The state of the Habs Rebuild - The Next step

[HuGo Sham]

I'm not putting much stock into 4 pre-season games. The team is still thin up front when it comes to talent and making the playoffs involves a lot of ifs.
Obviously losing Laine f***ing sucks as he shored up that 2nd line.
I'm not a big believer in Newhook as a top 6 forward.
Hopefully Dach rebounds, but he's going to need a few months to get back in
a rhythm.
If the news is bad for Laine, would love to see the pull them pull the trigger on a hockey trade for a forward with size who can score to play with Dach.
But we're not there yet - the D is learning how to play and we need another draft to land some additional skill up front.
they should also make a decision a 4th line with size...pezz/tuch/Xhekaj would be terrific next year.
Someone should also emerge from primeau/dobes/ fowler

 

[Lafleurs Guy]

It is.

Back to the points, 50 means nothing!!!

It’s second line production. Are you expecting 80?

 

[Deus ex machina]

I don't get why folks are so freaked out. We're now not expecting to make the playoffs? I wasn't expecting it anyway. To me, Laine was gravy... anyone thinking he was going to be a 50 goal guy is out to lunch.

Relax.

It's going to be a long year. Injuries are going to happen and we're still an extremely young team. What matters is that we see improvement, not the postseason. The playoffs would be great but if we don't make it I won't really care. What I care about is winning a cup. These are the rebuild years. Enjoy watching young players like Hutson establishing themselves in the league. We're going to be a good team for a long time but it may take a bit to get things going.

Provided these insane injuries don't derail us (and there's STILL no reason to think they will going forward) then I think we'll be much improved. That's all that matters right now.

I'm not sure a lot of people were expecting them to make the playoffs.
But at least with Laine filling that big hole on the top 6, there was a better hope for the team to be at least in the hunt and not out of it by December, like the last few meaningless seasons they just had.

I also don't think a lot of people expected Laine to score 50 goals, but just 25-40 goals would've been pretty useful.
And i didn't even talk about the fun factor of watching Laine play.

That's why fans are bummed. It's not a matter of relaxing.

Seeing improvement and making the playoffs are not mutually exclusive.
Same thing with making the playoffs and winning a cup in the future.
Making the playoffs would give young players valuable experience and help a lot the improvement you're talking about.

 

[Lafleurs Guy]

I'm not sure a lot of people were expecting them to make the playoffs.
But at least with Laine filling that big hole on the top 6, there was a better hope for the team to be at least in the hunt and not out of it by December, like the last few meaningless seasons they just had.

I also don't think a lot of people expected Laine to score 50 goals, but just 25-40 goals would've been pretty useful.
And i didn't even talk about the fun factor of watching Laine play.

That's why fans are bummed. It's not a matter of relaxing.

Seeing improvement and making the playoffs are not mutually exclusive.
Same thing with making the playoffs and winning a cup in the future.
Making the playoffs would give young players valuable experience and help a lot the improvement you're talking about.

I think we'll improve regardless.

It's one thing to be bummed about an injury. It's another thing to be hysterical about it and say we have no talent anywhere. Posts like that are just dumb.

 

[KevSkillz4]

It's sad for Laine, but the key of the rebuild it's Slaf, Dach, Suzuki, Demkdov, Caufield, Hage, Guhle, Reinbacher and Hutson. ++ Goalies like Fowler, Dobes and Volokhin.

 

[Habby4Life]

It’s second line production. Are you expecting 80?

Throw Bunting out on the second line, give him 2pp and he too might get 50pts on the habs.. That doesn’t mean he nor Newhook are second line players. It means your depth sucks.

Without Laine the Habs 2nd line is hot garbage and that isn’t a slight on Dach.

 

[Tyson]

With or without Laine this team has to show improvement, hopefully Dach stays healthy and has a solid season.

 

[Lafleurs Guy]

Throw Bunting out on the second line, give him 2pp and he too might get 50pts on the habs.. That doesn’t mean he nor Newhook are second line players. It means your depth sucks.

Without Laine the Habs 2nd line hot garbage.

50 points is second line production. All of this other stuff is just whining.

Get back to me when you have some actual talking points.

 

[Habby4Life]

50 points is second line production. All of this other stuff is just whining.

Get back to me when you have some actual talking points.

Haha, straight over your head.

 

[Lafleurs Guy]

It's sad for Laine, but the key of the rebuild it's Slaf, Dach, Suzuki, Demkdov, Caufield, Hage, Guhle, Reinbacher and Hutson. ++ Goalies like Fowler, Dobes and Volokhin.

Laine was never a long term part of the plans. Him going down isn't going to affect much from that perspective.

 

[KevSkillz4]

Laine was never a long term part of the plans. Him going down isn't going to affect much from that perspective.

I know. But everyone and me, would have liked o keep him for long time. Only 1 year older than Suzuki. But yeah, it's not that bad if he isn't there.

 

[Lafleurs Guy]

I know. But everyone and me, would have liked o keep him for long time. Only 1 year older than Suzuki. But yeah, it's not that bad if he isn't there.

I mean it sucks but I never really saw him as a long term guy here anyway. We'll see what happens. Hopefully it's not too serious.

 

[Habby4Life]

I know. But everyone and me, would have liked o keep him for long time. Only 1 year older than Suzuki. But yeah, it's not that bad if he isn't there.

He’s 26, just too old to be part of the teams long term plan

If he bounced back decently, of course they would try to keep him in the fold. To think otherwise is crazy. It drastically changes the 2nd line, it affects PP choices, and puts more pressure on the first line to carry the O load.

If he is out for the year, there is no way this isn’t a big loss. I’m pretty sure Hugo isn’t sitting there thinking oh well, he was never part of the long term.

Willing to bet there is a dark cloud around Habs mgt today.

 

[KevSkillz4]

I mean it sucks but I never really saw him as a long term guy here anyway. We'll see what happens. Hopefully it's not too serious.

I agree with you. But a 30-40 goalscorer, 26 years only, that’s a huge piece. We have all proof that he is a good guy and teammate, soo having him, that help to rebuild 100%.

 

[Lafleurs Guy]

I agree with you. But a 30-40 goalscorer, 26 years only, that’s a huge piece. We have all proof that he is a good guy and teammate, soo having him, that help to rebuild 100%.

I never saw him as a 40 goal guy. I think his days of being a premiere scorer are over. I could've been wrong on that but the recent injury certainly won't help him.

I always saw this as a wildcard low risk move that we got a pick out of. I don't see it affecting us long term at all. That's not to say I don't sympathise with Laine - I absolutely do - but Demidov is on the way, Roy is going to improve, we've got more guys coming... long term I don't think this hurts us. It would've been nice to have some scoring depth this season though.

 

[KevSkillz4]

He’s 26, just too old to be part of the teams long term plan

If he bounced back decently, of course they would try to keep him in the fold. To think otherwise is crazy. It drastically changes the 2nd line, it affects PP choices, and puts more pressure on the first line to carry the O load.

If he is out for the year, there is no way this isn’t a big loss.

100%

Laine would easily become a perfect guy to re-sign for the rebuild.

He is a great teammate (with proof of Mathieu Perreault), prooof of a guy who want to help himself and change... 1 year older than Suzuki... that's nothing lol!

 

[dinodebino]

It's certainly possible if we get bad news with Laine.

Caufield, Dach, Newhook, Roy all seem pretty meh this preseason

More injuries are bound to happen, the depth is just as bad as last year. Team defense will be a big issue as we integrate Hutson into the lineup. Can we expect more career highs from Suzuki and Matheson?

Not to mention other teams got better, except for Anaheim and Columbus who are in similar situations to us, relying on young prospects to get better. Calgary should be bad too. San Jose and Chicago both made significant improvement to their teams.

San Jose was a farce a la Washington Capitals circa 1977 last year. They won’t suddenly become a playoff contender.

Avec des si on va à Paris. As of today, just by adding Dach and Hutson over Harris and ANY plug at 2nd line centre makes the Habs a better team. That cannot be debatable.

So saying we are worse now than last season is somewhat surprising. If the playoffs were a ‘thing’ (it never was), I just hope that this team was not relying on Patrik Laine to bring it to the promise land.

 

[Lafleurs Guy]

100%

Laine would easily become a perfect guy to re-sign for the rebuild.

He is a great teammate (with proof of Mathieu Perreault), prooof of a guy who want to help himself and change... 1 year older than Suzuki... that's nothing lol!

There's a reason we were paid to take him.

 

[Habby4Life]

100%

Laine would easily become a perfect guy to re-sign for the rebuild.

He is a great teammate (with proof of Mathieu Perreault), prooof of a guy who want to help himself and change... 1 year older than Suzuki... that's nothing lol!

It’s rediculous to think he wouldn’t be part of the long term plan. Even if he got 25+ goals he would help this team immensely.

But look on the bright side we have Roy or Newhook to fill the void. Yuck.

This is a major hit to this teams plan for this year and anyone who says it is not should watch more hockey.

 

[KevSkillz4]

It’s rediculous to think he wouldn’t be part of the long term plan. Even if he got 25+ goals he would help this team immensely.

But look on the bright side we have Roy or Newhook to fill the void.

This is a major hit to this teams plan for this year and anyone who says it is not should watch more hockey.

Yes. I'm a big believer of Roy. So it's perfectly fine to me. That's not like if Slaf is hurting. But Laine help the present and future of the team. We have the assets for helping the present, soo it's fine.

Roy is underrated and have top 6 potential, for sure.

 

[Habby4Life]

Yes. I'm a big believer of Roy. So it's perfectly fine to me. That's not like if Slaf is hurting. But Laine help the present and future of the team. We have the assets for helping the present, soo it's fine.

Roy is underrated and have top 6 potential, for sure.

I’m not sold on Roy, been invisible at Camp, very unimpressive. Frankly, I don’t see what others are seeing.

Excited when they got Laine because it impacted so many other areas but we are back to where we were last yr.

Nick needs to eat his wheaties cause he has to carry this team offensively again.

Whatever happens this yr, Hugo has to revamp that crap bottom 6 if they have any hope of being competitive. Needs more jam!

Love to see them throw serious coin at Sam Bennett (he’s top 6). That guy plays old school hockey.

 

[Grate n Colorful Oz]

San Jose was a farce a la Washington Capitals circa 1977 last year. They won’t suddenly become a playoff contender.

Avec des si on va à Paris. As of today, just by adding Dach and Hutson over Harris and ANY plug at 2nd line centre makes the Habs a better team. That cannot be debatable.

So saying we are worse now than last season is somewhat surprising. If the playoffs were a ‘thing’ (it never was), I just hope that this team was not relying on Patrik Laine to bring it to the promise land.

Did you forget "pas" in your sentence?

 

[Vachon23]

I never saw him as a 40 goal guy. I think his days of being a premiere scorer are over. I could've been wrong on that but the recent injury certainly won't help him.

I always saw this as a wildcard low risk move that we got a pick out of. I don't see it affecting us long term at all. That's not to say I don't sympathise with Laine - I absolutely do - but Demidov is on the way, Roy is going to improve, we've got more guys coming... long term I don't think this hurts us. It would've been nice to have some scoring depth this season though.

Yes he was just there for the 2 years remaining of his contract for me. I don’t think he is the style of player they want to build the team around and if he was becoming the 40 G and + he was supposed to be, he would probably test the market to get the most money he could get

 

[Seven7]

Prochainement sur Crave série : CH La Déconstruction.

 

[Habnot]

Thank God Berg is gone our else he would of already signed Hoffman to replace Laine.