Jeff Price (no relation)

The problem when he gets confused, is I wonder how they resurrected Jean Béliveau and put him on the ice again.

So my choice is between the Boston broadcast (which is frustratingly biased the wrong way), the french broadcast (which i don't understand), or Bob Cole, who is frustratingly biased the wrong way.

Desharnais has been a force so far in this game. Two good shots on net, and the current Boston penalty is all DD's doing.

Our third and fourth lines are generating good chances here.

Ottawa, Pittsburgh, Buffalo and Arizona. Even without Crosby, Pittsburgh and Chicago are comparable these days. I think the idea is, over time, the comparison will become more relevant, as the differences between the two are minimized. However, it still won't tell the whole story, ever.

http://www.pksubbantracker.com/

"Hockey IQ" often makes players seem "boring" if you're only a casual fan. Take goaltending as an example: Do you ever notice how few highlight reel saves Carey Price has to make? We rarely see the catlike reflexes or amazing snatches from midair that were the hallmark of 90's greats like Eddy Belfour or Dominic Hasek. And do you know why? Because they were out of position and forced to rely on their admittedly amazing reflexes. Carey Price doesn't have to, because he's in the right fracking spot to start with and makes clueless fans wonder why opposing forwards make it so easy by firing right at Carey Price. The answer to that is he doesn't give them anything else to shoot at. Smart defensive play from forwards and defensemen are the same. You don't need to make that outstanding block, because you didn't let them take the shot. You don't rob an opponent of an incredible scoring chance, because you never let them get into a position to get that chance to start with.

The game I'm watching has Weber keeping opposing players far away from the goal crease. It has him using strength and size to overpower his opponents whether he has the puck or they do. It has him making competent passes, maintaining strong control and pressure while the habs have puck possession in the other team's end, and regularly unleashing a blisteringly accurate shot on net that Subban has never had in his life. What I'm missing from Subban, that Weber does not have, is the long breakout passes that send 3 forwards in alone on net on the other end, as well as the ability to carry the puck on his own for 20 seconds at a time without making any pass and bewildering the opposition in the process. Another thing Weber has not done that Subban regularly did, is cough up the puck in his own end while trying to make that wonderful breakout pass. Admittedly, this last one has caused the greatest decline in excitement, but I don't miss it. Still, the biggest loss from trading away Subban is the clean exit from our own end from those perfect long passes.

I do not believe in the short term that this trade makes the team any worse. Weber is every bit the equal of PK right now. In some ways, Weber is better. In other ways, I really miss PK. But let's not try to pretend these two players are on different tiers of hockey talent. These are two defensemen who, regardless of exact placement in subjective measurements, are on any serious analyst's lists of the top 5 blueliners in the NHL today. You may prefer the style of one to the other. You may argue nitty-gritty details about which one is slightly better than the other. But in the end, either answer will be debatable and subjective and any unbiased person must admit that it's too close to make the call with any certainty. What it boils down to is that both players are incredibly awesome defensemen. Now if (in another thread) someone wants to argue about Weber's shitty contract situation (which I agree with), or whether Weber will start to decline sooner than Subban (which I'm not sure about -- Weber's at the best of his entire career right now - he's not lost a step yet, but he may start losing it soon), I'm completely on-board with such a discussion. But if y'all want to complain about Weber being boring and slow and whatever unfounded dumbass complaint you want to make, you're not watching the same games I am. The guy is amazing. I just unrealistically wish we'd managed to get a guy like Weber and keep PK. Because I love Subban, too.

This link will become more interesting as the year progresses: http://www.pksubbantracker.com/

That goalie-protection was on full display last night. Weber left no room around the net for anyone that wasn't in a habs sweater. Also he can pass better than I thought.

Bah, even Montreal's 4th line centre managed 19 goals, 25 assists back in 1993 -- but that's what happens when you have John LeClair playing on the 4th line. (Why was LeClair the 4th line center? Muller had 94 points, Lebeau had 80 points, and Savard had 50 points. Balanced attack, and somehow we had room for Carbonneau on the roster, too. What a year that was.)

He got 48 points playing primarily 2nd and 3rd line minutes in 2015. I actually agree with the announcer in today's game -- we won't see Desharnais' production drop on the third line. He'll be playing against less effective defenders, and he's got enough offensive talent to make the other team pay for that lack of attention. What we'll probably see is more goals, fewer assists, than he usually gets. DD has pretty good hands, but when you've got Pacioretty on the wing, at DD's talent level, the smart money is to pass to him. Now we'll see him shooting. Not only that, but our third line now includes Andrew Shaw... who despite the penchant for goonery is a serious offensive threat.

Outscoring opponents 11-4 after 3 games -- without Carey Price. I can be happy with this. However, we won't be outscoring them 110-40 after 30 games, even with Price in net.

Last year was an anomoly (wherein the entire team sucked). Desharnais is a consistent 45-55 point guy. 2011 - 22 points in 43 games 2012 - 60 points in 81 games 2013 - 28 points in 48 games 2014 - 53 points in 79 games 2015 - 48 points in 82 games 2016 - 29 points in 65 games 2017 in progress - 3 points in 3 games Career: 243 points in 402 games, or 0.604 ppg -- or 50 points per 82 game season.

Now that I have a commercial break to reply in... Desharnais is a somewhat shitty first line centre. He's the best third line centre in the NHL, bar none. This is what the haters don't get -- he's getting paid like a third line centre. Every year he's putting up great numbers for a second line centre. It's never been his fault that they didn't have someone better for the role he was thrust in. Desharnais, at 3.5 million, is a STEAL...he'd easily make the second or third line on any team in the NHL. I've always loved him. I just don't like that he saw so much first line duty. (And he's still seeing powerplay time, where he's utterly ineffectual.)

Hahaha...

who's got the power play? Geez.

It's not so much that Gallagher was directly pushed into the net, as the defenseman prevented him from avoiding the goaltender. Gallagher was headed that way, but couldn't turn to his left to dodge Fleury (not that gallagher was likely to do so anyway.)

I'm against the trade. I'm not violently against the trade. I think it makes us better now. I think it may come back to haunt us and I think MB should have gotten a good forward thrown in as well. However, there are reasons that Shea Weber has consistently been used on Team Canada, and PK Subban has suited up for one Olympic game and wasn't on the roster in the recent world cup of hockey. Those reasons have nothing to do with "People are stupid" and everything to do with Weber making the team better than Subban would have.

it doesn't make sense to blow all 9 opportunities to play him in October, unless we have an injury. We can't use him more than 9 games this year. (Well, we can, but we'd be stupid to do so.) We will have injuries. It only makes sense to use him when we're short a player.

Maybe they will. But they're not really supposed to be back that far, most of the time. It's Weber, Markov, Beaulieu, Petry, Emelin, Sergechev, and Pateryn that need to be doing that.

I'm not suggesting Weber should fight people who get touchy-feely with Price. I'm suggesting he will clear them out of the crease. If you don't think other team's defensemen do that, look at the treatment Gallagher gets in front of opposing nets. Which is exactly what they should be doing to him. I'm also not suggesting Gallagher shouldn't get in close, or that other teams shouldn't try to get to Carey Price. I'm suggesting that their job is to go to the net, and our D's job is to clear them out, and make them pay a price for going to the net. None of our guys have done that effectively.

Nashville got a great player, a great personality, and what appears to me to be an all around great guy. Here's the thing, Montreal got a great player, too. (I don't know enough yet about Weber's other traits.) The contract Weber has is ugly. But there are reasons this trade is not as bad as most of us think. 1) Subban relies on mobility. Weber relies on physicality. The former player may show better possession numbers (and Subban certainly does), but also suffers more from aging. You hit your 30's, and a guy like Weber doesn't slow down noticeably. A guy like Subban does. Of course, Subban is 3 years younger, so this is a wash, both players will really start to decline at the same point in their career. 2) Our best player is Carey Price. Our defense corp's job is to protect him. The biggest flaw of our defenders is that they have never done that. This will no longer be the case. Weber will mess up anybody who gets near Carey Price. 3) Weber is a powerplay scoring genius. We have had an anemic powerplay for years. I want to see that change. 4) Weber's stupid contract? If he retires before it's over (which he probably will), the penalty for it goes 100% back to Nashville. And for the time being, it saves us 1.5 million dollars per year on the existing cap. On Subban - I want to see him score more points than Karlson and despite Weber being effective and helping us win, I want to see Subban embarass the hell out of Bergevin for this trade. We need more personalities like Subban in Hockey. I love the guy.

Well, that settles my Fantasy Hockey goalie issue for Thursday.