tomh009

I can't see that. Dobes is definitely not an NHL goalie at this point, and Kaskisuo is a huge unknown. Unless, of course, he decides to play Struble in net! 😂

Yes. NJD and CAR both have cap space enough to acquire a goalie ...

With St-Louis as the coach, I am much less concerned about that.

Danault is back on the second line now, PLD is on the third …

It's back-to-back Folignos for the Habs!

Dobes in net again today. I expect that we'll see Kaskisuo late next week, when the Rocket has three games in three nights.

He did not. EDIT: I completely forgot that he's Austrian, not Swiss, and Austria is not at the top level WJC.

The Athletic's Corey Pronman published his list of top 25 prospects at the world juniors. His top ten: 1. Macklin Celebrini 2. Will Smith (SJS) 3. Cutter Gauthier (PHI) 4. Gabe Perreault (NYR) 5. Konsta Helenius 6. Jiri Kulich (BUF) 7. Ryan Leonard (WSH) 8. Lane Hutson (MTL) 9. Jimmy Snuggerud (STL) 10. Axel Sandin Pellikka (DET) Celebrini and Helenius are the only draft-eligibles in the top ten. Neither Mesar or Beck fit into Pronman's top 25 ranking.

Oh, well. Need some possession to score ... 😢

OK, it was only maybe 10 or 15 seconds, but I loved that short-handed pressure on the Wild with less than a minute remaining! Now, another 30 seconds of 4-on-3 PK remaining ...

That was a nice rush and pass by Evans after the Minnesota pressure on the first shift!

Danault was lost long before the Kotkaniemi debackle happened. so not really an option. Arguably Bergevin should have signed Danault rather than Gallagher, though. As for Barron and Lehkonen, I do love Lehkonen but Barron may yet turn out to be a shrewd acquisition. And there is still a second-rounder for next year's draft, too.

Alex Auld ... another name I had already forgotten!

Fully agree, for the reasons Commandant outlined, they significantly improve the probabilities--but it's far from a guarantee, even for the kids of generational players.

Quite true. And yet many crash and burn, genetics are no guarantee as there are two parents. Gretzky, Bourque, Lemieux, Roy, Chelios, Messier and many more.

Quite. xG data is based on distance, shooting angles etc. But NHL's current data doesn't (as far as I know!) include net-front traffic, for example, or whether the shooter was being disrupted by a D-man, it's essentially puck data. So, if the team's defenders tend to block the goalie's vision of the shots, they will be more difficult for the goalie to save, but the xG will be the same as for a clear shot from the same position. Still, xG is a very good indicator, and GSAx a much better one than just save percentage.

Let's see whether new goaltending is any improvement!

The better way is to look at GSAx/60 as that adjusts for the number of games played. By that criterion Montembeault and Allen are 21st and 22nd (minimum 10 games played). Primeau is fewer than 10 games, but if you set the minimum to six, he comes in 29th.

Exactly. I don't think a trade with Edmonton is going to happen.

I do tend to agree. But even if he plays normally on the wing, being able to take faceoffs would still be a good skill. Or to be able to step in at C in case of an injury ...

They had very good movement on the PP in OT, and got the defenders to collapse close to the goal, allowing Barron to move all the way to the hashmarks for the shots.

I was looking at the Habs’ faceoff performance this season and I came away super impressed: Dvorak 59% (52% last season) Monahan 58% (54%) Evans 56% (54%) Suzuki 54% (47%) Clearly, for a team that used to struggle to get close to 50%, there has been some significant training to get to this point. Maybe there is even hope for Newhook!

Over .500 in term of points. But under .500 winning percentage.

Looking at the replay on nhl.com (many times!) the camera above the goal seems to have the best angle. It sure looks like he touches the puck with his stick and the puck changes direction somewhat. But I don't know which replay the refs were looking at or what they saw.

That was largely an artifact of the bottom four teams in the division being so closely clustered just below .500. With no bottom-feeders (and with the Leafs having an equivalent of a something like 115-point season) that cluster ended up just below .500. Unusual, but not particularly cringeworthy -- it could have happened in a normal season, too, especially when eight teams out of 14 were still making the playoffs. Not that it did happen but it could have.