not an option for them, nor is it a guaranteed recipe for success.
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I once said it may take ~20 years to replace Price, when people were complaining about having Price. Time is-a-ticking. 🙂
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If Mackinnon wanted to be reunited with Drouin so badly, we could have at least kept him.
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Thanks for the service, Joel. An intergral presence during our 22 game cup run, just a couple of seasons after his 22 game cup run with St. Louis. My first reaction had less to do with how this affects the Habs but more-so that Washington’s been making some nice decisions as of late. Best of luck to you!
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Posts like this are dangerous because the entire merit hedges on the reality that Michkov does indeed stay in Russia. It can sway an opinion heavily but what you say may not come to fruition. I believe he’ll come oversees but again it’s simply an opinion. I am rooting for Reinbacher and anyone who dawns a Habs jersey but did not like the pick. He’ll be a good defenseman but I would have preferred Michkov. Hughes was asked what he views as Reinbacher’s ceiling and he responded a #2 D. While he could be saying this to alleviate some pressure from the young man’s shoulders, what would Briere’s response be if asked about Michkov’s ceiling? Even the fact that his name is coming up in this thread has to mean something. I won’t beat a dead horse anymore but this is my opinion and we’ll see how things play out.
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The easiest comment is always to turn the sarcasm on and talk about arm chair GMs vs being the real thing. With that being said, Hughes said that part of the reason that Michkov was not picked was because they could not watch Michkov live recently (since the war began), which is a major part of their scouting. Theoretically when it comes to the specific fact that they could only watch video on him for scouting purposes as of late, fans on the internet were in the same boat. I am only going to ever compare Reinbacher to Michkov and not everyone else because I cannot argue that I absolutely wanted someone like Leonard or Benson so if Michkov does not pan out, I will stand corrected. It seems as though from what I have seen, however, that Michkov is the one with more potential.
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My main point though admittedly overblown is that the reaction to this pick should not be compared to the Price pick, outside of the fact that it was 5th overall. Price demonstrated much more as a junior than Reinbacher and therefore while people may have overreacted to the Price pick, I don’t see negative comments in this case as being similar to the other case. Price will have been superior to Reinbacher by the end of their careers and it was something that I think could be seen early. As I stated many times in my other post, I do know nothing because it is impossible to predict what will happen with 100% certainty. With that being said, I feel confident enough in this thought to make it public without fear of it being incorrect in the longterm. I personally do not think of this pick as “gut wrenching” nor being a “disaster” but I also don’t think we’ll have had the steal of the draft when all is said and done, like Carey Price. Secondly, I believe that if you think I am setting myself to be a superior scouting talent than Hughes and Gorton, then you are misinterpreting my previous post. I do not see myself as a superior scout to the Habs management. In fact, that is the opposite of what I said. There can be reasons why my thoughts differ from theirs without being superior. It is not hard to imagine that the organization has “higher standards” or “morals” (Russian factor) which they take into consideration that a typical fan like myself won’t care about. Perhaps they don’t want to risk Michkov’s contract situation, etc. whereas a regular fan like myself wouldn’t care about that when compared to the thought of his potential. I wanted Michkov but knew the Habs would not pick him because any of the risks that I mentioned in the last paragraph. They care about the organization’s image, values, and culture more than a fan would. It’s also easy to state that current management are superior to a fan because they should be, however I have had similar situations in the past where people disagree with an opinion of mine like this, and it turns out to be right. On the other hand, this is a draft of kids and so only time will tell. I wanted Zadina (or Tkachuk who was hated by many) instead of KK. I can admit Zadina would not have been a great pick and I thought he would be so I look forward to seeing how this plays out and hopefully Reinbacher does turn out to be a stud, even if I personally have my doubts.
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I am not saying I am the best scout out there but I do watch international junior hockey religiously and I personally pair players like Caufield, Subban and Price together because they were players who performed internationally at the junior level prior to the draft. Caufield also broke a lot of scoring records as a junior that made me confident about his transition to the big leagues. I understand that the Price pick was not the most popular choice at the time. Around that time, I myself would have liked taking someone like Kopitar, although I didn’t hate the Price choice. With that being said, while it is indeed a small sample size, him and Jonathan Toews both had extremely memorable moments at the junior level; particularly that shootout versus the United States where Price made multiple key saves and Toews scored multiple goals. Price went 5th and Toews 3rd. He also won championships. Subban isn’t comparable as he went in the second round but I also saw special things from him as a junior that I was excited to see translate to the NHL level. I haven’t watched Reinbacher as much as I watched those players so I don’t have much footing to stand on, but his statistics do not exactly yell out “stud first pairing defenseman”. I am hopeful for Slafkovsky and he had some great junior moments as well but I did not have the same emotion with he or KK as I did with Price, Caufield and Subban in recent memory. I feel the same way with Reinbacher. Felt differently with Price. I will always route for every one of our players so I am cheering Reinbacher on. I also agree that when it comes to the drafts, outside of the top pick or two, and even them, it is such a crap shoot because there will be many unforseen factors that come into play. As a result, none of us know what we are talking about in the present. I can still say publically that I expect better things from Michkov than Reinbacher, even though I do know nothing.
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I knew it would be Briere who picked Michkov.
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Hopefully next year everyone on the board will once again be excited to tank for someone of Reinbacher’s skill level.
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At this point, I’d be going for him. Not sure how the organization feels.