TurdBurglar

If they score 2 tonight, they may not score again all week.

This. The fact he has a full no movement clause kicking in the start of free agency this year puts tremendous pressure on Buffalo now. Once the NMC kicks in, he can veto any trade Buffalo makes. Coupled with the fact that he can’t get the surgery until he is traded, makes his value decline daily. Seattle didn’t want to pick up Price for free because of his uncertain health and contract, even though both guaranteed him to play again. There’s an equal contract and far more uncertainty tied up with Eichel. There is a legitimate chance he may never play again. I’m not sure how anyone can think he still has tremendous value. I understand Buffalo wants to pitch it that way, they will be losing a former superstar, something he may or may not ever be again.

For a healthy, ready to play Eichel, I completely agree. For this situation, that’s the equivalent of the rumoured Lecavalier for Price, Subban, Pacioretty and a 1st. It’s an insane return, to which Buffalo would take in a heartbeat. There’s a reason he hasn’t been traded yet. Buffalo wants a return like that, nobody will offer more than cap exchanges with the primary pieces being all conditional. Which is all Eichel is currently worth.

An easy solution to the cap issue is by the throwning in one of Gallagher, Anderson or Drouin. As for when Eichel’s trade protection kicks in, it’s worse for the Sabres. Any team to get Eichel will know he isn’t playing until next season. That team can opt to accept the trade protection clause or not. Teams can also hold out until later, because Eichel won’t play, and cause more pressure on Buffalo. There will also be the value of Buffalo will get players for this season, when the other team will not. The longer the trade takes, the longer until the surgery, the longer until Eichel returns, which in turn continues to lower his value. I understand Eichel, healthy, is a big fish capable of a huge return. This situation, with an injured player with future time lost, and an experimental surgery for the NHL, tanks his value significantly. There’s a chance he doesn’t ever play again, there’s a chance he becomes injury prone due to the surgery, more so then any other surgery NHL players get. All of these factors play into his value, it’s not a simple as he’s Jack Eichel.

I think if Eichel gets traded, everyone is going to be surprised with the return. I do agree Buffalo’s ask would start with Suzuki or Caufield, but I’ve been seeing more and more that the teams interested are offering conditionals. These are teams that are ok with the disc replacement, but the pieces going the other way would be conditioned on games played. The Dvorak + another top-6 or a Norlinder isn’t far fetched when it would have 2-3 conditional 1st/2nd round picks on games played the next 2-3 years. I do believe Montreal could get it done without Suzuki or Caufield attached, but it comes down to if they would accept the surgery and is that much uncertainty worth the risk?

One of those firsts will be going to Arizona from the Dvorak trade.

I think that will be a decision made mid-season. When the real 21-22 Habs are defined and MB has made up him mind. As much as it pains me to say, I’m not opposed to selling off anyone over 25 for prospects and picks and fully rebuild. Strike while the iron is hot and the values are high. With the ability to retain salary due to a rebuild, more can be acquired. I do realize this is very premature and we are only 5 games in the season. Watching this team fail this badly is painful.

I’m not sure this is a GM firing situation. With the additions in the e offseason, MB addressed scoring by bringing in Hoffman and replaced Danault with Dvorak. Neither of which should be bad moves. You can’t replace Weber easily, and he did an OK job of finding a guy under budget who can eat some minutes. From the outside looking in, I don’t see his off-season move that bad. the real issue is the team is massively underperforming. That is coaching and personnel. Even with Price back, playing like his playoff self, won’t make a difference in this situation. We all know that this team isn’t as bad as the results, and I don’t think anyone can dispute that. It seems like they lack leadership and motivation.

So I want to say they look lost out there. Honestly I think DD has a system that the team doesn't understand. Lots of blind passes and area passes, expecting someone there, and they aren't. These plays aren't strange in any system as the system dictates someone should be there. It's the only reason I can think of why they look this discombobulated.

I'm not even kidding when I say, without changes, this is an 0-82 team.

Habs showed how terrible they are, puck ends up on KK's stick and he shows how terrible he is. Nice.

I jinxed it, that PP was just awful.

I gotta say, the start tonight is by far the best start all season.

Or you could do it now to save the trouble of doing it angrily later.

His expectation in Ottawa is the next Karlsson or he’s a bust. That’s a lot of pressure to put on a kid. I’m not saying Montreal is the city to curb those expectations, but maybe somewhere in Florida or Arizona might help the kid.

Perhaps a changed of scenery would help. He had some real lofty expectations being apart of that trade. If I remember correctly he was being pitched as the next Erik Karlsson. That’s some big shoes to fill.

@Commandant DD is on these forums and listened to your criticism of the defensive pairings. The practice lines today reflect it.

I understand @Commandant frustration with the defensive pairings, but in all honestly it doesn't matter even if they are running Price and Allen on their top pairing if they are scoring LESS than a goal a game. They haven't scored 2 goals in a single game in 4 games. Currently San Jose has more goals against the Habs this season than the habs have vs the entire NHL.

Yvonne right now:

Welp, I've watched this game for 20 minutes, 3-0, now I can do something else.

Missed the first 5 minutes. Turn on the game, 2-0 SJ (lol). First play I see is Hoffman bumping a guy bent over, Karlsson cross checks Hoffman (that is illegal now), Gallagher comes to Hoffman's defence, tosses off a glove, throws a few punches (barely). Refs call 2 minutes on Karlsson and 4 on Gallagher. The reffing has improved right? I mean crosschecks which they are calling super strict are ignored because......? Oh, yeah, it's Tuesday!

It’s way too early for Yvonne.

He will be the new Sheldon Souray. They can’t terminate his contract, the team doesn’t want him and he’s untradable. Maybe the NHL is helping the case to get rid of him?

Wouldn’t shopping Shaw put them dangerously close to the cap if Strome is traded? To the best of my knowledge, there is no benefit of LTIR unless the team is at the cap. Currently, Shaw’s LTIR is what allows Strome’s $3m contract to work under the cap, so if they trade both, the are $875k from the cap without the ability to exceed it, like with the Shaw contact. Or am correct so it makes the trade more valuable as the can trade Strome with the cap space, $3m of Shaw’s contract, so any team can afford it to get a bigger return.

Kucherov left Tampa’s game last night with an injury. Is this the injury where he gets out on LTIR for the rest of the season to miraculously be 100% just in time for the playoffs? All while Tampa fills his cap space with more players?