sbhatt

I am pumped...this is huge; land a 2C and this is a team that could make a run in the playoffs. The rebuild seems to be moving in leaps and bounds.

That would likely mean squeaking into the playoffs and being an easy out in the 1st round for one of the top 2 teams in the East again, and that would not be very satisfying. If it's a one year situation where we get the perfect 2C next off-season, it would be worth the short term let-down I guess. I have zero faith that Dach can pull off being a quality 2C at this point.

I think the all-time exhibit A for playoff clutch has to be Claude Lemieux: 379 goals in 1215 regular season games 80 goals in 234 playoff games Scored approximately 31% of his career goals in the playoffs, while only 16% of his total games were playoff games. That's a hell of a difference. If I had to make an argument for 'clutch', it'd be Claude. As in Bennett's case, the ability to get away with more rule infractions around the prime scoring area in front of the net is surely a part of the equation here. I'd like to think that with the opposing defenders also able to get away with more in the playoffs, there is a balancing out that doesn't make this as big a factor as some might believe.

Agreed. It's not like he would even step foot in the other team's facility...it's merely a few pieces of paper moving from one file to another at the league office at this point.

If Hughes has a successful off-season, we shouldn't be making any 1st round selections...those picks should be pieces to get what we need most...a quality 2C and an upgrade for the blue line. We don't need more prospects...the rebuild is over. It's time to climb the contender ladder.

Thompson was damn good in this game. You have to score 3 to have a good chance to win a hockey game most nights, and we couldn't get there.

Won't get shut out at least. That's something.

Now would be the time for Wifi to make a contribution, yes.

Game over. The silver lining is that this series clearly showed what this team needs to be a serious playoff contender beyond the obvious #2C.

The number of flubbed/mishandled passes tonight is unreal.

Not nearly good enough. Fumbled pucks and wasted chances at their end, and some serious gaffes in our own end.

Exactly. Discussing this with my brother earlier, we both figured the Habs would likely need 4 in this game to give Dobes the slack needed for a win. This isn't on him; the team needed to put up more 'run support'.

We had some bad luck, but let's be honest....this was not the effort that game 1 was. We did not create as many turnovers with our forecheck, and we didn't out-hit the Caps. Only that level of effort is enough to offset the gap in talent/experience, and we didn't hit that level tonight.

godddamnit

I just need our captain to score now...played the same parlay I won on last game (Caufield G, Suzuki G, Hutson A)

Laine will be PP2 next season....there's zero question at this point.

93 makes that powerplay so much more effective....he gives Hutson room to operate, and operate he does. Caufield can bury passes that perfect all night long.

I love what Demidov brings to the powerplay. Can't wait to see what it looks like when it's well rehearsed by this unit next season.

This is bullshit

Bad start, and special teams were the main factor. Stinking up our powerplay was a momentum killer, and taking the two penalties kept us from getting much going. Need to be a hell of a lot better than that.

I'm still wired from that game....falling asleep is not going to happen anytime soon.

The big guns blazed, secondary scoring came through, and we gave better than we got physically. Aside from a couple of blown coverages in our own end, pretty close to an ideal game for the good guys.

I pulled mine working out, just a mild strain, but I still had to baby it for 8 weeks before I could really test it. Of course, my being 50 might have been a factor in the recovery time, and Monty will have a pro training staff and daily treatments to speed up his recovery.

Trying not to get too giddy here, but...hard not to right now.

This game is wild. Come on, boys...score here and take the roof off of the building.