Post-Game Talk: Habs get a win in California. Defeat lowly Sharks.

[Hannibal]

Struble was not very good once again.

Strouble.

 

[tazsub3]

I think we should give Struble few games to see if he can figure out filling in for Guhle next to Carrier. Let him play through his mistakes. And there were many last night. One time in our own zone he passed the puck right to a
Sharks player at the lip of the crease.

Barring a trade:
Hutson - Matheson
Struble - Carrier
Xhekaj - Savard

fully agree.

 

[Team_Spirit]

Just saw the highlights, 4giev is the face of tanking holy shit

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5 points out with 30 games left = in tha mix baby!

 

[Grate n Colorful Oz]

Will Smith and Collin Graf looks good as well.
The three to four year tank with no pressure to win will end up being better than ours guaranteed.
We need a lottery win something fierce.

But winning culture something something

 

[WeThreeKings]

But winning culture something something

Yeah, we are in horrible shape.

PPG center in Suzuki.
40 goal winger in Caufield.
1st overall pick with size that just had 50 pts as a 19 year old in Slafkovsky.
At worst, the runner up for the Calder trophy in Lane Hutson.
A top pairing shut-down defender in Kaiden Guhle.

One of, if not the best, goalie prospect in the league in Jacob Fowler.
The top drafted u20 scorer in the NCAA in Michael Hage.
The best drafted prospect not in the NHL in Ivan Demidov.

And a consensus top 3 prospect pool in the entire league with 2 x 1st and 2 x 2nd in this upcoming draft.

 

[Sasha Orlov]

Yeah, we are in horrible shape.

PPG center in Suzuki.
40 goal winger in Caufield.
1st overall pick with size that just had 50 pts as a 19 year old in Slafkovsky.
At worst, the runner up for the Calder trophy in Lane Hutson.
A top pairing shut-down defender in Kaiden Guhle.

One of, if not the best, goalie prospect in the league in Jacob Fowler.
The top drafted u20 scorer in the NCAA in Michael Hage.
The best drafted prospect not in the NHL in Ivan Demidov.

And a consensus top 3 prospect pool in the entire league with 2 x 1st and 2 x 2nd in this upcoming draft.

Caufield has never scored even 30 goals

 

[Grate n Colorful Oz]

Yeah, we are in horrible shape.

PPG center in Suzuki.
40 goal winger in Caufield.
1st overall pick with size that just had 50 pts as a 19 year old in Slafkovsky.
At worst, the runner up for the Calder trophy in Lane Hutson.
A top pairing shut-down defender in Kaiden Guhle.

One of, if not the best, goalie prospect in the league in Jacob Fowler.
The top drafted u20 scorer in the NCAA in Michael Hage.
The best drafted prospect not in the NHL in Ivan Demidov.

And a consensus top 3 prospect pool in the entire league with 2 x 1st and 2 x 2nd in this upcoming draft.

Doesn't change the fact we would've been better served by picking higher in 2023.

 

[WeThreeKings]

Caufield has never scored even 30 goals

He's on pace for 40, has been on pace for 40+ before if not for an injury ending his season.. we can wait until he does it, but let's not pretend like he's not going to break that barrier and isn't a very good top 6 player on every team in the league.

Doesn't change the fact we would've been better served by picking higher in 2023.

18 points in 47 games.
31 points in 54 games (projected less points than Slaf got in his D+2)
22 pts in 47 games.

Reinbacher hasn't played this season to compare against them, but certainly would compare in the conversation with Carlsson and Smith right now.

 

[ReHabs]

Doesn't change the fact we would've been better served by picking higher in 2023.

The tanking phase of a rebuild is like making love, it should be intense and last as short as possible. We would’ve been better off bottoming out and never looking back but bad circumstances, bad luck, and bad drafting have us holding just Demidov as a potential gamebreaker after three top5 drafts. Not awful, better than nothing… but I would’ve liked Carlsson or Fantilli lemme tell ya

 

[Catanddogguitarrr]

Askarov beats us. I saw him play 3v3 last night and he's 10x better than Giorgiev.
Sharks are still tanking hard but damn they have some fine young players.
Their D is really bad though.

Celebrini is great. What did you think of Will Smith?

 

[Habs Halifax]

.500. And a top 10 maybe top 8 pick.

Yup, I'm expecting 10-15 or 8-12 range. Basically the same as I projected at the beginning of the season.

I can see the Habs making another push and maybe another setback as well. This rollercoaster ride is far from over.

 

[Rapala]

But winning culture something something

Yeah I never believed culture really comes into play until you have a reasonably filled out roster.
If you have the right management group avoiding becoming the Buffalo Sabres shouldn't be all that hard to do. Besides we already knew we had winning pedigree on board having seen it in Covid year two.

 

[BLONG7]

Yup, I'm expecting 10-15 or 8-12 range. Basically the same as I projected at the beginning of the season.

I can see the Habs making another push and maybe another setback as well. This rollercoaster ride is far from over.

Roller coaster all right........geez. Awful for the first 6 weeks, then not bad for a few weeks, then after Xmas we were world beaters.........and then a 5 game losing streak................WTF.
Beat the Sharks, and here we are.
To say tonight is another must win, is a huge understatement....

This team has in the mix on their minds, so my hope we see a comeback in the standings to stay there into March.

 

[BLONG7]

Yeah I never believed culture really comes into play until you have a reasonably filled out roster.
If you have the right management group avoiding becoming the Buffalo Sabres shouldn't be all that hard to do. Besides we already knew we had winning pedigree on board having seen it in Covid year two.

The Covid season proved that Price........was our culture. The big 4 D out front were also great.
As soon as we could no longer ride Price, 32nd place was waiting...

Winning cures all. Better times ahead.

 

[schwang26]

I did like the speed and pace early in the game. Hopefully these lines work.
Laine looked better but still incredibly slow. Monty didn’t look great. I don’t think he’s stopped a breakaway in forever. The specialty teams didn’t look great either. The D still looks shaky. Beck did look good but he’d be more beneficial in Laval than in Montreal.
I’m not hopeful going into the next 2. Dobes will need to stand in his head big time against LA.

 

[Beendair Donedat]

As some readers know I have followed Beck’s development over the past few years and posted about same after most of Laval’s games this year. My general assessment of Beck’s potential was that his defensive prowess was overstated and his offensive potential completely understated. I argued that the constant, and ill informed, depiction of Beck as a bottom six defensive oriented forward was off the mark. I stated that this young player’s explosive skating, playmaking ability, shooting ability, compete level and physicality made him as certain an NHLer as any prospect we had.

Last night and in the AHL All Star game you saw all the attributes that I have been writing about since we drafted this very unappreciated young player. Against the Sharks, a team that has its own plethora of young, elite talent, Beck was noticeable almost every shift. He skated well, he made clever plays, he attacked the net, he created scoring chances for himself and his linemates and he was physical. Probably the best shift that any Canadiens’ player had in the game was in the third period when Beck on the forecheck was a veritable wrecking ball, knocking down two Sharks defencemen, stealing the puck and setting up a line mate for an excellent scoring chance.

The only thing missing was a display of Beck’s top end, explosive speed when carrying the puck. But there were reasons for that as Beck was a last minute addition to the team’s line and just got off the plane to join the team. I suspect nerves played a role too. He also has to get more selfish as there were times he passed up shooting opportunities to tried to make a pass to a linemate. The coaches have tell him when you have a shot like he does: use it every chance you get. Once he gets a shoot first reputation in the league, it will open up passing opportunities.

Once he gains a bit off confidence ( last night’s game should really help) and he realizes that he can skate with effectiveness at the NHL level, we should start seeing Beck display his explosive skating ability.

Bottom line, if he can maintain this level of play, I can’t see the Canadiens returning Beck to Laval, even when Heineman returns.

I believe this kid is here to stay.

If he isn’t, he should be.

I wouldn’t be surprised though that when* (*I don’t think it’s an if but that’s just me) the Habs are out of the playoff picture, he gets sent down to the AHL for a playoff run and shot at the Calder Cup.

He should be a fixture on the team next year though, once Hughes is able to clear some of the deadwood out at the deadline and open up some spots.

Solid analysis and post.

 

[windycity]

You can only have disappointment if you have unwarranted expectations for this re-building ( and now partially depleted) team. They are what they are. I only want to see positive growth/development among our younger players. At this stage can you really be upset at seeing Savard being beaten wide? Dvorak being ineffectual offensively? Gallagher 's declining production? Etc., Etc. The team is, as I said, what they are. If Slafkovsky's, Hutson's, Heineman's or Beck's development stalls or Demidov doesn't turn out to be the Messiah everyone is so gleefully predicting... then you should be disappointed.

Hey, don't bring rationality here!

 

[Rapala]

The Covid season proved that Price........was our culture. The big 4 D out front were also great.
As soon as we could no longer ride Price, 32nd place was waiting...

Winning cures all. Better times ahead.

Yeah and Caufield Suzuki Evans and Armia were all chopped liver during that run.

 

[Rapala]

If he isn’t, he should be.

I wouldn’t be surprised though that when* (*I don’t think it’s an if but that’s just me) the Habs are out of the playoff picture, he gets sent down to the AHL for a playoff run and shot at the Calder Cup.

He should be a fixture on the team next year though, once Hughes is able to clear some of the deadwood out at the deadline and open up some spots.

Solid analysis and post.

Beck will be eligible to play in the post season like Dobes no matter what we do with him. No more screwing around it's time to move on with the next phase of development with Beck. I like the idea of playing him with Dvorak and giving him the right dot.

 

[zzoo]

In yesterday game, Slaf's passing was horrible. A lot of blind passes and passes not on the tape. It looks like he shot the puck towards (not to) the player, and not really passing.

 

[Catanddogguitarrr]

Demidov will help next year. I think Beck will be a good add. Defense needs improvement the most actually.

Reinbacher is coming, we'll see. D can be fixed with few ufa signings or some trades, see Carrier for example. It's not as bad as you think. I still think Mailloux can help some day or worst case he can bring signifiant in return.

 

[Tyson]

Habs ain't playing SJ or Anaheim tonight. Yikes

 

[MarkovsKnee]

Habs ain't playing SJ or Anaheim tonight. Yikes

LA is 3-6-1 in last 10. They're not playing well. It's a winnable game.