The Chicoutimi Cucumber

How in the name of Howie Morenz did MB agree to a NMC for Gallagher. It is to weep

Not to editorialize, but our culture has more than enough baseless conspiracy theories without NHL fans adding to their number. Again, thanks. My granular grasp of contractual matters is not good. I gather that even burying him in the minors would not give us all that much cap relief (a change to the original cap CBA logic that does not make much sense to me, but what do I know). The thought of watching Gally wheeze around as a shadow of himself for at least another two years is slightly depressing…although in purely hockey terms he’s not absolutely terrible yet. But last night’s action really lowers him in my esteem.

A sober corrective, my friend. I think my ground for optimism rests, not on any one specific player or prospect, but on the fact that we have an almost ridiculous number of promising young defencemen both in the Show and in the minors. It’s true that if we misidentify key guys, like Ottawa did when they committed to Redden and let Chara walk, we will screw it up. But the critical mass of talent is surely there.

If there is any good news to be had in this awfulness, it’s that this massively irresponsible act by Gallagher may make it easier for the management group to shift toward thinking “buyout.” Now that he has lost a step the primary case Gally makes for himself is “leadership.” Well, this is a young team with a bad habit of taking stupid, unnecessary penalties. And he goes and takes THE stupidest, worst, most inexcusable penalty of the entire season. I’m disappointed he’s getting 5 or less. This kind of crap should receive huge suspensions. What if some bum does that to Suzuki? A complete disgrace.

Given the NHL’s approach to discipline, he could get 5, he could get 1, he could get a fine, he could get awarded a new pony and be told he’s a Good Guy. Who the f**k knows

Yup, as much as I think McGuire is a Bozo, I can accept this. I remember Saku Koivu having a couple of seasons where he would go pointless for five or six games after the Habs were removed from playoff contention - clearly demoralized. If a committed warrior like Koivu can suffer such dips, surely young players can. Points, yep. Also the fact that we traded to acquire Barron - that probably raised his cache. Struble is not a very flashy player, and that probably also allows him to stay under the radar. As was also noted, Struble went from university almost immediately into the NHL (!). Maybe if he’d had more time in Laval, he’d have been a higher profile prospect with the fanbase and media. It reminds me a little bit - although it was another time - of John LeClair, who as I recall seemed to come out of nowhere when they brought him up. Guys who marinade in university sometimes seem to be a little more mature and therefore better positioned to make the jump.

The D is underrated (as a work in progress) because of the lack of a marquee name, i.e., a top-10 pick that commentators can focus on. But the Hughes era has been defined so far by wave after wave of defensive prospects coming in and looking good. Meanwhile, Reinbacher, Hutson and Mailloux are waiting in the wings. So, yes. It’s going to be an elite D corps. The projection that the Habs will peak at “pretty good” is nevertheless reasonable given the lack of impact FWs. That being said, would this be the prognosis if Dach and Newhook had been healthy and had nice, developmentally progressive seasons in the way that Slaf has? So frustrating to have promising players sidelined for months.

Fair point. And Timmins always had a good eye for defencemen; worth keeping in mind. Perhaps what this shows is that fan hype over prospects is a fickle thing. If this were (God forbid) still the MB era, Struble might have been more pumped up by fans desperate for hope. Re: the post below, I have the same impression of his mindset. He makes me think of Wifi in that sense - a guy who just seems emotionally implacable, unlikely to go through crises of confidence or other manifestations of mental drama that we sometimes get from kids. You have the sense of a guy who arrives in the NHL without any entitlement complex, fully committed to doing what it takes, day in and day out.

Yes, well - I always said that many of the same people howling for a rebuild will the same people fuming over a team that is crappy over a number of seasons. Fortunately this board has very few such characters, but they’re a common hockey type: the fan who calls fervently for a tank/rebuild, but assumes that means 1-2 bad seasons and you draft McDavid/Draisaitl and then contend in like, year three. Nope. All a smart fan really cares about this stage is development, and whether the team is on track to be a truly strong club in about two years.

Is Struble the real deal? I mean, he kinda came out of nowhere, little pedigree and no hype. And although he’s had a few less-than-stellar games in recent tilts, by and large he seems to do is bring a strong game on the nightly. By contrast, a fairly hyped prospect like Barron has been in and out, hit and miss. What do we make of this?

I remember being surprised that MSL was not given a seasoned veteran assistant along the lines of Jacques Martin. That being said, Letowski has a lot of coaching experience…just not at this level. Personally, I am willing to endure MSL growth pains in the “game management” part of things if he is doing a strong job developmentally. But at some point, wins will matter more, and MSL had better be ready.

I can't watch this one (too much work!) but I strongly suspect that we're seeing the "crash" of a group of young players still not fully used to the brutal NHL schedule - midseason blahs are generally rough for kids - PLUS the cracks showing from a team that has been injury-depleted. Add to that that we're not very good in the first place, and you get these kinds of breakdowns.

It's a nice feeling to have Wifi back! Yay!

I don't think anyone thinks he can be the next Weber (!!). Weber was one of the top 20 defencemen of his era. He's not going to be that. To my mind, the future for Wifi is one of the following: 1. Marginal NHLer/excellent AHLer 2. Bottom-pairing guy 3. Top-4 , Bieksa-type. If I had to lay odds, I would say something like 50% #2, 35% #3, 15% #1. But who knows, I could be way off.

Glad to hear the Habs are committed to Wifi. I don’t have the mystical belief in the importance of fighting shown by some of his defenders, but I do think he brings unique attributes that are hard to replace - incredibly tough, throws ‘em with the best, mean, with a cannonading shot, and has surprising hockey skills. Most importantly, his mindset appears to be perfect: self-confident, optimistic, nothing to lose. If we trade him, I think we’ll regret it, unless the return is disproportionate to what you’d it expect it to be, on paper. So I believe in the kid and think he will have a long career. The question is: is he Kevin Bieksa Redux, or is he just a likeable bottom pairing guy mostly there for muscle? I really hope that, in demanding that he marinade in the minors, the Habs are targeting the first outcome.

Yep. Always agreed with this perspective. And I'd add that for most of my life as a Habs fan, I've heard Habs teams' achievements diminished because of our goaltending. "They're not real contenders, they're just lucky they have Roy." "Boy, it's a good thing they have Price." Blah blah blah. I never once heard anyone say the Penguins don't "deserve" to win because they have Crosby... In fact - while I'm holding forth - the Habs are probably the franchise whose achievements after 1980 are the most chronically denigrated and dismissed. 1986 and 1993 were both scorned as "the worst teams ever to win a Cup." No one ever says boo about the 2014 team that was artificially kept out of the Finals by Kreider's knee job on Price. The 2021 team is routinely dismissed as a fraud because it had a terrible OT/SO record in the regular season. A lot of this flows from the perceived illegitimacy of not having a superstar offensive talent. Somehow, if you rely on a model that doesn't include a McDavid, your wins don't "count." And never mind if you have a great goalie. On the other hand, I very seriously doubt that if the Leafs or any other Canadian team had equivalent successes, we would hear such dismissals routinely spouted.

I am Vancouver-centric, since I live in this region, but I would not be shocked if the Canucks are in on Monahan.

Good analysis - thanks. Then I agree, we should bump him down; but who moves up? They're all terrible right now. Broadly speaking, our D-men are being stretched beyond their capacity, and that's why we're having these games where we look like dogmeat. I really think if Kovacevic could return to form, it would help mitigate this problem. I suppose this is obvious, on one level, but it really underscores just how important K-man's surprisingly strong play has been to this transitional phase of the rebuild.

Kovacevic's struggles seem really to have exposed the D. With him out - and I agree that he was struggling badly, so it's not just his absence but his regression - our D suddenly looks like a bunch of rookies brought up too soon. It doesn't help that Struble also seems to be regressing after his impressive start. Mid-year fatigue, which is often an issue with young players, may also be relevant. Most of these guys were injured last season and do not have experience with the meat-grinder of a full NHL season. Just think, three games ago people on this board were talking about us as a borderline playoff team...

I wonder if HNIC will do postgame analysis talking up how great the Habs played

One thing about this is that Lou is a strong enough personality that Roy won't be able to undermine or dislodge him. I predict Roy will look great for a while, before finally melting down.

Heating up as the trade deadline gets closer 👍 God love Josh Anderson, working over that Bruin, LOL. Struble has been an irritant tonight as well.

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If he can do that he should get his jersey retired