GGpX
Well-known member
Just a bunch of random thoughts, some that could use a little more elaboration but it's late and I'm tired.
-Before the season, I had the Habs coming in third in this division behind Toronto & Vancouver. I still think Toronto's going to win the division, but I don't think it's as clear cut as before the season started and I think so far we're clearly, at the very worst, the second best team in this division. Vancouver is a shit show and they're going to be arm-in-arm with Ottawa & Edmonton to help players in this division pad their stats year round.
-I don't know if the Habs are really, really good or just in a really bad division that has collectively agreed to be allergic to defense. I really wish we had Bawstun or Tampa Bay to play against 8 or 9 times.
-But even if the division sucks, I don't care. Makes it easier to get to the semi-finals. At the very least, we'll have a playoff round against a new team. For the first time in my lifetime, we might have a playoff round against Toronto and I'm all in for it.
-I view this season similarly to the 2012, lockout shortened season. I'm not going to draw any long-term conclusions on any player based solely on this season. Some players are going to be a lot better or a lot worse than usually before returning to their norm next season.
-The more I watch him play and the more I think about it, the more I wonder... When Joel Armia's back from his concussion and let's assume the forward group is healthy, I think the player to take out of the line-up in Drouin. Drouin's numbers are nice, but they're completely unremarkable to me. I'll see his statsheet and see his points, but I rarely remember him having a real impact on a game. When I watch Anderson, I notice how he can create space by using his size and win puck battles because of it. I watch Toffoli play and I see how smart & responsible he is with the puck. I see more from them than their point totals on a statsheet. I watch Drouin play and I see someone that avoids contact. He's the only player in the whole team that avoids physical play. There are too many times when he tries plays that lead to nothing. Will he be taken out of the lineup, I strongly doubt it. It's probably going to be either Byron or Perry. But I'm not sure I'd take either of those two out for Armia...
-The player that's impressed me the most so far this season is Jake Evans. I didn't see this coming. Last year he looked like a player that could possibly be a rotational guy, useful depth that was possibly a minor upgrade from the Matthew Peca types that we had. Now he looks like a real solid 4th line center. The talk of him being Danault's replacement is premature and pretty silly if you ask me. At the same age, Danault had a hair under 200 total NHL games and had already a 40 point season under his belt.
-I don't get the whining about Price's contract. Every single one of you didn't want to trade him when he was at the peak of his abilities. All of you wanted him signed and were happy when we did, I was one of the rare exceptions. I know there are some of you that constantly bring it up that Price isn't playing like a $10.5M goalie, like you have the winning combination to the lottery or you're vegans and just want to tell the world or something. Newsflash: Everybody here knows that Price's contract sucks and he'll never live up to it. Cool, now that we got that out of the way, let's be honest with ourselves. He hasn't been good this year, the numbers speak for themself. But can some of you please spare everyone else this bullshit that because he has the biggest goalie contract in the league, Price is supposed to stop everything, even the shots Jake Allen lets in when Price isn't playing? We get it, he's overpaid. But if some of you (hi xposbrad) want to hold fraudulent positions that Price should have stopped all of those goals Toronto let in during the season opener. Check the highlights here: https://www.dtmts.com/video/p1GOb7tvWeo and tell me which of those goals Vasilevski, Varlamov, Hart, Markstrom, etc. are stopping. Hint: Maybe the overtime goal if they're lucky. The rest of those are getting scored on every other goalie in the league.
-Part 1 - My opinion of The Charlatan hasn't changed much since the beginning of this year. The biggest organizational problem before he got here (drafting & development) is still a glaring problem 9 years later. The development aspect is greatly improved since Joel Bouchard arrived, but he kept his buddy in the minors for years after it was apparent he wasn't the man for the job. Trevor Timmins is still in the organization and holds a different title, but he's still the head of the amateur scouting staff and has final word. My opinion on drafting has changed a bit over the years; I think that when you're drafting 18 year olds and you're not drafting at the very top of the draft, luck has more to do with it than actual skill. But even then, there are some people who are hitting at a much higher frequency with their draft picks and some who consistently don't. We haven't done that much to improve that much in my eyes.
-Part 2 - I'm still not sure what the plan was during the period of 2012 to 2020. Build through the draft? Abject failure. Win with free agents? Didn't want to spend the money or when he did, players like Lucic signed for less in Deadmonton (More on that later). Ice a team and hope that Price stands on his head? I think his plan can be honestly summed up as, if the Habs don't make some noise in 2021, he's out of a job. The contracts he's given out, aside from Pacioretty's contract when he just got here and Petry's first deal, haven't been great.
-Part 3 - What The Charlatan deserves the most credit for is his decision making in terms of trades at the pro level. While he has made some mistakes, his trades have been mostly net positive for us. Trading Rinat Valiev & Matt Taormina (who haven't played a game in the NHL since) for Brett Kulak? Kulak might not be the best d-man in the world, but he's a regular NHLer, that's A+ asset management. Getting Dale Weise for Raphael Diaz, who ended up being a useful third liner during his best years in the league and then trading Weise + Flesichmann for Danault & a 2nd that we used for Romanov? That's A+++ asset management, one of the great trades of the last 10 years. Trading Pacioretty to Las Vegas? A+ asset management, another all-timer. He might have gotten a little lucky with Vegas because we wanted Cody Glass but Vegas would only let us have Suzuki, so we "settled" on him.
-Part 4 - Does anyone think we'd be better off with Max Pacioretty on the wing instead of Suzuki? Does anyone here think we'd be better off right now had we traded Price for a similar package? Idem with Gallagher? I do think that over the long run, The Charlatan's loyalty to some will end up getting him fired.
-Part 5 - Unless he wins the Cup this year or the next, in which case, who gives a shit?
-I'm dead serious when I this, but those blue jerseys were fucking ugly. Like, really, really ugly.
-Before the season, I had the Habs coming in third in this division behind Toronto & Vancouver. I still think Toronto's going to win the division, but I don't think it's as clear cut as before the season started and I think so far we're clearly, at the very worst, the second best team in this division. Vancouver is a shit show and they're going to be arm-in-arm with Ottawa & Edmonton to help players in this division pad their stats year round.
-I don't know if the Habs are really, really good or just in a really bad division that has collectively agreed to be allergic to defense. I really wish we had Bawstun or Tampa Bay to play against 8 or 9 times.
-But even if the division sucks, I don't care. Makes it easier to get to the semi-finals. At the very least, we'll have a playoff round against a new team. For the first time in my lifetime, we might have a playoff round against Toronto and I'm all in for it.
-I view this season similarly to the 2012, lockout shortened season. I'm not going to draw any long-term conclusions on any player based solely on this season. Some players are going to be a lot better or a lot worse than usually before returning to their norm next season.
-The more I watch him play and the more I think about it, the more I wonder... When Joel Armia's back from his concussion and let's assume the forward group is healthy, I think the player to take out of the line-up in Drouin. Drouin's numbers are nice, but they're completely unremarkable to me. I'll see his statsheet and see his points, but I rarely remember him having a real impact on a game. When I watch Anderson, I notice how he can create space by using his size and win puck battles because of it. I watch Toffoli play and I see how smart & responsible he is with the puck. I see more from them than their point totals on a statsheet. I watch Drouin play and I see someone that avoids contact. He's the only player in the whole team that avoids physical play. There are too many times when he tries plays that lead to nothing. Will he be taken out of the lineup, I strongly doubt it. It's probably going to be either Byron or Perry. But I'm not sure I'd take either of those two out for Armia...
-The player that's impressed me the most so far this season is Jake Evans. I didn't see this coming. Last year he looked like a player that could possibly be a rotational guy, useful depth that was possibly a minor upgrade from the Matthew Peca types that we had. Now he looks like a real solid 4th line center. The talk of him being Danault's replacement is premature and pretty silly if you ask me. At the same age, Danault had a hair under 200 total NHL games and had already a 40 point season under his belt.
-I don't get the whining about Price's contract. Every single one of you didn't want to trade him when he was at the peak of his abilities. All of you wanted him signed and were happy when we did, I was one of the rare exceptions. I know there are some of you that constantly bring it up that Price isn't playing like a $10.5M goalie, like you have the winning combination to the lottery or you're vegans and just want to tell the world or something. Newsflash: Everybody here knows that Price's contract sucks and he'll never live up to it. Cool, now that we got that out of the way, let's be honest with ourselves. He hasn't been good this year, the numbers speak for themself. But can some of you please spare everyone else this bullshit that because he has the biggest goalie contract in the league, Price is supposed to stop everything, even the shots Jake Allen lets in when Price isn't playing? We get it, he's overpaid. But if some of you (hi xposbrad) want to hold fraudulent positions that Price should have stopped all of those goals Toronto let in during the season opener. Check the highlights here: https://www.dtmts.com/video/p1GOb7tvWeo and tell me which of those goals Vasilevski, Varlamov, Hart, Markstrom, etc. are stopping. Hint: Maybe the overtime goal if they're lucky. The rest of those are getting scored on every other goalie in the league.
-Part 1 - My opinion of The Charlatan hasn't changed much since the beginning of this year. The biggest organizational problem before he got here (drafting & development) is still a glaring problem 9 years later. The development aspect is greatly improved since Joel Bouchard arrived, but he kept his buddy in the minors for years after it was apparent he wasn't the man for the job. Trevor Timmins is still in the organization and holds a different title, but he's still the head of the amateur scouting staff and has final word. My opinion on drafting has changed a bit over the years; I think that when you're drafting 18 year olds and you're not drafting at the very top of the draft, luck has more to do with it than actual skill. But even then, there are some people who are hitting at a much higher frequency with their draft picks and some who consistently don't. We haven't done that much to improve that much in my eyes.
-Part 2 - I'm still not sure what the plan was during the period of 2012 to 2020. Build through the draft? Abject failure. Win with free agents? Didn't want to spend the money or when he did, players like Lucic signed for less in Deadmonton (More on that later). Ice a team and hope that Price stands on his head? I think his plan can be honestly summed up as, if the Habs don't make some noise in 2021, he's out of a job. The contracts he's given out, aside from Pacioretty's contract when he just got here and Petry's first deal, haven't been great.
-Part 3 - What The Charlatan deserves the most credit for is his decision making in terms of trades at the pro level. While he has made some mistakes, his trades have been mostly net positive for us. Trading Rinat Valiev & Matt Taormina (who haven't played a game in the NHL since) for Brett Kulak? Kulak might not be the best d-man in the world, but he's a regular NHLer, that's A+ asset management. Getting Dale Weise for Raphael Diaz, who ended up being a useful third liner during his best years in the league and then trading Weise + Flesichmann for Danault & a 2nd that we used for Romanov? That's A+++ asset management, one of the great trades of the last 10 years. Trading Pacioretty to Las Vegas? A+ asset management, another all-timer. He might have gotten a little lucky with Vegas because we wanted Cody Glass but Vegas would only let us have Suzuki, so we "settled" on him.
-Part 4 - Does anyone think we'd be better off with Max Pacioretty on the wing instead of Suzuki? Does anyone here think we'd be better off right now had we traded Price for a similar package? Idem with Gallagher? I do think that over the long run, The Charlatan's loyalty to some will end up getting him fired.
-Part 5 - Unless he wins the Cup this year or the next, in which case, who gives a shit?
-I'm dead serious when I this, but those blue jerseys were fucking ugly. Like, really, really ugly.
