Neech

Drouin out for 4-6 weeks. We won't miss him of course. Only hope he's healthy by the deadline so we can get some future considerations.

Well, we got the regulation loss. Would have been nice to pad the stats with that extended 6 on 5. I only caught the third, Slaf managed to get a shot attempt while I was watching and statline shows 4 shots so maybe it was a decent outing for him. Gally with an atrocious giveaway to lead to a Devils goal.

I think Slaf will eventually spend some time in Laval to get big minutes, but for now he's still progressing at the NHL level and learning from our NHL coaching staff. The AHL team seems like a bit of a mess at the moment so maybe it's best to wait till they get right before sending our prize prospect there.

Really enjoyed listening to Gorton here, he's a great speaker. Kudos to Molson for getting this guy to lead the rebuild. An interesting tidbit from the interview: it sounds like they're targeting a midseason extension for Caufield. Gorton says 'maybe in a week, a month, or two months'.

Because we already went through the McDonagh fiasco, Sergachev just doesn't hurt me as bad. We would have made multiple finals with Subban/McDonagh on the top pair and Markov on the second. If we kept Sergachev, then Bergy would probably still be around and we wouldn't have this exciting new organizational direction. Besides, I think he's a bit overrated and sheltered playing on a loaded D-corps.

Good game for our core, and good game for our deadline rentals. Did we pick up a first-liner for Romanov and sign him to a sweetheart 4-year deal? Signs are pointing to yes. Drouin and Hoffman look like they have a bit of life left in them, and maybe they'll find a taker. Monahan will get us a first and a prospect at the deadline. It's kind of fun during a tank to root for a goal in both offensive zones. I was genuinely happy when both teams scored, and if we get more games like this with average goaltending we'll be back in decent draft position eventually.

I think it would have helped, but not drastically changed his ceiling. Maybe raised his floor a bit so he was more well-rounded.

Wow that seems like overkill. Nowhere near as bad as the Anderson hit. But it's NHL player safety so it's not supposed to make sense.

They'd probably be helping our tank at this point! Right now we have perhaps the best stretch of regular season Habs goaltending since Carey Price six years ago.

More points in the standings stolen by our goaltenders.

Hopefully we'll start underperforming the analytics to compensate. Finishing 10th last wouldn't be ideal.

I have hopes for at least a couple of our prospect forwards becoming top-6ers, especially Beck and Mesar. Kidney, Roy, and Farrell also look promising. Allen seems like a decent option in goal for the mid term future. We'll start to lose more and wind up with a good pick. We just have to hope for more high-scoring regulation losses, a productive deadline, and to continue to patiently play the long game.

Nice to hang on to tha 'Licker

Slaf, Cole, and Suzy make me so happy when they score. We've got a likeable future core! (if they produce)

Monty getting us another point that we don't need. Great to see Dach thriving on the top line. 3.5M for a first line winger for four years is a steal if he sticks up there.

He could definitely use a month or two in the minors, if not a whole year. His game is so raw, we'll have to wait a few years to see if we made a good choice at #1.

I thought it was unprotected. Capfriendly doesn't show any protections.

Everyone agrees that we'll be out of the playoffs by season's end and it's vital for our future that we draft a stud. We'd all love for it to be Bedard but that's unlikely even if we were as bad as last year. There's also the weird fact that we've been better at snagging talent late in the lottery than in the top 3 - Guhle, Cole, and Sergachev look like surer bets than KK and Slaf at this point. It looks like this is a loaded draft with maybe 4-5 blue chippers at the top, so even if we don't get Bedard I'd be happy with one of those stud forwards.

To Van: Gallagher 2nd rounder To MTL: Myers The Canucks get the better player, a hard-working hometown boy who can hopefully galvanize their listless lineup. They get rid of Myers, a useless plug. We get out of the end of Gally's albatross contract, and pay a decent pick for the privilege.

Clearing the way for Slaf when he gets back.

Good night for June 2023. We lose, Florida loses, Chicago, Seattle and Arizona win.

It's much better to finish the season with 70 points than 80. Berkshire postgame brought up a good point: the linesman should have retrieved the broken stick that ruined Dadonov's breakaway and Gallagher ended up getting hurt on. Irresponsible officiating.

I've come to have a soft spot even for the hideous barber pole jerseys.

Josh Brown had a bad game. In addition to being slagged off by Slaf and Xhekaj, he got dangled out of his skates by Caufield.

Only three Habs assists on 6 goals. If we're juicing stats for the trade deadline we'll have to do better than that!