The Chicoutimi Cucumber

Montembault’s critics use a lot of motivated reasoning IMHO, but what do I know. Monty should not really be booked for more than 50 games per season, and would therefore be better with a Kevin Lankinen type - rock solid 1A - platooning with him. Is such a player worth trading assets for, or using cap space on, given the organizational situation at G? I suspect not. I wouldn’t rend my garment if HuGo go that route, but I think we should have other priorities. As I see this team, when it comes to the back end, the more pressing need is to level up the blueline and defensive structure. MSL made major headway this year when it comes to systems and structure, so presumably we can keep building on that. Following the “weakest link” philosophy that I consistently find helpful with this iteration of the Habs, what we absolutely must do is improve on the bottom end of the D-corps. Meanwhile Dobes has another year to work on his game, as does Fowler. Solidify the defensive personnel and structure. Then see where we are at G.

I don’t understand what’s happened to Dvorak. It’s like he suddenly decided to get good over the past few months.

Yes, Hughes made a wise decision, I think. He threw it back to the team - 'show me what you've got' - and I'm sure he is taking careful notes to inform an important summer for the rebuild.

I'm not worried about G. Least of our problems. My priorities: 1. #2C 2. A capable bottom-pairing RD 3. Quality bottom-6 LW On (1), would the Isles have any interest in shopping Bo Horvat? I don't know what the return would be, but he'd be just what the doctor ordered.

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Agreed. For sure. He should do the decent thing and retire, 34 year old multi-millionaire, a nice career behind him. I watch the RDS feed and get quite weary of hearing about his great leadership, etc (because he’s francophone). He reminds me of Scotty Bowman’s aphorism about guys who are great in the room: “then they should stay there.”

That play was unacceptable. He deserves to sit. In a way, it’s a typical ‘young player’ mistake. The team is struggling, you’re frustrated, you want to make something happen, so you force it. The results are almost always bad. However, he’s in what, his third season? No excuse. One thing that’s gotten lost in all this is how bad Savard has sucked. It seems to me to be a bit of a chicken and the egg thing: who is dragging down whom? I know Savard stays in because he’s RD, but I wonder whether he’s a significant contributor to Xhekaj’s suckage. Despite my point earlier in this thread that a single pairing doesn’t lose us a game, etc., I’ve been thinking a lot this season that this team exemplifies the old adage that ‘you’re only as strong as your weakest link.’ When Struble returned and raised his game, it made a huge difference in shoring up the D. Savard and Xhekaj are a terribly weak link, and every minute they’re out there is a minute we are likely to get outplayed.

I missed this one, and frankly I’m glad I did. This sucks. Seems obvious to me that we should have benched Xhekaj and keep the Hutson-Struble pairing together. I believe MSL, like a lot of coaches, overthinks things sometimes. And he is probably especially likely to do so now that the team is struggling and he’s looking for fixes. That being said, I doubt that defensive pairings are “the reason” we lost, and in that sense it’s probably not worth getting all hot and bothered about.

Very good point. He would be a deservng winner

The good news is that we've been blowing chunks for three games and are still holding the WC spot. It's as if nobody actually wants that spot

Hutson's a defenceman, though. But the age difference is a good point.

At least this may remind MSL that Dobes is an option. I’m concerned about how the wheels have come off recently. That first period was absolutely harrowing. We regressed right back to how we were playing in October there. And we’ve sucked since the Avs game (in which we were dominated for all but 10 minutes). I don’t know if guys are tired, or if the Guhle injury and having no 2nd-line C is finally catching up to us.

Celebrini has more PPG so they might lazily fall back on that too. This one is over. You can’t have a Junior B level defensive effort like we had in the first and expect to win. By grace of Philly’s suckage we made a game of it, but come on.

What did I tell you

Crap. That’ll do it. It’s goalie interference, but does anyone trust the NHL to make a coherent decision on these things? I wouldn’t risk it

Philly clearly sucks, so this game is winnable. The team stabilized its D-zone play after the first, but holy smokes that WiFi-Savard duo is BAD. Guhle needs to return. Suzuki had a rough first half of the game, but seems to have improved since then, at least to my eye. Hutson is an absolute machine, I don’t know how he cannot win the Calder considering that he has more points than Celebrini, and is a defenceman, for God’s sake.

I cannot understand how this blatherskite keeps getting hired. What is the magical hold he has on NHL GMs? Is there NO ONE in the realms of available, up and coming coaches who might be worth a look instead of this tiresome man-child retread? I'm also pissed off that this happens right before we play them. Now we're going to face a jacked-up Philly hungry for a win, instead of the listless Dead Team Walking we saw leading up to this. F**K

I love the guy, as a player if not a contract. He is easily one of the toughest Habs to play against, night in and night out. And apparently he's done it while playing through a lot of stuff this season. You have to take your hat off to him.

Savard sucks. So yeah, on the classic theory that you’re only as weak as your weakest link, we’ve got an issue on D. While our bottom-6 has been pretty good when everyone is healthy - although horrible when everyone is not - we don’t have a 2nd line C. That may prove to be too big a hole to overcome. 🤷‍♂️ Be that as it may, Monty should be rested next game, unless Dobes looked really dodgy.

OK, I didn't see the game. But when your goalie lets in 6, even though he got the first star on the Habsworld 10 Thoughts, it makes sense to rest him for the next contest. The Habs got dominated for 50 minutes against the Avs and, by all accounts, for 60 minutes against the Blues. Are we running on fumes? Have we emptied out the bag of magic tricks and are left with crumbs and bits of lint?

I'm a Monty defender, but I don't like riding a guy as though he's Carey Price when nothing in his career history suggests that he's that kind of player. I'd play Dobes now and then even in these high-stakes games. That said, I agree that MSL is acting like a typical coach in this regard. Generally coaches have 'their guy' when it's crunch time, and it's usually a veteran. This applies both to G and regular position players, really. Still, I disagree with this approach in this case. Hopefully Monty proves me wrong.

I was gonna say. They've been impressive and have buried the hapless Canucks in the Western Conference wild card standings with this insane run. But they're not going to go 14-0 or whatever...let's swoop n and hand 'em their asses with a gutsy road win.

McGuire started out in broadcasting on Montreal radio, and he was initially very insightful - a real advance on what went before. As he got bigger, joining TSN and NBC, he devolved into this blaring, in your face, popping-up-everywhere opinion-peddler trying constantly to lobby for a GM job and lecturing everyone with his supposedly superior knowledge even as his public judgement failures piled up. Then he got the Ottawa VP job and completely bombed out. Then he (unfortunately) went through cancer and recovery. Ever since the last two events, I find him to be a rather sad figure. He's much more muted than before. He sounds old, diminished, and the passion seems drained out of him. And he remains no more insightful than before he went to Ottawa. All told, a sad case.

Interesting observation that Monty has a history of fading down the stretch. I hadn't realized that.

Guys like that have great value to contending teams on playoff runs, which is where we hope to be by then. Assuming no decline in their play - a big assumption indeed - we should keep at least one of them around. Of course I am always less confident than most that all prospects will automatically 'hit' and become regulars in the lineup. Ahahahahahaaa, even if the trade made a modicum of sense, I seriously doubt that Van will accept retention on that contract. That's not how their ownership rolls.