Commandant

Bealieu is having a great game.

Another rough game for Frederik Andersen who gives up 7 goals on 24 shots.

Their inability to clear the puck out of their own end for several long stretches, made for a terrible game by the pairing.... Repeatedly allowing the other team to cycle, maintain possession and get shots (and more importantly high danger scoring chances), is bad defensive play. The fact that Price saved their bacon, doesn't mean they didn't get worked by Philly's forwards on more than a few occasions.

There are a number of stats I look at. there is never one stat. its a wholistic approach to corsi, high danger scoring chances, zone starts, fenwick, etc... etc.... its certainly a lot more than simple goals for and goals against which are very small sample sizes and are greatly influenced by the quality of goaltending.

There is no bashing in the Weber appreciation thread. There is merely the pointing out of reality that he has had some very good games, and some games that were not quite as good. Just because the praise isn't unconditional, doesn't mean the guy is being bashed.

Its early in the season, thats not really an unusually long list of scouts. There are scouts at every game.

So if a defenceman is playing badly and giving up scoring chances but Carey Price is saving his ass, he is not a terrible defenceman because he's not causing goals against. But if a defenceman is on the ice, and Vesa Toskala gives up the goal from the opposing end of the ice, he was on the ice for the goal against so that must mean he made a bad play. And you call my stat goofy?

The problem I see, is that we don't attribute being trapped in the zone for long periods of time as "playing poorly" when we really should. If a puck doesn't go in the net, and the defenceman throws a few hits and blocks a few shots, we think its fine. But the lack of puck movement on those shifts and the inability to retrieve a loose puck and get it out of the zone should be a red flag. It's a huge failure of most people when evaluating the game. Those happened to him against both Buffalo and Ottawa. Did you think that Pateryn - Beaulieu pair had a good night last night? Cause the reality is that they were terrible.

1) He can't extend him until January 1st, even if he wanted to. 2) It makes little sense to extend him before the expansion draft. Offer him the contract, have it all agreed in principle, and register it with the league the day after the expansion draft. It essentially lets you protect one extra player this way.

Here is the thing with complaining about advanced stats before you check the advanced stats.... Weber actually had a very solid game in the advanced stats tonight too. Overall Weber was great tonight, and yes the advanced stats captured it. In general, It also captures this " clean up the garbage in front "... too. You can see that if you look for HDSCF%.... High danger scoring chances. If he's preventing them when he is on the ice, they will show up in stats. And guess what, when he plays a great game like tonight, they do show up in the stats. When he plays poorly like the first two games of the year, those stats weren't good. .... He has gotten better nearly every game though, and thats a really good sign.

Nope this is a montreal local viewing area only game.. .sportsnet east if in the area. Or game centre/centre ice.

Very few people will mention it, but Radulov racing to beat the icing helped create that Weber chance. Love Radulov's work ethic.

We are watching the smallest team in the NHL tonight.... (and its not the Habs).

Andrighetto can be called up, and as long as he isn't on the roster for 30 days can be sent back down without waivers This is cumulative... so if he's called up for 14 days, sent down, called back up for 17 days, he'd need waivers to go down the second time.

He has.... Against Ottawa he had several. I would even call that a bad game. He also had several shifts against Buffalo where the Sabres trapped him in his own end and got periods of sustained pressure and shots. Overall he's been good, but don't say things like he hasn't had a bad shift, because those clearly arent true.

http://www.tsn.ca/canadiens-move-to-no-1-in-nhl-power-rankings-1.591361 " Their big offseason acquisition, D Shea Weber, is tied for the team lead with five points while struggling mightily in terms of possession (43.8 CF%, -3.8 CFRel%). "

Our weekly look at the Habs. A strong start to the season sees the Canadiens in first place in the NHL. http://lastwordonhockey.com/2016/10/23/habs-weekly-report/

One person is pushing that narrative. One person who thinks he knows how to use analytics, but fails to account for a little something called "score effects". There are some other issues he failed to account for as well. Weber had a very good game against Arizona. His games against Buffalo and Ottawa earlier were not particularly good.

If you send down Sergachev you need to call up a defenceman. You'd have only 6 healthy D after Redmond's injury.

I'd rather call up Barberio

Easily, and by far, the best game they've played this year.

Lehkonen with the Chicken Wing Goal.

Bad play by Beaulieu, 4-2

Keeping Sergachev up is not helping him, why he needs to go to junior. http://lastwordonhockeyprospects.com/2016/10/20/montreal-canadiens-return-mikhail-sergachev-junior/

Fun narrative, but nah.... He got exposed as the big, tough stay at home defenceman who handles the puck like a hand grenade and thus can't play in the current NHL See Dylan McIlrath, Jamie Oleksiak, Duncan Siemens, Brandon Gormley, Derek Forbort, etc... etc... Meanwhile actual NHLers who could play before like Douglas Murray, Mike Komisarek, etc... are flaming out of the league cause they couldn't adapt. Had nothing to do with toughness, had everything to do with lack of talent and inability to adapt to the way the game is being played today.