HF Habs: 2023 Roster, Schedule & Standings Thread

[Belial]

We've scored what, 2 goals this season which weren't created or scored by an important youth piece of this team?

If the Habs play themselves out of a top 10 pick, it means we don't need one because the youth already here are stars.

Are there studs out of the top ten available?

 

[WeThreeKings]

Are there studs out of the top ten available?

Oh yeah. This is 2003, there's gonna be stars drafted all throughout the first round.

Top 10 is just guaranteed stars, imo.

 

[Belial]

Oh yeah. This is 2003, there's gonna be stars drafted all throughout the first round.

Top 10 is just guaranteed stars, imo.

Hopefully, that Panthers pick can get us something!

 

[SwiftyHab]

Geezuz, dude, we're only 5 games into the season.

Our next 4 games are going to be really tough. Dallas is a really good team with excellent goaltending. Minnesota is a good team too although their goaltending has been horrible. That could be a wild one (8-6 kind of game).

After those 2 home games, it's a 4 game road to Buffalo (off to a great start), St. Louis, Minnesota & Winnipeg then we come home to play Vegas.

That's a tough stretch. Montreal so far has looked way better at home than they have on the road.

Long season. Enjoy the win! It was fun.

We’re much better than originally thought. Our weakest

 

[SwiftyHab]

Geezuz, dude, we're only 5 games into the season.

Our next 4 games are going to be really tough. Dallas is a really good team with excellent goaltending. Minnesota is a good team too although their goaltending has been horrible. That could be a wild one (8-6 kind of game).

After those 2 home games, it's a 4 game road to Buffalo (off to a great start), St. Louis, Minnesota & Winnipeg then we come home to play Vegas.

That's a tough stretch. Montreal so far has looked way better at home than they have on the road.

Long season. Enjoy the win! It was fun.

It’s not the number of games but the fact that our weakest link was supposed to be our young D who are proving to be one of our stronger points and that’s with our top 2 veteran D injured. We can only get better when they come back. And we definetly won’t be finishing last again. If we get Bedard, it’ll be out of sheer luck

 

[WeThreeKings]

It’s not the number of games but the fact that our weakest link was supposed to be our young D who are proving to be one of our stronger points and that’s with our top 2 veteran D injured. We can only get better when they come back. And we definetly won’t be finishing last again. If we get Bedard, it’ll be out of sheer luck

Anyone thinking we would finish last again wasn't paying attention.. but the young D won't play at this level all season plus I don't think Edmundson coming off multiple back injuries is really going to swing the defense around all that much. Matheson will help, but I don't know if you've noticed our division.

Buffalo looks amazing. Ottawa is a much improved roster. Detroit beat us soundly. Toronto, Florida and Tampa aren't gonna be this bad all year and if Florida is, it's good for us.

There's a literal limit to how high we can go just because of how good the eastern conference is and that the only way we continue to play at a pace that keeps us out of the bottom 7 (for posterity sake) is if Guhle is a literal #1 D man. Harris is a literal #3-4, Suzuki is a PPG+ center, Caufield is a 40 goal, PPG+ player, and Dach scores >50 pts as the 2C.

In which case, who cares? It means that we have two star players on our hands.

 

[Habs Halifax]

Anyone thinking we would finish last again wasn't paying attention.. but the young D won't play at this level all season plus I don't think Edmundson coming off multiple back injuries is really going to swing the defense around all that much. Matheson will help, but I don't know if you've noticed our division.

Buffalo looks amazing. Ottawa is a much improved roster. Detroit beat us soundly. Toronto, Florida and Tampa aren't gonna be this bad all year and if Florida is, it's good for us.

There's a literal limit to how high we can go just because of how good the eastern conference is and that the only way we continue to play at a pace that keeps us out of the bottom 7 (for posterity sake) is if Guhle is a literal #1 D man. Harris is a literal #3-4, Suzuki is a PPG+ center, Caufield is a 40 goal, PPG+ player, and Dach scores >50 pts as the 2C.

In which case, who cares? It means that we have two star players on our hands.

Win/Win situation. If we move up to bubble playoff team, that means our kids moved us from last to that spot. If we stay bottom fringe 5 team, we get a decent shot at a lottery win.

Several fans had tank fever based on last season. This roster has flaws and needs to grow but they are a better team vs last year and it's a new season with a different confidence/momentum path. Bottom 5-10 or bottom 8-12. Betting against this is betting against logical probability. However, we are not making the playoffs. I'd be shocked

 

[WeThreeKings]

Win/Win situation. If we move up to bubble playoff team, that means our kids moved us from last to that spot. If we stay bottom fringe 5 team, we get a decent shot at a lottery win.

Several fans had tank fever based on last season. This roster has flaws and needs to grow but they are a better team vs last year and it's a new season with a different confidence/momentum path. Bottom 5-10 or bottom 8-12. Betting against this is betting against logical probability. However, we are not making the playoffs. I'd be shocked

There's no way we are making the play-offs.. our division is simply too strong, but that's for the best.

I didn't come in with illusions of being worse than Chicago or Arizona, it does look like San Jose is going to be an impossible feat, as well. So may have to forget Bedard, Carlsson and Fantilli.

 

[Tyson]

Instilling losing is not an option.
Try to win every game. This helps the youth develop as winners together.
We will draft where we will draft.

 

[WeThreeKings]

The other thing is..

to accept the Habs are no longer a Bottom 10 team in the league is also to accept that the Flyers are also not a bottom 10 team and one of the best team in the Metro division.

And that Tampa Bay is in the Bedard sweepstakes.

In short, the sample size is too short to throw out everything that last year was.

 

[Habs Halifax]

There's no way we are making the play-offs.. our division is simply too strong, but that's for the best.

I didn't come in with illusions of being worse than Chicago or Arizona, it does look like San Jose is going to be an impossible feat, as well. So may have to forget Bedard, Carlsson and Fantilli.

I like to think good karma... We don't make moves to purposely tank and we end up winning one of the lottery spots with our 5-10th last place seed.

Back to back seasons where last place won the lottery. Bet you some team other than last place wins the lottery this time around.

Imagine if the Panthers finished 12th last and we won the 2nd lottery with their pick. Then our pick stays around 7th ish? Two top 10 picks would be nice

 

[Coffey]

Love seeing you guys keep winning. Always liked the Habs and glad to see you guys defy expectations from everyone.

Much love from Stabmonton.

 

[WeThreeKings]

Love seeing you guys keep winning. Always liked the Habs and glad to see you guys defy expectations from everyone.

Much love from Stabmonton.

We want Bedard so we can have a couple Cup Finals of McDavid vs. Bedard

 

[Habs Halifax]

The other thing is..

to accept the Habs are no longer a Bottom 10 team in the league is also to accept that the Flyers are also not a bottom 10 team and one of the best team in the Metro division.

And that Tampa Bay is in the Bedard sweepstakes.

In short, the sample size is too short to throw out everything that last year was.

I think most believe bottom 10 still. The question is it is bottom 5 or 6-10 range. I vote the later with an outside chance they are bottom 8-12 range.

 

[Belial]

There's no way we are making the play-offs.. our division is simply too strong, but that's for the best.

I didn't come in with illusions of being worse than Chicago or Arizona, it does look like San Jose is going to be an impossible feat, as well. So may have to forget Bedard, Carlsson and Fantilli.

Maybe you underestimate the roster?

That D squad + Matheson and Edmundson look pretty decent.

Guys like Hoffman and Drouin on your fourth line seem like a deep-forward group!

 

[WeThreeKings]

Maybe you underestimate the roster?

That D squad + Matheson and Edmundson look pretty decent.

Guys like Hoffman and Drouin on your fourth line seem like a deep-forward group!

I don't think I underestimate the roster. Simply put, young players, specifically young defenseman very rarely find the consistency needed over 82 games.

We are having fun in the beginning of the year but there's going to be some tough stretches going forward.

 

[Habs Halifax]

Chances we make the playoffs is probably equal the chances we finish bottom 5 again.

Advice? Take the middle ground

 

[Belial]

I don't think I underestimate the roster. Simply put, young players, specifically young defenseman very rarely find the consistency needed over 82 games.

We are having fun in the beginning of the year but there's going to be some tough stretches going forward.

But we don't need to keep them all up going forward...

And even there, who's going to drop in terms of performances in your opinion?

 

[Tyson]

It will be tough to decide who sits amongst the D when the 2 vets return.
Harris is more stable than Xhekaj at this point but can you afford not to have Xhekaj not in the line up? His presence makes a difference.

 

[WeThreeKings]

But we don't need to keep them all up going forward...

And even there, who's going to drop in terms of performances in your opinion?

I don't expect Guhle to play as a #1 all year at 20 years old.
I dont' expect Harris to play as a #3 all year in his first NHL season.
I don't expect both Suzuki and Caufield will score above PPG this season.
I don't expect Allen and Montembeault to factor into the upper echelon of goaltending with their save percentages and GSAA.

I also don't expect the rest of the NHL to look exactly as it does right now. We are as much of a potential play-off team as Tampa Bay is as much as a potential lottery team.

 

[Vachon23]

It will be tough to decide who sits amongst the D when the 2 vets return.
Harris is more stable than Xhekaj at this point but can you afford not to have Xhekaj not in the line up? His presence makes a difference.

Personally, I still send down Xhekaj. He need to work on his defensive game and I think the game need to slow down for him when his in the defensive zone. I want Xhekaj to be a complete Dmen and not only a physical player.

 

[Habs Halifax]

It will be tough to decide who sits amongst the D when the 2 vets return.
Harris is more stable than Xhekaj at this point but can you afford not to have Xhekaj not in the line up? His presence makes a difference.

If we are not able to make a trade to unblock this, we likely go 2 extra D. However, by the time Eddy is ready to play, there might be another injury to someone else. Usually how it goes. I think they take their time to bring back Eddy too.

2 extra D and one extra forward is what I would do. Put Hoffman Dadonov on waivers. We are not going to get anything substantial from them at the deadline. Wishful thinking for a winger

 

[Milhouse40]

So far, The Habs won every home game and lost every road game.
I think this is going to be the story this yeat and typical of a young team.

We won't make the PO and we won't finish bottom 3.
The path is still very very clear for me.

Management don't need the team to lose to clean house, they'll clean house anyway cause we have so many prospects pushing and they are better. Losing would only make things more difficult to do that.

So the team can push as hard as they want and to help them, management need to trade vets for picks and prospect and replace to vets by our own better player.

 

[SwiftyHab]

If we are not able to make a trade to unblock this, we likely go 2 extra D. However, by the time Eddy is ready to play, there might be another injury to someone else. Usually how it goes. I think they take their time to bring back Eddy too.

2 extra D and one extra forward is what I would do. Put Hoffman Dadonov on waivers. We are not going to get anything substantial from them at the deadline. Wishful thinking for a winger

I love this convo. I think we have to reset our expectations but it’s totally not clear to what level yet. That being said, I agree with wethreekings that the rest of our division is still ridiculously strong and young players will struggle to be consistent.

That being said, with no expectations, this team might be loosy goosy enough to really focus on getting better without the threat that making mistakes will stimy their careers. That will definetly help their growth. Will it help them be consistently better? Not sure yet.

Moreover, even if we dont get Bedard, that means that our Young talented players on the team now have developed which is a very good thing eep finally considering that Bedard is only one really talented player but still only one piece we need. We’ve got a lot of talent in the system, and better that they all progress rather than we tank and they take a step back like so many other rebuilding teams did (picture oilers before mcdavid for many years, Arizona, Buffalo for the last decade till now, etc)

So yes I’m fine with not getting Bedard this year. The future is still bright

 

[JoelWarlord]

I would implore people to please look up the actual lottery odds and think about the implications of there only being two lottery draws as well. The math has changed the incentive structure here, I would grant there's probably a slightly different argument if we consider the whole Bedard/Michkov/Fantilli tier thing where there's a logic to doing whatever you can to guarantee one of them. Still, I don't think it makes sense to fret about where our pick will be when we're 5 games into the season and our early success has been entirely on the backs of young players other than Anderson who's at least young enough that he'll be around for a while (or easier to trade if he plays well).

From last place to 2nd last your odds drop from 25.5% to 13.5%, which is a bigger drop than you get from 31st to 22nd (13.5% to 3%), and it drops off linearly from there onwards. Unless you can finish in dead last you are not incentivized to finish as low as possible, it is not worth tanking your team's morale and hurting the development of young players to finish 29th instead of 27th for the sake of an additional 2% on the lottery odds.