xXx..CK..xXx

Thanks illWill. If memory serves me right, your first game thread brought our team luck so here's to believing it will do the same here. Big game indeed. I'm already feeling it and we're 150 minutes away.

Since the Habs are going to win this evening, I decided it would be a good idea for me to take over game thread duties for my first time ever. That way, I'll be able to make a few more after today. The Habs play their second straight game at home and hope to get some redemption after getting shutout in game 1. MONTREAL CANADIENS Max Pacioretty - Phillip Danault - Alexander Radulov Paul Byron - Tomas Plekanec - Brendan Gallagher Dwight King - Andrew Shaw - Artturi Lehkonen Alex Galchenyuk - Steve Ott - Andreas Martinsen Andrei Markov - Shea Weber Jordie Benn - Jeff Petry Nathan Beaulieu - Nikita Nesterov PRICE Montoya NEW YORK RANGERS Chris Kreider - Derek Stepan - Mats Zuccarello Jimmy Vesey - Mika Zibanejad - Rick Nash J.T. Miller - Kevin Hayes - Michael Grabner Tanner Glass - Oscar Lindberg - Jesper Fast Ryan McDonagh -Dan Girardi Marc Staal - Nick Holden Brady Skjei - Brendan Smith LUNDQVIST Raanta

The thing is that just as much as Galchenyuk is not a 4th line winger, Danault is not a 1st line center on most teams who would like to win a playoff series. It seems really obvious to me. One player gets the door only for another relatively undeserving player to get thrown into the role? If we place Galchenyuk on the second or third line, then we have to switch everything around and perhaps even demote players who shouldn't have been. I like Danault, but let's be just as critical of him. He is our current 1st line center after all. In fact, come to think of it he took the penalty that likely ended our chances of winning last night. Galchenyuk has more high end skill and has without a doubt shown signs that he can be a 1st line center at any given point. It's not arguable. I rarely do and don't plan on ragging on the coach but this might simply turn out to be a mistake. Stogey, I thought about placing Danault on the second as well. I'd be fine with either configuration.

Well I had a long post deleted after my laptop restarted just as I concluded my post... Why doesn't it save the post when the browse exits? I'll try again but it's never the same! First of all, I'm going to preface this by stating that clearly something is going on considering Galchenyuk finds himself on the 4th line. There must be some internal reason for this to be happening. Whether it's due to his performance or an in game strategy, something is going on. With that being said, I feel as though much of the discussion about Galchenyuk has been a mirage. An illusion. I've constantly seen statements made that Galchenyuk seems to be the type of person that is hard on himself. "Galchenyuk lacks self confidence in general" would be the type of remark I'm referring to. It seems as though this is just pure speculation based on nothing more than simple body language and facial expressions. Has Galchenyuk himself ever come out and explicitly said anything of the sort or are we coming to this conclusion based on his is on ice play? Of course, if Galchenyuk is playing with his head down all the while trying to stick handle through 4 opposing players by himself, one can come to the conclusion that his on ice mindset isn't right. This doesn't necessarily equate to a lack of confidence though, it could be situational as well. The one legitimate worry, in my opinion would be those who are concerned that Julien may not have the best impact on Galchenyuk. This is an area that Galchenyuk has less control. When one looks into it, however, Galchenyuk has 15 points in 24 games since Julien took over. He has scored many big goals this season and it will not surprise me when he scores more big goals in the playoffs. This is the mirage I speak of since the statistics don't necessarily back up the perception. I expect a lot out of him these playoffs if we're going to do well. While I've long stayed out of this discussion, my opinion would be that it's the way that Galchenyuk has been handled that is the issue and this has probably been said many times before. I once thought that Galchenyuk being versatile was a good thing. Why is it a problem that we have a skilled player who can play both center and wing? This seems like a great problem to have. This versatility should not extend to being able to be placed on any of the 4 lines though. Galchenyuk needs to be placed on the 1st line and then left there for a full series, regardless of the outcome. Pacioretty-Galchenyuk-Radulov Byron-Plekanec-Gallagher Lehkonen-Danault-Shaw King-Ott-Martinsen Mitchell

We just already have a sequel

Positives: Next game will be better

Weber's having a great game. I get the feeling there's still more to come from him.

Here we go boys. The real season begins today.

I think the main "under the radar" factor heading into this series is that the Rangers were the best team in the league on the road. That type of thing is huge in the playoffs. Other than that, I'll stick to my prediction that the Habs win in 7 games even though that 7th game would be on the road for the Rangers. Series starts in 35 minutes. Opportunity Awaits.

I actually don't think I even thought about the possibility. A lot of Habs fans seem to dread the thought but I'd be fine with it as well, as long as we win. I still prefer they lose round one though. Habs - Oil would be a great final. This has to be the most Canadian teams in the playoffs in recent memory. Not only that but seemingly talented teams. This could be the year the cup comes back up north.

With the playoffs set to start tomorrow, I thought it would be nice to hear some of your playoff wishes prior to puck drop. I'll start us off with 10 wishes even though I'm sure I could think of more. I'm going to try to remain positive as well rather than wishing something like "so and so to remain in the press box for the entire run". My list of wishes... 1) Carey Price to remain healthy 2) Our special teams to be strong 3) Dwight King to score at least one GWG 4) The Bruins and Leafs to get eliminated Round One, followed by the Sens getting eliminated by the Habs in Round Two. 5) Lehkonen to show signs and continue what he did in the playoffs last season in the SEL. Remember, he had the most points since Daniel Alfredsson for his team. Let's hope he finds that level. 6) Win all or almost all of our overtime games 7) Pacioretty-Galchenyuk-Radulov. I'm looking for a top line of Pacioretty-Galchenyuk-Radulov to be there for us and if it's not the top line, those are the three forwards I expect to be there for us as top line players production wise. Depth players can get us through a round by scoring a huge goal but I want those players to show up for 3 of the 4, if not all 4 rounds. 8) Anaheim in the final so I can attend a game these playoffs. I'd probably even attend all the way up north in San Jose. If not, I'd like to face and defeat a Canadian team in the final, with my preference being Edmonton. 9) I wish Weber a strong playoff so he can bounce back after last year's "game 7" perception of him. 10) Let's come back full circle and wish general health to the whole team, as well as all the lucky bounces in the world for our Habs this playoff season. There's a lot of hope, and rightly so but let's try not to get too high or too low at any point until it's all said and done. At the end of the playoffs, we can come take a look at how the team did and tick off how many of our wishes came true. Perhaps there will be a connection between the two.

So just as a refresher, here's the practice lineup being discussed. I also think the discussion is being a little blown out of proportion as there's no doubt the lines will change throughout the first series and possibly even within the first game. With that being said, I think what's being missed here is that the real reason there's even a player needed on the 4th line, is due to the fact that Julien has liked the 3rd line. I think King-Shaw-Lehkonen would be a great playoff 3rd line and I'm hoping Julien feels this way as well. As a result, someone has to fill the void on the 4th line. I didn't come here with the intention of solving that issue but Plekanec has played better as of late and needs more minutes than a 4th liner in order to be able to help shut down other top lines. Byron has arguably been one of our best forwards this season so it's hard to even consider him, even in comparison to Chucky. So if you ask me, Danault and Galchenyuk should simply swap places and the team is good to go. (I know that won't happen either) It makes sense that Julien is demoting Chucky simply to give him a kick in the butt. If you place any other player in the role even during practice, they're asking "why me?" and losing confidence. Galchenyuk is probably the one who will react the best to this out of the options, because he is the one who needed the jolt the most. Come game time, we'll see what the actual lines are.

Armstrong? On another topic, I'm not saying it should be at the expense of Galchenyuk playing higher in the lineup but I'm going to be a King defender. He can't skate and makes a terrible pass but he's been one of our better players in general over the last few games, especially when some key players were resting. I'm thinking if I was ever going to argue intangibles for another player, which I have, there might be a little something to it with him as well after his cups in LA.

How about that one?

I honestly think King has been doing a good job of generating chances the past few games. His game isn't pretty so it's easy to single his negatives out but a lot of players have been less visible than him in a bad way as well.

Only way I'll be able to see a playoff game live this year is if Montreal and Anaheim make the final or if the Habs have a Stanley Cup Final game 7 match at home. Then I may or may not take the most expensive trip of my life and head back to Montreal for a few days. Both are unlikely but never say never. If only the Habs had beat the Rangers a few years ago in the Conference Final, we would have faced the Kings and I would have been able to attend at least one game during the final at the Staples Center.

I'm not debating the home bias. It's there and it's been there for years. What none of this takes into account, however, is that some players may play differently at home than they do on the road. Teams may play more defensively, or passive on the road and more offensively at home. I'm not saying this should account for double the turnovers, but it's entirely possible that a player would commit more turnovers at home than on the road. The opposite is also very possible so I'm not arguing the point. What I will argue is that the turnover stat shouldn't be entirely dismissed. Every time it is brought up for a Habs player, the rink bias is a brought up. Okay, that's fair but there are other ways of evaluating how indicative they are of the player. The first topic is Subban and Weber, whether comparing or not. Clearly there's some rink bias when you take into account that Weber is now apparently amongst the top 20 in the league and Subban isn't as high as he was last year. The problem with this, is that it's used as an argument to dismiss Subban as being turnover prone. When you compare Subban to the rest of his respective teammates in Nashville, one can see that this is a wrong assumption. He has a few less turnovers than Eklholm but has played 16 games less as well. Sure, there was home bias when he was a Hab but he still has issues with turning the puck over with respect to the rest of his current team. I'll give him props for seemingly getting a little more efficient though. The second issue is the topic of Petry. I personally like Petry and if he can get hot, I think he can help offensively with a big goal or two in the playoffs. With that being said, the argument is once again that he doesn't turn over the puck as often as it seems, due to rink bias. Once again, this rink bias does not matter when you compare him to other players on the team. He may have more turnovers than he should league wide because of a faulty stat, but he also has more turnovers than he should because other Habs players of similar skill sets have less than him. Faulty stat or not, I think it's a fair argument to say both those players turn the puck over too much because this is evidenced when you look at their turnovers with respect to their teammates. So why is it important to bring rink bias up in this context?

You bring up an interesting point near the end of your post though because while they (Pittsburgh) certainly have more offensive upside than us, can they win the cup without Letang? I admit they're chances have taken a great hit, but if you ask me, they still have one of the better chances in the league to win the cup. Therein lies the point that a team can overcome such adversity, even though I'm only making a personal opinionated claim beforehand and it hasn't actually happened. I agree that it will take him time to develop and I thought about what you said when I posted but in all honesty, it's just as likely as any other outcome that Sergachev's well into his career by the time Weber's regression has an obvious impact. As for the Hedman comparison, it's one I haven't heard but I have heard extremely good things about Sergachev. This is all time will tell stuff but I'm on the other side of the fence when it comes to Weber. Supposedly, it's slick moving defensemen who have a long lifespan in the league but to me those are the players who you really notice lose a step as they age. Of course, their (Lidstrom, Markov) vision remains and so they can remain effective offensively seemingly forever but in other areas, you can really tell they've lost a step. As for Weber, I expect his shot to be just as effective on the power play for many years to come and as long as he keeps lifting the weights, he should be able to remain physical. He's already not the quickest player out there, so I'm not sure where a lack of foot speed would come into the equation when assessing his regression as he continues to get older. I agree with both of your comments but I guess my first point is that I see Weber as a legitimate top pairing defenseman for a long time coming whether he regresses or not. This isn't a biased assessment, I just can't see him falling off a cliff. He has too much good to offer because he can help in a variety of ways. As he gets older, he will still be at the very worst, a Hall Gill mentor type, with skills to boot. I shrug my shoulders because I feel like he'll always be helpful; But my second point was that even if he isn't at peak level, I don't think he necessarily needs to be the key guy during a cup run. We have Other players who could get hot at the right time. Say this year for example. If Weber were to suck in the playoffs, all of Petry, Markov and Beaulieu could become playoff heroes on the back end and help lead us to victory while Weber helps in other areas. Put their regular seasons aside because they are all player who legitimately could do it if Weber were to be off his game. Put it this way, Weber happens to play quite bad during the playoffs even this season but Markov plays like a true number 1 for most of the 21 games before he dies of old age. In such a case, the team didn't have to win without a number 1. Of course, we should just hope that Weber does play like a true #1 but the point is the same. In 3-4-5 years? Weber may regress to an obvious extent, but he may not. In 3-4-5 years? Maybe other players will be this season's Beaulieu/Petry/Markov. In 3-4-5 years? Other players (Sergachev) may progress to an extreme extent. They also may not.

I agree and I think that this is an area that's been overlooked. The argument should not be whether or not Weber will age like fine wine but more along the lines of if he does show signs of extreme regression in a few years, does this completely handicap our team from winning the cup? I think that's where the flaw lies in the logic. I don't personally agree that this will be our best shot as a group, if it's simply because of Weber's "3 year window". I think Weber is a great player to have on your team but he is a team player and I feel as though Price and Pacioretty and (Radulov) are just as important to the team. We also have (Markov) right now which helps a lot. 3 years down the road, we have a Hedman type of defenseman in Sergachev on the team and who knows what other pieces have been added? As long as Price is on the team and no further injuries occur to him, we have a window.

Got me too. I was excited to get home and watch

I agree that both Columbus and Washington are huge question marks deep in the playoffs. If either team makes the final, I'd predict they would lose to a Western team likely to be there outside of maybe Minnesota. A San Jose cup win would still surprise me as well but not as much as those two. I mention those teams because they are teams being brought up as having a great shot this year, and rightly so. We should just be focusing on the Rangers. They are a team that has just as much of a chance as us to do damage in the playoffs. They've also often made it tough or defeated much of the same core that Washington still has in recent playoffs. They are are a good road team but I'm going to go with my extra early prediction of Habs in 7 if it does end up being the round 1 matchup.

Already feeling a game 7. Glad it's in Montreal.

Radulov is having a great game. All that needs to be said after that period. #post777

Thanks for clarifying. I thought it was something more along the lines of: "Oh my god. My first ever breakaway. Backhand?? Too tough. Deke?? Too difficult. Forehand!! Left!!"

I see him as being pretty much the same player as he was in LA. King is what he is, not the greatest player in the world. Where he can be effective though is in the offensive zone when his line has possession going for extended periods of time. This is why I can see how he would be a decent player to move up in the lineup like Brian alluded to, if someone in our top 6 gets injured. With more skilled linemates, comes more offensive zone time. With players like Martinsen, Ott and Mitchell, it's pretty much a quick dump and chase or a quick chance and out of the offensive zone. I imagine him to be kind of a bigger and slower Smith-Pelley so the expectations aren't very high. I think he'll be relatively effective come playoff time when the grind becomes a little tougher. Here's to hoping. Edit: He really did love playing in LA though so hopefully he's not playing "homesick". I'd hope he'd be more of a professional than that though.