xXx..CK..xXx

I voted yes and think it will be yes due to the fact that he has the most wins as a goalie for the franchise. However when I think about Nashville and Pekka Rinne, I don’t necessarily reach the same “obvious” conclusion. Similar careers to one another in the NHL.

Dislike our D and goaltending. Hopefully Matheson surprises however even then, as I expect him to do well.

1) If Price is done, then we may not have another goalie of similar calibre for 20 years. Just wanted to say that while others casually scroll over the reality of his career being over. 2) I am fine with the Monahan move. It’s a good one to me.

Hopefully this thread fades into the abyss…

It was a joke 🙂 Also, not sure about Juraj’s choice when it comes to the ominous history surrounding the #20 and Habs players. The Habs have now had 16 players wear that number since 2006, and it is 2022.

Looks like I’ll have to replace my Weber name tag with Wideman on my Habs jersey.

Happy to have him back. He earned it last year.

I liked the trade when we acquired Weber and like the trade now that we had to ship out. Thanks for your service Weber, I shall still wear my (your) jersey proudly.

Looks like it’s either Perry or Lehkonen who win a cup this year.

What an odd comparison. I am not sure what point it makes to say that one would want Wideman at $750k rather than Hamilton at $9 million. I mean, most capologists on this bored would agree not because of Wideman’s $750k buy simply because of Hamilton’s 9 million. May as well have just said, I wouldn’t want Hamilton on our team for $9 million without comparing Wideman because that fact really has nothing to do with Wideman, so it’s a random time to bring up the subject. Hamilton missed 20 games or so because of a broken jaw last year. Wideman missed games because he was a healthy scratch. Hamilton would be our first pairing defenseman, especially if Petry is gone. Wideman has fans hoping that he is here to be a 7th man, or in essence a hot dog eater. There is no reason to pick an outlier of a season that Wideman had and say that it’s comparable to Hamilton’s output. Maybe we should try to see Wideman produce at that rate for a second time in his career before we do that. Because personally while I was happy with Wideman’s unexpected offensive side last year, I strongly doubt that it reproduces itself this year, for a myriad of reasons. Dougie Hamilton? One can say with confidence, he’ll produce at least, or roughly 40 points. I’d take Dougie Hamilton over Chris Wideman, thank you very much.

Max Domi the Bruins slayer.

I think people are finding too many reasons to remove Gallagher as an option rather than seeing that he actually is the leader on this team. Believe me, I wasn’t thrilled with his season but it does not change the fact that he’s had a long tenure with the team, poured his heart and soul into the team at every given opportunity, and actually speaks like a leader, whether it be to the media, or his teammates. I like Edmundson but he doesn’t have an “it” factor in my opinion and I would not see him as a captain on any other team in the league. For me, it really would be between Gallagher and Suzuki. As for Gallagher and the refs… I personally don’t think that we should ever expect that a captain could actually get a call changed via talking to the refs… so I am not sure what the expectations are amongst fans when it comes to that duty. The point is that Gallagher’s personality has him as being comfortable in such a role. Again, this is the first time I’ve suggested him but I do believe it is his time. Edit: Just an add on to those “picking” on Gallagher. In the last post we have a claim that Gallagher gets too many penalties to be captain but reality states: Edmundson: 380 PIM - 416 GP Anderson: 315 PIM - 388 GP Gallagher: 397 PIM - 638 GP Clearly, there is some (possibly unintentional) bias against the guy. Many of his penalties are also a result of his effort level and tenacity, as opposed to being dead between the ears.

Someone mentioned that Gallagher does not get respect from the refs and while this may be true to an extent, from what I see Gallagher is the one talking to the refs in general. I’ve never picked him before when this question has popped up but he would be my choice for captain. I don’t think your captain has to get the most points but in general, Gallagher’s effort level can still be followed by others. He also speaks like a leader and if you had Suzuki and Gallagher next to each other, I think I know which one would be asking the other for advice. I am not opposed to Suzuki but my choice would be Gallagher.

Mario Lemieux was next with 61.8 goals over an 82 game span. After that it drops down to 52.3 goals per 82 for anyone who played in the 20th and 21st century by Auston Matthews. rip Mike Bossy

I disagree with those who say we should wait to acquire players that would help our team in the now, and also agree that based on the defensive projections that have been posted on this page, we should look into acquiring an NHL ready player or two for our defensive pairings should Petry be leaving. Comical isn’t the right word but I find it somewhat delusional when people state that we will not be good this year “but specifically in 3 years” we will be. I understand that the mentality is actually trying to be even more rational than those who want to squeak into the playoffs in a given year, but there seems to be such little evidence to support those who always have this EXACT 3 year plan in mind. We’ve already been through many “three year” rebuilds that have led to nothing since 2000. The way I view it, thinking this way actually sabotages our team from performing and guarantees nothing. “Let’s not play up to our potential and save it for a few years down the road”. Well, when “it’s our year in 2025” and our best player breaks his leg, it’ll be so much for that. I personally think turnarounds for both the better and the worse can happen much quicker in the modern NHL, and almost in any given season. Who’s going to win this year? Tampa? Florida? Colorado? Or will they? I mean it’s guaranteed that at least two of those teams will not win the cup and they fit the criteria that so many people are hoping for the Habs to fit in 3 years. I think either way, whether you are trying to be a competitive team on a regular basis and even potentially squeak into the playoffs, or to construct a team that will be a dominant force a few years from now, it’s simply not easy to win a cup.

Therrien’s second tenure with us was statistically the best coach we’ve had in the 21st century. In fact, pretty much since the late 1970s and early 80s with Scotty Bowman and Claude Ruel.

My only comment for now is how much I really appreciated having Chiarot on the team. He worked hard, remained focused and was always a nuissance to play against. Hopefully someone like Romanov can help fill some of that void. All the best.

How’s everyone feeling about Caufield? 😇

As I was doing my rounds today, I found it Interesting to note that Wild defenseman John Merrill (4g, 12a) has the same amount of points as our leading point getter on defense, Ben Chiarot (7g, 9a). Perhaps when we discuss the long list of leaders we lost between last season and this year, his name should be included.

A few things come to mind… 1) There should be no expectation of an NHL coach to come in and say “Hey boys, we lost our leadership crew and have many unfortunate injuries heading into the season. Let’s go out there, have some fun and make mistakes, regardless of the outcome”. Sure, it is true that quite often effort can be more important to a coach than results, but to think that a coach should come in and quite literally have a tanking mentality (which is how I interpret this) is out of the question. For me, there is absolutely nothing wrong with having had a coach who was trying to win (even) this season. I would want nothing less from my coach in any given season. 2) While it is well known to everyone that the Habs had the above stated unfortunate reality of having lost a leadership core which included Price, Weber, Edmundson, Perry, Staal, Byron, as well as losing some players like KK, this does not excuse the coach from performing. Sure, we can get caught up in rebuttling those who use strong words such as “moron” and refute them. As an example, from personal standpoint I can say that I’ve never agreed with such strong words being used towards Therrien. However, the fact remains that many people were asking for a change when it comes to Ducharme and after having not won 2 games in a row all season, we have now won 5. Everything that was mentioned outside of Byron returning is still the case and so to me it is clear that the team was playing under their potential. The one major change? Coaching. While I was not happy with our results, I admittedly did not spend my time over analyzing Ducharme’s failures. With that being said, our results this year both before and after his firing, the treatment of KK last playoff leading to his departure, as well as Caufield’s recent resurgence do lead me to have specific questions in terms of Ducharme’s method. If players were tuning his system out? Well, that just makes things 20x worse. For me, it’s not about him being a moron because I am sure he is not. With that said, I am and was happy to see him go.

Forgot Perreault was on the team.

Although it is safe to assume that the Habs won’t win in almost any given season, just like any other team, I personally dislike the approach of going into a season acting like we know it won’t happen. Last year will be the permanent example. There were people on these very boards insulting the Habs and saying things like we shouldn’t even be a playoff team as late as rounds 1 and 2 last year… Then we made the final and they disappeared… Some forever… With that being said, I understand your point but I disagree that we as fans can have such a crystal ball as to guarantee that we do not have a chance in any given future season. To me it almost seems as though in the modern age of analytics and tanking, we’ve become too smart for our own good and it could even be to our own detriment. I am not saying we are likely to win a cup next year. Personally, I feel as though that would only be a realistic possibility if Price was back to form as well as having shored up our defense. What I am saying is that we should strive to be competitive in general. We lost a lot of players so management do indeed have a lot of work to do, but for me it’s not out of the question that we have a team that performs next year. As always, I’ll know how I feel by September or so.

I could see him being a hybrid of Parise and St. Louis but not quite each player in their own right. Either way, 40+ goals in a season, as well as 38 goals for their second best season. I’ll take it should it come to fruition. The comparison I was making to Matthews & Kessel is in regards to the following: https://www.usahockeyntdp.com/records Either “Career” or “Single Season”. Take your pick. I apologize for leaving Patrick Kane out of my “comparison” of Caufield. He’ll be a 1st liner.

On another note, it’s nice to see how well Rem Pitlick has done when it comes to rookies in the league this season.

Oh nice, debate something that does not need to be debated and then follow it up by incorrectly answering your own question. Typical style of yours. In regards to accurately answering your first inquiry here is a direct quote: “The guy we’ve seen since training camp is just another rookie, nothing special at all. Some folks in this discussion are already downgrading him to, like, a 2nd-line guy who will maybe get 25 goals some day, acting like that was the reasonable expectation all along, and also acting satisfied with that (because, you know, the ONLY stars in the NHL are the guys drafted first overall, which is a proposition so obviously false it scarcely warrants rebuttal). But that was NOT the expectation. He was billed as a future star of at least the “Mike Cammalleri” ilk. Timmins was shocked at his good luck in being able to draft him where he did; he expected him to go higher. CC was one of the only Habs rookies about whom I believed the hype, based on what I saw in the playoffs. Yet now he looks like Sven Andrigetto and now we’re being told that’s OK. They made the right decision to send him down early this season and that’s where he should have stayed. This is not to call out the initial post as that would be a d@&k move. With that being said, the post compares Caufield to Sven Andrighetto. Is Sven Andrighetto good? It also states that people are downgrading his potential so obviously there has been somewhat of a lukewarm discussion concerning Caufield, at best. Third of all, him being downgraded in this context is to the second line so I am obviously aware that no one said he is not good. They are simply underwhelmed based on their high expectations of him. There’s nothing wrong with that; I am merely in a different camp concerning Caufield. I think he is the real deal and have never waivered. For some reason that seems to bother people. As for the second part, here is the direct quote. “For what my opinion is worth, Caufield will always be a player who I can use in the same breath as Phill Kessel and Auston Matthews when it comes to goal scoring ability. If not only because of his performance with the US junior development program and the records he broke there. While Kessel has taken his share of criticism over his career, both he and Matthews have shown the ability to perform on the 1st line in the NHL.“ One can choose to nit-pick one sentence from what I wrote, use it out of context, and choose to scold me for whatever reason. With that being said, because the point clearly went over your head, the point is that Caufield’s strength is his goal scoring ability. He broke goal scoring records with the US developmental program that included players like Auston Matthews and Phil Kessel. IF ONLY for that reason, I will always use him in the same breath as them. If Matthews ends up with a career high of 52 goals and Caufield 38, it wouldn’t surprise me (Kessel’s is 37). The post was also in direct response to the expectation that he may only score 25 goals in the league and belong on the second line. My opinion is that he will end with more than that in general. In case you stopped reading at Auston Matthews take a moment to read the last line of my quote. Long story short… Auston Matthews, 1 line winger. Phil Kessel, 1st line winger. Caufield’s future? 1st line winger. Now from your part, would you like to do some research and share where I said no one said Caufield would be good? Or would you like to simply take this loss? I never said that. The army I was referring to are those who argue with me every time I say something positive about Caufield. It’s not my fault you take what I am saying out of context and try to create a debate out of thin air.