TurdBurglar

Xhekaj's gloves staying on may be the saving grace on a potential suspension. Unwilling participant in Pare, but the Department of Player Safety might not consider that a fight since the gloves stayed on. A technicality to get them out of having to do anything. That being said, the call on the ice was fighting.

It's preseason, with most injuries an over abundance of caution will be taken.

The only positive from the potential Laine injury is Montreal didn't pay a king's ransom for him. Even that isn't something to hang your hat on.

Reinbacher took an innocent bump and left really early. Was helped down the tunnel not putting any weight on one leg.

The thing about this game is it's already a loss. Score doesn't matter. One almost certain major injury, another probable minor injury and Xhekaj is probably getting a suspension.

Pare.

It didn't look like that, just stuck his knee out during a check to try to keep Laine from getting around him.

Well shit. Laine took a bad knee on knee, being helped off the ice. Doesn't look good. Didn't look intentional or dirty though.

@Butterface brought it up in a bad contract for bad contract swap scenario. Not sure where the idea of Anderson being a solution for Doughty being injured came from.

Yeah, it's pretty typical with the preseason home and home with Toronto that each team runs most of the NHL lineup in their home game while sending out a mostly AHL team in the away.

Doughty will be back this season, so I don't think LA would be too willing to replace him and have to deal with being over the cap when Doughty returns. That being said, their remaining cap about $1.5m in cap will likely be used for a center and a fairly cheap on at that. Evans is the only one on the roster I could see LA being interested in from a pure cap perspective. With Newhook, 5 centers on the roster.

I think Struble and Xhekaj would be a serviceable 3rd pair for the next couple of season. Xhekaj is at least NHL caliber and Struble has shown in bursts he can be too. Someone like Struble would be better than a defensive liability like Barron for Xhekaj. As for experience, that's a double edged sword. You can't get experience without playing and the current situation in Montreal is tailored to getting young players getting just that. These are the lumps we have to go through, as a team and fans, for the rebuild and hopefully a better future.

I think preseason this year is way too early to be thinking about who is playing RD next year.

I'm not even sure Mailloux even makes the team to start the year, let alone playing 2nd pairing or 20 minutes after a hypothetical Savard trade. It wouldn't be a shock if after training camp, Montreal picks up a RHD on waivers, if available, or hits the trade market to fill that role. No point in rushing Mailloux or Reinbacher to the NHL to fill a role they aren't ready for.

Even a 2nd/3rd at the deadline is better than an extra month of mentorship and letting him walk in July for free. If the knowledge can't be passed on in 5 previous month, the last month after the trade deadline isn't going to make a difference. I'm also not sure why when someone is traded for picks the assumption the pick is only a pick. Picks have value, and value can be used in more ways than the draft. It could be packaged for a bigger piece.

I think whether Montreal is in a playoff position or not, if there's a decent offer on the table for Savard, you still trade him. Keeping him for a playoff run that will almost certainly end in round 1 and losing him for nothing seems a little counter-intuitive to the rebuild to me. Now, if there's no decent offer on the table for him, that's a whole different story.

Barron's problem is he isn't a regular 6 defenseman even on Montreal. His defense just isn't NHL caliber and his offense isn't good enough to make up for his defensive issues. This leaves him as a 7th defenseman because he probably wouldn't clear waivers, but at the same time not really valuable enough to get any form of decent return. It's kind of like the Primeau situation last season in that respect.

Leafs really loaded up for tonight's game. 4 of their top-6 forwards, and 3 of their top-4 defensemen.

Typically you can watch all non-region locked games on both the TV package and online packages. Except preseason. Preseason games are hit and miss.

Dvorak and Evans are on an expiring contracts.

The Evans rumour seems like it could legit on value alone. The Dobson rumour is kinda out there. The value going to NYI is way too high.

I couldn't watch the whole game so it may of just been rotations, but last night I saw a couple of PPs where Cauflied was on the right point and Armia was occupying the left wing position. Maybe trialing that setup so Laine could take the LW shooter position? Seems a little counter-intuitive to me, but they may be cooking something. In theory it could set up Caufield to come in from the point with the option of shooting or setting up Laine. You know he will draw defenders and that seam pass is easier for a righty than a lefty.

MLB draft for 4 teams, the MLB team, AAA, AA and A. Unlike the 2 teams the NHL drafts for.

Pretty sure that was to try to get Anderson going. Ultimately it didn't pay off, but it's not an uncommon practice.

According to Pierre LeBrun, Montreal was one of 5 teams in on Askarov. No mention of what the offer may of been.