Dude, its the little brother syndrome and insecurities out in full force on here - they think you/me etc are happy about this because we think MTL is building a better team and they are supposed to be our rivals and have bigger fanbases/markets.
All summer long people had the blinders on and thought Hutson/Caufield etc were hot garbage but they learned today.
It's like some people are not even trying to fight off their biases, maybe they're just completely unaware of it. I guess it depends on the age/life experience.
You'd have to be hockey illiterate or completely biased to not see the threat that Montreal will be adding in our division. IMO, they are much bigger threat than the Wings for example and possibly the Sabres. They are/will be manufacturing NHL players like crazy in the next few years. Even after Suzuki and Caufield plus turning Montembeault's career around, look at their recent graduates : Hutson, Slafkovsky, Guhle, Struble, Heineman, Kapanen, Xhekaj, Barron, Harvey-Pinard
But that's not all, many of the following will graduate in the next few years and some will be impact/good players : Demidov, Mailloux, Roy, Beck, Mesar, Reinbacher, Engström, Fowler, etc
Seriously, I am more counting/hoping on the Lightning/Leafs/Bruins declines than them not becoming too good for us to have a chance to come out of the division in the mid-term future.
And unfortunately about Hutson and Caufield, and now it's looking pretty clear, they are their smallest players but probably their most talented.
-Kleven is big and pushes others around in front of the net and in the corners
-kleven has a pretty heavy shot
-kleven needs a partner that can do the hard thinking and qbing so that he can focus on his own game.
and people think hamonic and jbd are better for Kleven than Brannstrom?
honestly kleven-brannstrom had the potential to not just be a good pairing but a GREAT 3rd pair.
now our 3rd pair is a huge liability.
Seriously, we had 2 way to maybe work out the defense :
Sanderson - Yakemchuk
Chabot - Zub
Kleven - Jensen
JBD
or
Sanderson - Zub
Chabot - Jensen
Kleven - Brannstrom
JBD
If we keep playing Hamonic with Kleven, we might hamper his development, like we did with Brannstrom at first playing him with Gubranson, Josh Brown, Holden, and even JBD/Hamonic last year.
I also think Kleven-Brannstrom would have completed each other well (much more than Kleven with Hamonic/JBD anyway) but that boat sailed due to his QO. There was must likely a little contrat dispute. Staios didn't want to pay Brannstrom that kind of money, his agent did his job and probably fought for it so Sens decided to let him go. Avs then thought "oh nice a decent 3rd pairing puck moving D for cheap" but he didn't adjust well to their system so they went out and acquired more guys so that's the situation for Brann.
I understand the argument "
yeah but Brannstrom in the playoffs would be a problem"... I always thought : "
can we f***ing get to the playoffs first then we'll see?"
