HF Habs: Out of Town Thread: 2025 Playoff edition

[red devil]

 

[MarkovsKnee]

Is Florida this good or Carolina just that bad( by bad i mean not built for the playoffs)

Carolina is a small team. Aho, Jarvis, Stankoven are 3 small players. Only reason they got this far is their D and the fact they play in the shitty Metro Division.

They're out in 1st round if they had to play any one of Toronto, Florida or TB.

It should be noted TB lost in 5 to Florida. Carolina will likely be swept. Toronto did OK taking that team to 7 games.

 

[CHfan1]

Yeah
No taxes
Great weather
Media focused on football

It's no surprise really.. lucky f***s

It helps Tampa Bay drafted 4-5 future hall of famers (Kucherov, Stamkos, Hedman, Vasilevskiy, and maybe Point). It’s a lot easier for teams to keep their players if they’ve drafted them.

And look at the moves Florida made (picking up a bunch of players teams were ready to move on from).

Reinhart was traded to Florida for Levi and what turned out to be a late 1st.

Bennett was traded to Florida for Heineman and a 2nd.

Verhaeghe wasn’t qualified by Tampa Bay and Florida initially brought him into the organization by giving him a 2 year $1 million AAV contract. Tampa had also put him on waivers at one point.

Florida claimed Forsling from waivers in 2021.

Montour was traded to Florida for a 3rd round pick (the last couple of years he played a significant role in reaching the finals).

Then they picked up Mikkola for $2.5 million per year and he’s done well in Florida.

Also, apart from Bobrovsky, they haven’t really made a big UFA signing.

 

[Ozmodiar]

I think the biggest issues were the two blowout games (#5 and especially #7). If these two games were 2-1 losses instead, well I think the narrative would have been different.

Yes, and the number of years of failure.

 

[MarkovsKnee]

Leafs might be the only team to take Florida to 7 games … and they’re gonna blow it all up. lol

I doubt they blow it up. Marner is gone. I think they would like to move on from Rielly but he has an NMC. They'll build around Matthews, Nylander & Knies now.

The D is all signed for next year so they're all likely coming back. Ditto the 2 goalies.

We'll see if they sign Tavares. He'll need to take a significant pay cut. But, they need to rebuild their forward core. It's not deep enough.

 

[Ozmodiar]

I doubt they blow it up. Marner is gone. I think they would like to move on from Rielly but he has an NMC. They'll build around Matthews, Nylander & Knies now.

The D is all signed for next year so they're all likely coming back. Ditto the 2 goalies.

We'll see if they sign Tavares. He'll need to take a significant pay cut. But, they need to rebuild their forward core. It's not deep enough.

Maybe not “blow up”, but the end of the Shanaplan and the core-4. significant changes.

 

[Tyson]

I doubt they blow it up. Marner is gone. I think they would like to move on from Rielly but he has an NMC. They'll build around Matthews, Nylander & Knies now.

The D is all signed for next year so they're all likely coming back. Ditto the 2 goalies.

We'll see if they sign Tavares. He'll need to take a significant pay cut. But, they need to rebuild their forward core. It's not deep enough.

Tavares really showed his age in the playoffs. I probably would not bring him back.

 

[Erika]

Stankoven is invisible

Undersized, unidimensional complementary winger... like basically a poor's man Caufield.
What did you expect him to do vs the Panthers ?!

 

[The Real Timo]

Canes still with less than 10 shots. Man. Cats are so good.

 

[salbutera]

Undersized, unidimensional complementary winger... like basically a poor's man Caufield.
What did you expect him to do vs the Panthers ?!

He was one of the Stars standouts in last years playoffs

 

[salbutera]

Canes still with less than 10 shots. Man. Cats are so good.

Mind games have crept in Canes smaller players - many have started to play scared

Besides Canes simply can’t match Panthers depth - if Aho, Svechnikov or Jarvis don’t generate offense & score Car is cooked …and that’s what’s happened.

Barkov might not be lighting up the score sheet, but he’s shut Aho down & if Bennett happens to be on the ice he doesn’t miss a chance to hammer him

 

[Miller Time]

I doubt they blow it up. Marner is gone. I think they would like to move on from Rielly but he has an NMC. They'll build around Matthews, Nylander & Knies now.

The D is all signed for next year so they're all likely coming back. Ditto the 2 goalies.

We'll see if they sign Tavares. He'll need to take a significant pay cut. But, they need to rebuild their forward core. It's not deep enough.

That's a tall order...

Knies & Robertson are their only U25 forwards, and the prospect pool is pretty barren after Cowan.... Only 2 x 2nd round picks of the top 64 in the next 3 drafts.

Hard to imagine they'll be a lineup of mid career vets eager to take a paycut to jump into that mess. If they were smart, they'd be quietly shopping Matthews and see if they can't get a quality prospect heavy team like Anaheim, SJ or Chi to give them a Lindros-like asset pay day.

 

[Adriatic]

Man Florida's a wagon. Tough team to play against.

 

[HuGo Burner Acc]

Canes still with less than 10 shots. Man. Cats are so good.

I cant believe I have to say this every year... Scratch that Im actually not surprise. Canes are chokers just like the leafs, but instead of the first and maybe second round, it's in the second and maybe the third round. They are this generation's iteration of the old Sharks team

 

[Dick Duff]

As Conn Smythe once stated years ago: "If you can't beat 'em in the alley, you can't beat 'em on the ice." Although barbaric, it still holds. Especially in this series.

 

[LaP]

People who thinks we are close to a cup should let that sink in. Caps beat us rather easily, Caroline beat the caps very easily, Florida is steamrolling Carolina, and i'm far from certain Florida will be able to beat Dalles or Edmonton.

Don't trade future for immediate fix. Trade future for players who can help us for at least 6 years and Horvat is not in this category he is in the immediate fix category so if we pay for him it must be cheap.

 

[red devil]

Looks like a concussion for Jarvis

 

[Erika]

He was one of the Stars standouts in last years playoffs

When you are the 12th forward on the Stars lineup and playing vs the 3rd defensive pairings, it's easier to standout.
With Carolina, he is used as a top 6 forward, facing 1st and 2nd defensive pairings. That's where you see if players gets exposed or not.

Stankoven is a fraud. Like I said, you don't win with an undersized, unidimensional complementary winger in your top 6, especially not vs a Championship team like Florida that will bully those midgets.

 

[MarkovsKnee]

He was one of the Stars standouts in last years playoffs

He had 8 pts in 19 games and half of those points were against Colorado. He didn't do much of anything against Edmonton which is another heavy team.

I wouldn't call that a standout performance. He had some moments.

 

[McGees]

This is pain.
Reminds me of when we faced Bolts in finals.

 

[vokiel]

Florida adds Jones and Marchand...who can really compete with them?

Rantanen.. And I mean just him, not really the Dallas Stars

 

[HuGo Burner Acc]

This is pain.
Reminds me of when we faced Bolts in finals.

Difference is Canes are suppose to be an "elite" team. They beat a jack hughes-less devils team. A paper tiger caps team. And I guarantee if they were in the Atlantic Division, they'd be out in the first round

 

[MarkovsKnee]

That's a tall order...

Knies & Robertson are their only U25 forwards, and the prospect pool is pretty barren after Cowan.... Only 2 x 2nd round picks of the top 64 in the next 3 drafts.

Hard to imagine they'll be a lineup of mid career vets eager to take a paycut to jump into that mess. If they were smart, they'd be quietly shopping Matthews and see if they can't get a quality prospect heavy team like Anaheim, SJ or Chi to give them a Lindros-like asset pay day.

Yeah, their 1st line next year is probably Knies, Matthews & Nylander.

They're going to be in tough to put together a 2nd line.

They can cobble together 3rd & 4th lines from what they already have, but they now seriously lack depth at the forward position.

I'm not sure Cowan makes the team next year maybe he does, but he won't be able to carry his own line.

They have cap room with Marner gone though. Definitely changes are coming, but not a rebuild.

 

[salbutera]

 

[Team_Spirit]