The Chicoutimi Cucumber

I guess that's a way of saying he has the talent, but not the work ethic/mindset/maturity?

Interesting to see Ylonen waived. He looks like yet another somewhat-touted Habs prospect who came to nothing. Not to be negative - we finally have a genuinely strong pool of prospects and youngsters. It's just to say that he seems typical of the kind of player we would have been hyping up to the heavens during earlier eras.

Regarding Guhle’s weight, he never struck me as a guy who was pushed around or manhandled down low (?). Maybe he didn’t really need extra muscle.

I know the Habs have a backlog, but FWIW I never liked the idea of moving a D to W, except maybe in the case of marginal guys of the Yves Racine variety, where they become the 12th or 13th FW. Leave guys to develop in their natural positions if at all possible. I’d rather we send a guy down, even if he’s NHL ready. No young player ever died of too much AHL time.

Yes indeed. And that’s why I’m not presuming that the original diagnosis is wrong. We were all scarred by what happened to Price - including the constant dance of ‘he’ll be back soon, oh wait, no he won’t.’ I think most fan bases, told that Laine will be out for three months, would accept that as good news rather than presume it’s incorrect.

The NHL doesn’t work according to due process and never has. It works according to arbitrary personal preferences, often based on judgements about who is and is not a ‘good guy.’ That seems to carry even to franchises. E.g., Vancouver was punished retroactively for signing Luongo to a contract that was totally compatible with the CBA. Meanwhile VGK finds a new loophole and gets rewarded. All we have to do is look at how games are refereed and how player discipline is enforced, to see how personalized and arbitrary the NHL’s entire culture of rule-enforcement is.

It seems to me that VGK have discovered yet another loophole. And the next time there is a Carey Price situation - where the guy is permanently injured - just make sure he doesn’t report to camp. Presto, his salary is off the books for cap purposes. Meanwhile you agree to keep paying him. 🤷‍♂️ From this POV, where the Habs and Price erred was in playing it straight. Hopefully we’ve learned our lesson.

Heard an interesting thought on Melnyck today…namely that, if teams conclude that they can get the Habs off their game by running around and luring them into taking loads of penalties, that creates a positive incentive to run around against the Habs. So perversely, too much of a good thing from WiFi can make cheap-shotting us more, rather than less, likely. At the same time, I do believe these shenanigans send a signal that the Habs are not a team that can be intimidated. It’s all about that elusive balance…plus a competent PK would help.

I suppose he's done for the season? 🙄 I'm starting to think we should not dress any NHL players for any preseason games. Just to be on the safe side.

This is absolutely fantastic news under the circumstances! YAAAY!!!

Welcome to the Habs, David Reinbacher. Which means, inevitably, catastrophic injury.

I've read stuff suggesting that he really does see and think the game in a different way from most people. This would help to explain his incredible success as a player against long odds. And he seems to be able to explain (at least partially) his way of seeing the game to others, which is where analogous superstar-players-turned-coach have struggled (c.f. Gretzky). In that sense, he may really be a 'great hockey mind.' He has also, clearly, done a fine job of nurturing espirt de corps and bringing the young players along. That goes beyond 'thinking' the game and gets into team-building and development. He seems strong in these areas as well. But that still doesn't prove him to be a great coach in the round. What remains to be seen is whether he can go beyond being a great 'development/rebuilding' coach - the answer to this question seems to be 'yes' - and become a great coach of a team that has a chance to win. That's quite a different challenge. At some point it will require getting the team to play a defensive system...something we've seen no sign of as yet. I still think the likeliest outcome is that he gets fired after a couple of playoff exits. That said, he's always been one of those guys it's unwise to bet against. I hope this proves true yet again.

Funny how these things go. If we hadn’t acquired Laine, the fan excitement around Hutson would be off the chart. And I don’t sense any pivoting from crashing dismay at Laine’s injury to breathless excitement about this kid. Maybe that’s for the best…it will allow Hutson a little more breathing room without everyone expecting him to be The Saviour, Epsiode #45646.

Subban’s take: https://www.instagram.com/reel/DAgvzC0SN1u/?igsh=OGcxcHJwaHJka21s

Agree, but I'm totally happy with his decision to pound the living snot out of that bum. And I say this thinking the hit probably was unintentional. There *is* a deterrent effect to knowing that if you go after our stars, Xhekaj is coming for you. And that message was definitely sent last night.