TurdBurglar

I remember seeing the pre draft video that Montreal published after the draft every year, the scouts said Fowler doesn’t blow them away with any aspect of his game except for his ability to win. They were all impressed with how well he performs when he needs to and he’s won at every level he’s competed at.

With how the Trouba situation unfolded, Hughes may of had an idea to pull Trouba out for a cheap package including Savard with no retention, just to have a slot available to flip Trouba later this season. I dont see how Trouba would be of interest to Hughes otherwise. i doubt it really was more than Hughes doing his due diligence in checking prices on trades just in case something fell into his lap.

Looks like Montreal were in on Jiricek, but Columbus wouldn’t send him to an Eastern conference team without an overpayment. Which makes sense. Montreal also checked in on Trouba. Nothing about a serious offer is mentioned.

Anderson, even last year, was is good at that also. Anderson just doesn’t have the hockey IQ once he’s in the zone.

Evans is a good 4th line center and as @The Chicoutimi Cucumber pointed out, but is he a 3rd line center on a good team? I think he’s a passable 3rd line center when an injury occurs, but not someone you’d sign for that role specifically. I also believe he wouldn’t get as much icetime on a better team. I’m not sure spending $2.5m on a 4th line center is good cap management. Especially if/when someone like Beck, Mesar or Kapanen breaks in the league, chances are they will be leapfrogging Evans in the lineup because you don’t want them playing 4th line minutes.

What's the purpose of being out of LTIR this season when they will be at the end of the season anyway? Genuine question because I don't know.

Heard during the game last night that Montreal is expected to win 4 of 5 on this home stand. Montreal has also had the hardest schedule to start the season.

Montembeault named as one of the 3 goalies in the 4 nations cup.

I'm not so sure Montreal would of wanted Kovacevic back. They let Fabbro slip past them in waivers.

Yep, the PP looks dangerous. Laine with his first as a Hab.

Looked pretty dangerous.

The offense has been questionable too. Not just production, but there's been an alarming number of games with really low shot counts, 24 shots/game average. It's because of this I don't think we will see a drastic improvement even with Laine.

Laine skating with Dach and Slafkovsky at practice.

Probably very little as the players are aware there's a small chance they will even get hit with the fine anyway. Like the clear examples of players snapping their heads back and grabbing their faces when nothing touched them, that can be clearly shown in replays. You can forgive the knee jerk reaction of snapping their heads back, but the grabbing their face and "checking" for blood when they know nothing touched them is over the top.

Or to eat cap on a 3 team deal if the return was good. Definitely not a trade to keep him on the team.