tomh009

14 shots in the shootout, before Cleveland missed one and Weise scored the third goal for the Rocket.

I think you may have misread at least some of us. As for me, I would love to have a contending team. More immediately, I would love to have a new top defenceman pull on the CH sweater. And yet. If I imagine myself in the role of an NHL GM, it's not an easy task to excel. It's much easier to do a Chiarelli and run a team into the ground. But building a winning team is much more challenging, as the other GMs are not exactly going to be bending backwards to help you. UFA signings can be a boost if you can attract them -- but you need to have something to make your team attractive (recent winning record, low tax rate, low media/fan pressure, nice weather etc). So I continue to cheer for this team through their struggles. I continue to hope that Bergevin will be able to pull off a deal that significantly improves the team (and not a rental). And in the end, it's just a hockey game, life is too short for me to stress about whether they win the cup or not.

Barber has played well this year but I suspect is unlikely to be a longer-term NHL player (he played for Hershey for four years, with only three games for the Caps). Evans has been hot recently and might have NHL potential.

The Twitter feed says accidental collision (for Lindgren). Hopefully nothing major. A nice comeback with three goals in the third to win 4-3. Evans with two goals and an assist, he seems to have found his game again: nine points in the last six games.

Sorry, I was wrong on that: Lindgren started the game, Kinkaid took over after Lindgren allowed the first goal. Injury?

2-1 Springfield in the second. Contrary to the Rocket’s usual goalie rotation, Kinkaid is taking a second straight start, so maybe they really are trying to get him into shape for playing with a CH sweater again.

Because the other guys have been worse (and some have games in hand).

D stats scoresheet for tonight's game: Fleury (11:37 TOI): 64% CF, scoring chances 5:2, high-danger chances 1:1, 0 Leskinen (10:21): 62%, SC 3:2, HDC 1:2, -1 Petry (19:45): 53%, SC 10:7, HDC 5:3, +1 Chiarot (22:58): 52%, SC 10:7, HDC 3:3, +1 Weber (20:31) 46%, SC 10:9, HDC 2:5, +1 Kulak (20:13) 46%, SC 13:11, HDC 4:6, 0 Solid TOI for Chiarot! Weber giving up too many high-danger chances but not terrible. Leskinen's numbers are far better than Olofsson's so far. But he and Fleury still not getting that many shifts in the second and third, whether because of the goal against or because Juliet wanted to play the top two pairs.

Sixth at the moment, but only two points behind Mikheyev in fourth.

Well! I never ...

Was he the only D on the ice? Four forwards (plus Leskinen) got a -1 on that goal.

A chain of events, as usual.

Weber lost Makar, yes, but Thompson should have prevented Graves from getting to the rebound. There is enough blame for both to get a decent share.

Interesting ... Julien has shuffled the first two lines, presumably to get Domi going again.

On the first goal, Thompson should have covered Graves, so I don’t think we should pin that entirely on the defence corps.

Lehkonen did score five goals in the November of our nightmares...

Yes, I would go with either Vejdemo or Belzile. They are more ready, I think, and Poehling needs the time in Laval.

I didn't have a chance to watch the game but Leskinen's stats look much better than Olofsson's did. Does that match what you guys saw on tonight?

Gallagher, Danault, Lehkonen, Armia all exhibit that commitment. And it shows in the advanced stats.

Are they much better? A month ago we were actually a point ahead of them in the standings. They are not the Bruins or the Caps, we should have a decent chance against them if we play our game, and Primeau is decent. Not stellar, just decent.

November was pretty much an unmitigated disaster for the Habs, with injuries to Drouin, Byron and Mete, and subpar performances throughout resulting in an eight-game losing streak. Prior to the streak, we were in second place in the division, and the playoffs looked reachable. And then the wheels came off ... Shockingly, we did not lose all that much ground as many of our direct competitors struggled as well. Look where we are: Atlantic: 2nd: Florida (has 1 game on hand): 1 point ahead of the Habs (5-5-0 in the last 10) 3rd: Buffalo (0 GoH): 1 point ahead (4-4-2) 5th: Toronto (2 games more played): tied with the Habs (4-6-0) 6th: Tampa Bay (3 GoH): 1 point behind the Habs (5-4-1) Metropolitan wild-card: 4th: Pittsburgh (0 GoH): 4 points ahead (5-3-2) 5th: Carolina (0 GoH): 3 points ahead (6-4-0) 6th: Rangers (2 GoH): 1 point behind (5-4-1) Our record is 2-5-3 in the last 10, but we actually lost no more than five points of ground to anyone (Pittsburgh and Carolina), four points to TB and three to Florida and Buffalo. I'd say the season is not lost yet, in spite of the atrocious losing streak. It's certainly more difficult than it was before, but it's likely no more difficult than it was on the first day of the season. The question is whether the last game was a real turning point (rather than a false spring), and whether the team can move forward from here. And how well we can deal with the ongoing injuries ...

Evans 😪

An awesome shot of all the captains at centre ice.

If someone is willing to give up a top LD it will likely be because they have depth at LD and players ready to step up. So I think most likely our trade chips (for a top LD) would not be lesser LD players, but either players in other positions (where the other team has a need), or picks/prospects further away.

Honka may not be the right choice, I can agree with that (I was just throwing a few names out there). But beyond Fleury, what we have is a promising AHL prospect (Brook) and a somewhat fragile prospect (who has admittedly looked pretty good in the NHL). That's not a solid NHL line-up yet, so we may yet need to be looking for RD as well. But that's all assuming that Bergevin chooses the rebuild route, which is not a given yet.