The ridiculously early reviews thread

[JianYang]

I want to focus on the younger guys for this one. Out of the newbies in the lineup, which one has positively surprised you so far, and perhaps who is someone that has underwhelmed you? The guys I'm specifically talking about are Harris, dach, slafkovsky, guhle, and jackeye.

I never really watched the preseason but I remember seeing alot of people saying Harris should go down. I don't see it. He has looked positionally sound just making high percentage decisions all over the ice. I've generally been impressed with him.

Dach intrigues me alot. It reminds me alot of the Eller situation when the Habs traded for him. There was lots of debate whether the was going to be a top 3, 6 or 9 player, and I see the same thing with dach. Dach can potentially add a dimension down the middle that the Habs have not had in a long time. He shows flashes already of what he might become and I like it.

For slafkovsky, honestly I didn't have any expectations for the guy. His ice time is limited, but he doesn't look out of place so far. I'm curious to see how they handle him going forward and I know it will remain a hot topic moving forward.

Guhle is a future stud. He already has the mobility that you crave, and he doesn't take any crap from anyone. I could see him as a future captain someday if things go a different direction with suzuki. I'm fairly confident that he's going to be a top 2D guy in this league, and it's just a matter of time.

Jackeye needs some seasoning. Not that he's been bad but there are times when he looks good, and other times where he looks like he's not quite ready. Like dach, he intrigues me.... But not in the sense that he is going to be a big needle mover up the standings. It's more about him just being really entertaining and a fan favourite.

Anyways, what are you early thoughts on these guys?

Click to read more...

 

[MasterD]

Ridiculous is the perfect adjective. We’re 3 games in, give it time.

 

[Tetragrammaton]

I want to focus on the younger guys for this one. Out of the newbies in the lineup, which one has positively surprised you so far, and perhaps who is someone that has underwhelmed you? The guys I'm specifically talking about are Harris, dach, slafkovsky, guhle, and jackeye.

I never really watched the preseason but I remember seeing alot of people saying Harris should go down. I don't see it. He has looked positionally sound just making high percentage decisions all over the ice. I've generally been impressed with him.

Dach intrigues me alot. It reminds me alot of the Eller situation when the Habs traded for him. There was lots of debate whether the was going to be a top 3, 6 or 9 player, and I see the same thing with dach. Dach can potentially add a dimension down the middle that the Habs have not had in a long time. He shows flashes already of what he might become and I like it.

For slafkovsky, honestly I didn't have any expectations for the guy. His ice time is limited, but he doesn't look out of place so far. I'm curious to see how they handle him going forward and I know it will remain a hot topic moving forward.

Guhle is a future stud. He already has the mobility that you crave, and he doesn't take any crap from anyone. I could see him as a future captain someday if things go a different direction with suzuki. I'm fairly confident that he's going to be a top 2D guy in this league, and it's just a matter of time.

Jackeye needs some seasoning. Not that he's been bad but there are times when he looks good, and other times where he looks like he's not quite ready. Like dach, he intrigues me.... But not in the sense that he is going to be a big needle mover up the standings. It's more about him just being really entertaining and a fan favourite.

Anyways, what are you early thoughts on these guys?

Pretty good assessment all around. I would give Slaf 6 more games and then send him down for a Calder Cup Championship season.

 

[Twisted Sinister]

I want to focus on the younger guys for this one. Out of the newbies in the lineup, which one has positively surprised you so far, and perhaps who is someone that has underwhelmed you? The guys I'm specifically talking about are Harris, dach, slafkovsky, guhle, and jackeye.

I never really watched the preseason but I remember seeing alot of people saying Harris should go down. I don't see it. He has looked positionally sound just making high percentage decisions all over the ice. I've generally been impressed with him.

Dach intrigues me alot. It reminds me alot of the Eller situation when the Habs traded for him. There was lots of debate whether the was going to be a top 3, 6 or 9 player, and I see the same thing with dach. Dach can potentially add a dimension down the middle that the Habs have not had in a long time. He shows flashes already of what he might become and I like it.

For slafkovsky, honestly I didn't have any expectations for the guy. His ice time is limited, but he doesn't look out of place so far. I'm curious to see how they handle him going forward and I know it will remain a hot topic moving forward.

Guhle is a future stud. He already has the mobility that you crave, and he doesn't take any crap from anyone. I could see him as a future captain someday if things go a different direction with suzuki. I'm fairly confident that he's going to be a top 2D guy in this league, and it's just a matter of time.

Jackeye needs some seasoning. Not that he's been bad but there are times when he looks good, and other times where he looks like he's not quite ready. Like dach, he intrigues me.... But not in the sense that he is going to be a big needle mover up the standings. It's more about him just being really entertaining and a fan favourite.

Anyways, what are you early thoughts on these guys?

Harris: I've never seen more than a 5D there. He's pretty steady already, but he just doesn't have the tools to be a proper role player on a hockey team. He's good but he's just there. A player that doesn't hurt you. Don't know what his ceiling can be, but I don't see it higher than 5 on a good team.

Dach: Looks good when he plays but I'm concerned about his shot and the fact that he often can't convert his plays into success. He's playing with Monahab and Dads. Maybe they need to replace Dads on that line or something. However, the good thing is that he makes plays unlike:

Slaf: The issues he's having are issues I've had with his game all along, which is that his stick is often where the play goes to die. It's an IQ issue. He has skill. He has size. He can make the occasional exploitational play using those things but, for now, he looks lost out there.

I'm also not sure that the idea they supposedly have of turning him into a north-south player that crashes the net is a good one. That's a square peg in a round hole scenario.

Guhle: No complaints. He's pretty much penciled in as a number 2, barring catastrophe.

Xhekaj: Makes some mistakes, but I don't care.

I'm a bit bothered that the team as a whole isn't succeeding a little more offensively in an alleged offensive system. I think they might need to make some adjustments somewhere because some things really aren't working

 

[expy]

Early but not out-of-date review:

Burrows needs to get fired!

Godawful PP remains... No idea how he's still employed.

Last night Drouin came back and got PP time while Slag got none.
f*** off with that shit.

 

[Adriatic]

Early but not out-of-date review:

Burrows needs to get fired!

Godawful PP remains... No idea how he's still employed.

Last night Drouin came back and got PP time while Slag got none.
f*** off with that shit.

The pp won't ever be good no matter who's on it unless you have somebody that can run the point.

 

[HabsWhiteKnightLOL]

I will do the kids and 2-3 fast things i saw since camp.

1- Burrows does not belong in the NHL behind a bench unless if it's to bring the Gatorade.

2- Some will call me crazy on this because half of this roster won't be there in 2 years from now on but MSL coaching has been abysmal. We play the exact same way we did with Ducharme , minus Caufield woke up due to MSL giving him more icetime and opportunities. But after that ... It's the same cycle. i know the roster is bad and kids bla bla, But I feel like MSL is not trying new things but just does the obvious. I have mixed feelings how we will do with him in the future.


---- Kids talk.

Caufield - needs to play above 90 sec on the pp.

Slaf - Needs ahl time. He doesn't bring something special right now and I feel like 18min in the AHL would do better for. This season.

Dach - Like I said , he's 3rd line material , he's scared to go in the traffic. He's like a young Armia. I just don't see what he brings to what we gave for.


Guhle : best dman of the team , the only thing he needs is that he needs a better partner.

Harris : He's like there but you barely see him. Perhaps a 5-6/7th dman . He's not horrendous but he's.... Extra vanilla.


Jackeye : Ups and down with him, we might see him for a while but wouldn't be surprised to see him a bit in the ahl to progress his defensive play around the net.

 

[Scintillating10]

I want to focus on the younger guys for this one. Out of the newbies in the lineup, which one has positively surprised you so far, and perhaps who is someone that has underwhelmed you? The guys I'm specifically talking about are Harris, dach, slafkovsky, guhle, and jackeye.

I never really watched the preseason but I remember seeing alot of people saying Harris should go down. I don't see it. He has looked positionally sound just making high percentage decisions all over the ice. I've generally been impressed with him.

Dach intrigues me alot. It reminds me alot of the Eller situation when the Habs traded for him. There was lots of debate whether the was going to be a top 3, 6 or 9 player, and I see the same thing with dach. Dach can potentially add a dimension down the middle that the Habs have not had in a long time. He shows flashes already of what he might become and I like it.

For slafkovsky, honestly I didn't have any expectations for the guy. His ice time is limited, but he doesn't look out of place so far. I'm curious to see how they handle him going forward and I know it will remain a hot topic moving forward.

Guhle is a future stud. He already has the mobility that you crave, and he doesn't take any crap from anyone. I could see him as a future captain someday if things go a different direction with suzuki. I'm fairly confident that he's going to be a top 2D guy in this league, and it's just a matter of time.

Jackeye needs some seasoning. Not that he's been bad but there are times when he looks good, and other times where he looks like he's not quite ready. Like dach, he intrigues me.... But not in the sense that he is going to be a big needle mover up the standings. It's more about him just being really entertaining and a fan favourite.

Anyways, what are you early thoughts on these guys?

Basically agree. You should edit capital S on Slaf.

Was so much hype all last year on Habs first pick many were expecting a player to help now. First time Montreal picked first overall in 42 years. At this point, I don't know if Slaf is next Rantanen or Kakko.

 

[Lshap]

If there wasn't a 1OA pick in the spotlight I'd be thrilled with the kids. The young D look great. We need a true #1, but with Guhle, Harris, and Xhekaj we've added instant depth.

Dach is looking good. I get the Eller comparison in terms of the role he plays, but Dach appears to have offensive skills that Eller never had.

So about that 1OA... Slafkovsky is clearly the least ready of our rookies. I'm attaching no prediction to that, but at his current level of development he doesn't belong in the NHL. No harm in a few more games with the club, but he needs to catch his breath in the AHL this season. The upside to this NHL experiment can quickly turn into a downside.

 

[ReHabs]

So about that 1OA... Slafkovsky is clearly the least ready of our rookies. I'm attaching no prediction to that, but at his current level of development he doesn't belong in the NHL. No harm in a few more games with the club, but he needs to catch his breath in the AHL this season. The upside to this NHL experiment can quickly turn into a downside.

Last sentence says it all…

At some point there will be downside to keeping him in the NHL. Maybe it’s not game4 but say he stays till game 14 and has no more than three points. What has he learned?

He needs to be in a position to produce points. Lots and lots of points.

 

[Habs Halifax]

Early but not out-of-date review:

Burrows needs to get fired!

Godawful PP remains... No idea how he's still employed.

Last night Drouin came back and got PP time while Slag got none.
f*** off with that shit.

Their PP is a waste of time trying to circle back as a group. They need to learn to counter attack quicker vs always circling back. I other know teams do this but they have no issues with puck possession as the enter the zone.

Personally, I'd run PP counter attack drills from the mid part of the ice. At the end of the day, there is one less player on the other team so pass it to the open guy and make a play FFS. Way to tentative and they need to be more assertive

 

[Tetragrammaton]

The pp won't ever be good no matter who's on it unless you have somebody that can run the point.

Suzuki

 

[417]

If I wasn't reminded every 5 mins during a Habs broadcast that they have 3 rookies in the lineup, I wouldn't know it just basing it on their play.

I know it's only 3 games but i've seen less mistakes from this D-corps then I did through 3 games last year with a much more experienced D-corps.

Experience is overrated

 

[Vachon23]

Early but not out-of-date review:

Burrows needs to get fired!

Godawful PP remains... No idea how he's still employed.

Last night Drouin came back and got PP time while Slag got none.
f*** off with that shit.

PP is not only Burrows, MSL is probably as much involved then Burrows. Especially on who plays on PP, that’s probably more MSL then Burrows

 

[417]

PP is not only Burrows, MSL is probably as much involved then Burrows. Especially on who plays on PP, that’s probably more MSL then Burrows

I continue to think coaching is less of the issue and it's more personnel.

Firstly, the Habs don't have a PP QB.

It doesn't matter who you have as a coach, if you don't have the right kind of players playing.

Is it Burrows who instructs his players to be indecisive on the PP, bobble pucks, make weak passes, go off-sides on zone entries, miss the net by 5 feet?

Watch how many times the Habs actually have a chance to set up the play and they end up just giving their opponents the puck back by making a weak pass.

If the Habs had some level of execution, I could look at Burrows role...but they don't even have that as a base.

The Habs play the 5 on 4 like a 4 on 4 because Wideman only purpose is to serve as a rudder for Caufield & Suzuki.

He doesn't want to shoot, he can't shoot and isn't creative whatsoever.

It must be so easy to play a PP where the point man doesn't shoot.

 

[Vachon23]

I continue to think coaching is less of the issue and it's more personnel.

Firstly, the Habs don't have a PP QB.

It doesn't matter who you have as a coach, if you don't have the right kind of players playing.

Is it Burrows who instructs his players to be indecisive on the PP, bobble pucks, make weak passes, go off-sides on zone entries, miss the net by 5 feet?

Watch how many times the Habs actually have a chance to set up the play and they end up just giving their opponents the puck back by making a weak pass.

If the Habs had some level of execution, I could look at Burrows role...but they don't even have that as a base.

I agree that there is a personal problem on the PP and it’s not only coaching. Not only they don’t have any PP QB but except Caufield, no one is pure finisher either (Hoffman is not that anymore)

 

[Leon Lucius Black]

We lack personnel on our PP, but I think one of the bigger issues ends up being instead of loading up one unit we just water down two units. Guys like Anderson and Gallagher handle the puck line a grenade and then guys like Drouin/Wideman are no threats at all to shoot.

At this point I'd like to see something like this, we'd have our 2 best shooters set up for one timers, our 2 best passers up high with either Monahan or Dvorak in front of the net and available to help win the faceoff. The biggest thing would be we'd also need movement instead of everyone just sitting there.

Caufield - Monahan/Dvorak - Hoffman
Dach - Suzuki

 

[JoelWarlord]

Happy to see Suzuki and Caufield pick right up where they left off, and to see Guhle + Harris look so smooth and poised out there as rookies. The fact that Guhle hasn't looked overmatched as our de facto #1D so far paired with Savard is pretty damn impressive. I like a lot of what I've seen from Dach so far too, the transition play is great and he's been a lot better using his frame along the boards than what we saw in Chicago. Xhekaj has been a little up and down but incredibly encouraging for a 1st-year pro and undrafted player, I think he just needs time to acclimate to the pro game. Kovacevic has been fine so far, should be OK as a 6-7D this year and can maybe stick around as a #6 in the NHL for a couple of years as a right shot guy. Can not say enough about Guhle and Harris so far, both guys just look so calm out there and have been our best two defencemen by far.

Slafkovsky has shown some flashes and I like what I've seen so far. He looks like a lost puppy in the D zone right now and when he doesn't have the puck in transition, but the fact he's still been reasonably effective despite making a lot of very blatant and bad rookie mistakes is pretty encouraging. All the D-zone positioning stuff and the crashing into Guhle on breakouts and things like that will be trivial to fix in development. He really just looks like a guy that needs time to me.

As for the vets: Gallagher seems to have his legs back. It remains to be seen if the hands are too broken to be effective but I think he's had a good start. Dvorak has been disappointing, Hoffman/Drouin have been terrible as expected, both are getting close to AHL demotion territory for me even in a tank year as the prospect of rebuilding their value to flip just does not seem feasible right now and they absolutely kill every line they're on. Dadonov has been worse than I hoped too. Savard looks alright so far next to Guhle, Wideman is still Wideman, Anderson looked good against Toronto but the same as always in the other two games. Matheson looked great in camp, disappointing he got hurt. Monahan has been a pleasant surprise so far as a middle sixer as well.

The biggest takeaway I have so far is that the defence, even without Edmundson and Matheson looks significantly better than the forwards do as an overall unit. That is a very encouraging sign given just how young the LD prospects are, but also pretty damning of our veteran forwards. We'll see how it goes over the 82-game grind but Guhle, Harris, and Xhekaj are certainly looking like real bright spots. Adding Matheson back to that unit should be a huge help as well and I think there's a world where we have a legitimately capable NHL defence corps as soon as late this year and into next season.

 

[The Gr8 Dane]

Our PP legit looks like its 5 on 5

 

[Sasha Orlov]

Worst PP in NHL history easily

 

[Mrb1p]

All trash but CC Suzuki and Guhle.

(Inb4 the cult of Dach and Slaf comes out to rip my heart out)

 

[Team_Spirit]

Hoffman the new Desharnais
Drouin the new Briere
Rookie Forward sub 10min per game no PP

 

[tazsub3]

I guess I am the rare one that has been so impressed by dach that I see him a top 2nd line , even a 1st line center on some teams .

Just accept the fact they need time , let them play and don’t be overly critical .

I just don’t understand why many seem surprised we are built for a bottom 5 team and we playing as one

 

[Adriatic]

Suzuki

Nope. You need a guy that is threat with the shot from the point. Suzuki is perfect on half boards or down low.

 

[Just this once]

Jackeye brings an identity to the team, a pirate feel. So he is the good surprise.
Guhle is pretty good, hopefully it stays that way.
Harris, nothing to say, he does his job.
Dach, I just don't see the appeal anymore than at the time of the trade. I think he will be an enigma.
Slafkowsky, he is lost without the puck, I did not really expect this. Does not produce enough chances either to be NHL material at this point.