The Chicoutimi Cucumber

They are beatable, and every game - even Game 2 which the Caps dominated for 2/3 of the night - has been very close. I don’t believe they are strong enough defensively, and expect them to bow out in the next round. It worries me a bit that they might manage to squeak through and perhaps face Toronto in the Semi-Finals, precisely because they are so beatable. They have also tended to get the bounces in this series. That’s true. Even when the goalies got hurt…it was THEIR goalie who turned out to be fine, not ours. Nevertheless, the Habs have had too many defensive errors this series to be able to say “we deserve to be winning this thing.” We’re a work in progress, but the learning has been wonderful, and you can see guys like Slaf, Hutson, and Demidov - core players on any future contender - figuring it out: “oh, so THIS is what we’ve got to do to win in the playoffs…” We’ve also learned pretty definitively that Laine is surplus to requirements. And that Monty has no problem bringing it in big games.

I don't "blame" Dobes, but I do think this this tends to show how silly the whole argument that "Dobes should be our #1 G" was. He's a work in progress, Monty is fully cooked, and with him in net WASH would have had between one and zero goals tonight IMHO. Wilson was a massive difference-maker on the tying goal. But that goal was also bad luck. WASH got a crazy bounce, we didn't, they won. Guhle played a lot better than that card shows IMHO

Slaf's play the last three games is what I've been looking for since he arrived. PLAYING LARGE AND IN CHARGE

Yep. A whole new weapon there. Caps have been the better team tonight but have no answer to our special teams so far. It worries me a bit that Ofascistkin will be on a mission in the third after getting burned for that idiotic penalty, which was fully deserved. He was a bit 'off' in the first, but back in the saddle in the second. Mattheson was an absolute monster for the first 30 minutes of this one. If Game One might have been his worst game in the CH, this one has been one of his best. Dobes absolutely brutal on the Caps' goal, but he's been great since then. Refs are an absolute gong-show, trying to compensate for having lost control by now clamping down on any old thing. Complete amateurs.

Caps are probably happy with that road period. Injuries starting to catch up to us? Hopefully Carrier isn't seriously hurt.

What's with the 6:30 start? Weird. ALLEZ HABS ALLEZ 🔥

Very interesting interview with Gorton. I never really thought about that aspect of scouting, where the scouts don’t just assess a player, but also assess where he is likely to go in the draft; the whole strategic question around drafting is not just ‘where is this guy on our list?’ But also ‘where is this guy likely to be on other organizations’ lists, so that we can plan to draft him?’ Hutson is THE reason the rebuild is ahead of schedule. You draft a franchise, top-10 NHL D-men at #62 overall, it has a massive cascading effect on everything. I love the idea that the team got sick of losing and carved its way out of that trough. There is probably a moment at which a young team can go either way - this way, or the Buffalo way. Fortunately we effected the right pivot and, between MSL, Suzuki, and others, seem to have sufficient internal leadership. If Slaf keeps playing like he has this series, that line will go ‘next level.’

Like I say, leave him in and don’t change that lineup one iota. But with him, it’s always seemed to be starts and stops. He comes in, plays decent hockey, then starts slipping into bad habits. So I wouldn’t hesitate to yank him from the lineup at some point along the way if we need a more stable presence (Struble).

That fight was when I started falling back in love with Josh Anderson as a player. He’ll never be worth his contract, but he’s definitely one of those guys you want on your team, and hate if he’s on the other team. I don’t know what happened last season, but he unequivocally rebuilt himself as an admirable and high-impact bottom-6 guy this year.

You absolutely leave this lineup alone for next game. The fact that Anderson’s stat card wasn’t all that great really speaks to be about the limits of those things. He was a force last night and has been glorious to behold all series for us. That being said…Xhekaj has to play decent HOCKEY in order to warrant a spot in the lineup. He can bring all the intangibles he wants, but if he reliably takes dumb, costly penalties and makes positional errors, then he should remain a #7 d-man. I believe in the ‘intangibles’ but they don’t override how you play the fundamentals of the game. He’ll be in next game, and rightly so, but I have trouble accepting that he is somehow the key to this team’s success or failure.

It’s slightly remarkable how little we missed Laine. Frankly we looked a lot more offensively dangerous without him. Sadly, I find it unlikely that we will clean up our defensive play much more than we did tonight. This team is anything but hermetic. We’ll need Dobes to be as good as Monty was.

Another one like that and the Caps will start hearing footsteps

Habs really showed that they are starting to understand playoff hockey. Massive contributions from Anderson, Hutson, CC, and Slaf.

I love that Slaf is starting to get under their skin. Scores, aggravates the opposition…that’s the way, young man 👍

Dvorak line has been on fire this period.

Sorry to hear that, man. That sucks

Nah, I don’t wish him any serious injury. Now, if he has a minor ding that keeps him out for a couple, well that’s just fine, LOL.

We were in no way to blame for that. Strome “Kreidered” his own guy

Just an epic play by Slaf. THAT’S WHAT I’M TALKING ABOUT

Actually, being old enough to remember the days of bench-clearing brawls, I always found them kind of boring. More exciting in theory than in practice. Good analysis by Friedman pointing out that the Habs have been very physical as a team tonight. The theory is WiFi makes them all feel their oats. I’ve always said, the benefit of a tough guy is NOT intimidating the other team, it’s jazzing up the morale of your own guys. Anderson with a misconduct, unfairly IMHO, but just to even it out. This is about the refs trying to take back the control their incompetence surrendered.

Caufield has been blasting that thing all night. He came to score that’s for sure

God love Josh Anderson. What a beast

Bananas chaos - dunno if I’ve ever seen a fight on the bench like that

ET C’EST LE BUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUTT HELLA PLAY BY HUTSON O-fascist-kin made to look like an ass, even better MASSIVE GOAL