tomh009

If Armia plays well enough to keep his spot on the second line, that's also good. Especially since the SKA line seems to have some chemistry going.

Seems some people in the 'peg are not so unhappy about this. https://www.winnipegfreepress.com/sports/hockey/jets/good-riddance-big-buff-567537782.html

Oh, I very much agree with you. But plenty of people complain about the missed playoffs etc, which surely applies some pressure to take shortcuts.

Because the fans were clamoring for a playoffs appearance?

Right. And if we look at 18-year-olds, Kakko and Hughes have scored only 16 and 17 points so far this season. And both have had substantial PP time.

Folin recalled to the Habs. I'd much rather have Fleury -- but at this point I agree with keeping Fleury in Laval. Give him (and Kotkaniemi and Poehling) the ice time he needs to develop, and hopefully go through a playoff run with the Rocket.

I do think he had a strong rookie season: 34 points, with third-line minutes, no PP to speak of and without elite wingers. This season, clearly not the same, but to me the rookie season was impressive.

Right. Arpon's latest article confirmed that Kotkaniemi was playing with the groin injury for quite some time before going on the injured list. He bulked up significantly in the summer, as had been suggested to him, and the Habs' trainers visited him in Finland and approved his workout program. But what got neglected in the process was skating: he was off the ice for more than two months, longer than he had been at any time in the last ten years. Lessons learned and all that, but when he arrived back in Montreal his body was different, but he had not done the on-ice work to adjust his skating to it yet. Add in the nagging groin injury and it becomes pretty clear why he wasn't the same player as in his rookie season.

And Poehling. I would have expected (the classic) Price to save at least two of those three.

It would have been better if the Habs had been the ones to score it. 🙁 Poehling gave the puck away rather easily but, really, I think Price should have saved that one.

I figured there must be some sort of a prize for that, given some other posters' efforts!

I expect Poehling will be on the first Metro to Laval as soon as one of them is ready.

And if this is the case, then I'd trade him for whatever we can get, as our odds of signing him in the summer will be poor, even if is happy in Montreal right now. It's now or never.

Didn't you know? Habs have a policy against drafting good players. On each round of the draft, Bergevin will always skip the three best available players, and then choose at random from the rest. He then combines this with the strategy of trading good players away and getting losers in return. Finally, he will never make any attempts to sign any decent free agents. This three-pronged approach is to maintain our tradition of not making the playoffs. /s

In Julien's defence, all NHL coaches are relatively short-term focused, and their priority is to win, using the personnel they have. Planning for the next season -- or the next ten -- is incumbent on the management team. And player development generally happens much more so at the AHL level.

Indeed. 5-4 Belleville in OT. Yet another point gifted away.

I don't, either. But it sure seems to be a pattern, just like the Habs allowing goals at the very end of a period.

Kotkaniemi has his first point in Laval: an assist on Hudon's PPG. Belleville has come back from a 4-1 deficit, though, to tie it 4-4 at the end of regulation. Snatching defeat from the jaws of victory?

I'd even take two years, but if he's looking for four or five, it's got to be somewhere else. Unless Bergevin has decided that Kovalchuk is a pure rental, I would expect him to be talking seriously very soon now.

O ye of little faith!

Outshot 14-8 by Belleville in the first, largely thanks to four penalties. Now 2-1 nearing the end of the second on goals by Evans and Varone (PPG). Shots 22-12 for Belleville so far.

Unless he’s willing to sign a (reasonable) extension before the trade deadline.

And that's four assists for Petry this afternoon.

That's what it's looking like. And, like Kotkaniemi, I think this is the right decision. Both of them can benefit from time in Laval -- and hopefully from a Rocket run to the playoffs.

And you don't think Armia can win puck battles? Have you been watching the same games I have?