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HF Habs: Out of Town Thread: 2025 Playoff edition

Simpsons an idiot
He says there's no better building in Edmonton the fans are great there but last week he was wetting his pants on the fig
 
Oilers are gonna have an interesting problem soon. Ekholm is almost ready to come back but the whole defense has been playing really well so who is he gonna replace?
 
CzarDemidov said:
Brayden Point hit 40g and 90pts in his third season. No one would mistake Suzuki for Point and that’s not an insult to Suzuki.

Suzuki career PPG 0.82 Point 0.97,
Suzuki playoff PPG 0.68 Point 0.97 (that’s right, he’s just as good against the best opposition),
Suzuki career -57, Point career +77,

The fact is the dynasty Bolts have a higher ceiling (Point, Kucherov, Hedman) to which the Habs have no equivalent and a higher floor (depth) than the Habs currently do.

I’m not sure why this needs to be an argument, their team was one of the best in modern history. They were so good Sergachev was deemed expendable, Palat (a player superior to Gallagher) was allowed to walk, Killorn (superior to Josh Anderson) was allowed to go, etc.


You just mentioned him: Hedman. Will Hutson ever surpass Hedman in his on-ice impact? I’d love to see it.

Yanni Gourde had more regular season pts than Stamkos the season they beat us in the Final — who’s our Yanni Gourde?

Who’s our Sergachev?

You say Cirelli is no better than Danault, despite Danault more average TOI (18:37 vs 16:31) which implies more usage. Well, we don’t have a Danault or a Cirelli.

We don’t have a Vasilevsky.

I trust I don’t need to keep going to make my point. That Tampa team was incredible and is still incredible. We don’t have a Guentzel or a Hagel fyi.
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Again you fail to mention that Kucherov literally won a Hart in Points third season. Tampa was one year removed being back to back champs. That year, they were historically great. Point has never hit 100 pts. His highest totals are 90, 92, and 95 while playing with a Hart winner on a near dynasty level team. Those numbers are obviously going to be inflated with the calibre of teammates around him. Conversely, Suzuki just hit 89 points playing on a team that barely made the playoffs and who's best winger was Caufield who is not even in the same realm of Kucherov. Also including +/- is really susmb as ramps were amazing teams and Suzuki was on historically bad teams to lottery teams, this being the team's best year. I could have a positive +/- on those tampa teams.

I'm not arguing that the habs are better but to suggest or imply that the habs core isn't as good is shortsighted. Demidov has the ability to be in the same tier as Kucherov. Suzuki is in the same tier as Point. The only Tampa had that Habs probably won't replicate in value is Stamkos. Tampa traded for McDonaugh. Why can't the habs trade for a top 4 D. Then having him plus Guhle, Hutson, and Reinbacher would be a great D core. You compared Reinbacher to Hedman then when I brought up Hutson, you said I hope Hutson has as big of an impact then said who's out sergachev. Who are we comparing to Hedman, Hutson or Reinbacher? If we go with Hutson in terms of impact (which I believe he'll be better than) than you have to compare overall cores. First off you make it seem like sergachev was such a phenomenal player with Tampa. Id honestly rather take Guhle who is miles better than him defensively. Sergachev besides one season and his rookie year, never broke 40 points with Tampa. Again let's say Habs trade for a top 4 D that's comparable to McDonaufh. The question becomes, if he reaches close to his ceiling, who is their Reinbacher.

You mentioned Palat and killorn. Remember Tampa didn't have the money to resign these guys. They weren't expendable. It's no coincidence that since they had to let these guys go, they haven't been as dominant and teams like Florida make mince meat out of them. But going back to Palat or Killorn. You're comparing them to the wrong people. Compare them with Slafkovsky. I'll take slaf personally especially when I project him in his prime.

I'm sorry , were Guentzel or Hagel apart of those cup winning teams? No. Then they're irrelevant to the conversation. I'm want to Habs to compare mirror themselves on past champions not first round exits.

As for Vasy, that's a great point. I don't think the habs will have a goalie like Vasy. But then let me ask you, does a team need a goalie like Vasy to win a cup? Bobrovsky has had mid numbers in Florida yet he won. Adin Hill won with Vegas. Darcy Keumper with Colorado. Not exactly world beaters. You just need a competent goalie.

I'm not even here stating that the habs core is better than Tampa's back in the day. I'm saying it's extremely shortsighted to write them off right now. Oh ya and Suzuki is better than point. That too. Switch their teams and Suzuki outperforms Point with Tampa. He'd absolutely salivate over a good team and a hard trophy/are Ross winning linemate
 
CzarDemidov said:
It’s less to do with being tough than it does with having an identity and reinforcing it and also not having a flaw that’s insurmountable (ie like being impossibly soft or impossibly slow).

Tampa’s team wasn’t necessarily soft imo — you forget Hedman, McD, Killorn, etc — but they were skilled as heck top to bottom, extremely well coached, lethal on the PP, and inexplicably hard working.

We have a hard working team but lack the high end skill, the depth skill, and overall speed. I don’t think it’s easy to replicate them at all.

Slaf is not a high end skill player. Reino is not on track to be an all tools Hedman type. The only high end skill player we have is Demidov. Otherwise Suzuki is not as good as Point and Caufield is not as good as Stamkos and so on and so forth.
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I think we forget how long both Tampa and Florida cores had to wait until tasting their first cup.

All of Barkov, Stamkos and Hedman had to wait 10+ years before winning their first cup. Kucherov had to wait 9 years.

Stamkos won his first cup when he was 30. Suzuki still has 4 years until he gets that age. We have LOTS of time to improve our team so that we can look like Tampa and Florida.

For sure we look nothing like them because we're just starting to improve. I don't think we need all of our core to be stronger than the Tampa core of Hedman, Stamkos, Kuch, Point and Vasi. But I think it's possible that Suzuki becomes a top 10C in the league. Same thing for Demidov and Hutson at their respective positions. And then you compliment this with Slaf, Guhle, Reinbacher, Caufield and either of Fowler/Dobes and you definitely see the potential.

Are we far behind? Yes, but definitely think we are on the right track. Now HuGo needs to take us there with good moves in 2025 and 2026.
 
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salbutera said:
Oilers fans are so lucky, we talk about Habs never drafting a PPG C, Edm had drafted two of the greatest C’s of all time in a span of < 50-years
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McDavid and is the other one Messier or Draisaitl?

Also, you can add Pittsburgh to the list of drafting 2 of the greatest C's of all time
 
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