tomh009

Much better indeed -- they actually have a winning record at home, 20-14-4.

7-1 final for the Panthers. The Sens had the 4.81-1.50 edge in xG, though!

Rangers (Mesar) sweep the division-winning Spitfires (Shane Wright) in four, and London (Mailloux) does the same vs Owen Sound, setting up a Kitchener-London series for the next round.

Armia! And a new career high for Matheson.

Tha Capitals are 2-6-2 in their last 10, no better than the Habs. One hopes that Primeau is actually starting this one ...

Should they send down the injured ones or the ones they need for the minimum NHL roster?

Those are roughly as common as hens' teeth though!

2001: Mike Komisarek (7th, 6'4) 551 games 2002: Chris Higgins (14th, 6'0) 711 games 2003: Andrei Kostitsyn (10th, 6'0) 398 games 2004: Kyle Chipchura (18th, 6'2) 482 games 2005: (Carey Price) 2006: David Fischer (20th, 6'3) 0 games 2007: Ryan McDonagh (12th, 6'1) 849 games 2008: (no 1st-round pick) 2009: Louis Leblanc (18th, 6'0) 50 games 2010: Jarred Tinordi (22nd, 6'6) 152 games 2011: Nathan Beaulieu (17th, 6'6) 468 games 2012: Alex Galchenyuk (3rd, 6'1) 653 games 2013: Michael McCarron (25th, 6'6) 153 games 2014: Nikita Scherbak (26th, 6'1) 37 games 2015: Noah Juulsen (26th, 6'2), 68 games 2016: Mikhail Sergachev (9th, 6'1) 438 games 2017: Ryan Poehling (25th, 6'2) 134 games 2018: Jesperi Kotkaniemi (3rd, 6'2) 314 games 2019: Cole Caufield (15th, 5'7) 123 games 2020: Kaiden Guhle (16th, 6'2) 42 games That's five big guys out of the 18 skaters selected first. Only one guy under 6'0, but he seems to be working out. Overall, I would say that prioritizing size has a poor payback. The best picks (McDonagh, Sergachev, maybe Galchenyuk) are all in the more typical 6'0-6'1 range. Choose skill first.

Agreed. The Habs did the drafting-big-guys thing in the past and how well did that work out?

At least this game is going according to the (Habs management's) plan ...

My bad, got confused between our bottom-feeder competitors! 😢

Was there a tall building next to the lake?

Any competent GM's priority will be the NHL club, not the AHL one.

Arizona got rid of their NHL-level goaltending at the deadline, that's one big difference.

I assume this will be an emergency recall.

That's only Slafkovsky, not the other dozen injured players.

The team can't force a player to have surgery ... I suspect Monahan thought he could get away with rehab, until it became obvious that he could not.

And that's not even counting his WHA season.

The Tuesday BUFLA game is the key. Panthers lose that, and they are in dire straits.

Boston may still be looking to beat the Habs' 76-77 regular-season points record. (Of course it was set with two fewer games and without loser points, but who pays attention to the details anyway?)

And the sad story is posted here: https://www.habsworld.net/2023/04/hurricanes-shut-the-habs-out-3-0/

And an even 50 for Carolina ... ugh.

The only good thing about this game is that losing it was a good thing.

At the moment, they have no answers. Apart from that goalmouth scramble with Pezzetta and Gallagher, they had no real scoring chances. Will St-Louis be able to make some adjustments for the second period? I'm not counting on it, but it would be nice to see a more competitive period.

With his .888 save percentage this season, though, there might not be a long line if teams looking for his services, even in the AHL. Splitting the season between Laval and TR could yet be an option for him.