Post-Game Talk: Habs lose, eliminated from playoffs.

[Habs Halifax]

Well we shall see what happens. It’s a good day for us Haligonians to get out and mend the pain of no more habs hockey

I've been very busy at work which is why I have not been on this site as much lately. Miss some of you guys for sure! Today, I might be going to play some golf. F work! lol

What a rollercoaster ride this season was! Some fans should have learned from the the ups and downs that we had and not to dwell on short term spreads.

Future is bright and by making the playoffs helped both the players and management realize what the next steps should be.

 

[morhilane]

Love how he complimented some players who are often insulted here. Andy, Gally, Dvo, Armia.

Pricey? Yes. Important? Yes. Coach explains why. Can’t see all 4 leaving when the contracts are up.

Gally will retire at the end of his contract, he's going to be 34 and won't be getting younger.

If management wanted to extend Armia, he would already be extended, he wants to stay.
There's been nothing from pundits about Dvorak wanting to stay, unlike with Evans and Armia.

 

[le_sean]

The series just exacerbated what we already knew of the team - completely reliant on the offence of one line, completely reliant on goaltending.

Hughes has to fix this.

Sucks for Suzuki who willed his team into the playoffs, that no one decided to help him get points. But the team just isn’t there yet.

 

[Naslundforever]

Both Xhekaj and Struble will both be solid D men for us. Sometimes, it takes a while for those D to mature and some players mature faster than others.

Wait until they are both age 25+ and you will see the real potential. That applies to so many young players who are secondary parts after the core.

Both lefties, who do you get rid of? Hutson or Guhle?

 

[ahmedou]

 

[Naslundforever]

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Have a good summer! Just put the clubs in the car myself.

 

[Habs Halifax]

Both lefties, who do you get rid of? Hutson or Guhle?

You need depth and there will always be injuries to deal with! Hutson was playing RD in case you didn't notice and was doing very well.

I get it, we have some pairing flaws to sort out and we have Reinbacher, Engstrom, Mailloux coming. However, I am not a fan of moving out guys until the young ones actually earn a spot. We need Reinbacher to mature quickly but you can't force that. He had a injury season so maybe one more AHL season (call ups with injuries) is the best play!

Hutson / Guhle: Best top pairing we can assemble. The dynamic Hutson with Guhle's sound defensive game and ability to play physical.

Matheson / Carrier: The best 2nd pairing we can assemble (at the moment). This is a stop gap pairing for us IMO but we need it. Promoting young guys in a top 4 too early will result in more goals against and exposing our goalie (like we did in the 1st two months of this season).

3rd pairing? Moving parts for now. Take your best guess but if you do, realize that it will vary and change as the season moves. The other layer to consider is do we carry 2D and 1F or 2F and 1D as our extra players to reach the 23 man roster. Depth is important so lets not overlook that part. With so many young players, we will have more injuries.

It's very possible that Matheson's time with the Habs is connected to Reinbacher's development time as well. Yes one is LD and the other is RD but it's deeper than this with the shuffling we can do.

Xhekaj, Struble, Mailloux, Engstrom. Who's going to rise over the other. We need more time.

 

[Whalers Fan]

This playoff appearance was an unexpected bonus to what looked like another bottom 5 finish back in December. It was a great learning experience for the young core that will pay off in the future. The only game that wasn't really close was Game 5. If Thompson hadn't come back for the Caps (like Monty for the Habs), who knows what would have happened?

Overall it was a very successful season for the rebuild:

1. Suzuki and Caufield had career best seasons
2. Hutson burst onto the scene with a probable Calder Trophy season
3. Demidov came over early and did not look out of place.
4. Guhle continued to develop into a rock solid defenseman, despite the freak injury
5. Dobes, while still with some rough edges, got valuable experience and looks like an NHL goalie

I am not going to dive into the minutia of what was still wrong with the team -- enough others here are doing that. From a big picture standpoint, it was a successful season and all us Habs fans should be excited about the future.

 

[CzarDemidov]

No, but we'll need replacements for, if possible :

Newhook (unless he becomes a PK specialist)

Guy who has never played PK to become the PK specialist.

 

[Paddyjack]

Xhekaj, Struble, Mailloux, Engstrom. Who's going to rise over the other. We need more time.

Not disagreeing with your post, agreed for the most part. But I just want to point out that Mailloux is not part of this equation here since he is RD. The field is open in his case.

 

[Habs Halifax]

Not disagreeing with your post, agreed for the most part. But I just want to point out that Mailloux is not part of this equation here since he is RD. The field is open in his case.

It's deeper than a RD vs LD conversation. Several of them can and have played both sides (Matheson, Hutson, Guhle, Struble).

I'm more focused on not having a top 4D that can be exposed due to inexperience (like we had in the 1st two months of this past season).

The potential pairings is more important to consider vs trying to have everyone play their shot side.

 

[Paddyjack]

The series just exacerbated what we already knew of the team - completely reliant on the offence of one line, completely reliant on goaltending.

Hughes has to fix this.

Sucks for Suzuki who willed his team into the playoffs, that no one decided to help him get points. But the team just isn’t there yet.

Agreed. I would not address goaltending or defense this summer, with all the youths we have and coming in. But I would invest into a very good 2C to play with Demidov. That is critical.

 

[The Gr8 Dane]

Amazing season , the roster can only get stronger from here , keep in mind that does not guarantee we will make the playoffs next year.

My only selfish emotional fan take is that I never wanna see Matheson again sorry I know he brings alot of good but I can't anymore. Let me have this emotional take

 

[rik schau]

That was a quick exit,nobody can be surprised though looking at that roster. Good on the lads to give it a go but maybe next year if things work out and they make an effort to improve the squad they might do better. That Hutson boy though,crikey what a cracker of a player and that ruskie kid too looks impressive too,just need to swap out and upgrade a few spots.

 

[Andy]

Teams need this playoff experience to know where they were at.

This season's roster was not constructed with the expectation to go on a deep run. It was always about development, learning how to win, and to see where the young players were at. These 5 games were just a bonus, and I can't hold it against management that the roster wasn't quite ready when the intent wasn't for it to be ready this year.

The reality is that this season's outcome could not have been any better. It was key that they made the playoffs because it showed three things:

1. The club isn't that far off. Sure, they lost in 5, but they gave Washington a hefty challenge, and 2 of the 4 losses were incredibly close. The team battled hard and kept up!
2. The holes are clear. They absolutely need a 2nd line centre and they need workhorse, experienced RHD defender that can play on the top two pairings.
3. The bottom 6 needs just a couple of tweaks, which is usually the easiest part to fix. That said, I though Anderson, Gallagher, Evans, Dvorak, Armia, and Heineman had an incredible year.

Short of drafting one or two generational talents, a core of Suzuki, Caufield, Hutson, Demidov, Slafkovsky, Guhle is about as good as you're gonna get. The team has the core to be a perpetual contender. The next steps are so key, but HuGo has shown that they understand the stakes and they've been transparent that their aim is to fill the holes.

This is the first time I'm not disappointed by a playoff loss. In fact, I've never been more hopeful of this club even though they won ONE game!

 

[Whitesnake]

Wow sounds like Bergevin did a great job

Timmins picked the guys
Bergevin wanted Brannstrom or Glass BEFORE he wanted Suzuki

 

[Sasha Orlov]

Tons of respect for the coach.... listen to this...

Everyone knows Montreal is building something special, I don’t recall our team being talked about like this around the league in my lifetime

 

[ahmedou]

 

[Prettyisland]

the grocery list is clear for the GM. I’m confident this team will be better built next year

 

[shamrun]

View attachment 1027155

Depends. Ball is in kent's court now. He will need to magically find an actual second line center. We need a crash and bang fourth line that can help in playoffs with physicality. We cant use the excuse of reffing anymore. This is what the league wants. We need to adapt.

Also, i know he is forgotten but a miraculous comeback from kirby could also benefit the habs. I would add as well some sort of andersson clone on top of that.

 

[Grate n Colorful Oz]

So far Hughes and Gorton have done a good job with the “liquidation/asset acquisition” phase and this team is ahead of schedule on the rebuild. That bodes well for the next phase.

A couple of big differences between the current management and Bergevin’s reign:
1. Bergevin was terrible at long-term planning. Hughes and Gorton have done a good job so far both on formulating a long-time plan and executing on it.
2. Bergevin was really good on trades, but never had a surplus of anything to fill in the most glaring holes without creating other holes. Unfortunately he burdened this team with some terrible contracts, but Bergevin and then the current regime have built quite a store of both good young prospects and draft picks. Those surpluses will give Hughes things he can trade away to fill in missing pieces without undermining the current team or the next step of the rebuild. Bergevin never had nor was able to create that luxury.

Hughes doesn’t have to and can’t be expected to address all the needed upgrades in one off-season since contending for the cup is still a few years away. So I think growth from within will continue to be the main way that this team continues to improve with perhaps just 1 or 2 acquisitions via trade (or signings) this summer.

Bergevin had assets to trade. He just held on to prospects who were subpar (after the benefit of hindsight), which showed he was bad at evaluating his stock. He could've easily traded 1st-2nd round picks or 1st round-2nd round prospects while they still held relative value. FFS, he passed on ROR because he didn't want to trade Ryan f***ing Poehling. That non-move was emblematic of his reign.

Hughes is miles ahead. Lest we mention Hughes best acquisition was a franchise dman drafted at the very end of the second round. This whole schtik of "bergevin wasn't allowed to rebuild" is just an excuse.

 

[Conflicted Habs fan]

Once again I am NOT amused!

 

[StCaufield]

I've been very busy at work which is why I have not been on this site as much lately. Miss some of you guys for sure! Today, I might be going to play some golf. F work! lol

What a rollercoaster ride this season was! Some fans should have learned from the the ups and downs that we had and not to dwell on short term spreads.

Future is bright and by making the playoffs helped both the players and management realize what the next steps should be.

Penn Hills is my suggestion. Decent prices and good people

 

[Victoire HuGo]

Bergevin had assets to trade. He just held on to prospects who were subpar (after the benefit of hindsight), which showed he was bad at evaluating his stock. He could've easily traded 1st-2nd round picks or 1st round-2nd round prospects while they still held relative value. FFS, he passed on ROR because he didn't want to trade Ryan f***ing Poehling. That non-move was emblematic of his reign.

Hughes is miles ahead. Lest we mention Hughes best acquisition was a franchise dman drafted at the very end of the second round. This whole schtik of "bergevin wasn't allowed to rebuild" is just an excuse.

What's even more mind boggling is that he barely invested in skills development and hired staff that put onus 100% on players to seek out resources and develop their game by themselves. Dude was stuck in the game and approach he grew up with. Zero innovation

 

[Habs Halifax]

Penn Hills is my suggestion. Decent prices and good people

I'm a member at Lost Creek (free membership from work). A little annoying right now because they are upgrading their sprinkler system to be computerized so there are some holes not open. I think starting today, 17/18 holes are open until they finish the sprinkler system upgrade.