The Chicoutimi Cucumber

So far you're looking pretty right. Just watching some highlights...Hutson's first assist was SWEET. Big nights for Gally and Evans, but it also looks to me like Anderson is having an excellent game.

You could be right. Supposedly teams love playing spoiler. The Habs might actually be motivated, who knows

I can't stand Therrien, but even a stopped clock is right twice a day. Asked about Drouin, he commented that with him, "there's always something." Some injury, some issue, some problem - some excuse. Same pattern with Armia. When everything goes just so, he can be tremendous. But when it doesn't go just so - when he gets a hang nail or whatever - whoops, he vanishes. Maybe something transformative occurred this year. Anything is possible. But it would be folly to make longer-term decisions based on 6 months of aberrant performance. The plan has to be to trade him - whether now, or later, or at the deadline.

Ever better 👍 Hell, I could see Salt Lake City Beauts/Salt Lickers taking a flyer on him - they'll want to compete off the hop, and will have oodles of cap space and gobs of assets to send back.

Agree 100%. No one will take him now, but IF he can continue into, say, December, then a team might be willing to go for it.

A late bloomer at age 30! Just goes to show, patient development pays off 🤪 No joke, though, he has played like an absolute stud top-9 forward over the second half. If he continues it into next season, we might be able to move that contract and maybe even get something back.

The emergence of 1. Slaf (by a bullet) 2. Suzuki as a legitimate #1C 3. Newhook as a speedy, dangerous 2nd line type 4. Primeau are really the good news stories of this season. They're kind of 2024's equivalent to last season's realization that we had legit young players on D. And 5. the second-half surge by Caufield offers some reassurance that maybe his shoulder surgery really did deflate his production, such that he is closer to a 40-goal guy than a 30-goal guy. (Not that there's anything wrong with being a 30-goal guy, but safe to say most of us harboured hopes that he might be an elite goal scorer. That hope remains credible, and next season will tell the tale). You know me, though - I'm a fretful sort. One thing that worries me a bit about all this is that much of the good news has occurred during "garbage time," with the Habs safely out of the playoffs and all pressure off. The Galchenyuk precedent reminds us to be cautious about reading too much into second-half surges by young players on terrible teams. I think, though, that our hopes in these five factors are well-founded.

Weird gaffe by CC in the SO. Draftists get their win, i.e., a loss. The Habs need to learn how to lock down a lead. They are atrocious in that regard. A surprisingly hard-fought game considering the negligible stakes. These two young teams really don't like each other. If both franchises start to emerge as playoff teams around the same time, we could be seeing the beginning of a major rivalry for years to come.

This OT is insane!

Bad enough I have to listen to Gary Galley...now I gotta put up with this 🙄

Anyone else annoyed by the EA Sports "circle" appearing under the player they're talking about? 💩

Be cool if CC got to 30 despite a comparatively "down" season. That was a laser.

Armia was a beast, if I'm being honest. Interesting to see Suze getting so peeved. The refs are letting a lot of crap go. Entertaining game, though.

Yeah, I thought the challenge was a stretch. Bah.

Meanwhile the ref thinks this in 1996. Judas Priest

A fantastic goal by Mattheson. What a season he's had.

Too bad about him, his career is probably over. He had a good run. Ylonen may also be on thin ice, but as a young guy he may get more chances.

Everyone knows that "doesn't count." For some reason 🙄

It's funny how this goes. For some time, I've been excited about what I've heard about Hutson. He seems like a 'Quinn Hughes A' type, not a franchise player like Hughes but potentially a truly elite offensive defenceman. Now that he is on the Habs, my optimism immediately shriveled into anxiety: "What if he disappoints? What if he's overwhelmed?" Etc. Fan neurosis brought about by too many disappointing prospects over the years, I suppose.

Beyond the satisfaction of finally seeing an end to the running sore that is the story of this pathetic zombie franchise, I like the idea of a team in Salt Lake City. For some reason, that sounds to me like one of those expansion teams from the 1970s. The Cleveland Barons, the Kansas City Scouts, the California Golden Seals, the Salt Lake City ----. As for a name, will they keep the cursed 'Coyotes' moniker? Utah is desert country after all. Personally, I would like them to be called the Utah Beauts. A pun on 'Buttes.' Get it? Ya, never happen. They'll probably be called the Salt Lake City Qualtrics.

I have this theory that it's going to be a trickle of small improvements that will suddenly burst the dam at some point - probably surprising 'expert' commentators when it does happen.

Actually, I believe Torts has been most successful with young teams. Rebuilding Rags, rebuilding Columbus, Tampa when they were developing into champs. He completely flopped with a veteran team in Vancouver. And he had great success in Philly UNTIL, as others noted, he crapped on and humiliated the veteran captain. Veterans probably tire quickly of his ego and his abuse. Young players, hungry and eager, are probably more willing to follow him, especially when his demanding style has them suddenly winning games after years of failure. He's a jackass in my book, anyhow, so I'm not shedding tears over his problems.

Good analysis, thanks. I certainly supported riding him while he was hot last season, but never thought of him as a core piece in the rebuild. Might be nice to keep him around longer term as depth/4th liner, given that he's francophone - as long as the price is right.

Three issues with Anderson. One is the kind of player he has always been, even at his best: a one-note piledriver who has zero vision and doesn't use his linemates. It's a fair criticism, but I don't think it does us much good to criticize him for being that (as MSL found out). The second issue is that his scoring evaporated this season. When your whole thing is being a 20-goal, 35-point bulldozer, and then you get 9 goals, you have zero offensive game to fall back on. The third issue is that Anderson - who was always effective away from the puck, along the boards, being physical and dirty, a complete nightmare to play against in that sense - seems to have dropped that aspect of his game too (perhaps because he's become so lost, his confidence shattered). THAT Anderson doesn't even belong in the league. We need Josh Anderson to return to being Josh Anderson. Return to being hard to play against. Start scoring again. If he can do that, then I won't criticize him for having the playmaking skills of John Kordic. Whatever mental health strategies worked on Armia should also be applied to Anderson this summer. I don't think he's lost a step (?), so the problem must be either conditioning or between his ears.

Looks that way, and I know he's a twat, but it's kind of hard to fathom that they go through half the season chewing through rope and surpassing all expectations, then suddenly flip and turn on the coach. Did he do or say something that turned the room against him, or what?