GDT: Game 2: Montreal Canadiens vs Washington Capitals 4/23/25- 7:00pm EST CBC, SN, TVAS

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There are cards MSL is not using like replacing Struble for X. Removing Savard is not a card in his deck. I’m sure it’s never even been a fleeting thought in MSL’s mind.
I get that, it's just a bit of a shame. Struble-Xhekaj incidentally performed better at 5 on 5 than any pairing that involved Savard in terms of xGF% during the season. Surprisingly, Hutson-Xhekaj was also rather solid.

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Statistically speaking, our best bet (again, JUST statistically speaking over the course of the season) would be Hutson-Xhekaj
Matheson-Struble
Guhle-Carrier
 
you have to have 4 really good lines and 3 top solid d men, not all scoring d men but solid in their zone
habs are working towards that goal
What happened to your favorite, « Arbot »?

Do you have a disabling feature (like the one on war equipment sold to foreign countries) so we cease discussing him? :sarcasm:
 
I mean what good did Savard do on Ovechkin's side last game exactly? Matheson got dogwalked by Nashville as well, should we take him out of the lineup? (Yes, but that's a different point).

Montreal's PK this year performing so well, in my opinion, is more a reflection of the forwards and goaltending than it is the defense. If just Dobeš had let in as many goals as expected on the PK, we'd be middle of the pack, let alone if Montembeault or Primeau had.
I think Savard went to block Ovi's shot and it deflected off his shin and went in.

Matheson isn't perfect and will hopefully be gone after this year, but he's -6 vs tough competition while Xhekaj is a -13 vs bottom feeders. Don't think he should be coming out.

The problem with analytics is people try to use it the same way baseball uses them. It doesn't work. Baseball is very static and is a bunch of individual events with little teamwork. In hockey there is a much harder time contextualizing these numbers in meaningful ways with the amount of variables involved. Trying to reduce all of that into these broad strokes is almost impossible.

They can give you some insight, and can be used as a tool, but trying to build your entire argument off of them doesn't and will never work.
 
A GM has more to pick from than 2 guys.........I really though Hughes would have made it happen by getting a guy to help the team. I also understand where Suzuki was coming from in that he didn't want anyone to leave simply for picks.......................so at that point if I am GM I get them some help. My thought process was he would get them help........he didn't and here we are.

Can Newhook become a 2nd line C at this point? Unlikely.....
That said, as mentioned before we are simply playing with house money...........

At the trade deadline their isn’t a lot of options for a long term 2C (especially when only a 1/3 to 1/2 of the teams are sellers) unless a team is just looking for a player with an expiring contract, and the Habs were not in a position to give up high draft picks for players who were on expiring contracts this season.

Hughes will have more options this offseason, especially around the draft. Let’s see what happens then.
 
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Easiest switch would be hein for Demi.

Demi, Armia and Evans can be a pretty good exploitation line.
Then hope Hein can work opportunities for laine and hope newhook has a Paul Byron type of revelation when it comes to finishing.

Small tweak that I think we should do

I dunno... Evans/Armia/Heineman handle difficult matchups very well. Demidov clearly needs time and reps to not be a liability defensively in our zone and in def transition.

I think patience as Demidov gets more familiar with our game system, the smaller ice and his linemates is the best path forward for immediate impact/results.
 
I would've liked seeing Xhekaj in the lineup today, still hoping for a last minute lineup change to catch the Caps off guard. Ask any hockey talking heads, journo, or random fan on the streets and they'll all tell you Xhekaj should play, but MSL knows his team best, so we got to live with those decisions.

On the other hand, I understand MSL not wanting to show Carbery that the physicality has rattled him and reacting by putting Xhekaj in. MSL still believes in his game plan and is showing (still have to wait to see what happens after the puck drops) that the intimidation attempts didn't work.

I think the Habs steal this one, go back with momentum to a crazy Bell center and who knows what will happen when they start feeding of the energy in the building. I could also see MSL putting Xhekaj in game 3 on his own terms and with the ability to better control the matchups.

GHG!!!!
 
I keep having to remind myself that MTL is playing of Game 2 of their NHL playoff series tonight :laugh:

After the last 3 years.. just.. wasn't expecting this so soon I guess lol

Would be loads of fun to split this and get back to MTL 1-1 obviously
Good luck boys!

Yes, it is weird.. it felt weird as well when the habs came back to the nhl playoffs in 2002 after a 3 year hiatus.

This is the first time since then that they missed the playoffs for 3 years in a row, and it remains the longest drought in franchise history.

I'm glad they didn't extend that to 4 this year.
 
I'm surprised the lines and defense pairings remain the same. Not because of Xhekaj, but because that 2nd line is virtually unplayable. 10-1 against at 5-5 scoring chances last game. Newhook 2-8 in the faceoff dot. Can't expect Demidov to have success when his line never has the puck and can't get it back.
 
There's not a single person I've seen defending his every move. There's a large number of people absolutely caking their pants that a 7th defenseman isn't playing tonight and acting like the insertion of him would be some golden trump card that would flip the series on its head and guarantee the Habs winning but Marty just refuses to play it because he hates toughness and Xhekaj personally. It's completely ridiculous.

His handling of Xhekaj down the stretch was warranted. He was a walking turnover and gave up multiple goals trying to headhunt. That's not a reliable player to be playing. There was only one situation on a back to back that he could have got him into and probably should have.. That's pretty much it.

Criticism isn't warranted on which 7th D he puts in the line-up. It's far more warranted on going back to the same forward lines as last game where only the top line got any traction or did anything. Not about dressing Arber Xhekaj vs Jayden Struble.



I'm getting annoyed that every second post is crying about Arber Xhekaj not playing in a game when he hasn't been a reliable NHL defenseman for quite some time.
Well in that case, there is no cult for Xhekaj either. I can think of quite a few posters off the top of my head that will fight tooth & nail to justify whatever Marty is up to. So much so that now posters are arguing that Arber's physicality, toughness, intimidation does absolutely nothing to impact results of a hockey game, which I find absolutely absurd. That just screams bad faith to me. There is no reason to stoop that low and pretend that wouldn't make a positive difference on the ice.

You say we're allowed to criticize if we don't change up the forward lines, but not the defence? Why? I dont understand that logic. That's 10-15 minutes of ice time for whoever is playing between Xhekaj and Struble - we're not talking 7th D here who might be lucky to play 5 minutes. This small adjustment on either forward OR defence could be the difference between going home or moving on in what looks to be a very tight series.
 
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I'm surprised the lines and defense pairings remain the same. Not because of Xhekaj, but because that 2nd line is virtually unplayable. 10-1 against at 5-5 scoring chances last game. Newhook 2-8 in the faceoff dot. Can't expect Demidov to have success when his line never has the puck and can't get it back.
The problem is the bottom 2 lines have very defined defensive responsibilities and they take every draw that's in our end. You don't really want to expose anyone on the 2nd line to that. They are handcuffed and just have to hope the 2nd line starts to tread water.
 
I'm surprised the lines and defense pairings remain the same. Not because of Xhekaj, but because that 2nd line is virtually unplayable. 10-1 against at 5-5 scoring chances last game. Newhook 2-8 in the faceoff dot. Can't expect Demidov to have success when his line never has the puck and can't get it back.
Maybe Demidov was, at least partially, responsible for these numbers...
 
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