tomh009

It would definitely be nice to finish the season with a two-game mini winning streak!

Yes. Our second-round pick will be only two spots behind our first-round pick last year.

Ouch.

Thank goodness for our PP.

Can we put Primeau in net for the last five minutes?

Apparently no one told them that ...

AZ is outshooting Dallas 14-7 but unable to score so far. (Dallas has scored two.)

There is definitely speculation. https://awinninghabit.com/2022/04/26/canadiens-carey-price-facing-retirement/amp/

It makes sense, given that the probability of the last-place team actually picking first is about 25% ...

I think this year's draft is strong enough that even #3 would be good.

3-3 with 13 minutes to go.

Well, maybe they'd be really happy if we gave them Petry, Wideman, Gallagher and Armia for Dubois? 🤣 🤣 🤣

It doesn't improve my comfort factor, though!

Goaltending is the giant question mark for next season. It might be the difference between a bubble team and a team well into the lottery.

Sigh. I (personally) don't want to argue about what Hugo will do or plans to do, because we simply don't know. That shouldn't stop us (and never has stopped us until now, at least) about discussing what this team is today, or what they should or should not do in the future.

Hugo's plan should become clear within the next three months as we see who is extended, who is let go and who is signed as the UFA season opens. Until then, I don't really want to argue as neither one of us knows, so we're just trying to convince each other that our guesses are going to turn out to be correct.

That's two assists tonight for that Petry guy ...

Usually one would rest a goalie by having him sit on the bench for the game. The statement by St-Louis really sounds odd.

As you more or less said in the other thread ... our D does not exactly inspire fear. Except maybe in our own goalies!

Yeah. But it’s hard to target that precisely.

Yes. If they just wanted to rest him, he would surely be on the bench.

The Habs need, in no particular order: Some additional quality prospects Quality player and skills development Long-term cap space (our young players will have big contracts by the time we’re ready to contend) I don’t think that necessarily means a bottom-5 finish next year. Depending on the progression of the young players and our goaltending situation, I would expect somewhere between 5th and 15th from the bottom next year. Neither dead last but unlikely to be in the running for a playoff spot. And likely with a lottery ticket.

I think so, too. While our scoring isn't great at the moment, allowing more than four goals a game -- on average! -- is quite bad. And I expect that Petry will be gone before next season as well, leaving this as a huge question mark. I don't foresee Hugo signing a top UFA D-man (or trading for the equivalent) this year so I think improvements in the next year or two will really depend on our prospects. Harris, Barron, Norlinder, Guhle, Mailloux and others. We have enough good-quality prospects, but we need to develop them so that at least a few of them can reach their ceilings. With a stronger D corps in front of them, I would be more comfortable with any of our three roster goalies, too. And, yes, how well will St-Louis's concepts translate into improving the D, in particular?

I just compiled some high-level player stats from our last 10 games (all losses bar the singular win over NJ). Pretty sad reading overall, only a few bright spots. Forwards: Suzuki: 185 TOI, 2g+5a, 19sog, -5 Caufield: 164 TOI, 4g+1a, 28 sog, -4 Anderson: 151 TOI, 1g+0a, 21 sog, -5 Dvorak: 150 TOI, 1g+7a, 12 sog, -3 R. Pitlick: 146 TOI, 2g+2a, 5sog, -6 Hoffman: 142 TOI, 1g+4a, 20sog, -4 Gallagher: 131 TOI, 0g+5a, 23sog, +3 Evans: 126 TOI, 3g+2a, 11sog, +0 Poehling: 94 TOI, 3g+0a, 11sog, -3 Armia: 85 TOI, 2g+0a, 17sog, +3 T. Pitlick: 74 TOI, 0g+1a, 8sog, -6 Suzuki is close to his season pace, but both he and Caufield have cooled well off from the initial St-Louis era highs. And Andreson has been struggling to make things happen. On the positive side, Dvorak is the leading scorer over this stretch, and Gallagher and Armia are finally getting their games together -- even if they are not putting the puck into the net very often. Defence: Romanov: 199 TOI, 0g+1a, 16sog, -8 Savard: 187 TOI, 0g+3a, 12 sog, -11 Edmundson: 174 TOI, 2g+0a, 15sog, +4 Petry: 171 TOI, 0g+6a, 25sog, +1 Wideman: 117 TOI, 1g+3a, 9sog, -7 Harris: 81 TOI, 0g+0a, 4sog, -3 Schueneman: 71 TOI, 0g+1a, 4 sog, -4 Romanov and Savard appear to have regressed. How much of that is due to exhaustion -- Romanov has never played this much in a season -- and how much due to their assignments is less clear. Edmundson continues to be solid, and Petry is showing signs of what he was until last season. Goal: Allen: 2 games, 0.898, 4.31 GAA, +1.95 GSAA Montembeault: 4 games, 0.870, 4.27 GAA, -0.50 GSAA Price: 4 games, 0.835, 4.38 GAA, -1.44 GSAA Allen was solid, again, for the few games that he played, even if there were a lot of goals. For Price, the positive is that he seems to be physically healthy, but his play has not been at the hoped-for level, maybe reasonably so as these were the first four games he has played since last spring.

Rem Pitlick's shooting percentage is back above 25. 😂