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GAME#18 Habs vs Philly 7:00pm Nov 19 2022 Matheson Debut


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2 minutes ago, The Chicoutimi Cucumber said:

Suzuki with another stunner of a play in OT. That guy is simply superb.

Yes, he is. But that is a crazy 28.2% shooting percentage (before tonight).  I expect that he'll need to be shooting more in order to keep up this level of scoring.

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There is no quit in this team, and damn right Nick Suzuki is a star....he's already better than Koivu ever was, and is teasing Damphousse level production.  #14 is the center we've been waiting for.

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Just now, sbhatt said:

There is no quit in this team, and damn right Nick Suzuki is a star....he's already better than Koivu ever was, and is teasing Damphousse level production.  #14 is the center we've been waiting for.

 

I love Suzy and he's certainly showing signs that he could be our best forward of my fandom.

 

I thought this year was crucial for adding another elite talent up front in the draft, but those chances appear to be dwindling.

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6 minutes ago, sbhatt said:

There is no quit in this team, and damn right Nick Suzuki is a star....he's already better than Koivu ever was, and is teasing Damphousse level production.  #14 is the center we've been waiting for.

 

Excuse me, Koivu was leading the lead in scoring before he blew out his knee 50 games in 1997. He was never the same after that, but until that moment he was absolutely elite.

 

That said, Slick Nick is unbelievable. It would no longer surprise me if he enters the upper echelon. And his chemistry with Caufield is off the chart.

 

You know who had a tremendous 3rd period? Guhle. It’s like he stepped if up a notch in light of the game situation. Really looked like a #1D for stretches there.

 

 

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Nick Suzuki. 
 

Just wow. 
 

Flabbergasted. 
 

The composure to thread the puck through with 3 seconds left. 
 

To tap DeAngelo’s pads after the goal. 
 

Then the speed of his hands in tight during the shootout. 
 

I’ve said it before. 
 

Sorry Cuccumber, I respect you tremendously but I’ve been watching this team religiously since 1984 and I watched Koivu through his magical run pre injury.  Suzuki is the best position player this team has had since Lafleur. 
 

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29 minutes ago, Helmethead said:

Nick Suzuki. 
 

Just wow. 
 

Flabbergasted. 
 

The composure to thread the puck through with 3 seconds left. 
 

To tap DeAngelo’s pads after the goal. 
 

Then the speed of his hands in tight during the shootout. 
 

I’ve said it before. 
 

Sorry Cuccumber, I respect you tremendously but I’ve been watching this team religiously since 1984 and I watched Koivu through his magical run pre injury.  Suzuki is the best position player this team has had since Lafleur. 
 

We make it sound like Saku was tearing it up and then fell off the map post ACL... he had 56 points in 50 games before going down... basically a PPG season.

It was an ACL injury. He was fine after that like most players are. He played 17 seasons after that.

Loved Saku for his fight and just maybe if he had better linemates throughout his career he could of produced a heck of a lot  more instead of featuring solo on his lines for the largest of stretches. That was way more of a crutch then his Knee repair

 

 

 

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10 hours ago, IN THE HEARTS OF MEN said:

We make it sound like Saku was tearing it up and then fell off the map post ACL... he had 56 points in 50 games before going down... basically a PPG season.

It was an ACL injury. He was fine after that like most players are. He played 17 seasons after that.

Loved Saku for his fight and just maybe if he had better linemates throughout his career he could of produced a heck of a lot  more instead of featuring solo on his lines for the largest of stretches. That was way more of a crutch then his Knee repair

 

 

 

I think it was a combo of the two. His speed post surgery was never the same.

players heal differently. Than there was the cancer. Almost losing an eye thanks to that bastard Justin Williams - who didn’t even get a suspension. Koivu was carrying us that series. 
 

But yeah, he had crap winners, but still turned savage, Higgins and Ryder into goal scorers, and made them a lot of money. None of them produced like they did with Koivu.

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Suzuki is for sure the best hab we had in a long time. Then there is Caufield. Slafkovsky has potential. Dach has potential. This is the best crop of young players since the mid 80’s!

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40 minutes ago, hab29RETIRED said:

Suzuki is for sure the best hab we had in a long time. Then there is Caufield. Slafkovsky has potential. Dach has potential. This is the best crop of young players since the mid 80’s!

 

No doubt! This is the most fun I have had watching the Habs in a long long time. 

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I liked Matheson's game, also awesome to see him have 3 shots & bury one in his 1st game. 

(i still question the amount of icetime he had, same in pre-season when they played him 24 or 26 minutes, then he was gone for 6 weeks.)

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11 hours ago, IN THE HEARTS OF MEN said:

We make it sound like Saku was tearing it up and then fell off the map post ACL... he had 56 points in 50 games before going down... basically a PPG season.

It was an ACL injury. He was fine after that like most players are. He played 17 seasons after that.

Loved Saku for his fight and just maybe if he had better linemates throughout his career he could of produced a heck of a lot  more instead of featuring solo on his lines for the largest of stretches. That was way more of a crutch then his Knee repair

 

 

 

 

That was the dead puck era. Absolute numbers tell us nothing. Saku Koivu led the league in points for much of that season and at worst was in the top-5 before he went down. 

 

Suzuki is #10 in league scoring right now.

 

This suggests that at this moment Suzuki is about at the same level Koivu hit before his ACL blew out. Although frankly, if Suzuki were #1 in league scoring, like Koivu was, we would be losing our minds. That would be considered “next level” from where Slick Nick is right now.

 

Koivu simply was not the same player after that injury. No comparison. He was still an excellent player, but that injury shifted him from an elite #1C to a #1A. 

 

1 hour ago, hab29RETIRED said:

Suzuki is for sure the best hab we had in a long time. Then there is Caufield. Slafkovsky has potential. Dach has potential. This is the best crop of young players since the mid 80’s!

 

Although only Suzuki and Goal Caufield are what I’d call sure things among the FW - guaranteed, sure-fire top-line talent - when you factor in how the young D has looked, you’re absolutely right. You have to go back to the Savard rebuild to see anything analogous. And with the exception of John LeClair, even that rebuild lacked top-end offensive talent like Slick Nick and CC. It may not be a stretch to say that we have not seen such a comprehensive wave of quality young talent enter the organization since the early 1970s. Not that this bunch will ever hold a candle to that group [!!!], just that in terms of overall calibre, this may prove to be the best batch of young talent brought up in a relatively short span of time since that era.

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8 hours ago, The Chicoutimi Cucumber said:

 

That was the dead puck era. Absolute numbers tell us nothing. Saku Koivu led the league in points for much of that season and at worst was in the top-5 before he went down. 

 

Suzuki is #10 in league scoring right now.

 

This suggests that at this moment Suzuki is about at the same level Koivu hit before his ACL blew out. Although frankly, if Suzuki were #1 in league scoring, like Koivu was, we would be losing our minds. That would be considered “next level” from where Slick Nick is right now.

 

Koivu simply was not the same player after that injury. No comparison. He was still an excellent player, but that injury shifted him from an elite #1C to a #1A. 

 

 

Although only Suzuki and Goal Caufield are what I’d call sure things among the FW - guaranteed, sure-fire top-line talent - when you factor in how the young D has looked, you’re absolutely right. You have to go back to the Savard rebuild to see anything analogous. And with the exception of John LeClair, even that rebuild lacked top-end offensive talent like Slick Nick and CC. It may not be a stretch to say that we have not seen such a comprehensive wave of quality young talent enter the organization since the early 1970s. Not that this bunch will ever hold a candle to that group [!!!], just that in terms of overall calibre, this may prove to be the best batch of young talent brought up in a relatively short span of time since that era.

I still believe the biggest obstacle to koivu's career was linemates post habs strip down after the Roy saga. He was surrounded by some really good players in damphouse, turgeon, recchi, rucinsky and even an end of career richer etc. to name a few. When he came back from his knee they were essentially all gone with nobody coming through the pipeline until plex  came through and the kovalev trade... 

 

The big issue to his speed was his decision to wear a knee brace for the initial seasons post surgery for comfort and extra safety. But, he did end up removing it and only put it back on when he sprained his other knee again years later.

 

I wore my brace for 2 seasons after my ACL and LCL full repairs and it slowed me down significantly. When I decided to remove it, I had zero issue with mobility or speed.

 

I believe using his cancer, eye injury and knee injury to justify his drop in production from those 50 games in his sophomore season was and is the easy way to make excuses for him. The sad fact is the Montreal Canadiens were stripped down of all there quality and were completely mis-managed for years. We never rebuilt this team properly until the lead up to their Centennial season. 

 

Countless players have their knees repaired and don't miss a beat 2 years post up. Put koivu in a quality top 6 for his first 5/10 seasons and surely his stats would have been in the upper echelons of the league that was staked with +100 point players.

 

However, taking a 50 game stretch of a 20 year career is an out-layer no different than saying Brian Savage was an elite scorer using only the month of October.

 

The saddest part of this all is looking back and saying what if... 

 

Koivu has always to me =  true champion on a terrible team

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It's almost been two full days and I still can't get over the last second goal.  That shit was insane.  I mean,  Caufield missed the net with 5 seconds left, you'd think it's over.  But somehow, he gets another chance and burries it.  Unbelievable !!!

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On 11/19/2022 at 10:12 PM, Prime Minister Koivu said:

What weird stuff happened to Hoffman? Benched the whole third? And what happened to Slafkovsky?

 

Apparently (per TSN690) Hoffman stayed on the bench because while he couldn't take a regular shift he might have been used on a PP if the Habs got one in the third.

 

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56 minutes ago, JoeLassister said:

It's almost been two full days and I still can't get over the last second goal.  That shit was insane.  I mean,  Caufield missed the net with 5 seconds left, you'd think it's over.  But somehow, he gets another chance and burries it.  Unbelievable !!!


It really was exciting. “Somehow he gets another chance”… that somehow is called Nick Suzuki, who made one of the unbelievable passes that are becoming routine for the 10th leading NHL scorer!

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1 hour ago, The Chicoutimi Cucumber said:


It really was exciting. “Somehow he gets another chance”… that somehow is called Nick Suzuki, who made one of the unbelievable passes that are becoming routine for the 10th leading NHL scorer!

 

They are becoming routine, it's like he has eyes in the back of his head or he always knows where Caulfield is going to be or both. 

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Just the confidence alone to make that pass with 3 seconds left instead  of the the easy take the shot he was given...

Sublime!

 

Caufields finish too... 

 

Bottom corner... fantastic!

 

This guy is a 50 goal scorer in the making

 

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