tomh009

(Deleted).

(Deleted). Sorry.

A 2nd for a 37yo rental D-man (who is clocking only 16 minutes per game(? That seems like a pretty high price.

It shows fine for me, too. @DON, which browser are you using?

Yes. We need a solid backup. I was hoping Kinkaid would be that, but he turned out not to be. But Julien also needs to give the backup some games to play -- once or twice a month is simply not enough, whoever it is.

Ugh.

That finish sucks. But in the end, it really doesn't matter. The playoffs are out of reach in any case. On the upside, I'm off the hook for the next GDT. 😬

Hard to say. But self-inflicted to some extent as Price pretty much gave the puck to Comeau.

I think he didn't spot Pavelski flying in fresh off the bench. Pavelski intercepted, threw it Janmark and Price had no chance. A mistake, no doubt, but with mitigating circumstances.

So if he traded away all our decent prospects and picks but made the playoffs for four years in a row (but lost in the first round every year) he’d be a better GM?

I would much rather give Lindgren the work, too. We may yet need him, so give him the practice he needs. Seven points behind the Leafs, and they have two games in hand (10 points to the wildcard spots). How much of a gap do they need before they will concede defeat and give up on the playoff dream?

All done now ... sir!

vs Three games into this four-game stretch, the Habs have yet to take a point. Will they turn it around tonight, without their captain, or will it be another step toward a lottery pick? Canadiens' projected lineup: Tomas Tatar -- Phillip Danault -- Brendan Gallagher Ilya Kovalchuk -- Nick Suzuki -- Joel Armia Nick Cousins -- Max Domi -- Jonathan Drouin Artturi Lehkonen -- Nate Thompson -- Jake Evans Brett Kulak -- Jeff Petry Ben Chiarot -- Victor Mete Marco Scandella -- Xavier Ouellet Carey Price Charlie Lindgren Scratched: Christian Folin, Jordan Weal, Dale Weise Injured: Shea Weber (ankle), Paul Byron (knee) Stars' projected lineup: Roope Hintz -- Tyler Seguin -- Corey Perry Jamie Benn -- Jason Dickinson -- Denis Gurianov Andrew Cogliano -- Radek Faksa -- Blake Comeau Mattias Janmark -- Joe Pavelski -- Jason Robertson Esa Lindell -- John Klingberg Miro Heiskanen -- Stephen Johns Jamie Oleksiak -- Andrej Sekera Ben Bishop Anton Khudobin Scratched: Roman Polak, Joel Kiviranta, Taylor Fedun Injured: Martin Hanzal (back), Alexander Radulov (upper body)

I’ll do it.

Sorry, I thought the sarcasm was obvious.

Well, then, arguably the Habs' drafting has always been terrible. Of the five first-overall draft picks since 1963, they have exactly one superstar (Guy Lafleur) and four decent NHL players (Monahan, Plasse, Houle and Wickenheiser). Only one? And that's even without Timmins being involved -- at least we think he was not.

Only six of those 17 years did we have a pick in the top half of the year. And only three years did we have one in the top ten. Those three? Price (5th, worked out OK, I think, although has yet to score 70 points), Galchenyuk (3rd, turned into Domi who scored 72 last year) and Kotkaniemi (3rd, too early to tell). We had half the number of top-ten picks of the average NHL team ...

So if they lose the two "should win" games, they'll need to do 16-2-3 for the rest ...

Right. Ryder was three years older -- and had three years of seasoning in the AHL under his belt.

And the reason the goalies tend not to do the butterfly much is because it's really hard to get back up again!

The point here is that Kovalchuk's trade value appears to be a third-round pick, where as Domi (for example) would bring a much greater return. A third-rounder is not really going to help us much.

If Vatanen is a pure rental, that seems like an unimaginably terrible deal. Hard to believe that Bergevin would do that.

Right. The odds of a third-round pick making an impact on the Habs are very slim. Maybe 10% will become a regular NHL player, maybe 1% will become an impact player. On the other hand, if we can sign Kovalchuk for two years, he will make more of an impact than that. (Of course, if he doesn't want to sign, we should get something rather than letting him walk.)

We all see what we want to see ...

Another BS penalty ...