The Chicoutimi Cucumber

It just seems unrealistic to expect a guy who was waived for the purposes of terminating his contract to become a regular on your second line. I mean, stranger things have happened, but at face value, Texier should be getting sparse minutes. I suppose when you’re (a) missing Newhook and (b) a coach who likes to keep his lines as stable as possible, gaping roster holes are disproportionately likely to be addressed via a random fill-in, as opposed to juggling your other lines around. Certainly this is a golden opportunity for Texier to recover the form he found in Columbus and maybe show that he has more than that up his sleeve.

LOL. Speaking of mature, Kapanen really impressed tonight. Fans don’t seem to be appreciating him all that much, but the kid is logging minutes and being used in a lot of situations, and delivering. I suspect he has a long career ahead of him.

A deserved result. Habs were the better team most of the night - I actually think they’re now just plain a better team than TO - but Willoughy Wallaby Woo stood huge for the Leafs. No doubt the idiot media/fanbase will be now anointing him the Second Coming of Sawchuck #26578564564834. Boy, MSL sure loves Texier. I found it a bit strange for much of the night. But it was repaid on that unreal shootout goal.

Goal Caufield doin' his thing

Dobes playing well.

I remember reading a story about that some years ago. Apparently it really was a "love of the game" thing with Keane. Pretty cool if true.

I agree that they are incredibly unlucky. Like I said in an earlier post, a lot of management's decisions have actually made perfect sense. The Demko thing is like the Price injuries, but maybe worse, the Horvat trade was a good cap move, Miller-Pettersson thing is unheard of, etc. One thing about Hughes though: there has been a lot of word that he would be willing to stay in Van if the organization seemed to be going in the right direction. So I don't think it's just a question of him wanting to leave to go to NJ, period. He is a stud, a superstar, and he wants to win above all. Apparently all the dressing room drama last year really took a toll on him as captain...and now the team is in last place with no elite prospects and David frigging Kampf as #2C. I can't blame him if he wants out.

I feel like dropping Jamie Lee Curtis is the opposite of Yvonne - it will bring bad luck! Hopefully that's just me fretting.\ Good that Dobes is in, let him build on a good effort last time.

No question. It is also unbelievable that we had to 'throw in' Keane for a deal that was already appallingly bad without Keane. That trade hurtled us toward a decade of darkness that would have been unimaginable to previous generations of Habs fans. Houle was one of the worst GMs in league history and it didn't help that the Molsons were divesting themselves of the team at the time. Painful memories indeed.

They don't. Ownership in Van has resisted rebuilding for years. They want playoff gate receipts. And they may also believe - not totally unreasonably - that this fanbase will not actually pay to watch a rebuilding team. (I think the market has finally gotten to that place. But historically, Vancouver fans don't turn out if the team absolutely sucks rocks). Francesco Aquilini has a habit of being buddy-buddy with certain players and resisting trading them for personal reasons, which doesn't help. Michael Buble, who is tight with the owners, tweeted a couple of weeks ago that the team has just suffered from terrible luck and injuries - implying that that's the shared narrative of he and his drinking buddies in ownership. Given that the Canucks are last overall, though, the idea of a tear-down rebuild may finally become irresistible. TBH, I understand why management hasn't been keen on a rebuild. You rebuild in order to acquire franchise players. They already have one in Quinn Hughes. In fact, a rebuild is unlikely to yield a player of higher impact than him. So, no rebuild made sense. The problem now is that Quinn is likely leaving. That being so, they should deal him before this year's deadline to try to get a return that will super-charge the rebuild. That return, plus a very high pick in a great draft year, could conceivably put them on a path to success more quickly than the typical rebuild affords. It is quite possible, though, that ownership will nix the idea and try to re-up Hughes this offseason. Because Canucks.

No worries, I am very easily confused

I guess I'm hoping he has a higher ceiling than Arber or Struble

I tend to see Struble as a better overall player than Arber. And even if he's not in Arber's weight class, he can throw 'em when the mood strikes. I still remember him beating that Sen to a pulp in pre-season. But I dunno what the advanced stats say. Both will probably have long NHL careers burbling away at the bottom-end of teams' defensive lineup. I can see a world where Struble establishes himself as a solid #5. He makes me think of Josh Gorges for some reason - a random connection, I know. I have no idea whether either would be a reasonable trade for Old Man Myers.

Agree with all of this. The question is, what is fair return for Myers? Unless they are happy with a pick, Struble is the only thing that comes to mind.🤷‍♂️

I thought of Myers too, and yeah, he'd be a nice fit for us. Word around the Canuckleheads is that they are only interested in moving expiring contracts at this stage, although you have to think the situation is fluid, so I would definitely be making inquiries on Myers. The trouble with Hughes is, is the acquiring team getting him only for a year and half before he decamps for NJ? He'd still be worth a substantial return - he could single-handedly transform (gulp) a team like the Leafs overnight, for instance - but that question is going to hang over any Hughes deal and deflate his value, at least to some extent.

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