TurdBurglar

Toronto placed Samsonov on waivers today. He has 1 year @ $3.55m. Pure speculation but, Allen for Samsonov plus a pick or prospect, pending Samsonov clearing waivers? Clears the logjam in net, Toronto gets an affordable goalie with an extra year on the deal. Toronto does have a little LTIR to work with so the cap shouldn’t be an issue with them only taking on $300k, assuming a roster player isn’t going with Samsonov, like Robertson or Knies. Woll isn’t back from injury yet and they only have Jones on their active roster currently. There are rumours they may call up Hildeby.

Montreal is 0/3 on the PK this game. If it wasn't for a slim offside that stat would reflect that instead of 1/3 on the PK, and that's just not good enough at an NHL level. As good as they've been 5-on-5, the PK needs serious work.

The reversal of the penalty on the hit on Beck is odd, and even more odd when you listen to the referee explaining it to the Canadian coach. it was a bare minimum 2, but should of been a 5 without a suspension. There’s no way that’s not a penalty for boarding. Justifying it’s not a penalty because Beck is turning and leaning forward. Beck didn’t put himself into the boards without being hit, so it makes no sense that the responsibility was completely taken off of the Swedish player.

Correct, forgot it's the top 4 in each group for some reason I thought it was top-3 in each group.

With Germany beating Finland, there's a good chance Finland doesn't make it out of the round robin. Interesting tournament so far.

I think desperately is a strong word. By all accounts I've read, Montreal hasn't really received any offer on any of their goalies as of yet, just teams inquiring about them. It's understandable for Edmonton, Toronto and Ottawa as they are under a cap crunch, but for someone like Carolina or New Jersey they have the cap space or LTIR to get Allen without much cap shenanigans.

Matheson gets called for interference on a pick in the 2nd. Eriksson Ek ran 2 very obvious picks in OT and didn't get called once. Can we at least get consistency?

Isn't there an automatic suspension now for fighting an unwilling opponent?

Typical rebuilds are aimed at 5 years to be playoff ready. Next year is year 4. I would fully expect making the playoff next year in a lower seed and probably a first round exit. Year 5 the core should be good enough to make the playoffs regularly. After that, they should be a playoff team, shifting the aim to be focused on being a contender. Adding veterans would be in the contender stage, to fill holes in the lineup.

There's also the possibility of looking at free agency if Savard gets traded and they don't feel Kovacevic is ready enough. Next year should be a playoff push year and without Savard I don't think the RD is strong enough to get the team in the playoffs. I doubt Reinbacher or Mailloux will be ready enough for top-4 minutes. I also don't think Kovacevic/Harris/Barron will ever be playoff top-pair defenceman, 2nd pair at best. I could just be pessimistic about it. That being said, I really see a move coming for either Kovacevic, Harris or Barron. Space will have to be made for Reinbacher and Mailloux. It's fun to have these types of issues with defense, isn't it?

I've just got all sorts of time and date issues today...

You are correct. I got it mixed up with my timezone. I can't edit the titles on my threads, could one of the admins change the time in the title please? Thank-you.

Pittsburgh Penguins (12-12-3) - 27 pts Montreal Canadiens (12-13-3) - 27 pts Guentzel - Crosby - O’Connor Smith - Malkin - Puustinen Zohorna - Eller - Hinostroza Harkins - Gruden - Carter Graves - Letang Pettersson - Karlsson Joseph - Ludvig Nedeljkovic Caufield - Suzuki- Slafkovsky Monahan - Evans - Anderson Armia - Dvorak - Gallagher Pezzetta - Stephens - Ylonen Matheson - Savard Guhle - Barron Struble - Kovacevic Montembeault Projected lineups.

As long as there's no salary retention, there's no reason they can't be from Montreal's standpoint. Not that I'm advocating either be traded. I still believe there's an outside chance they are a bubble team. I was using it as a measure of value, not a wish list.

He's basically Petry 2.0. We've seen Petry's best years while playing 2nd pair with Weber anchoring the first pair. We've seen Petry struggle when thrust in the first pair role. While Petry is a more desirable RHD, Matheson has far better skating than Petry. A return of a top-4 defenseman, a top-6 forward or higher-end prospect in a straight 1-for-1 isn't out of the question. I wonder if maybe Nashville would revisit trading Askarov, for Matheson in some form of package. All reports are they are looking to resign Saros, who is only 28.

Interestingly enough, TSN has Matheson on their top-20 trade bait list.

They're also 0-4 in second game of back-to-back, with almost non-existent scoring.

There's some crazy, unfortunate bounces going against Montreal right now.

I wouldn't be upset if Barron sat for this game. He does need NHL ice-time, he does need to make mistakes, but he's been making some bad decisions with the puck lately. One almost got him real hurt last night on the boarding call from Robinson. This isn't taking any blame of off Robinson for the hit, just Barron is got caught a few times last night holding the puck too long, one led to a goal.

For the non-twitter users: Forward Michael Pezzetta will take Tanner Pearson's spot in the lineup. Goaltender Jake Allen gets the start. Defenseman David Savard will return to the lineup tonight, and a decision will be made after warmups regarding which defenseman will sit.

Ylonen is really starting to break out over the last 10 game or so. Reward the kid. He has better hands and vision than I thought he did.

No penalty for the hit from behind on Caufield, but a tripping on Dvorak. I'm really not trying to jump on the refs this year, but this game is just ridiculous. It's a shame Primeau is having a great game but it's trash officiating probably going to lose it for him.

How does Clifton not get an instigating penalty for having his gloves off and throwing punches before Slaf had his gloves off? If Slaf didn't drop his gloves, it's a suspension.

I would be on the side of the commentators if Barron saw Robinson coming and turned his back to Robinson at the last minute. Robinson was coming in with steam and was only looking at numbers the entire way. Can't hit a player then.

Struble's first!