tomh009

He’s on pace to break his rookie season mark of 18 goals. Who were his linemates back then? I can’t remember...

Lehkonen! He had sooooo much time on that breakaway ...

Wow. Now that was a pathetic power play.

First goal for Kovalchuk Two goals for Mete 5-4 final for Detroit

Yeah, I can see this, too. But then we are counting on Chiarot, Mete and Romanov for 2020-21. Is that a safe assumption? Maybe it's good enough to take a chance on.

If it's true, then I expect that the diagnosis was "no concussion" and they gave him some time off just as a precaution.

I'm hoping that Scandella could have a longer-term role -- it's not as if we have a logjam of prospects waiting to take over his spot. But let's wait and see what Bergevin's plan is.

Yes. I'm resigned to it now, so not going to get pissed off about it. Scandella looks good after the first two games, though. And Kovalchuk looked legit, too.

That SHG ... a cross-ice pass by Suzuki, Tatar couldn't handle it, and the Jets scored on a 2-0 break. Clearly not Price's fault, but would you lay fault on the pass, or the fumbled reception?

That was atrocious.

The heat map looks radically different than against the Penguins, though. Is this just the Kovalchuk effect? Way more activity in front of the Jets' net.

Yeah. If only Juulsen ... but at this point I worry whether he will ever be able to play for the Habs. Are any of the left defencement capable of playing the right (wrong!) side?

Thank you for putting it more eloquently! The reality is that a clear majority of the local Habs fans are francophone. Making the effort to learn some basic conversational French (really not hugely onerous if you were educated in Canada and already took some French classes) shows commitment to the city, and that you value all the fans, not only the ones that speak English. I've never been much of a Kovalchuk fan, but kudos to him for making the effort to use at least some basic French when coming to Montreal.

Koivu was a leader, no doubt. But he did not set an example as far as French skills. One of his challenges was that English was not his first language, and he still had a lot of work to do on that when he first arrived in Montreal. In my view, there is no reason why one of the current players couldn't show leadership on being able to communicate in French. Whether it'll actually happen is a whole different thing, though. But if Kovalchuk can do it ...

Tatar is indeed the leading scorer, but not by much. Gallagher, Drouin, Domi, Weber and Danault are all within 15% of his PPG. Our strength is in balanced scoring, so giving up Tatar is surely a smaller impact than having, say, Gallagher, Drouin and Armia all injured all at the same time. Price, yes, we would surely need to retain some salary. But can we get something in return? Just for freeing up cap space, it doesn't make sense. Now, there are some UFA goalies available next summer, so finding a reasonable netminder seems to be a feasible task. https://www.capfriendly.com/browse/free-agents/2021/caphit/all/goalies&signing-status=ufa

Absolutely! I am in the same boat, my French classes were decades ago, and I don't know that I was really keen on them back in high school anyway. But it's amazing how much of it is still retained, once you start digging for it. Visiting France, I got back to survival level pretty quickly, although getting to the point of being able to have conversations would have taken much more work. But Suzuki, Mete and Fleury, for example, are only a few years away from his French classes, and living in a bilingual city. It's not a stretch to use French when you have the opportunity, and to gain enough of a comfort level to be able to do basic interviews in French -- full fluency is really not a requirement. Even guys like Gallagher, Chiarot and Weal are only 10 years away from high school (and French classes). It just takes a commitment from a small group of players to do it. I don't see this as a requirement, but I do see it as leadership and commitment to the community. And it doesn't even cost anything.

An (as of yet unconfirmed) claim on Twitter that Kovalchuk is actually 38, not 36. Not that I really think it makes any difference to his performance at this point. He can either still play, or he cannot, whether he's 36 or 38. https://twitter.com/SlavaMalamud/status/1206989566357516289?s=20

A bit confused here. What do you mean? It would not be setting the right example? What would set the right example, then? The players are unwilling to learn, regardless of the example? The players are willing to learn but have no spare time in their busy schedules?

Does Petry still have decent trade value?

I think that decision on the delay of game was actually correct. IIHF rule 135 specifically excludes (from delay-of-game penalties) any structural objects above the ice surface. And the TSN camera is indeed partly over the ice surface. Not by much, but more than zero, so I think the call is correct. I thought the refereeing in the final was quite good. Some of the other games in the tournament, not so much.

Yes. A first pro season in Laval would surely have been better for his development. But that's water under the bridge, it's too late to do that now.

Let's not forget that Suzuki is two years older than Kotkaniemi was last year (and a year older now). And apart from that, different players develop at different rates. I really believe that it's too early to give up on Kotkaniemi.

Quite right. French is not that difficult a language, coming from English, and NHL players do have spare time -- especially so in the summer. Learning conversational French would not be that onerous. Let's hope that one of the kids (Suzuki, for example) will be more willing to build on the high-school French skills to be able to communicate with the fans and the media. That could set the right example, as you say.

Armia is skating, too (as is Drouin). But no word on when any of them will be ready to play.

And (many if us) had high hopes for him. Yet another data point for it being hard to predict eventual goalie performance when drafting.