Pre-Game Talk: Countdown thread to 24-25 Season (T - 6 hours)

[Shred]

Here’s my take on a positive spin:

We are still net positive a Dach and a Hutson from last year.

That’s a 2nd line center and an offensive d man that can quarterback a PP if we let him.

We don't have Monahan anymore who was good for 60 points last year.

 

[RationalExpectations]

State of the franchise:

Worth Keeping - Dach, Slaf, CC, NS, Monty, Wifi (simple because if not him this team is butter)
MEH - Roy, Newhook, Struble.
Junk/Scrap parts - Gally, Armia, Andy, RHP, Dvo, Pezz, Evans, Savard, Pri.


Even with Demi and Rein in the org, there are too many holes to even dream this team will be in the mix in the next couple of years. 3 more yrs before this team sniffs playoffs.

I disagree with this. Your team does not have to be perfect, Panthers won with Cousins, Kulikov, Okposo… not sure any of the guys you listed as junk are worse than them. To be fair your bottom 6 / bottom pair D is not usually populated with skilled players. I think you can win a cup with a third pair of Xhekaj / Savard and a 4th line of Evans Armia Gallagher (the issue is salary rather than skill), on paper CC Suzuki Slaf offers you a good first line. Can Dach stay healthy ? If so you have a second line C, Newhook is a good complementary winger on a top 6, so you re mssing Laine. Having Roy Dvorak Anderson on a third line sucks given how Dvorak and Anderson have been playing. So you are missing 3 forwards for sure if Laine is out.
On D MTL has no first pairing D and that is an issue

 

[The Real Timo]

I disagree with this. Your team does not have to be perfect, Panthers won with Cousins, Kulikov, Okposo… not sure any of the guys you listed as junk are worse than them. To be fair your bottom 6 / bottom pair D is not usually populated with skilled players. I think you can win a cup with a third pair of Xhekaj / Savard and a 4th line of Evans Armia Gallagher (the issue is salary rather than skill), on paper CC Suzuki Slaf offers you a good first line. Can Dach stay healthy ? If so you have a second line C, Newhook is a good complementary winger on a top 6, so you re mssing Laine. Having Roy Dvorak Anderson on a third line sucks given how Dvorak and Anderson have been playing. So you are missing 3 forwards for sure if Laine is out.
On D MTL has no first pairing D and that is an issue

Hey man... we had the great Nick Cousins and we let him slide right through our fingers. Would have won the cup by now for sure.

 

[Vapaatunnus]

I went for a weekend to summer cabin and when I came back, half of the team is already dead. WTF? Any news about Slaf, it seems Laine and Reinbacher are long term anyway?

 

[Habby4Life]

Well Demidov went later than he should have. Hage probably did too HuGo likely figured he would go top 15. Hutson went 62. HuGo are better at drafting than many GM's.

Really? Better than many GM’s.

They had a 1st overall, and two #5’s. Shit pretty much anyone on here couldn’t screw that up too bad. Also, Reinbacher the jury is still out if he was a good pick. Lane was a good pick. Better no, easy to pick in the top 5.

They also drafted Mesar which looks like a wasted pick. At some point they were high on him. Who knows if Hage pans out or if he is another Mesar.

 

[Habby4Life]

I disagree with this. Your team does not have to be perfect, Panthers won with Cousins, Kulikov, Okposo… not sure any of the guys you listed as junk are worse than them. To be fair your bottom 6 / bottom pair D is not usually populated with skilled players. I think you can win a cup with a third pair of Xhekaj / Savard and a 4th line of Evans Armia Gallagher (the issue is salary rather than skill), on paper CC Suzuki Slaf offers you a good first line. Can Dach stay healthy ? If so you have a second line C, Newhook is a good complementary winger on a top 6, so you re mssing Laine. Having Roy Dvorak Anderson on a third line sucks given how Dvorak and Anderson have been playing. So you are missing 3 forwards for sure if Laine is out.
On D MTL has no first pairing D and that is an issue

Panthers won because they had a great top 6, and lots of grit in the bottom six. They had a very good top 4 D and Bob in net. Heck, even their top 6 are nasty to play against.

Nick had a great yr but he would have been 4th in scoring on the panthers. CC and Slaf would have been like 6th or 7th.

Panthers were/are exactly what the habs arent, skilled, lots of depth, and hard to play against.

Habs have 4 (ok) top 6 forwards and Newhook, the rest are scrubs. If your 4 line is Gally, Evans, and Army you aren’t winning the cup, lol.

Habs are light years from being close to what the panthers were/are.

 

[RationalExpectations]

Hey man... we had the great Nick Cousins and we let him slide right through our fingers. Would have won the cup by now for sure.

That was not my point at all ahha, FLA even let cousins go to OTT, these guys are replacable and Evans / Gallagher / Armia could easily fill 4th line on a contender .

 

[SwiftyHab]

T - 9 days

 

[HabsWhiteKnightLOL]

T - 9 days

first game of the year or the next season ending injury

 

[Miller Time]

Habs are light years from being close to what the panthers were/are.

Remember 17 months ago when the Panthers only made the playoffs because the Pens shat the bed vs the tank commanding Hawks?

Health, internal player progression & deadline buying can go along way to move a team from borderline playoff team to cup winner in a very short time.

Tkachuk, Barkov, Verghagen, Montour & Forsling wouldn't have been considered a cup winning core a few seasons ago. Things change fast.

Habs absolutely have the U25 pieces of a future cup contender already in place... And a boatload of cap room & prospect / draft capital to work with over next 2-4 seasons.

Future is bright

 

[WeThreeKings]

As I get older.. things like the Laine injury just bother me on a personal level rather than make me irrationally angry and want revenge. I feel so bad for someone who went through everything he did and finally got a chance only to have his knee blown up by a plug.

And then the Reinbacher injury, another major injury to a key piece of our future, which immediately gets used as a strike against him by people here who only want him to fail because he wasn't who they wanted at the draft.

Excitement for the season dwindled very quickly and with the second point, an extreme limitation to be placed on my time here because it's not worth the same level of investment here to see those noxious flames find another pocket of oxygen to explode and engulf the discourse for another season.

 

[Gaylord Q Tinkledink]

Laine in the lineup, or out doesn't make this team a good team one way, or another.


Friedman says Xhekaj didn't get suspended because of the injury to Laine on the play.


Friedman says he heard there was a crosscheck on Hutson by Domi and Xhekaj didn't do anything and that's possibly why Xhekaj did what he did.


True, or not, kind of shows how weak and pathetic this team is if they need one player to do all the "talking" for them.

 

[HomaridII]

Friedman said that the Habs don't know the extent of the damage to either player.

 

[SwiftyHab]

This is the only mix we’re going to be in at the TDL if Laine isn’t back and our PP doesn’t get working.

 

[SwiftyHab]

https://x.com/i/web/status/1840739344228741611

 

[Hannibal]

Laine in the lineup, or out doesn't make this team a good team one way, or another.


Friedman says Xhekaj didn't get suspended because of the injury to Laine on the play.


Friedman says he heard there was a crosscheck on Hutson by Domi and Xhekaj didn't do anything and that's possibly why Xhekaj did what he did.


True, or not, kind of shows how weak and pathetic this team is if they need one player to do all the "talking" for them.

Tells you how soft this organisation truly is. And when Xhekaj is doing something about it, MSL the great coach is grounding him. LOL

Pathetic soft mentality.

 

[Whitesnake]

They still have Price they can put on LTIR....

I was really not familiar with any of that stuff...but can't we put Laine and Price on LTIR?

 

[Rapala]

As I get older.. things like the Laine injury just bother me on a personal level rather than make me irrationally angry and want revenge. I feel so bad for someone who went through everything he did and finally got a chance only to have his knee blown up by a plug.

And then the Reinbacher injury, another major injury to a key piece of our future, which immediately gets used as a strike against him by people here who only want him to fail because he wasn't who they wanted at the draft.

Excitement for the season dwindled very quickly and with the second point, an extreme limitation to be placed on my time here because it's not worth the same level of investment here to see those noxious flames find another pocket of oxygen to explode and engulf the discourse for another season.

That would be a shame because there are already a limited amount of people worth discoursing with.
I have no problems with people criticizing play but that's it. If I see differently I'll always try to give a valid perspective.
Knocking younger players still working it out bothers me most. The vets not so much because they really are what you see.

Laine in the lineup, or out doesn't make this team a good team one way, or another.


Friedman says Xhekaj didn't get suspended because of the injury to Laine on the play.


Friedman says he heard there was a crosscheck on Hutson by Domi and Xhekaj didn't do anything and that's possibly why Xhekaj did what he did.


True, or not, kind of shows how weak and pathetic this team is if they need one player to do all the "talking" for them.

The worst part is he's a player we want on the ice and with a Dman already being down it puts Xhekaj in a bad situation.
To me it's a roster failure and should not reflect on Arber at all. When the Captain came out with "he did his job" we know where the players stand.
Bottom line a good portion of this fan base have brought up the risks of not having a couple of SOB's who can play hockey in the bottom 6.

 

[Gaylord Q Tinkledink]

I was really not familiar with any of that stuff...but can't we put Laine and Price on LTIR?

Yes.

For Price they wait until the start of the season as that helps with building cap space. If you put the player on LTIR before the start of the season it hampers how much space you get, so that's why they wait.

 

[The Real Timo]

Am I the only one that isn’t sure that Hutson is the answer? I feel like once he has full time NHLers to play against in meaningful games his wheeling and dealing will be swiftly dealt with. Hope I’m wrong.

f*** the leafs

 

[Rapala]

When Hughes did his season ending presser the two things stood out for me was "We want to get Bigger"and "the players showed us a lot."
It led me to believe they saw the increased abuse and harassment Suzuki started taking when he put the team on his back coming off the All Star break.
It led me to believe we were going to address it.
Sure getting Laine is getting bigger but it was never going to prevent some teams from doubling up on that strategy.
We saw it against Berube's team they were taking shots slashing and whacking Suzuki and Slaf all night.
While we may not see it to the same extent when the real games start it's something teams will have in their back pocket.
I can't count the number of games we've lost where a team losing on the score board resorted to this tactic with success.

 

[Habby4Life]

Remember 17 months ago when the Panthers only made the playoffs because the Pens shat the bed vs the tank commanding Hawks?

Health, internal player progression & deadline buying can go along way to move a team from borderline playoff team to cup winner in a very short time.

Tkachuk, Barkov, Verghagen, Montour & Forsling wouldn't have been considered a cup winning core a few seasons ago. Things change fast.

Habs absolutely have the U25 pieces of a future cup contender already in place... And a boatload of cap room & prospect / draft capital to work with over next 2-4 seasons.

Future is bright

I like part of the rebuild but I am not as optimistic as many on here because it really has just begun. We are not even a borderline playoff team, far from it.

I find many of the prospects are so overhyped, I see one blue chip (Demi), an interesting one (Lane), and Reinbacher who is a massive question mark. The rest are ho hum. Don’t see the future pieces like you do.

It is easy to draft 1,5,5, now all the heavy lifting has to occur. Hugo needs to fill out and shape the rest of the lineup. The players you described are vastly different than the core we have as they play a very hard game, not to mention you did not mention they have 50+ goal scorer nor that they have/had a solid 4 D core and a stud G.

This rebuild could just as well end up with us being buffalo.

Looking at this lineup they are bottom 5 this year and unless a lot of changes are made in the offseason they will be out of the playoffs the following as well.

It’s time to start playing meaningful games post November. It’s time to see the PP and PK improve, and it’s about time to see this team play with some sort of D structure. The “culture” thing is getting to be thin.

 

[Tyson]

I was really not familiar with any of that stuff...but can't we put Laine and Price on LTIR?

I guess they can but I am not sure what the rules are regarding LTIR, especially for 2 players.

 

[Habby4Life]

Am I the only one that isn’t sure that Hutson is the answer? I feel like once he has full time NHLers to play against in meaningful games his wheeling and dealing will be swiftly dealt with. Hope I’m wrong.

f*** the leafs

Yeah, it’s really hard to know. We shall see after he plays 10-15 games. We are going to see how his D zone looks like.

 

[Hannibal]

When Hughes did his season ending presser the two things stood out for me was "We want to get Bigger"and "the players showed us a lot."
It led me to believe they saw the increased abuse and harassment Suzuki started taking when he put the team on his back coming off the All Star break.
It led me to believe we were going to address it.
Sure getting Laine is getting bigger but it was never going to prevent some teams from doubling up on that strategy.
We saw it against Berube's team they were taking shots slashing and whacking Suzuki and Slaf all night.
While we may not see it to the same extent when the real games start it's something teams will have in their back pocket.
I can't count the number of games we've lost where a team losing on the score board resorted to this tactic with success.

And Hughes went out and did absolutely nothing to upgrade the mindset, toughness of that forward groups. Big fail.