2024-25 Montreal Canadiens discussion thread

[The Chicoutimi Cucumber]

1 hour ago, alfredoh2009 said:

 

I share your disagreement with the coach on being tough to play against. I was very surprised by how positively he talked about the time after the 0-3 loss.

I hope the coach has a better result next time

 

I think he is trying to accentuate the positive, and maybe most importantly, build an identity for the team. 'We are a team that is tough to play against defensively' should be seen as an aspirational statement.

[GHT120]

5 minutes ago, The Chicoutimi Cucumber said:

I think he is trying to accentuate the positive, and maybe most importantly, build an identity for the team. 'We are a team that is tough to play against defensively' should be seen as an aspirational statement.

Agreed ... whether it works or not remains to be seen.

[Commandant]

I think in recent games they have been tough to play against.

 

I said this a few weeks ago... tough to play against is limiting time and space and is not about hitting or being physical.

 

A team that limited Minnesota to 4 shots in the first period in their home rink, absolutely is hard to play against....  heck the whole game they didnt give time and space and scoring chances... that game is a great example of being tough to play against in the defensive end... exactly what MSL said.

 

Offensively they didnt take pucks to the net and generate chances and werent tough to play against... exactly again what MSL said.

 

Of course... that doesnt fit with some people who have had an agenda against this coach and management from the day they were hired.

[Commandant]

This wasnt a one night thing either.  They didnt generate much against toronto... but the Leafs had 3 goals on special teams.  5v5 we saw the stat card, they were tough for toronto to break down at Even strength last week.

 

Heck, since the start of November the defensive metrics are much improved over October.  They are getting the tough to play against part down defensively.

 

Now they need to get some scoring outside of Caufield, slaf, suzuki and gallagher to be tough to play at both ends.

[Prime Minister Koivu]

Can someone explain this for us folks that don’t know stats?

 

Goals for and goals against and goal differential above expected what does this mean?

 

PDO?

 

Thanks Everyone 

[Habs Fan in Edmonton]

It's still early but there seems to be a definite top 7 in the Eastern Conference this year. Habs aren't far out of a playoff spot. The last wild card spot could be up for grabs for a long time. I just don't think the Bruins are that good. But, it's still early. 

[Commandant]

On 11/17/2024 at 8:53 AM, Prime Minister Koivu said:

Can someone explain this for us folks that don’t know stats?

 

Goals for and goals against and goal differential above expected what does this mean?

 

PDO?

 

Thanks Everyone 

 

The difference between actual goals and expected goals.

 

Similar to PDO yeah... but not exactly the same.

 

Defensively having a positive goals saved above expected is either lucky or repeatable.  When a goalie can consistently put a positive number it means you have a very good to great goalie.

 

On the offensive game if you have more goals than expected as a team its usually luck.  Not really a repeatable skill as a team... though a sniper like Ovi, laine, caufield may be able to consistently beat their individual number, its hard to repeat throughout the lineup in a team stat.

[Prime Minister Koivu]

4 hours ago, Commandant said:

 

The difference between actual goals and expected goals.

 

Similar to PDO yeah... but not exactly the same.

 

Defensively having a positive goals saved above expected is either lucky or repeatable.  When a goalie can consistently put a positive number it means you have a very good to great goalie.

 

On the offensive game if you have more goals than expected as a team its usually luck.  Not really a repeatable skill as a team... though a sniper like Ovi, laine, caufield may be able to consistently beat their individual number, its hard to repeat throughout the lineup in a team stat.

Thanks Commandant, I learn a great deal from you

[Habs Fan in Edmonton]

The future does look bright. 

 

Montreal Canadiens are No. 1 in TSN's annual NHL team ranking of U-24 players | TSN

[GHT120]

 

[The Chicoutimi Cucumber]

22 minutes ago, GHT120 said:

 

 

Interesting…but also worrisome. If this is not just a curio, and instead they are seriously looking at moving Slaf to C, then I take that as a massive signal that they are losing faith in Dach as the #2C in the rebuild.

[Prime Minister Koivu]

1 hour ago, The Chicoutimi Cucumber said:

 

Interesting…but also worrisome. If this is not just a curio, and instead they are seriously looking at moving Slaf to C, then I take that as a massive signal that they are losing faith in Dach as the #2C in the rebuild.

Lots of really poor face off % on the Habs. So much so that Dvorak is being used quite often to just take face offs then get off the ice. 
 

I wonder if they are trying Slafkovsky because Marty knows his face off specialist won’t be here next season. 
 

Dach and Newhook are not good at it

[Butterface]

It’s always good to learn a new skill. Maybe that’s all it is.

 

If he begins to center a line at practice, then I will start to become intrigued. Until then it’s just to get better at faceoffs … he is 15/32 lifetime or 47%

 

https://www.foxsports.com/nhl/juraj-slafkovsky-player-stats?category=faceoffs&seasonType=reg

[JoeLassister]

Let's be honest.  At least 2 members of all lines should practice faceoffs on a regular basis as C  ALWAYS get booted by the linemen.

[Habs Fan in Edmonton]

21 minutes ago, JoeLassister said:

Let's be honest.  At least 2 members of all lines should practice faceoffs on a regular basis as C  ALWAYS get booted by the linemen.

 

Good point. I have always  wondered if Slaf could be an excellent center, he passes the puck well and could be a force up the middle. 

[DON]

NHL Power Rankings: Maple Leafs enter top 10, plus first quarter grades for every team - The Athletic

 

29. Montreal Canadiens, 7-10-2
Last week: 32
Sean’s ranking: 29
Dom’s ranking: 29

Sean grade: C-
Dom grade: D

Things are starting to pick up a bit lately for the Canadiens, but those expecting the club to take a step this season have been sorely disappointed. There have been a few bright spots (Cole Caufield’s goal-scoring being the biggest), but far more sore spots to call Montreal’s Q1 performance anything but a failure.

 

The secret to the Canadiens’ defensive game has little to do with defencemen - The Athletic

"But for the Canadiens lately, if you had to pin it on one specific thing, a thing that is totally attainable and relatively easy to do if you prioritize it and have the will to do it well, it would be back pressure from the forwards"

[GHT120]

20 hours ago, JoeLassister said:

Let's be honest.  At least 2 members of all lines should practice faceoffs on a regular basis as C  ALWAYS get booted by the linemen.

I've often wondered why teams don't even try defenceman in face off circle ... if one happened to excel it might not hurt in certain D-Zone situations to use three defencemen.

[Commandant]

2 hours ago, GHT120 said:

I've often wondered why teams don't even try defenceman in face off circle ... if one happened to excel it might not hurt in certain D-Zone situations to use three defencemen.

 

Probably cause most wingers played centre growing up.  The best forward on teams in minor hockey almost always plays centre and really start to move to wing on really high end teams at 14, 15, 16.  So wingers have some lower league experience taking draws 

 

If youve been a dman your whole life, you probably havent taken more than a handful of draws.

 

At least the winger has some baseline to start with, the D is at zero.

[Commandant]

Add to that on a lost draw you have a winger playing defence, in the offensive zone it could be an odd man rush against a winger playing d if the draw is clean and they transition fast.

 

In your own zone you are asking a winger to take the d responsibility in the slot.

[DON]

The poor young d-men have enough to work on. Wingers on other hand, not so demanding a position that cant work on faceoffs also.

(Slafkovski 1g 10a this year, he now is a playmaker)

[GHT120]

1 hour ago, Commandant said:

 

Probably cause most wingers played centre growing up.  The best forward on teams in minor hockey almost always plays centre and really start to move to wing on really high end teams at 14, 15, 16.  So wingers have some lower league experience taking draws 

 

If youve been a dman your whole life, you probably havent taken more than a handful of draws.

 

At least the winger has some baseline to start with, the D is at zero.

I meant in practice, as is being done with Slaf, not in games ... until you try it out you never know ... I don't expect any would necessarily be worth further training ... but how can it hurt to check.

[GHT120]

1 hour ago, Commandant said:

Add to that on a lost draw you have a winger playing defence, in the offensive zone it could be an odd man rush against a winger playing d if the draw is clean and they transition fast.

 

In your own zone you are asking a winger to take the d responsibility in the slot.

" ... it might not hurt in certain D-Zone situations to use three defencemen. "

[tomh009]

13 hours ago, DON said:

The poor young d-men have enough to work on. Wingers on other hand, not so demanding a position that cant work on faceoffs also.

The forwards do indeed have work to do, the hybrid system doesn't work without them.

[GHT120]

Quirky stat ... the Habs are 32nd in shots-on-goal-game-played, but 7th in shots-attempted.

[The Chicoutimi Cucumber]

I have no respect for Gary Galley's hockey "mind" and don't understand why he even has the job he does. Still, last night he suggested that the Habs are too small and that's why they couldn't get any traction against a "heavy" team like VGK. 

 

Now one of the oldest cliches in the book, especially when it comes to the Habs, is to say "the team loses because it's small." That's one step ahead of the ol' fan fave "they need more goons."

 

Moreover, we have some meaningful size in the lineup: Slaf, Dach, JA, Armia, etc are not small guys.

 

That being said, who are our best players? Suze, CC, Hutson, and Mattheson. 

 

Hence the question. Looking at the org as a whole, DO we need more size in the top-9? More skilled size?

 

OR, do we just need the size that's there to stop playing like floating turds? Slaf and Dach, I'm looking at you.

 

Discuss.