tomh009

Even more importantly, I hope that Hughes can continue on his path of not handing out NTCs/NMCs.

2009!

And yet again on the faceoffs looking at the last month and a half, I think we've had the Newhook-Dach-Laine for pretty much the whole time, and yet Newhook has taken as many faceoffs as Dach has. I had not really paid attention to this when watching games, but are Dach and Newhook actually sharing the faceoff duties?

Adding to the faceoff data, here are our forwards from last season and this one: Monahan is already gone, if Dvorak and Evans are traded/walk, we will only have one centre better than 50%. Will need to do some work on that ...

Indeed different. So, what has changed since then? Laine returned from injury Carrier has stabilized RD in a way that Barron was not able to Xhekaj has played as well or better than he did last year after returning from Laval Team is internalizing MSL's system Anderson is playing a style that suits him, and makes him effective Guhle is back on the left side, with Matheson on RD Armia-Evans-Heineman has found great chemistry--and is getting enough TOI St-Louis is not juggling lines (easier to avoid when team is playing well) Primeau has barely played since October Really, there are many small positives that are adding up. Are there negatives as compared to October that we should be including on the list?

In general, Evans and Armia are the primary PK forwards. It will vary by game and situation, but that TOI stat is not lying.

Both the skating and the shot can be improved with appropriate instruction, whether from top speed skaters or figure skaters, or skills coaches such as Tim Turk. No, he'll never have the Laine shot--Laine has a combination of the right genetics and excellent technique--but he can certainly improve.

Jakub, Jacob, as long as one of them pans out, I'm all good! (But it's so unpredictable that I'm not counting on either one.)

An interesting tidbit is that Dobes is wearing #75, previously seen on only Hal Gill and ... Yann Danis! What makes it interesting is that Danis was the last Habs goaltender to record a shutout on his debut, a 2-0 win over Atlanta way back in 2005. Hopefully Dobes will have more impactful career than Danis, though!

I have to note here that the vets did score four of the five goals, although there is no denying that the young players contributed to those.

And I think that's what we're all hoping for Evans to do to stay with the Habs. Whether he really wants to stay, and is willing to accept slightly less in order to do that, remains to be seen. And some perspective from the Athletic story on the Lowry signing in 2021. Not so much different from the Evans discussion, is it?

The Dvorak option was in the case we CANNOT sign Evans to a reasonable deal.

But if Evans won't stay, should they try to keep Armia? Many permutations to this game ...

Keep Dvorak on a (cheap?) short-term contract?

Cowan's argument is that he should be paid more than Armia--but specifically more than Armia's last contract, which pretty much everyone agrees is an overpay. Evans is a good 3C, but I really think that it's unlikely that he can sign an extension based on just his last 35 games. His last two full seasons were both under 0.4 points/game; counting on the current 0.65 points/game is pretty likely to lead to an overpay.

He's certainly not Hellebuyck. But keep in mind that the save percentage can be skewed down quickly by defensive mistakes.

Montembeault is not elite but he's a credible starter. Measured by GSAx/60, he has been in the top 15 for the past three seasons in spite of occasional bad performances. Our hope is that Dobes, Fowler, Miller, Volokhin or some other future prospect will turn into an actual elite goalie, but Montembeault is a solid starter in the meantime.

I suspect the origins of the policy are with black-and-white TV broadcasts, which are no longer an issue. Don't know whether colourblindness would be significant enough to prevent this. Maybe for cases where teams are red and green?

I think so, too: I expect that this will be just a game or two to give him a taste of NHL, and for the Habs' management to see how he deals with it.

Rimpila didn’t get drafted this year. If he plays this well the rest of the tournament that should not happen next summer.

A great profile by Arpon Basu on The Athletic today. https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/6016179/2024/12/26/canadiens-michael-hage-nhl/ For anyone that doesn't think this kid lives and breathes the Habs, here are his parents a little before Michael was born: And playing hockey at a young age:

Another sub-10-minute TOI, another goal for Demidov ... 24 points in 37 games, at about 11 minutes/game. For comparison, Michkov scored 41 points in 47 games, but that was playing over 17 minutes per game--and on the Sochi top line, if I recall correctly.

To be fair, I don't think Reinbacher was drafted over Michkov due to the position he plays. But I do agree with the BPA policy unless there are multiple options at the same level.

This does describe most high-end offensive defencemen, though! 😂

The commentators (Galley?) were saying that it was basically an open net. But Greaves did exactly the right thing both times with his pad, and at the right time, and the puck was really too close to the pad to easily lift it over. Yeah, yeah, shoot it at an angle to the right side to avoid the pad ... easy to say but making that decision in a fraction of a second, not so easy.