Post-Game Talk: Habs lose to Toronto

[Miller Time]

Maybe the mistake was handing out some big contracts a bit too early because what we have as a first line isn't going to lead us to cup contention. If the goal is to win a cup, we need three first line players and a talented first pairing defenseman. The future might be bright(it always is lol) but the present looks like a glorified AHL team.

Maybe that's because our "first line" is still 25U, and contenders top lines are consistently in the 25-30 range...

By the time our top line avg age is 25, they will still be on the same cap hits, they will likely be quite better/all in their prime.


For context:

Barkov - Reinhart - Tkachuk
Avg age: 28
Avg cap hit: 9.4M
Total cap cost: 28M

McDavid - Draisatl - Hyman
Avg age: 29.3
Avg cap: 9M (up to 10.6 next year, then more)
Total cap: 26.5M (up to 32M next year & more year after with McD extension)

Our opponents last night...
Matthews - Marner - Nylander
Avg age: 27
Avg cap: 12M (up next year)
Total cap: 35.5M (up next year if Marner re-signs)

Habs trio that you are concerned about...
CC - Slaf - Suzuki
Avg age: 22.6
Avg cap hit: 5.5M (up to 7.6M next year until 2030)
Total cap hit: 16.5M (23M next year & stays there until 2030)

By 2029, their avg age will be 27 (same as Laffs now), their avg cap hit will be 4M LESS than the Laffs trio right now.

Perhaps a bit of patience and perspective is required to glimpse at a more realistic future state?

Future is bright

 

[larek]

How did Pezzetta go from a somewhat competent 4th liner to a player totally written off like this?

St Louis seems to like a smaller softer non physical team

 

[EXPOS123]

Better drafting. Hire more and better scouts. Keep amassing picks and use them to upgrade to higher picks. Target undervalued assets on counterpart teams. Some luck.

This...

I’m totally fine with tanking again as I truly believe the only way to build a contender in this market is to draft and develop talent. Of course making smart trades as well. Forgot elite free agents - they will never sign here.

But if we are going this route, we absolutely have to hit on our picks...no more KK type mistakes

This is where Buffalo went wrong

 

[Grate n Colorful Oz]

This...

I’m totally fine with tanking again as I truly believe the only way to build a contender in this market is to draft and develop talent. Of course making smart trades as well. Forgot elite free agents - they will never sign here.

But if we are going this route, we absolutely have to hit on our picks...no more KK type mistakes

This is where Buffalo went wrong

Buffalo also failed by banking on acquired vets that did not exactly had the desired effect.

 

[MarkovsKnee]

Maybe the mistake was handing out some big contracts a bit too early because what we have as a first line isn't going to lead us to cup contention. If the goal is to win a cup, we need three first line players and a talented first pairing defenseman. The future might be bright(it always is lol) but the present looks like a glorified AHL team.

They're all making less than $8m. 1st line money is easily $9m - $11m now. With older 1st line contracts still being $8m+.

Contracts are actually fine.

 

[larek]

They're all making less than $8m. 1st line money is easily $9m - $11m now. With older 1st line contracts still being $8m+.

Contracts are actually fine.

The team is last in the league
They need to give some salary back lol

 

[durojean]

agreed. Development is also not linear. They need to keep adding young talent in the next two drafts - including another high end C to insulate them from Dach failing @ centre.
We all hate patience, but it's necessary. Very young team with several vets who are on their way out. St Louis isn't getting fired- certainly not in-season.
He does need a vet-tactician to help him out though

I also do think that even if he’s playing badly now Dach is our best option at second c.

Just add energy on the 1st and 2n line but we need to either have
Caufield Dach or Dach Slaf together and ride it threw putting the other talented winger with Suzuki. Evan on the 2nd line does not make sense and Newhook is better at center than at wing.

 

[durojean]

i know people are on NS but he can’t carry 15 slugs night after night every year. Team is absolute trash around him.

This mess is a 100% Hugo.

Patience I say… what is our core right now ?

Caufield Suzuki
Dach Slafkovksy

Hutson Guhle

The rest is debatable. We are not even close to a finished product. What is most important is for those players to get back to shape and reclaim their confidence.

 

[Habby4Life]

Patience I say… what is our core right now ?

Caufield Suzuki
Dach Slafkovksy

Hutson Guhle

The rest is debatable. We are not even close to a finished product. What is most important is for those players to get back to shape and reclaim their confidence.

Pretty shitty core.

Am patient, what I don’t like is a team that doesn’t compete. Hard to have confidence when you’re getting blown out every night.

 

[SOLR]

I was genuinely impressed by his parabolic production growth in the second half of last season. Since you've followed him closely, what do you make of his trajectory so far?

As I expected.

When paired with a productive center, the sky is the limit. Look at the correlation rate between Suzuki's play and Slaf's production. Right now Suzuki is struggling, Slaf is struggling. And we don't have a 2nd option. Dach playing safe can't do it, and I expect that to be true for the first 60 games of this season with an injury like that. Suzuki will rebound soon, he's never cold for more than a month. As soon as he does, Slaf will as well. I suspect Laine re-enterering the lineup in December will change quite a few things and hopefully nobody is injured before that.

The thing is, one cannot stop him from doing what he wants. He just doesn't have the mind to bind the play to his will, so he has to rely on someone else to do that for him.

That's why I'm a fan of drafting Hagens, even if Martone is also on the board. I love Martone, but we need Hagens so badly. He would be our first center. Then Suzuki, who I've seen has a second center since the start, would be in his proper spot.

Down the line:
Demidov - Hagens - Slaf
Caufield - Suzuki - Dach

 

[Rapala]

Meh.

Third period performances never impress me much when teams have clearly shut it down.
I think we've been fooled somewhat by the sheer number of them we saw last season.
Perhaps we were not as competitive as we thought we were it's kind of like doing well in meaningless games towards the end of a season.

 

[larek]

Ghule gets injured and then comes back a worse player

Seen this before

 

[OldCraig71]

Maybe that's because our "first line" is still 25U, and contenders top lines are consistently in the 25-30 range...

By the time our top line avg age is 25, they will still be on the same cap hits, they will likely be quite better/all in their prime.


For context:

Barkov - Reinhart - Tkachuk
Avg age: 28
Avg cap hit: 9.4M
Total cap cost: 28M

McDavid - Draisatl - Hyman
Avg age: 29.3
Avg cap: 9M (up to 10.6 next year, then more)
Total cap: 26.5M (up to 32M next year & more year after with McD extension)

Our opponents last night...
Matthews - Marner - Nylander
Avg age: 27
Avg cap: 12M (up next year)
Total cap: 35.5M (up next year if Marner re-signs)

Habs trio that you are concerned about...
CC - Slaf - Suzuki
Avg age: 22.6
Avg cap hit: 5.5M (up to 7.6M next year until 2030)
Total cap hit: 16.5M (23M next year & stays there until 2030)

By 2029, their avg age will be 27 (same as Laffs now), their avg cap hit will be 4M LESS than the Laffs trio right now.

Perhaps a bit of patience and perspective is required to glimpse at a more realistic future state?

Future is bright

Thanks for the reply and the information, 3-5 more years of this unless we go the Panthers route of improving the team via trades.

 

[V13]

I'm legitimately starting to believe that the Rocket could beat the Habs on some nights. They may not have a guy as good as Suzuki or Caufield on the roster but at least they play as a cohesive unit.

This is dire lol

 

[Grate n Colorful Oz]

I'm legitimately starting to believe that the Rocket could beat the Habs on some nights. They may not have a guy as good as Suzuki or Caufield on the roster but at least they play as a cohesive unit.

This is dire lol

They play cohesively because their opposition is weaker. They would get dismantled by the Habs.

 

[Theodore450]

Patience I say… what is our core right now ?

Caufield Suzuki
Dach Slafkovksy

Hutson Guhle

The rest is debatable. We are not even close to a finished product. What is most important is for those players to get back to shape and reclaim their confidence.

Dach gets to be a core player just because.
Caufield gets to be a core player because we paid him and give him all the opportunities.

Shit core led by a shit coach. Teams needs an alpha asap. Slaf will eventually call out this shit

 

[tazsub3]

Suzuki probably deserves to play next game for the Armada de Blainville.

Tons of problems

Maybe that's because our "first line" is still 25U, and contenders top lines are consistently in the 25-30 range...

By the time our top line avg age is 25, they will still be on the same cap hits, they will likely be quite better/all in their prime.


For context:

Barkov - Reinhart - Tkachuk
Avg age: 28
Avg cap hit: 9.4M
Total cap cost: 28M

McDavid - Draisatl - Hyman
Avg age: 29.3
Avg cap: 9M (up to 10.6 next year, then more)
Total cap: 26.5M (up to 32M next year & more year after with McD extension)

Our opponents last night...
Matthews - Marner - Nylander
Avg age: 27
Avg cap: 12M (up next year)
Total cap: 35.5M (up next year if Marner re-signs)

Habs trio that you are concerned about...
CC - Slaf - Suzuki
Avg age: 22.6
Avg cap hit: 5.5M (up to 7.6M next year until 2030)
Total cap hit: 16.5M (23M next year & stays there until 2030)

By 2029, their avg age will be 27 (same as Laffs now), their avg cap hit will be 4M LESS than the Laffs trio right now.

Perhaps a bit of patience and perspective is required to glimpse at a more realistic future state?

Future is bright

Thank you sir for a great detailed perspective I keep saying , the problem is not the team but some of tbe fans expectations

 

[Runner77]

Never gets old.

https://x.com/i/web/status/1855585003339485507

 

[1909]

Tought day for Montreal’s sports teams yesterday

Habs lost to the Leafs
Alouettes lost to the Argos
Carabins lost to U.Laval

 

[Rapala]

Tought day for Montreal’s sports teams yesterday

Habs lost to the Leafs
Alouettes lost to the Argos
Carabins lost to U.Laval

Ummm
The Rocket losing is probably more post worthy than The Carabins.

 

[durojean]

Dach gets to be a core player just because.
Caufield gets to be a core player because we paid him and give him all the opportunities.

Shit core led by a shit coach. Teams needs an alpha asap. Slaf will eventually call out this shit

Dach gets to be a core player because when he was rolling before his 1 year injury he was the most dominating presence we had on ice. He’s big and he got talent. I won’t make a judgment only after 15 games coming back. Especially after we changed the position he played in every other game. He could fail at becoming a core player but the time to make that decision is not now.

Caufield gets to be core because he’s one of our most lethal goal scorer. He’s got spark and a good influence on the team. He showed stats wise that there is not a lot of players better than him on this team. Plus, he’s still young so he’s got more potential.

As for St-louis… he lacks experience and he’s coaching one of the youngest team in the league with a core that is not the best one.

This year… it’s still ok to lose… all of the plan we saw pointed to 2025-2026 for the season we would really start making damage.

The season Demidov comes in, the season Reinbacher was supposed to establish himself. The season Hutson would not be just a rookie but would actually have 1 year of experience.

Next year line up :

Caufield Suzuki Slafkovsky
Demidov Dach Laine
Roy Newhook Gallagher

Guhle Barron
Hutson Reinbacher
Xhekaj Mailloux

+ add the return we get for Matheson + the return we get for Savard + some other trades.

+ both of this years draft pick.

I’m sorry but the difference just one year will make is insane and that is normal because 2025-2026 is the plan all along.

 

[Stive Morgan]

Do we have a single defensive defenseman on this team lmao. Guhle is great but he's more of a TWD. This roster is chock-full of charlatan puck-moving/offensive D's

The fact we traded Lehkonen for Barron makes me sick, even though it got my boy Lehky a Cup.

Xhekaj is OK (shadow of his former self, though), but if my peewee coach was scapegoating me for the dogshit play of my team's "veterans" I'd be playing poorly as well.

 

[Catanddogguitarrr]

St Louis seems to like a smaller softer non physical team

Is this is the profile of Habs team since they never won the Cup after '93?

 

[Byron Bitz]

I'm just glad I don't pay to watch this team

After Savard refused to drop the gloves with Domi I decided I’m not paying a dime to watch this team the rest of the year.

 

[durojean]

Do we have a single defensive defenseman on this team lmao. Guhle is great but he's more of a TWD. This roster is chock-full of charlatan puck-moving/offensive D's

The fact we traded Lehkonen for Barron makes me sick, even though it got my boy Lehky a Cup.

Xhekaj is OK (shadow of his former self, though), but if my peewee coach was scapegoating me for the dogshit play of my team's "veterans" I'd be playing poorly as well.

Lekhonen for Barron was a fair guess. We did not have the money to sign him. Barron is a right defenseman with great skating and whos was what 20 yo when we acquired him.

He’s still only 23 and people gave up on him already ? Lekhonen is in his prime playing with way better players.

Fact is : Barron should be getting ice time and given the chance to adapt. Let’s revisit the trade in 3 or 4 years.

Patience is a key word here