The Chicoutimi Cucumber

Canucks are desperate for C. They have one of the worst situations at C I can ever recall seeing. So it would be really strange of them to trade Pettersson. They would absolutely need to get an impact C back. Of course, if they flip to "tanking" mode (in which case Hughes is out the door), all bets are off. Salary aside, I think Pettersson would make an ideal #2C. He almost certainly would do better if he were not taking ALL the hard minutes in Van. Despite his many issues between the ears, I'd love to see us rolling him out after Suzuki. But between his ridiculous salary and the Canucks' even more ridiculous situation at C, it's not going to happen. *DIGRESSION ALERT* Living in the Lower Mainland, I take an amused interest in the Canucks. They are now LAST OVERALL. The weird thing is that I've agreed with most of the decisions their management has made. They moved Horvat because his contract demands were based on unrealistic production - that was good cap management, I thought. Except of Miller, Pettersson, and Horvat, the latter has turned out to be the best performer by far, and his salary is no longer an issue due to the rising cap. They let Zodorov walk, and again, I thought that was responsible cap management. Yet Zodorov is getting good reviews in Beantown and they could really, really use him. I thought re-signing Pettersson, a 100- and 89-point #1C, was a no-brainer - yet he has turned out to be a cap millstone. They did make some moves this summer - letting Bluger walk, hiring Adam Foote as coach - that struck me as dubious and have been proven to be dubious. Perhaps management got rattled and started to slip. Rutherford and Alvin have impeccable c.v.s and Cup track records. Yet none of their big decisions have worked out. It's one of the unluckiest managerial runs since Gainey IMHO. I also think that there's a deeper issue in Van, because since 2011 it's been non-stop disaster no matter who is running hockey ops. At some point, you have to look at ownership. The Acqualinis are interfering boobs.

I don't see a match with the Canucks in terms of personnel. Word is, though, that they might want a draft pick back for Sherwood. They're holding out for a first rounder, which I wouldn't do, but a second rounder, maybe. So that could be the basis of a back and forth between the two teams.

Bolduc for Sherwood is a terrible trade IMHO. Sherwood is 30 and while I'm sure he can keep being useful for a couple of years, whatever contract he signs is likely to be one of diminishing returns. He's a "win now" asset. The only way I consider a deal along those lines is if there is something wrong with Bolduc - bad in the room, lazy, that sort of thing - and you're trying to ship him out before word gets out.

Bah. Habs deserved better that period. Jets goalie was a rock

Arber with a much needed W

I hadn’t realized Tanner Pearson was still in the league…I’d assumed he’d retired a couple of years back

Added note…this city still loves PK Subban, LOL. “This is the best city to play hockey” DAMNED STRAIGHT GENERAL #79 IS THE MAN.

Watching it (delayed) on the French feed SOOOO GREAT

The trouble with having turned in a POS effort last game is that now you're looking at the second night of a back to back and can very easily slide to 0-3. It was all looking so promising just a few games ago... Please, Habs, ice an effort that is worthy of #79.

Gross

Huge save by Monty there

Yeah, I’m not putting this on Monty. Habs have not been good enough. “First game back from the road” may be a factor, but there’s no excuse for being outplayed by Ottawa on home ice.

Zub was in all alone, so I can accept Monty being beaten fair and square...but he was sprawled over the place, literally moving away from the net to give Zub MORE net to shoot at. 🙄

Can the Zamboni driver run over Zub please? What the heck is Monty doing there? Again, though, as GHT would say, this was a cream cheese bagel of errors, not just Monty's fault.

Also, Zub sounds like a Robert E. Howard character, so there's that

MM looked gormless on that goal, not really his fault though

1. We're all sick of Veleno. 2. On MM, the problem is the injury to Guhle and the suckage of Carrier. MSL basically doesn't trust his bottom three on D (and Carrier, Struble, and Arber have not given him too many reasons to think otherwise). The result is MM is ridden into the ground. Your point (2) and (4) on Carrier go together, therefore. Despite my confidence in the D corps going into the season, the loss of one guy in the top 4 has really hurt, suggesting that we do need to improve on it bottom end. I have no strong opinion on the other points, but I would not be sitting Anderson just to make a point, and I think MSL knows his guys well enough to know how to manage them mentally. The team has righted the ship after those five straight losses, and a beating against 18-1 Colorado at the tail end of a brutal schedule was inevitable, basically one to throw away. The general signs right now seem positive.

I'm glad someone brought this up. Last year's Carrier seemed like a surprisingly solid, quality #4. This year's is another story. I suppose his partner is indeed the main variable.

Too bad I missed this one, but this compressed schedule makes watching all the games unrealistic given my other commitments. Surprising and gratifying to see us win a W on the road against LVG!! And it sounds as though we fully earned it. On Slaf: my whole thing about moving him off the big line is that it empowers him to take charge. Whatever the advanced stats say about his value on Line 1, there is no question that, on that line, he is the beta guy who defers to the big dogs. And he plays like it. That's been my complaint about him - that he doesn't take charge, just positions himself as a support player to studs Suzuki and Caufield. On Line 2, he seems to be taking charge. That's more what we need to see from him in terms of his overall arc. He is not supposed to be a secondary piece.

That is indeed quite a smart way to structure a NMC. It allows us to ship MM out if we have superior internal replacements as he declines. Meanwhile, Mike gets certainty for the majority of the deal. If you're going to have NMCs, that's a fair way to structure them.

I love MM - I have a soft spot for puck-moving defencemen and he's a very good one. Jeff Petry 2.0. I see our D-corps as excellent, although Ghule's constant injuries are a problem and we still need an upgrade at its bottom end. But MM is part of a really good top-4. This deal may hurt us at its tail end, but $6 mil in a rising cap era is not $6 mil two years ago, so I think we can safely say this is a good signing. If there are limits to the trade protection, it becomes an even better one.

I do enjoy a gratuitous well-targeted potshot.😄 Veleno is 100% a nothing burger

The term is a bit worrisome, so the cap hit will be an important factor.

Had curling so I couldn't watch this one - how was Engstrom? Quiet game from the look of it?

The trouble is, the Canucks are almost comically desperate for a C. I'm sure their fondest hope is that they can get some sort of credible C in return. That's not something the Habs are in a position to provide. A secondary problem is that Sherwood is 30 and currently on a pace that is way higher than his career norms. If I'm him, I want to get paid like a 20-goal, 40-50 point guy and I want good term. It would not shock me in the least to see regression starting next season.