huzer

I don't think the Habs were a good partner for a trade with Edmonton, given Edmonton needed to clear salary, and the Habs don't want to deal picks/prospects. I guess maybe as a larger trade, it could've been an option.

I think that review took longer than the entire OT period.

I still have those ticket stubs. I remember crossing the border Cornwall, there were a couple of times they brought me inside and searched my car because they didn't believe me that I had tickets to the games. I was more scared at missing the start of the games than I was my car being searched/questioned over "why I was REALLY entering Canada". That specific year was quite magical, even before they won the Cup. I worked at a Radio Shack while in my final year at Clarkson University. My boss was a big Habs fan and she bought me a large Canadiens flag/banner for Christmas that year. When the playoff ticket sales were announced, I'd go into the store, because it had a touch tone phone, so it was easier to get through to order tickets. I still had a rotary phone at home. We'd each get on a different phone line and keep dialing the box office until we got through. I managed to get 4 tickets to each game that playoff season. I was always a Habs fan, but 1993 definitely cemented me as a forever Habs fan as a young impressionable college kid. I was excited in 1986, but I was what, 15 when they won in '86. For a kid that could finally drive to the games, get a beer, and be physically inserted in the experience of a winning Cup run....again, magical.

I don't think an NHL level initiation is for every player. Most if not 99% will go the junior/AHL route. I don't agree with Slaf being with the big club with zero AHL time, but admittedly, they must have seen something in the #1 overall pick to keep him up. This is also Hughes's first full NHL season post draft, so it's not quite fair to assume that all top tier prospects will forego the minor league development route.

I don't ignore folks here. I don't want to post in an echo chamber. I feel in my posts, I'm fairly consistent in my content. I find it hard to track your thought process, specifically in terms of organizational management. I can never quite tell if you go against the consensus out of belief, or just argument's sake.

Boy, a bad week for injuries for players whose first name starts with a J. Of course, that's like half the roster. Beware, Jordan, Josh, Justin, Jesse, and Jonathan K.

They picked up Kovacevik from waivers, and resigned Wideman for cheap D. The equivalent players you listed were all acquired via trade, with the exception of Niku, who was signed after the Jets bought him out. On Oct 10, 2022, before the start of the season, the Habs had exactly $0 cap space available, and that was only with an active roster of 22 players. They couldn't have added anyone even if they wanted to. Here is the comment where you are critical of roster decisions:

This: I hate loosing but I have embraced the tank because Inwould like to see the Gabs win a cup. I would have liked some depth trades to relieve pressure from the few decent veterans and the young guns foot the following reasons: Is your desire to tank, which given you are the author of the thread, seems to be your goal, unless it was meant tongue in cheek? Or is you goal to add depth to the roster? That's what I meant in that your message is contradictory. If you want to tank, why would you trade away assets to bolster the roster? If you want additional NHL depth, that indicates that you aren't going to trade a current NHLer to acquire said depth. Why would you trade draft picks and prospects for depth defenseman and bottom 6 forwards? We can keep going in circles, but when your statements contradict each other, I can't pick which one to discuss. But summarizing, it isn't possible to say "I want the best draft pick possible, but I want to add players to the roster to improve the team." They are mutually exclusive goals. Pick one. You either want a better team this season, or you want the first overall pick. You can't have both. And yes, adding depth "to take pressure off, in the event of injuries, etc" is improving the roster. Adding depth indicates that you want the team to at least maintain, and you want to sacrifice assets to do it. Embracing the tank, then criticizing management for not making moves to bolster the roster? Again, pick one. You can't want both. Unless the goal is to just criticize management, in that case, you're doing a bang up job.

I don’t understand how trading for depth to bolster the roster AND embracing the tank is possible. It also goes against a rebuild as what are you going to trade to acquire NHL depth while not sacrificing youth and draft picks? I think it’s been very apparent from the start that management had a direction for the season and they would be sticking to it. I don’t mind rational discussion and disagreeing. But it’s hard to have that rational discussion when the bullet points you have outlined don’t align with the overall message. Your post reads like “I want them to tank, but not really., and here are the steps I would take to make them better.” Just to make my overall position clear: I don’t believe the older veteran core is sufficient to make the Habs a competitive team. I don’t believe the current youth is sufficient to make the Habs a competitive team. I believe regardless of effort the Habs will continue to post poor results for the remainder of the season. Knowing that, they should make every effort to secure additional draft capital, move out existing veterans when possible, and minimize trading for contracts with any amount of significant term. Failing to do THAT is a mark against management, for me. I’m no situation should the Habs be “buyers” of any sort.

But you already threw the thought out there. "The lack of roster decisions in the first part of the year..." implies you thought they should have done something to prepare for injuries in January. Speak up, or don't put that initial comment out there. It's simply a backhanded way to continue to criticize Hughes and Gorton without substantiating it. Anyway, you continue to be consistently inconsistent, taking the contrarian view to troll-ian levels.

That Caufield shot is worth the price of admission. Impressive.

Those were some bad turnovers by Drouin on the PP.

Arpon Basu's 2nd intermission chat about PK was less than glowing. It definitely had the tone of support for management's decision to trade him for his "off-ice behavior". Fun game, missed the first. Caufield looked quite strong last night, overall. I think he may have practiced that left circle shot a time or two. Ha!

I think the Habs track closer to their pts/game of their past 20 or so games (maybe a bump when Monahan/Matheson return) but finish closer to ~63 pts. Dom's projection basically means he expects the Habs to replicate their first half performance. At any rate, Anaheim, Columbus, and Chicago are SERIOUS about their tank job this year. I don't think the Habs will drop below any of them and end up at 28th.

I fully believe that management will attempt to trade any and all pending UFAs at the deadline. I do not expect takers for Drouin or Dadonov. If Monahan can get healthy, I'm sure he'll be dealt. Drouin has no value as a bottom 6er, as he brings no grit or secondary scoring or defense.

Very few players take the mythical home team discount. The Habs had the salary structure through much of Bergevin's middle tenure to pay that, and it didn't hamstring any other signing. Most people were lamenting the Habs NOT spending to the cap. Where's the scorn for Price not living up to his $10.5m annually? Gallagher/Drouin/Anderson for not living up to their contracts? Vegas still has 3 years to pay LTIR for Weber. I guess his 14 year albatross of a contract was a home team discount. Anyway, people can disagree on players. I appreciated Subban as a non-robotic player/personality that genuinely appeared to have fun when he was on the ice. He was also a pretty darn good defenseman.

The Habs can only keep 50% max retention.

Evans played with some fire last night.

I’ll stand by my assessment. It wasn’t overturned until challenged. Reverse the jerseys and the bulk of Canada would’ve lost their collective gourds on the goal being disallowed. The second interference was obvious all day long. Both games were fun viewing today. great assist on the gwg by Roy. US/Sweden was a defensive/goalie nightmare, but fun to watch!

1st call was iffy, the outcome depends on which team you support. Canada scores and it gets called back on that play, there may have been a riot.

I don't think that playing 10 minutes/game on a line with Evans/Armia is necessarily the development path I would choose for Slaf, who seems to me like a Pacioretty draft pick. Patches, for what it's worth, stated he'd rather be top line in AHL vs bottom 6 NHL. I'm unsure of the reluctance to send Slaf to the AHL. There shouldn't be any negative optics around a 1st overall not being in the NHL (Owen Power?). If you trust in the development staff you've hired at the minor league level, then there should be no reason to doubt his development in the AHL. Of the top 7 draft picks in 2022, Slaf was the only one not to be at the WJC. Folks were losing their minds at Caufield being underutilized with Ducharme. It's the same story with Slaf and St. Louis. Either use him, or demote him.

What's interesting is that all goalies that are "small" that have been listed are not North American. All are also backups to bigger goalies. 6'3 to 6'5 will get their shot to be crappy. 5'11 will not. Anyway, sorry to derail into a goalie discussion. I've watched this tournament with more interest that I have in the past. It's been fun. Unless you're Austria...

Off the top of your head, name more than 3 NHL goalies 6' or under (I was even nice and didn't specify starting goalie). Size bias for skaters has evolved. For goalies it has not. I'm not bashing on Milic at all. There are very good, elite goalies that aren't 6'2" and up that will never get an opportunity due to their size. Look what Devon Levi has been doing at Northeastern, he has an opportunity to break the mold. If he was 6'4", he wouldn't have lasted until the 7th round.

Probably how he'll stay. Undersized goalies get no love.

Probably alone here, but that first interference call looked a bit iffy to me. Let's see if this one gets reviewed. Wouldn't be surprised if this is another interference/no goal, pushed his pad in. Canada - 4 US - 2 Refs - 2