tomh009

Or the 2021 Habs!

Who will still be waivers-exempt? Struble and Xhekaj?

And Reinbacher is only 19. So, the right side likely needs to be some combination of Barron, Guhle, Harris and Kovacevic. My theory is that they have played Guhle on the right in order to give him the flexibility to play either side. If that's the case, it should be Matheson and Guhle as the two top D on the left, along with Xhekaj and Struble. Keep Savard until deadline? That's possible, but since Barron, too, will be waiver-eligible, we'll end up with the equivalent of the three-goalie-rotation but on D this time.

Have been thinking about what the Habs' D corps could look like for the next two years. Not the cup contender version, but the transitional team that should start competing for a playoff position. So, this is what I have on a (somewhat?) factual basis: Matheson has scored 60 points this season, no mean feat on a team that only has 224 goals, and does not look like he's slowing down Savard does look like he's starting to slow down Guhle is solid and reliable 1LD/2LD, now with some flexibility to play on the right as well Harris flexible on left/right, though better on the left Kovacevic is not stellar but quite reliable on the right Neither Reinbacher or Mailloux likely ready for NHL for another season or two Hutson is a wild card. He's only 20 and seasoning in the AHL would make sense but he'll surely be a target there Then we have Xhekaj/Struble and Barron I'm thinking that Matheson likely stays with the Habs, unless another GM is willing to pay a king's ransom to get him. For all his defensive warts, he is in the top 10 in D scoring in the league, and that's elite D scoring. Maybe pair him with Kovacevic for stability and balance? Our help on the right is a few years away, so does Hughes keep Savard? I suspect not, so that would mean that Harris and Barron need to be the other two RD, unless Reinbacher is stunningly good in training camp. I think very unlikely that they would bring him up at 19yo. So, need a defensive partner for Barron, and a more offensive one for Harris. Is that Guhle-Barron and Xhekaj/Struble-Harris? Or is Hutson really a viable option here? I would think not yet. Of course, if Hughes trades one of the young(ish) D, all this calculus will need to be redone. 🙂

Kapanen 0g+1a in 2-1 win, 19:38 TOI (second only to one of the D-men at 19:42). They now trail 1-2 in the semifinals.

Can we dress some guys that will take unnecessary roughing penalties?

Watching only the last five minutes of the period turned out rather well! 😂

One of the worst for sure. Things get better outside the top four, especially for D (Rielly, Lindholm, Trouba--and Matheson) but none of the the shiny top four picks turned out to be gold.

Mesar is pretty effective on the PP.

If we're going to blow the draft pick, might as well blow it in a big way!

I was away for twenty minutes or so and ... wow!

This. Fighting might be dumb but getting injured in a fight is outright stupid.

At the moment Anderson has a higher ceiling but his floor is also much lower than Gallagher's.

At least Dvorak is tradeable, although it may take a sweetener to do it.

I particularly don't like Ovechkin.

Bottom-six players that can score are not a bad thing. 🙂 The only thing is that our bottom six will be a bit congested (at least next year) with players that have top-six contracts but don't play up to those.

Personally I would be happy to see the Flyers finish ahead of the Capitals (but still out of the playoffs).

Kucherov, the "skill" player ... 😠

And a superb play by Slafkovsky to get the pass to Suzuki.

Most likely we will only know if there is an actual deal that is consummated.

Not going to ask you to like Armia, but there is more to it than that. We say that goaltending is 50% mental and the rest is in your head; much of the same applies to many other pro athletes. Armia wanted to play well, but until he started working with the Habs' mental performance coach, Francois Menard, he could not make it work. He's nominated because he didn't give up or sulk after being demoted, but worked with Menard to get to the point where he is able to consistently (at least for now) use his skills.

Mental performance coaching can be huge. More players should take advantage of it.

It's looking like no points tonight, but unfortunately we need to adjust your scoring plan! 2 goals for Armia 2 assists for Newhook 2 assists for Gallagher

Koivu might have been more impactful, too, but sadly we never did find out.

Mesar 0g0a this time but the Rangers win 4-3 in OT to take a 2-1 series lead.