TurdBurglar

I would hold off on any valuation with Hutson right now. He's a year and a half from even being able to talk contracts. I wouldn't hold hope that at his current pace he will be signed for $9m AAV. Bouchard, prior to this season, was being valued at $9m AAV. Hutson is arguably already just as good or better than Bouchard.

Had to go Suzuki. Guhle is great value, but having a point-per-game 1st line center that can play defence for under $8m is insanely good value. Just the production should land Suzuki in the $9.5m-$10.5m range. Open market, Suzuki would fetch $11m+.

It was a pretty targeted cross check to the face. It wasn't an accident, a lot of frustration, but it wasn't an accident. As for the mugging, nothing that happened during the game warranted cross checking someone in the face. Yes, the refs should of stepped in, but McDavid did start the mugging by laying on Garland after they both fell to the ice during a battle and punching Garland in the back of the head when he couldn't get up (linked the video below). There was an escalation to the play and it was being driven by McDavid, a hold to a punch, then another hold to a crosscheck to the face. Rielly got 5 games for crosschecking Grieg in the face last season. Soucy got 1 game for his cross check on McDavid during the playoff, but Zadorov's crosscheck contributed to why McDavid's face was lower than normal. I though it would of been 2, but I'm glad McDavid and Myers got the same suspension, they were essentially the same crosscheck.

Big game and a big win in a 4 point game. Don't look now but Montreal isn't only in the playoff picture, but 1 point out of a guaranteed playoff spot. Still lots of hockey to play, but starting to get optimistic for the playoffs.

Sounds like the Rangers are making a push to get Miller from Vancouver. Friedman reported that a trade fell through on Saturday between the 2 teams that didn't make it to the stage where Vancouver would of asked Miller to waive his NMC. Seems like Vancouver may want to trade Miller over Pettersson.

If you're going to call Anderson for a soft crosscheck like that, you can't let Kreider get away with interference that leads to the goal. If the game is being called soft, then call it soft.

The loss last night was just as much Montreal's fault as it was Toronto's great play. Montembeault did look a little shaky after the goal late in the 2nd, but the defense really did let him down with the series of breakaways to start the 3rd. Montreal made mistakes and had one of those games where every mistake was punished. Toronto made quite a few mistakes too but Montreal just couldn't bury one to change the momentum. Let's be honest, Montreal really could of had 4 or 5 more goals easily, Woll just came up big on those opportunities.

Dobes starting tomorrow is probably all the reason Montembeault hasn't been pulled.

Part of that is Montembeault, he's struggled and let in a few softies since the goal at the end of the second, which wasn't his totally fault but he was out of position.

Montreal gave up 4 goals on 9 or 10 shots to end the 2nd and start the 3rd while getting into penalty trouble. I do find it odd they picked Savard's holding the stick out of a crowd, but missed the unmissable (nobody around, chasing the puck with 2 sets of referee eyes on the play) trip on Newhook by Marner.

With how well Armia and Evans are playing, it would be a good time for Roy to be called up and slot in on that line.

Isn't Savard out for the same period with the flu as well?

Not that I'm advocating for re-signing Dvorak, but anything can happen for the right price. Dvorak at $2m or under isn't a bad idea. Whether Dvorak would sign for that or even sign in Montreal at all at this point or if Montreal would have any interest in keeping him at a low price tag, is a whole other matter. Ultimately what will happen is he will be in Montreal until his contract expires, unless he's part of another deal for cap purposes.

Unless they need to get rid of that extra roughly $350k that they can’t bury.

If a trade for Pettersson happens and Suzuki isn't involved, not that I remotely think he should be, it also signals Montreal has given up on Dach as the second line center. Then the question becomes, what's the plans for Dach and Newhook? You'd have to assume Montreal doesn't want either to be 3rd line guys considering the price that was paid for them.

I don't want to jump the gun on Dobes, so I'll just say he's having a great start to his NHL career.

Montreal's stats are a bit skewed from the terrible start.

The second kneeing call was much more of a knee than the major. I am glad they are calling diving as well. It's too bad the rules don't allow for calling embellishment on reviewed penalties. The major was a pretty clear embellishment with Sykora looking at the referee before clutching his knee after the fact. If you're genuinely hurt, you grasp the knee before looking to see if it's being called. Either way, nothing about any of those penalties is why Canada is eliminated. They were too soft offensively. Nobody was willing to muck it up in front of the net or go to the dirty areas. There was no threat from someone in front of the net. It resulted in a lot of outside shots. Also way too many pretty plays with too many extra passes. When you're down by a goal in the 3rd of an elimination game, you cannot attempt a pretty pass to the outside when you're standing in the slot with a clear shot on net. Canada did that twice in the matter of 2 minutes.

It was a body on body hit that had incidental knee contact. Nothing about it was a 5. If they are going to give 5 and a game for all incidental knee contact, there's going to be a very short bench for every team by the 3rd.

Last season Savard was playing well which the last retention spot was worth using on him. Unless demand increases for him, and that’s very possible according to the D market, I wouldn’t use the spot on him. As you point out, a contract in return may be a better way to go, but that wouldn’t help with getting under the cap. Montreal would be far better off using the retention slot for Evans, making him extremely cheap. That would probably be better use of the last retention spot. i guess it’ll come down to priorities between maximizing return or getting under the cap.

In that respect a lot of NHL players that don't produce regularly also produced prior to the NHL. Dvorak, for example, was a bit of an offensive dynamo in junior, putting up nearly 250 point in 158 games. The reality is Evans will get his $3.5m+ contract, probably with 5+ years attached to it. It's common in the NHL that a player has an amazing year in their contract year, then signs a mid-to-long term deal to big money, then they regress. It's how teams get saddled with bad contracts. After that era happening in Montreal causing this rebuild, we need to be getting away from bad contracts in the near future until the team is ready to compete for a cup. You trade that future for a better present, one that Montreal isn't in position to do right now.

This team Canada is probably the worse team Canada I've seen. Not skill wise, they just can't put offense together. Losing to Latvia and then winning a nail biting game against Germany just makes me dread the beating they will get from USA.

Completely agree they should be in the mix end of March. You also have to consider they've had the hardest schedule to start the season, so theoretically it should only be easier to win from here on out. That being said, they are playing great hockey right now, beating 2 very good teams in a row.

If this continues, Montreal should be a bubble team finishing just outside the playoffs. Which is the expectation for this year. Boy, that start to the season was rough.

100%. He's not very noticeable individually, which is exactly what you want from a player like him. There's a noticeable stability of the blue line since his addition. Savard playing with Xhekaj has also seemed to give Xhekaj some of the confidence he lost.