Commandant

I think the fact is that he is out of shape and needs far more time in the AHL than a two-week conditioning stint. The Habs (and everyone else) know this and thats why he was waived. If a team claims him, they need to keep him on their big club, they won't be able to send him to the AHL without offering him on waivers (and then back to the Habs first), so no one will claim an out of shape player. I think we see him in Montreal in January.

Price will be back in 3-4 weeks... we could lose every game and still be in a playoff spot when he gets back. making the playoffs is not an issue. Again the question is do you want a goalie who is a very small upgrade now? or do you want to save the cap space for a top six winger at the deadline. I know my choice, and its a very easy one.

I'd wait a bit closer to the deadline, and my preference would be to see if someone younger and with multiple years on their contract shakes loose. If that doesn't happen i look into which of the following UFAs to be are available: in order of preference (obviously some won't be made available for trade, and some won't be available to us, but just a list of UFAs to be). Stamkos Ladd Hudler Nielsen Okposo Eriksson E. Staal Jagr Boedker Backes Vrbata Doan Brouwer Perron Stempniak

Big Behind? [vid] [/vid]

Daley is a terrible, terrible defenceman too. Don't let a crazy high shooting percentage and 16 goals last season fool you. He's basically M-A Bergeron.

You said, "You never want to lose assets for nothing" sure... I agree with that, to an extent. However, the value of this asset is minimal, and we are likely going to lose him for nothing come the summer anyway.... so my point is that there is a difference between keeping a semi-valuable trade asset like Tinordi and avoiding him going on waivers cause you don't want to lose him for nothing, and a goaltender who has far less trade value and who is likely to be exposed in free agency at the end of the season anyways (and there is no guarantee he'd even be claimed).

If we have to use Toke/Condon in the playoffs, we are sunk. But are we any better off with Khudobin in the playoffs? Not really, I still think we are sunk. By sunk i still think we could win a round vs the right opponent, but we aren't winning the cup. The guys we'd need to win the cup without Price, aren't available via waivers or trade right now. Bottom line: like 90% of NHL contenders, we need our #1 goalie to be healthy if we want to go far in the playoffs. Goaltending is too important at playoff time.

Backup goalies are not the same thing as young defenceman. Tokarski is set to be a free agent in the summer anyways. The value of this asset in a trade is not much, and the value of him come July 1st is zero.

he's a .908 this season, and was 900 last season. Is that better than Condon/Tokarski? Or is it a waste of 2.25 million in cap space for more of the same? Personally, I wouldn't use the cap space on khudobin when Price will be back soon enough.... save that money for a RW sniper for the top 6.

I wouldn't be so sure. Tokarski cleared waivers once, I don't think they will be that worried about losing him. IMO The backup once price is healthy will be the goalie who plays best between now and when that happens. I think they keep the better guy. Who that will be, we can wait and see. But I don't think waivers is a big part of the equation, if at all.

You can have all the offensive weapons you want, but if your defence can't get them the puck in transition it doesn't work.

Got the two points.

Is that the best period the Habs have played all season?

Wow thats some horrid defensive coverage by Erik Karlsson

Not unusual.... the scratches take the warm up if they are Healthy.

Byron has been one of our bigger offensive threats lately.... I don't get the complaint. He's in the top 6 cause he is quite simply playing better than the kids recently. He's created a lot of chances with his speed and passing. Is it the long term answer? of course not... but right now he's playing better than what Thomas, Carr or Hudon showed. Andrighetto is the only one of the rookies who has done as much as Byron in terms of generating chances, but even there its about even, and Byron is better defensively and can be trusted.

Bournival didn't deserve to be passed by Miceli, but it was something that had to be done. Looks to me that Sly is trying to get some kind of secondary scoring threat to open things up and take some pressure off of line one.

Why would they punish him tonight, but not last night? This theory makes no sense. It seems they just want to get Pateryn in the lineup so he doesn't sit for 4 straight weeks again. They have Carr with Flash-DD (flash has experience at RW) Ghetto is with Hudon-Flynn

I've heard ankle.

I didn't say you could get him for only Ghetto.... However I doubt they are interested in moving for young defencemen.... its likely Ghetto + another forward, if thats even a discussion.

After thomas stupid penalty last night i bet hudon plays tonight

Whoever made up this rumour has no idea the number and quality of young puck moving d in phillys pipeline.

Over 82 games you cant go 82-0. Im fine with playing well and taking a couple losses, rather than playing crappy and lucking out december wins. Playing well is going to lead to wins in the spring.... and those are what im worried about. As for score some freaking goals? Again a short slump for one of the highest scorinh teams in the league

His recent upswing in play is probably the reason he was invited.

We weren't gonna go 82 games without a slump. Fact is I'm not too worried because the team is still playing well (they've been the better team in each of the last 3 games) and just not getting breaks. Its gonna happen.