hockeyrealist

Regarding the goalie situation: in preseason, all three of these goalies have let in soft goals, I believe those are the goals against that break a teams will to compete and can be most damaging to young player’s psyche. The difference is Allen has only allowed 1-2 softies total in his appearances. Monty more like 1 softie per appearance (often 2), while Phole Primeau has let in 2 per appearance. That’s the difference b/w a 2-2 game going into the third versus being down and out every night before the third period. I believe being competitive and having meaningful third periods is the realistic goal for season while also being optimal for development and draft order. IMO: Monty will be backup, given a chance to prove himself as this appears to Be the plan and unless an extremely appealing waiver option or easy trade presents itself, the team will follow their plan. Monty will continue to play sub par levels and will be replaced by a more proven backup. I think this will happen b/c Allen will wear out/get injured by game 40 (having had to play 30 of 40)and being peppered with zone pressure and quality shots. they’ll be forced to make a move rather than have Monty become starter. They’ll find another vet (like Al Montoya for past example) to ride out season.

Will be interesting to see how Matheson and the young D (especially Arber) handle the fast, potent leaf attack. Arber looks to be in top 4 tonight so will see time vs Leaf’s top fw’s.

Based on recent post of Leafs skate today, they have a solid roster up front tonight also.

Seems to be the goal given the personnel and respective styles, if they are that effective it will be great. But kind of funny to think of money-wise given what Danault/Tuna would have costed….???

The financial trail is a great point, would like to see an audit of what was collected, set aside and spent over the years. Including executive salaries and the hush money. I’m surprised more reporters haven’t done research into the recent stories involving world junior teams for example. In these cases the rosters are known, there are players who’ve stated they know nothing, some others who say they didn’t participate, there were witnesses though, some who’ve been silent. Would love to see a list comparing them, who has gone on to lucrative careers? Obviously lots more incidents including staff, coaches but some of these specific cases are in the spotlight. Was astounded with the developments reported this morning and was admittedly blowing off some steam. Will stop ranting now.

Looking for opinions on this story. https://www.theglobeandmail.com/amp/canada/article-hockey-canada-created-a-fund-for-sexual-assault-claims-documents/ It had been disturbing for some time, but the recent news of a second hush fund to settle legal claims that was kept secret during all of these past proceedings has me quite incensed. To know my youth hockey registration fees and now my families children's registration fees have been stashed away to keep creepy activity quiet is disturbing. To think they kept a second fund quiet during all of these interrogations, interviews, public hearing and grandstanding is amazing to me. That Hockey Canada leadership would attempt to pull this off while also stating they are confident that they have leadership who can oversee cultural change and a positive transition is a joke. I see no way for this organization to redeem themselves, I will never trust the entity again. I think they have tarnished a national sport, should be dismantled, all executives black balled from hockey and believe our national teams should all be shut down for at least two years while hockey Canada is rebranded, re established and re-funded by corporate money. All corporate sponsorship, zero player fees going towards anything but hockey. Maybe not charge players period, again let these corporate asshats who want their names associated with youth sports to step up. Between the branding of arenas, jerseys, helmets, commercials there is zero need to charge a struggling family a blanket “registration” fee when we all know where that money ended up. Let the corporations earn their good will and lifetime brand awareness with the kids by finding it all. All current money put back into youth hockey/access for minorities&under privileged kids. The establishment has festered cancer that can only be cured with compete removal of the tumour, eradicate the mass of human turds that have ruined a national treasure, had the gall to stand up and say they could right this ship while hiding another slush fund the whole time, shame on them. The Hockey Canada brand has been forever tarnished and time to hold these executives accountable. All of them should be gone, entity dismantled and rebuilt without full time executives earning a living off of a kids sport since they’ve proven they cannot be trusted.

Primeau not so primo as we’d hoped, at best a backup NHL’er behind a 60 start stud. Nothing else worth noting, Evans will score again in December.

Looks like terrible hockey.

Twice as much $ and term as was suggested by “an NHL executive” just a month or so passed. The quote was something around 1.75 M per for two years to prove himself. It wasn’t criticized so I was surprised there was so much support for this signing, seems the Hugo bandwagon is strong. Hopefully it’s worth the hype. Im not going to pretend to know whether this is good value at this time. can’t help but wonder… why he is getting paid on projected performance rather than past performance. Me no likey.

If he plays like he eats toast I am worried. His toast is so unevenly cooked I question his sanity. Burnt black at one end and uncooked at the other? Should we expect a completely inconsistent style of play as well? No pb on there for protein, just a bunch of deadweight carbs for breakfast? Is that what a world class organization (?) considers a healthy breakfast?

Regarding Drouin: how many times are people going to keep expecting something good from this player. When he arrived it was his time to shine as he would be getting consistent top 6 (first line) minutes, then it was how much he would thrive under his former junior coach DD (where he’d enjoyed much success) and again be a solid top 6 player, now people expect another new coach to suddenly turn this pumpkin into a stud? He is soft, relatively slow and a non-threat to shoot/score for most part. He is way too easy to defend and too poor on défense and zone exits to play with Suzuki and CC on top line, they already have issues with these areas and cannot be saddled with a winger who is also small, soft and bad at zone exits. Given the current d group the fw’s will be getting a lot of pucks in their feet, along the boards under pressure from pinching d, leading to extended time in the dzone. Drouin is not good in these situations and will therefore not stick with first unit if he even gets a chance there. He will play himself down to third line, continue to be frustrating to watch, but a contender dealing with injuries or lack of scoring will take a flyer on him at trade deadline but he will not yield better than a 3/4 round pick. The guy is what he is and continuing to expect him to evolve, improve and impress is asking for trouble. Playing at a 50 point pace for 30-40 games is a lot different than actually showing up for 70 games (seems no one expects him to actually play a full season which says a lot) and actually producing consistently enough to merit 50 points. Dude is washed up, was never really a factor in his career and shouldn’t be holding others from top 6 minutes. Would rather see Ylonen get that kind of shot.

Felt obliged to point out that Romy was not the most consistent dman. Eddy is that, Romy had some huge swings in his play/decision making but had seemed to be growing into a solid player so I am surprised they gave up on him after enduring the ups and downs and investing heavily in him. But the coaches/management also see him a lot more and def know more than I do so perhaps they saw something there but I do not like losing him and not for Dach essentially.

ugh PLD is not the answer. A cancer that coasts half the time and will melt under spotlight of Mtl.

Comparing Kassian to Slaf is like drag racing a dump truck versus a Ford F250 that has a suped up engine.

I believe the whole point is to get the #1 in 2023 so doubt it will be available and not to the Habs with their lacklustre assets to offer.

Don’t see how Dach becomes a top 6 centre, let alone top line. He has shown nothing in NHL to justify that belief and going back to junior was no beast either, his best season was 25 goals I believe and just over a point per game. Those are not stud numbers and he should n out have been picked so high in his entry draft, Hawks pulled one over on Hughes here and this was a bad move. He has never shown the offensive upside to be a top 6 player and what we end up with is another bottom 6 plug to clog up the pipeline. If this leads to Dvorak being traded this team is going to suck and be unwatchable again this season. I pray Dach is not intended to be our 2C. 9 g, 17 assists in 70 games this year while getting over 18 min/game is not promising. This further isolates Suzuki /Cole as the only legit threats on the team and going to make it easy to game plan against and make Suzuki’s life miserable as he will be the sole focus of other teams game plans. May even hinder his development by making this boneheaded trade.

Was not questioning the fit, aside from the female part could add a hundred names to a list who have actual NHL experience/training. Again, I’m fine with the hire but had wondered if there was history since the “hiring was rumoured since KH took over” as you said. Not a very impactful role for their to be rumours about, especially given part-time nature, so had to wonder if there was a personal connection. Also have to wonder if it is more for optics than effect given it is part-time and she has no experience in the league to draw from and will require adjustment time. Would rather see a full time professional who is trained in personal/professional development do the job at full pace, which would really show a move to embrace player development. This feels like pandering, marketing.

Thx for adding the deets.

Good point, the strength in diversity.

That is an awesome description and phrase, true. Pack that net touch in a suitcase and move into the Bell Centre please.

Interesting, does she and Gorton have a personal or relatively special history/connection?

Haha well played.

Definitely some great points coming out, I am even happier about the hiring now. Have to admit I was not initially excited (wasn’t against it by any means), but I see the value better now and as pointed out it is part-time consultant role so no pressure only opportunity. As astutely mentioned already, all she does is “score, score, score” so hopefully she imparts her gifts onto the often offensively-challenged Habs. Thx for the insights.

Haha that pic says it all. Didn’t they give up more than 40 shots per game, can’t recall seeing playoff goalie give up so many goals and stil be considered a difference maker. Seems to me he gave up a lot of softies too. Ignoring défense was a trend this year but seems to come at a great cost unless you are the best of the best a la Aves.

Part time gig? not sure how to react to this one, what’s the gang think? Initially, I’d have hoped for someone with NHL inside knowledge and experience to build on and share, as IMO competing in Olympics, Worlds is a lot different than an NHL career. She has figured out longevity though.