The Chicoutimi Cucumber

I think the medium-term plan is probably to move Bolduc up to Line 2 after Laine is either traded or leaves as a UFA at the end of this season. For now, since Laine is all offence, it seems logical to put him in the top-6. But yes. Of Laine-Dach-Demidov, none of them have shown themselves to be defensively sound. That line is not going to be stable and I suspect Newhook will be the first player they plug in there to try and staunch the bleeding.

I think most of us have a bad feeling about DR. A disturbance in the Force. Bad juju. Bad omens. Etc. I feel the same way, quite strongly. But at the end of the day, of course, it's not really rational. There is no rational reason why he can't recover from losing most of a year of development, and no reason why he can't recover from this much more temporary setback. But he's just felt cursed...ever since Price mangled his name, really, and people were bewildered by the pick. 🤷‍♂️

In 2019-20, he flips to being a player who gets more assists than goals. That was then his pattern. Until last season. Last season was a real nadir for him, production-wise. I think he has been a more well-rounded player than we saw last year. Not a ‘complete’ player by any means. But probably (based on the stats sheet, rather than any attempt at pro scouting of Laine on my part) a guy who can do more than just blast the puck from the hash-marks on the PP, which is pretty much all he did last year.

Funny thing is, Laine has been basically a point per game player for most of his career, including in his final season in Winnipeg and in his disappointing years in Columbus. The Laine we saw last season was significantly WORSE, production-wise, than at any time except for 2018-19 and 2020-21. I know these basic stats only tell part of the story. But what they show is the idea that Laine fell on hard times three years ago is an oversimplification. First, he struggled in 2018-19 as well, even though those were supposedly his glory days; and second, he was a PPG guy in Columbus despite injuries, depression, and piss-poor reviews. I dunno. I'm not encouraging soft play and a lack of 'compete.' But give me a guy who gets 35 goals and 82 points over 82 games, which is basically the pace he was on in Columbus, and I'm OK with putting that guy in my top 6. 🤷‍♂️ The problem last season was - arguably - that we saw the least productive version of Laine. Normally he is substantially better than that.

Is that because of development concerns, or because you don't like how they've looked in preseason? Beck has at least put in a fully year in the North American pros. I always like to have guys marinade in the minors, but if he has earned a spot with his play, then the only reason for keeping him down would be if we feel he has top-6 potential, in which case he should go down and 'learn to dominate.' If he projects as a bottom-6 guy then a case can be made for keeping him here. Same logic with Kapanen, really. He's a year older but doesn't have as much North American pro experience as Beck. Which of the two has looked better?

Now that I’m not going to dispute. The X-factor here is that, if ever Laine is going to have a comeback season, it’s likely to be this year.

I’m not judging ANY veteran player based on preseason. Period.

Ah, forgot that that was coming in so soon, thanks

You called it. The Panthers will have Barkov AND Crosby in the playoffs this year. Book it

I have this cockamamie theory that we need new anti-trust laws that make it illegal to control (say) over 12% of the market. The minute you pass that threshold, we treat you like a monopoly and break you up. That would at least take a hammer to Canada’s ridiculously oligopolistic economic structure. You know, you can just stream Sportsnet+ on your device (laptop or tablet). The French feed is pretty affordable. Works for me, anyway.

Dobson is much more important in the here and now, but obviously this still sucks. Reinbacher feels like a cursed prospect to me. #5 overall when most people had him further down the list…Price garbles his name…misses almost an entire year with catastrophic injury…has a terrible preseason game that has much of the media and fanbase opining that the pick was a mistake…now this. It’s irrational gut feeling, but I have a strong suspicion that he is going to end up as a serviceable second-pairing guy in another city.

Probably it’s just precautionary - groin pulls seem to be fairly common at this time of year - but I hear you. As with any team, all of our optimism is predicated on NOT suffering major injuries to key players. We got off relatively lightly last season but have had more than our share of ridiculous injuries during the rebuild, so even the thought of more major injuries makes me wanna puke

Well, he is a new Montreal Canadien, so that means a massive injury is contractually required 🤬

Indeed. And while the Florian pick was roundly derided at the time, regarded by fans and commentators as a sort of nepotism, it is looking more and more like a pretty damned shrewd use of a 4th-round pick. 👍

Totally agree. I always default to the idea of letting guys cook in the minors rather than bringing them up too soon.

Thanks. I think, if you're Arber, you can't afford to be taking "iffy" penalties. Period. No prospect expert I, but I've always assumed Florian's ceiling was 4th liner. Nothing wrong with that - look at Evans - but the question then is whether he will be a 13th FW or a solid, dependable fixture in the bottom 6. If Arber becomes a reliable bottom-pairing D-man, and Florian a reliable bottom-line FW, that's not a bad outcome, all things considered.

Great story, especially about the mom. I do love the nickname “Smash Brothers” for this duo. It would be huge fun if they both eventually make the time as lineup regulars, and would give us some real edge and character in the bottom-end of our lineup. My problem is that I’ve grown skeptical about Arber (who I like and have defended in the past) becoming a regular D-man. I hear he took a stupid penalty in that game. Not a great sign, despite his later contributing to a goal. As for Florian, who knows. Basically, I’m too old and jaded to get too excited about his potential based on one preseason game. 🤷‍♂️ So, awesome that they provided preseason entertainment. All bets are off beyond that IMHO

Those were heady days, when Gainey's rebuild looked to be paying off. The Kostitsyn Bros, Higgins, Komisarek, Price, were all supposed to be emerging stars. I remember even Bruins fans lamenting the defeat but saying that there was no shame in losing to a team with that much young talent. I remember the confidence that things were only going to get better from there. Except for Price, it was all a mirage. The team collapsed in '09 and all those guys were gone. And they all turned out to be, basically, sh*t. Something had gone radically wrong with Montreal's development program. That experience is one of the reasons why I tend to be quite cautious about triumphalism around young players and the entire rebuild. As far as I'm concerned, it's only real after they SHOW me.

Thanks. Turns out my subscription has been automatically renewed, so I was grumpy-ing out for nothing. I'm just terrified that they'll scrap the French option some day and force me to pay through the nose instead.

Well, there used to be the main package, and then the much cheaper French-only package. Naturally I signed up for the latter. I guess that's no longer a thing? Or am I confused, as usual?

So the cheaper French option no longer exists? F**kers

Preseason games mean nothing, and veterans often look particularly bad in them, because they understand that.

LOL. Looking at that lineup gives me PTSD from the Houle days (or 2022)

Yup, a big difference today Thanks, Brian!

I'd love to add either Malkin or Crosby, but recoil at the likely cost, especially of the latter. I'm pretty sure you could gee up a bidding war for Crosby given what Sid would mean to a contending club, or a club looking to vault from near-contender to 'top tier' status. We're not at the point where we want to flip substantial young pieces to lunge for the brass ring. Malkin is an inferior asset at this stage, so I like that idea better. More chance of a "Jordan Harris" type deal there.