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Annual HabsWorld Regular Season Prediction Contest


Peter Puck

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Plekanec plays better under Julien 

Gallagher doesn't break his hand from a slap shot

Byron regresses a bit but still plays well

Lindgren sees some time with the Habs and is impressive

Fans go crazy for Drouin at different points during the season, boo him at others

Pencil Pacioretty in for his usual 35 goals

Hemsky gets injured for a decent length of time

Shaw shows more glimpses of why he was acquired and signed

Hudon finally sticks with the big club

Galchenyuk does not get traded despite being moved around the lineup

Lehkonen puts up 25 goals

Not sure about Mete, haven't watched any preseason games 

Price wins the Vezina

Bergevin will be active at the trade deadline 

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No, Price can't score goals. I'll gladly donate a 100 bucks to charity for a long cup run. I just think the team isn't very talented, and soft 

 

i'm betting against the people who never showing up, not showing up during the season

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Guest Stogey24
35 minutes ago, Chris said:

No, Price can't score goals. I'll gladly donate a 100 bucks to charity for a long cup run. I just think the team isn't very talented, and soft 

 

i'm betting against the people who never showing up, not showing up during the season

Listen, I don't personally like the layout of this team either and i do think they're going to be fighting for a playoff spot, but Carey Price can win a lot of 2-1 and 3-2 games. He's too good for this team to not make the playoffs. 

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3 hours ago, Commandant said:

 

There have been a number of articles looking at this team from an advanced stats perspective.  For all the Debbie Downerism you've put in here, it doesn't change the fact that the overall talent level of the team this year is pretty much exactly the same as the team that got 103 points and won the division last year.  No better, no worse, just different right now. 

If you look at our division, have we improved as much as other?  Do think we will still be better than the bolts (who were ravaged by injuries), or the leafs who had a bunch of kids that are more experienced now and added more offence?  Are we going to still be a 103 point team, when other teams in our division have Improved more?

 

While I like Hudon and felt he should have been given more of a chance last year, you are putting an awful lot of faith on hemsky (who I think is a washed up) and de la rose who hasn’t shown much offensively.  IMO, for this year Drouin and Radulov is a wash.

 

alzner may be better than emelin - but that’s not saying much.  We probably have one of the most flat footed D’s in the league. Toronto may have an iffy D, but their offence is miles ahead of ours.  Now if Mete can stick for the year, than yeah, we might be better, but Alzner and Schlemko aren’t going to be getting me excited about our D.

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34 minutes ago, hab29RETIRED said:

If you look at our division, have we improved as much as other?  Do think we will still be better than the bolts (who were ravaged by injuries), or the leafs who had a bunch of kids that are more experienced now and added more offence?  Are we going to still be a 103 point team, when other teams in our division have Improved more?

 

While I like Hudon and felt he should have been given more of a chance last year, you are putting an awful lot of faith on hemsky (who I think is a washed up) and de la rose who hasn’t shown much offensively.  IMO, for this year Drouin and Radulov is a wash.

 

alzner may be better than emelin - but that’s not saying much.  We probably have one of the most flat footed D’s in the league. Toronto may have an iffy D, but their offence is miles ahead of ours.  Now if Mete can stick for the year, than yeah, we might be better, but Alzner and Schlemko aren’t going to be getting me excited about our D.

 

Yes, if you look at point projections based on advanced stats.... Dom Luczysyn did an article in the Athletic.... we are still the top team in the division based on advanced stats.  98 points if Price is a 923 goalie (and 98 was his top projection for the division).  if he's closer to 930 where he's been in the past? Same 103 point team. 

I'm not putting "an awful lot of faith on hemsky and de la rose" ... if Drouin and Radulov is a wash.... is it an awful lot of faith to say that those guys will be better than Bryan Flynn, Andreas Martinsen and Steve Ott?  Nope... its not.  Thats who they are replacing, and thats why the offence is a big upgrade. 

 

And yeah, being better than emelin isn't saying much... but emelin was on our first pair for 3/4 of last season and we did fine. Alzner is better than emelin and Schlemko is also a decent puck mover.  yes markov hurts but I feel we made up for that with our gains on the other two LHD and at forward. 

 

I'm not saying this team is great.  I'm saying its no worse than last year. 

 

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Guest Stogey24

Gallagher and Galchenyuk are bound for rebound years, Lehkonen should up his point totals and Hudon could potentially be a 30-35 point player. 

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1 hour ago, Chris said:

No, Price can't score goals. I'll gladly donate a 100 bucks to charity for a long cup run. I just think the team isn't very talented, and soft 

 

i'm betting against the people who never showing up, not showing up during the season

 

I didn't say this team was going on a long cup run. 

 

They are still the same team they were.

A very good team, but one who is not good enough to go on a cup run... unless a big upgrade comes via trade at some point. 

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5 minutes ago, Stogey24 said:

Gallagher and Galchenyuk are bound for rebound years, Lehkonen should up his point totals and Hudon could potentially be a 30-35 point player. 

 

To me, Byron drops to 10-15 goals, but there is no chance that Gallagher + Plekanec + Galchenyuk is ~35 goals combined this season.   They will do much better. 

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I don't want to derail this thread as usually there's mostly just the predictions in it but we can argue that the team is similar in skill to last season's but my counter argument is that it could have been discernibly better at this point in time with some diligent moves. I don't view Drouin as a Radulov replacement per se. First of all because they are playing different positions and second of all because we already had Danault on the first line when he shouldn't have been there last season. As a result, Drouin is Danault's replacement or simply put, the filler of a void the team already had.

 

In a way, Hemsky is actually Radulov's replacement and yet his skill level has him on the 4th line (though I think he can surprise). As a result of acquiring Drouin and losing Radulov, we now have Brendan Gallagher on the first line. Don't get me wrong, I love Gallagher more than many and drafted him in our fantasy league but he was the same player many Habs fans wanted gone last season. If you ask me who is more suited for a first line role between Alex Radulov and Brendan Gallagher, then I'd have to go with Alex Radulov. Gallagher is a more capable first liner than Danault but we do in effect again have a player on our top line who is only there because of his style of play and not necessarily because he is a top line producer. If we are not in agreement that Hemsky was Radulov's replacement, then we can at least agree that his replacement is Brendan Gallagher, not Jonathan Drouin.

 

Drouin and Radulov also play very different styles of games and so why we will love things Drouin brings, we will also miss some of Radulov's perks.

 

I also keep hearing that Schlemko and Alzner are upgrades on Beaulieu and Emelin and I don't think it's as clear cut as people are making it out to be. Perhaps if one compares them player for player it's true but despite turnovers Emelin and Beaulieu are both effective NHL players. They are not Morrow or Zach Redmond. Beaulieu has yet to reach his potential and Emelin was a presence on our back end both positively and negatively. I personally liked both of them and while Alzner may be more steady, there are areas where he does being less than both Emelin and Beaulieu. Also while I haven't seen enough of Schlemko, I expect good things from him but do think he's being (if only slightly) overhyped as such a massive upgrade. 

 

I know the argument is that we'll make the playoffs and that we're no worse than last year but that seems like an argument to hide the fact that we're not clearly any better than last year. Last year the team wasn't enough and so while I love the optimism, the only light I see is like some, that after we use some cap space there may be a bright end to the tunnel.

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57 minutes ago, xXx..CK..xXx said:

 

I know the argument is that we'll make the playoffs and that we're no worse than last year but that seems like an argument to hide the fact that we're not clearly any better than last year. Last year the team wasn't enough and so while I love the optimism, the only light I see is like some, that after we use some cap space there may be a bright end to the tunnel.

 

I don't see it as optimism either.  Im not happy that this team remains in a state of "not good enough", I just reject the pessimism that they are now a bad team. 

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31 minutes ago, Commandant said:

 

 

I don't see it as optimism either.  Im not happy that this team remains in a state of "not good enough", I just reject the pessimism that they are now a bad team. 

To me, if you are not a legit contender, you are a bad team.  If you are going to be a one and done team, who cares, may as well not even make the playoffs.  People may like to make the Nashville arguement, but that was a team that severely under achieved during the year.  Hell some pundits had them going to the finals.  

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16 minutes ago, hab29RETIRED said:

To me, if you are not a legit contender, you are a bad team.  If you are going to be a one and done team, who cares, may as well not even make the playoffs.  People may like to make the Nashville arguement, but that was a team that severely under achieved during the year.  Hell some pundits had them going to the finals.  

 

Its not an either/or proposition.

you need to build a playoff team, before you can build a contender.

I would have liked them to add on to the current team, but that doesn't make them a bad team.

A bad team would be one like Colorado or Detroit or Vancouver, where one move is not going to fix things.  The Habs have the cap space and are one move away from being a contender. 

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3 hours ago, Commandant said:

 

Its not an either/or proposition.

you need to build a playoff team, before you can build a contender.

I would have liked them to add on to the current team, but that doesn't make them a bad team.

A bad team would be one like Colorado or Detroit or Vancouver, where one move is not going to fix things.  The Habs have the cap space and are one move away from being a contender. 

We’re into semantics now, but the Canucks and Avs aren’t bad teams - they are horribly run teams. Detroit is heading down that same path.  Bad teams in our division, that are worse than us that have a much brighter future - the sabres, the panthers.    We were in a lousy division for a long time and failed to capitalize.  Now others are improving while we are becoming a bubble team.  Only Price is keeping us from being a non-playoff team.  

 

Yes, you have to get in the playoffs to win the cup.  But I’m a hell of a lot more confident in the oilers or Leads chances of ADVANCING in the playoffs than us.

 

we have cap space, but again, who exactly are we going to give up to get someone who is WORTH spending the money on???  I feel almost certain that galchenyuk will be traded this year.  My fear is that it will be for a declining asset like Giroux.  It will make the media in Montreal happy getting a big name with a French name - despite the fact he is from Ontario.  But we’d be getting a guy one year away from being Gomez.  Other than galchenyuk who are we going to trade to make use of that cap space??? We already traded our best prospect in years.  Mcarron, Scherbak sure the hell aren’t going to bring in a Tavares or someone who is actually worth their cap hit.

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Florida has a bright future?  Not with that management that dumped money for nothing all off-season for the umpteenth time cause they cant afford it.

 

Buffalo?  With a first pair defence of Nathan Beaulieu and Rasmus Ristolainen?

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I think our boys will make the playoffs, but it won't be as easy as last year!

 

44 W-30 L-3 OTL-5 SOL

96 points

3rd in division
7th in the east
221 goals

 

Let's not forget that ths Habs started the year 10-0 last year. That kinda skewed the overall numbers for the season! I seriously doubt we'll have as good of a start as we did last year. If we go 6-4 in our first 10, then I'll be happy!

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3 hours ago, hab29RETIRED said:

we have cap space, but again, who exactly are we going to give up to get someone who is WORTH spending the money on???  I feel almost certain that galchenyuk will be traded this year.  My fear is that it will be for a declining asset like Giroux.  It will make the media in Montreal happy getting a big name with a French name - despite the fact he is from Ontario.  But we’d be getting a guy one year away from being Gomez.  Other than galchenyuk who are we going to trade to make use of that cap space??? We already traded our best prospect in years.  Mcarron, Scherbak sure the hell aren’t going to bring in a Tavares or someone who is actually worth their cap hit.

Well said. I completely agree with what you said! As much as I like Scherbak, I think his stock is falling.

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4 hours ago, hab29RETIRED said:

We’re into semantics now, but the Canucks and Avs aren’t bad teams - they are horribly run teams. Detroit is heading down that same path.  Bad teams in our division, that are worse than us that have a much brighter future - the sabres, the panthers.    We were in a lousy division for a long time and failed to capitalize.  Now others are improving while we are becoming a bubble team.  Only Price is keeping us from being a non-playoff team.  

 

Yes, you have to get in the playoffs to win the cup.  But I’m a hell of a lot more confident in the oilers or Leads chances of ADVANCING in the playoffs than us.

 

we have cap space, but again, who exactly are we going to give up to get someone who is WORTH spending the money on???  I feel almost certain that galchenyuk will be traded this year.  My fear is that it will be for a declining asset like Giroux.  It will make the media in Montreal happy getting a big name with a French name - despite the fact he is from Ontario.  But we’d be getting a guy one year away from being Gomez.  Other than galchenyuk who are we going to trade to make use of that cap space??? We already traded our best prospect in years.  Mcarron, Scherbak sure the hell aren’t going to bring in a Tavares or someone who is actually worth their cap hit.

 

I know man, you've been preaching for years 25+ teams in the NHL are better than the Habs. 

 

https://twitter.com/twitter/statuses/916115110392991744

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4 hours ago, Commandant said:

Florida has a bright future?  Not with that management that dumped money for nothing all off-season for the umpteenth time cause they cant afford it.

 

Buffalo?  With a first pair defence of Nathan Beaulieu and Rasmus Ristolainen?

I said they have a better FUTURE, I don’t they will be better this year. I also would take Talon as a GM any day over me. GQ.  We are going to muddle through another year of getting in to the playoffs and being done early with the lineup as it’s currently constructed.   

 

Given their ages Id trade any two players on the habs for Eichal and O’Reilly, or Barkov and ekblad.  

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58 minutes ago, Commandant said:

 

I know man, you've been preaching for years 25+ teams in the NHL are better than the Habs. 

 

https://twitter.com/twitter/statuses/916115110392991744

Sure I said that - during years like when  they finished 27th and after they folded when Price went down.  You on the other hand were doing the dance of joy for stupid trades like the Gomez trade. 

 

MB is the perfect GM for Bettman’s new mediocre... I mean parity era.  Not important to win anything to get 5 year contract extentions.

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5 minutes ago, hab29RETIRED said:

I said they have a better FUTURE, I don’t they will be better this year. I also would take Talon as a GM any day over me. GQ.  We are going to muddle through another year of getting in to the playoffs and being done early with the lineup as it’s currently constructed.   

 

Given their ages Id trade any two players on the habs for Eichal and O’Reilly, or Barkov and ekblad.  

 

What is the FUTURE of buffalo's defence?

 

What is the Future of Florida's budget?

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