tomh009

Creative, yes ... but if it's just creative passing, they won't score. So, the thinking with Dobson is to give them another shooting option.

It could be. Or it could be just that it's someone different, to give him some fresh perspective.

That is some stonking PK work.

Anderson in and Wilson out is excellent news indeed.

I had them at 64 and 61, which still look too cautious.

That's really it ... he has a good shot, and Demidov makes great passes, but a key part is Kapanen being able to find open ice for those scoring opportunities.

I love this one ...

So, there is some insight into Guhle's injuries in Arpon Basu's Habs notebook on the Athletic this morning. He had spent the summer before working on taking hits while avoiding injuries, and that certainly was a good idea. This past summer, though, he was bulking up in the gym, and it seems that he already had an adductor muscle issue from that, and it flared up in the pre-season. But he chose to play in the regular season anyway (his decision, not the team's) and Guhle now admits that he made a mistake in coming back too soon, and that he has learned his lesson. Not great, but that somewhat reduces the stickiness of the "injury-prone" label as the adductor really doesn't appear to have originally been an on-ice injury. He says his role model is now Monahan, who wore the same label but has now played in some 85% of the games after returning from the 2022-23 season-ending groin surgery.

If Gallagher were as bad as you say, his goals for % (which is not exactly advanced analytics) would not be at the midpoint of the team. There would be far more goals against, and far fewer goals for. This is not based on just last night's game, but more than 40 games this season. As for penalties, his penalty count is not unreasonable given his playing style, and the fact that referees will not give him the benefit of the doubt.

I think we have enough of both of those. It would need to be someone young enough not to be eligible for waivers. My personal expectation is that there won't be many players available that would make a positive impact on the Habs, at a price that Hughes is willing to pay.

Is he really that bad, though? Did a check on naturalstattrick.com, looking at all Habs forwards that have played at least 100 minutes of 5-on-5 this year. Gallagher is ... 6th of 15 in goals (while on ice) -- behind only Suzuki, Demidov, Kapanen, Caufield and Slafkovsky 6th of 15 in goals against -- tied with Caufield, and the top five have far less TOI 6th of 15 in CF% 9th of 15 in FF% 8th of 15 in GF% 9th of 15 in xGF% NHL EDGE says he is still 84th percentile in skating speed and 54th percentile in offensive zone time. While he's certainly not as good as he was, I just don't think he's the one dragging the team down.

That is the question ... his recent scoring apart, I have been impressed with Texier's (approach to) play. He's never going to be a Tom Wilson or even Josh Anderson, but he's working hard and not afraid of board battles. I see something of Armia in his play, if not quite Slafkovsky. It could be a combination of a first-line opportunity and guidance from St-Louis that's helping him find a role that he can succeed in--or else, as you say, it may be just a flash in a pan.

The first three ...

It's not surprising given that the Habs are near the top of the list for minor penalties taken.

I can't see Hughes going for Panarin.

He's only six points away from the overall WHL scoring lead, with four games fewer played. Basically the same points/game.

Or one of them is injured.

So, the stat card is pretty but one game is a really small sample. If you drill down into why he's deep negative ... Main cause of Danault's negative score is his xGF% His xGF was 0.14 and xGA 1.46 (from Moneypuck), for about 10% xGF He was on the ice mostly against the Boqvist-Rodrigues-Samoskevich line (from Naturalstattrick) Samoskevich had a flurry of shots about five minutes into the first, accounting for about 0.7 xGA (from Moneypuck) Boqvist's shot in the third was about 0.3 xGA What this shows is that a few individual defensive events can really skew a player's xGF% for one game, especially if that player's xGF was as low as Danault's was. And xGA/xGF are based on events while the player is on the ice, regardless of whether he contributed to those situations. xGF% is more reliable for a team, or for a player over multiple games.

A few interesting quotes from today's Arpon Basu article on The Athletic: The Canadiens have a brand of hockey to call their own, a critical step in the rebuild Suzuki on the Habs' "brand" of hockey: “It’s evolved over the last few years. Marty knows how to watch other teams and see what they do well and what’s working around the league and try to implement it into our game. We play like Florida, we play like Tampa. There’s a lot of things we’ve taken from really good teams and turned it into our own. It’s an ever-evolving system, and it’s a ton of fun to play in. All the guys are bought in.” and: “Teams have tendencies. We do a good job of breaking those down before the game and allowing guys to read the play and not just be robots of forechecking. There’s some freedom to read what’s coming next, and when you can have an idea of what’s happening, you can get on top of pucks faster.” And from St-Louis himself: “We have a style of play, but we make certain adjustments before a game. There’s a blueprint of the way we want to play, but we’ll alter a couple of things, and you’ve got to be on, you’ve got to be aware, you’ve got to be able to take that information and go apply it. And if we do, I think it just helps our collective game. Everybody’s on the same page — you keep the predictability going.” St-Louis is not just telling the players to play the way he used to play. He is clearly studying the game and adapting their system (or brand, or whatever) of play based on the opponents. He may not be able to react as quickly yet when encountering a new challenge, but he is definitely aware of the need to adapt, and he is evolving the team's play as well as evolving himself as a coach.

The way it was in the 50s ...

Between 3 and 4 xGA, depending on whose numbers you like. Montembeault played a solid game overall, allowing only two goals against. As for the PP, the Panthers were very aggressive on the kill, making the usual passing more difficult. They are still young, they need to evolve and learn to adjust based on the PK approach.

This is what happens if you shoot to behind you and don't take a look to aim ...

I have to assume that St-Louis didn't really care about the faceoff wins and wanted him to get the reps? 33 faceoffs for Danault and Kapanen, only 25 for Suzuki, Veleno and Beck combined.

So ... you have concluded that he would NOT help the Habs get to the playoffs?

I think so, too. The set of players the Finns can choose from is much smaller than the Canadians or the US.