Playoffs Positivity Thread .......... Re-Poll, option to change your vote is open as of Jan 7

[Habs Halifax]

Team before indivuduals. The young players would greatly benefits from playoff hockey. Demidov won’t carry the team by himself.

Carrier improved our D core and pairings. However, I still think we need some improvement. I feel the team D is the most important.

No offense to the aging Savard but Ideally, Carrier is with Xhekaj and we have a stud with Guhle. I feel our forward group is more on the mature side vs our D core. However, it is nice to see our D core improving over what we saw last season or the first 1/3 of this season.

 

[HabsCode]

Carrier improved our D core and pairings. However, I still think we need some improvement. I feel the team D is the most important.

No offense to the aging Savard but Ideally, Carrier is with Xhekaj and we have a stud with Guhle. I feel our forward group is more on the mature side vs our D core. However, it is nice to see our D core improving over what we saw last season or the first 1/3 of this season.

Our top 6 is young. Will be even younger when Demidov comes next year.

 

[Habs Halifax]

Our top 6 is young. Will be even younger when Demidov comes next year.

That is OK IMO. What we need is more growth from Guhle and Xhekaj. Last night, I felt our Hutson/Matheson pairing was exposed a bit. They have been great but Wings had them scrambling a bit more than what we have seen in recent games. Right now we have what we have and it's been much better than before on D. However, I'm not sure how long we can live with Hutson/Matheson when the games get more physical.

Ideally, Matheson should move back with Guhle and we have a stud with Hutson. Too bad Reinbacher was not age 23. I really do think we should be trading a for a stud on RD for Hutson, but do not use Reinbacher in that trade. Or we just wait it out for when Reinbacher is ready. Might be another 2 seasons before he can be trusted with big top 4D minutes in the NHL.

Two areas of concern. A top 4RD and how long it takes Reinbacher to get there. And is Dach the 2C we need.

Hutson / XXXX
Guhle / Matheson
Xhekaj / Carrier
Savard, Struble

 

[Lshap]

Our top 6 is young. Will be even younger when Demidov comes next year.

True, but at the same time, Dach, Slafkovsky, and Newhook will (hopefully) be more established.

 

[Habs Halifax]

True, but at the same time, Dach, Slafkovsky, and Newhook will (hopefully) be more established.

The key to our top 6 is Suzuki. He's basically a vet center already. That top 6 is supported by a very strong bottom 6. If we took away that strong bottom 6, I think there is ripple effects to our match-up game. MSL has finally been able to find good spots for everyone and that stability is not something we have seen in a very long time.

Dach is the one we need to mature. Showing more offense lately which is nice but we need his overall 200' game to improve if he is the 2C we need him to be.

The rest of this season and next season is going to show us a lot. How good is Dach, Slaf, Reinbacher, and Demidov. I think we have a good idea on the rest of them.

 

[Lshap]

The key to our top 6 is Suzuki. He's basically a vet center already. That top 6 is supported by a very strong bottom 6. If we took away that strong bottom 6, I think there is ripple effects to our match-up game. MSL has finally been able to find good spots for everyone and that stability is not something we have seen in a very long time.

Dach is the one we need to mature. Showing more offense lately which is nice but we need his overall 200' game to improve if he is the 2C we need him to be.

The rest of this season and next season is going to show us a lot. How good is Dach, Slaf, Reinbacher, and Demidov. I think we have a good idea on the rest of them.

Agree about Dach. He's looking much better the last month and has been a big factor in recent wins. If he'd been at this level in October, the team would solidly be in a playoff spot. I'll be happy if this is who he is moving forward.

Slafkovsky is still a work in progress. Good news: We witnessed a true 1OA when he was playing angry against the Rangers. If he can tap into that mindset more consistently, we'll have a terrific top-line winger. He's only 20, but this is when longterm habits are formed.

Reinbacher, at this point, is a project. I have no clue how much his potential has been affected by injuries and time away. He fills a very valuable spot on the roster; depending on how well he does in that role will go a long way in how solid our D is.

 

[Habs Halifax]

Agree about Dach. He's looking much better the last month and has been a big factor in recent wins. If he'd been at this level in October, the team would solidly be in a playoff spot. I'll be happy if this is who he is moving forward.

Slafkovsky is still a work in progress. Good news: We witnessed a true 1OA when he was playing angry against the Rangers. If he can tap into that mindset more consistently, we'll have a terrific top-line winger. He's only 20, but this is when longterm habits are formed.

Reinbacher, at this point, is a project. I have no clue how much his potential has been affected by injuries and time away. He fills a very valuable spot on the roster; depending on how well he does in that role will go a long way in how solid our D is.

All I know is our window is the Suzuki contract. Not like it ends 100% when he needs a new contract but that's where we have the cap advantage. And to dig even deeper, the next 3 years with Hutson on one ELC and Demidov on 3 ELC is some real cap savings.

I won't be surprised if we spend futures to improve the 3 year window but not sacrifice Suzuki's window at the same time.

 

[expy]

First 15 games: 4-9-2
Next 15 games: 7-7-1
Last 18 games: 13-4-1

Which one is the small sample, and what's the norm?

This team didn't magically get better over the past 18 games though, the team for the most part is the same one from the end of last season -- add the last 17 games of the season where they were 5-12 as well... The norm is the first 30 where they're playing below .500 as they have traditionally with largely the same roster. We have to also remember how Dobes stood on his head against 4 of the toughest opponents the Habs have faced all season as well that he is likely not going to be able to maintain.

Group the samples by 20 instead of 15 and you get 7-13, 12-8, and 5-3 (so far)... doesn't look as astonishing.

 

[Habs Halifax]

This team didn't magically get better over the past 18 games though, the team for the most part is the same one from the end of last season -- add the last 17 games of the season where they were 5-12 as well... The norm is the first 30 where they're playing below .500 as they have traditionally with largely the same roster. We have to also remember how Dobes stood on his head against 4 of the toughest opponents the Habs have faced all season as well that he is likely not going to be able to maintain.

Group the samples by 20 instead of 15 and you get 7-13, 12-8, and 5-3 (so far)... doesn't look as astonishing.

This is all about Team confidence/momentum. The results started to come when MSL was finally able to have everyone in a spot to succeed and we were not bouncing guys all over the place due to youth, bad depth, and injuries.

Roster stabilization is the real reason why we got back into this mix. We are not a top 5 or top 10 team as our record shows in the last 20 games ish. The entire season is what you have to look at. We are exactly what we are today... A bubble team.

 

[Kennerback]

Agree about Dach. He's looking much better the last month and has been a big factor in recent wins. If he'd been at this level in October, the team would solidly be in a playoff spot. I'll be happy if this is who he is moving forward.

Slafkovsky is still a work in progress. Good news: We witnessed a true 1OA when he was playing angry against the Rangers. If he can tap into that mindset more consistently, we'll have a terrific top-line winger. He's only 20, but this is when longterm habits are formed.

Reinbacher, at this point, is a project. I have no clue how much his potential has been affected by injuries and time away. He fills a very valuable spot on the roster; depending on how well he does in that role will go a long way in how solid our D is.

RB is a wild card if I ever seen one.

 

[ahmedou]

Wow! A lot of live dogs in the playoff race for the last 3 spots:

- Boston
- Ottawa
- Detroit
- Tampa
- NYR
- MTL
- Columbus

7 Legit teams (plus maybe the Flyers and Pens get it together). It's going to be tough for us to make it.

 

[Lshap]

This team didn't magically get better over the past 18 games though, the team for the most part is the same one from the end of last season -- add the last 17 games of the season where they were 5-12 as well... The norm is the first 30 where they're playing below .500 as they have traditionally with largely the same roster. We have to also remember how Dobes stood on his head against 4 of the toughest opponents the Habs have faced all season as well that he is likely not going to be able to maintain.

Group the samples by 20 instead of 15 and you get 7-13, 12-8, and 5-3 (so far)... doesn't look as astonishing.

There's nothing 'magical' about a very young roster improving. That's the entire point of this rebuild. Our young players are developing and learning, the team is winning more games. That's how it's supposed to work.

It doesn't make sense to ignore the last 33 games of evidence and point to 17 games from a year ago, as if last season counts more than this one.

 

[rahad]

They are playing badly. It would have easily been 0w and 4L for the Habs.

 

[morhilane]

They are playing badly. It would have easily been 0w and 4L for the Habs.

Too many skipped practices!

 

[LaP]

Carrier improved our D core and pairings. However, I still think we need some improvement. I feel the team D is the most important.

No offense to the aging Savard but Ideally, Carrier is with Xhekaj and we have a stud with Guhle. I feel our forward group is more on the mature side vs our D core. However, it is nice to see our D core improving over what we saw last season or the first 1/3 of this season.

If you plan to keep Matheson you'll need a stud with Hutson not Guhle. Hutson and Matheson would be eaten alive in playoffs in the defensive zone.

 

[Habs Halifax]

If you plan to keep Matheson you'll need a stud with Hutson not Guhle. Hutson and Matheson would be eaten alive in playoffs in the defensive zone.

This was something I noticed last night. Matheson and Hutson have been way more effective than we thought but Wings exposed it a bit last night. Earlier today I said the same thing... Matheson moves back with Guhle and we need a stud with Hutson. Carrier moves with Xhekaj. Reinbacher is not ready to fill that role with Hutson.

Growing pain problems. At some point, we need at least one pairing to carry the in zone defensive load. Right now, it's Guhle and Carrier with the other two pairings mixed in here and there. It's kind of the issue with the Dach line. Suzuki can't take all the assignments and if we use the Dach line for offense, that puts burden on the Evans line. He's getting 80% D zone starts and that is very very high.

I'm sure MSL knows of this issue. But what can he do? I think he is forced to have Hutson and Matheson together and lean on the Guhle / Carrier pairing... for now

Hutson / XXXX
Guhle / Matheson
Xhekaj / Carrier
Struble

If Nemec was available, I'd easily offer the Devils their 3C (Evans) and add one of our 1st and a prospect (one of Beck, Mailloux, or Engstrom). I think Nemec fits this group well and then we can actually trade Matheson.

My plan for Matheson is he stays until we are able to find that RD.

 

[26Mats]

View attachment 966445

Plus Boston has 54 points and they've played 50 games - 2 more than us. They are in danger of joining the Flyers at the back of the pack....

crazy how 3 teams (us, sens, rangers) have identical wins, losses, OT losses, and points...