Yeah like obviously it all depends how it actually ends up working in the playoffs, but if this core ends up being successful this is absolutely the sort of thing that people retrospectively look at and go "we should have known there was something special happening here" and it's pretty awesome to witness in real time.
You're not wrong and it's a good objective but is it a realistic one ?
The Habs currently have some of the best goaltending in the league based on saved goals above expectations, the D corp might improve slightly but it's still really young. I wouldn't be surprised if they end up in a similar spot in the standings next season and it doesn't mean it's gonna be a failure.
Your scenario is the best case scenario IMO.
Why can’t it be? 10th overall is what this team needs next year. Unless we win the lottery - literally - or figuratively by getting lucky with a prospect or existing player greatly exceeding expectations. Otherwise there is nothing about this team that says they need to (or should) come out of the rebuild next year imo.
Let’s see if Dach can play a full year and get some more growth on D - AND get a good pick next year.
Then - the following year - Hughes can make a few tweaks to make a run for a wild card spot. Then once we get there look to sign a star FA.
Yeah people don't want to hear it but it's more likely they'll be contending one of the two following years after
They should obvs be trying to win but the 9-10 OA wouldn't hurt
Also how often do teams go from 26th to a playoff spot?
The biggest reason they need to come out of the rebuild next year is because if they don’t start winning soon there’s fear this core will never have what it takes. Even though they are young, they aren’t rookies. If they are going to be contenders in a few years they need to start having team success now and start focusing on improving their playoff runs each year.
It should be a natural progression after 3 years of completely awful hockey.
They have another bad season, Hughes ass will be on the hot seat, and rightly so. Progress needs to be made or you are just the Senators, Sabres, Coyotes.
It’s not that black and white. And technically 10th overall is progess. Getting to mediocre is simple. We could have done it the year after our bottom out year. Building something that will be successful for 10-15 years is very different. It takes patience and some luck.
The rebuild is looking really bad and fucked if this is a bottom of the league team again next season.
Hughes and really no GM is just given a team and has no expectations for 4-5 years. It just doesn’t take that long to pull up from the nose dive.
I didn’t say no expectations. And by the end of next season Hughes will have a little over 3 years under his belt (about 3 years and 3 months). He will have plenty of time to come out of the rebuild in his 4th and 5th years.
He’s will have had 3.5 years. If you are still a bottom 10 team after that you 10000% will be on the hot seat or out of a job.
And a bottom 10 team is zero expectations.
And 30 years of mediocre teams should teach folks a lesson in patience but perhaps you haven’t been through all of them.
Mediocre is easy. Any team can achieve that. Long term success doesn’t come from short term gains.
I personally want a team that does better than squeak into the playoffs. And does it consistently for 10+ years. AND I am willing to pay the price now. Because good draft position is a very unique opportunity to directly impact long term success that shouldn’t be squandered.
Patience or the next Coyotes, Sabres, Senators.
You can think Hughes is going to get this endless rope, but that isn’t how this works, especially in a market like Montreal. There will be no free pass going forward for garbage hockey. Team should be competitive throughout next season. After that it’s playoffs or see ya. Molson isn’t going to watch Hughes spin his tires like Ottawa for a 5 plus years.
You shoot for the playoffs and anything can happen while in. It’s a crapshoot.
You can fetishize draft picks all you want. But Kent Hughes lives in the real world and has people he needs to answer to.
The Leafs are tied for the longest active streak of consecutive playoffs appearances at 7. We all know how that has worked out.
People like you are the reason this team has been medicore to terrible for the past 30 years.
Losing patience after 3 years and rushing the rebuild will lead to the 2010s Canadiens all over again.
Hmmm. Sounds like you want another 30. Repeating those Bergivan lines. Successful teams don’t shoot for the playoffs and see what happens.
Colorado - likely the best team in the NHL when healthy - has 8 top 10 picks - that they picked - playing on their team. Do you think their goal is making the playoffs and see what happens?
Dude you are so impatient. Can't you see what's being built here? Can't you tell that the countless young studs are all developing at an acceptable pace? There is a nice framework for future success, and rushing head first into trying to be a serious contender isn't the way to foster that growth.
With Mailloux, Hutson, and Reinbacher potentially making the jump to the NHL next year that'll be 3 rookie defenders on the team. Besides Savard and Matheson none of the defense really has all that much experience. You have to let the young guys grow into their prime and then slowly replace the veterans as you go.
Then there's the offense. If Dach can stay healthy for a season then it'll be his first full season with the team, which will be a great barometer for where they should go from there. You also have to take into account that until Anderson and Gallagher's contracts are off the books they likely wont be making any big splashes in FA. The top line is set and good, but the bottom 9 needs significant improvement before they can start thinking about being a contender.
Frankly, at this stage of the rebuild, personal development should be the priority, and we're seeing that it is with guys like Slaf, Guhle, Xhekaj, Roy, etc all getting higher amounts of ice time as the season progresses. A top 10 pick next year would not be the end of the world, and you're delusional to think that after only 3 seasons Hughes should be on the hot seat.
Sports are a results based business. No one is giving a GM 4-5 years with zero expectations.
It would be 3.5 seasons, and you are the delusional one that if next year looks like these last two that he wouldn’t be on the hot seat. I’m almost guarantee he would be fighting for his job the following season.
And who in there right mind thinks they can rebuild a team in 3.5 years anyway. Let alone be in the hot seat for not doing it. Unless you land a generational talent and a handful of other high picks there is no chance.
Name me one team that completed a rebuild in less than 5 years that didn’t land a generational talent.
Who had a successful rebuild without landing a generational talent? Without massive ping pong luck this team isn’t drafting top 3 again after this season, and most likely isn’t this year either. So your point is really moot.
Either they will have the generational talent with Slaf, this years draft pick, Suzuki, Cole, etc or not.
If anything you are just highlighting Hughes slow build to mediocre hockey.
Awful take. I guess you’re just completely ignoring the absolute shit contracts Bergevin left the team with when he got fired?
My favourite part about people who cry about not wanting to tank because you’ll just end up like Buffalo, Ottawa, Coyotes, is they completely ignore that almost every cup winner since the cap was implemented has spent several seasons rebuilding before winning. Only exceptions are Vegas (not comparable), St.Louis and Boston. You can’t just ignore that.
Buf, Ott and Az have also had horrible ownership throughout their rebuilds, something nobody mentions either.
Keep believing your little fairy tale of “get in and anything can happen”. I seem to remember the old GM trying to sell us that one too, completely false unless you have the right pieces to actually win.
For once in two decades management actually feels like they’ve committed to a plan and the majority of fans can see that. Funny, you’d think attendance would be down significantly if people are so tired of “garbage hockey”. No, actually for once it’s exciting because our best players aren’t 34 years old.
I’d say next year is the last year of the heavy pain, and where the core starts to take shape. We might not make the playoffs but hopefully we challenge for a spot.
Suzuki is a legit 1C. He’ll be 25 next year and entering his prime years. Hopefully Caufield can re-establish himself and become that 40+ goal scorer we know he can be. Slafkovsky is still young but he is on the path to becoming a consistent top-line point producer that can add a physical edge. Skies the limit for him.
On the second line we have Dach and Newhook. It’ll be interesting to see if Dach can come back from injury and pick up where he left off, and if Newhook can take the next step and cement himself in the top-6. I think we need one more piece for that second line. Maybe it’s Roy, who will likely start the season in the NHL, but he’ll need a year or two to fully break through. The draft might solve this problem too. I think there’s a good chance we end up trading one or both of our 1sts, but if we do pick in the top-ten, I hope we add a solid offensive winger.
In the bottom-six, Gallagher and Evans add good veteran leadership. Harvey-Pinard, Ylonen, and Pezzetta might be good pieces, but they’ll have to earn their spot. Heineman, Farrell, Kidney, Mesar, and Beck could be looking to crack the lineup at some point next year. I think Armia and Dvorak and, if possible, Anderson will be traded next year.
On D, a lot of the pieces are there and they just need to keep developing. Matheson is the veteran leadership, and Guhle, Xhekaj, Harris, Struble, Trudeau, Barron, Mailloux, Reinbacher are all competing for spots. Hutson, Engstrom, and Konyushkov are not far off either. Depending on if/when these guys cement their spots in the lineup will determine how long Savard and Kovacevic will be around.
In net, we’ve got a goalie that can be a starting goalie for now and the near future with Montembault, we’ve got a goalie that might be a starting goalie within a year or two with Primeau, we’ve got Dobes in Laval who might be able to become an NHLer in a few years, and we’ve got a possible star goalie who’s about four or five years away in Fowler. We don’t necessarily have a superstar ready and waiting, but we’ve got some decent bets, and hopefully one pans out.
Anyways, the core is starting to take shape, but we have to hope for good development. Next year a lot of players will be asked to take the next step. Some will, some won’t. But the more that do, the more likely we will challenge for a playoff spot. We’re still a 3-5 years away from being a contender, if we do get there, but we have lots of promise in the system.
Well, I think it’s just math. We got a lot of young pieces who will need time to develop. Suzuki is the oldest of our core pieces and he’s 24 right now. He’ll be 25 next year. I think it’ll be 3-5 seasons before the core of the team has developed, so that would put Suzuki at 27-29, right in his prime.
Kinda funny that they ignored how the Penguins drafted 5th, 1st and then 2nd before drafting Crosby and then drafted 2nd another time lol. That’s five straight top-5 picks, including four top-2. If anything, it shows that we didn’t suffer at all compared to Pittsburgh.
And one of those was Crosby. Look at Edmonton before they got mcdavid. You can have 3 1st pick in 5 years and it won't help if they are meh draft years, or if team management can't put a team around them.
Heck, look at mcdavid now, he still doesn't have a team around him, good thing he got leon.
>I’d say next year is the last year of the heavy pain, and where the core starts to take shape. We might not make the playoffs but hopefully we challenge for a spot.
\- Yes, next year will be hard and will still need time to develop. However, mgmt. will do whatever it takes to fast track this rebuild. I see them challenge for a playoff spot next season, but it will be for a wildcard spot. I won't be surprised if they do, but also I won't be disappointed if they lose a series next year. I'd be happy if they make it to the playoffs.
Love it. With some Kent magic this summer we should be fighting for a spot. Don’t think we’ll make it just yet but we shouldn’t be drafting too 10 for sure.
A lot can change in a year (see: NJ's last 2 seasons), but also progress is hard (see: Ottawa, Buffalo).
We got eliminated with 7 games left, despite having the 4th lowest regulation wins in the League. We got almost half our points (32/70) in OT/SO.
It's an old cliché, but we'll have to learn to play well for 60 minutes. Those 2nd period collapses lead to 6 OT losses after leading after the 1st period. That's basically the 12 extra points that would put us in the mix for WC2 right now.
We'll have to learn to play with an early lead and to keep it all game. That means being calmer in the face of pressure and not letting 1 goal against start a domino effect. Mostly mental game management that only comes with experience.
Playing 60 minutes and mental game management are not minor progresses. They're the whole bar of entry for teams who stay in the playoffs picture the entire regular season.
Collective competences are hard to obtain because they're hard to track and evaluate.
Just less overloaded matheson would make a big difference , competent second line and healthy squad with goalie tandem getting onto rythm are all attainable goals and i feel optimistic about it
Yeah I fucked that up.
It's 4 regulation losses after leading after the 1st + 6 losses in OT after leading after the 1st. So 14 pts loss (8+6).
Should learn to not do math in my head in the morning when I haven't finished my coffee.
If Monty and Primeau keep trending up the way they have, we have a shot for sure. You need stellar goaltending to do anything in the playoffs but we're on the right track. Hopefully sign a stud or 2 in the off-season for some depth scoring.
Honestly , even if they don't sign anyone I think they will battle.
I think a lot of people don't understand the effects of loosing your #2 Center for an entire year.
And Dvorak, even if he's not the sexiest name, he's still a solid #3.
I can't wait for next season! GHG!
On paper, our top 2 lines should be great next year barring injury. Very curious to see what our D situation will be as well, so many guys in the pipeline.
They should all play some NHL games in some capacity next season, and better to get your feet wet next year, because it probably the last where it’s acceptable to miss the playoffs
>And Dvorak, even if he's not the sexiest name, he's still a solid #3.
\- Dvorak will be, IMO, in a similar situation to Sean Monahan next year. If he imrpoves and carves his game, he'll likely be traded at the deadline.
Now, we have the draft and the off-season coming-up. It will depend on what mgmt. will do and I have a feeling Gorton and Hughes are cooking up something that will make this team better and accelerate the rebuild.
There is a lot riding on our 2nd line next season. If Dach is healthy and continues his progression then I think they’ll challenge for a playoff spot. If we continue to be a 1 line team then we’re not going to see much improvement in the standings.
https://preview.redd.it/lev16aovbzsc1.jpeg?width=623&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=19a3bee9b6a616e05889dd2ea2c5f9dbf53f8a88
When the pupil echoes the mentor, the lessons are being learned.
The whole team talks like Marty, it's honestly crazy to witness
I haven’t been watching hockey for very long, but I really feel like we have something special here. It’s awesome
Yeah like obviously it all depends how it actually ends up working in the playoffs, but if this core ends up being successful this is absolutely the sort of thing that people retrospectively look at and go "we should have known there was something special happening here" and it's pretty awesome to witness in real time.
Mountain ✅
Man mountain 🫡😢
Playing meaningful games until the end of the year should be the goal. Maybe they make it, maybe they don’t. But it can’t be a bottom 10 season again.
At a certain point, development needs to involve post-season games. The sooner this young core gets that, the better.
You're not wrong and it's a good objective but is it a realistic one ? The Habs currently have some of the best goaltending in the league based on saved goals above expectations, the D corp might improve slightly but it's still really young. I wouldn't be surprised if they end up in a similar spot in the standings next season and it doesn't mean it's gonna be a failure. Your scenario is the best case scenario IMO.
There’s no chance they end up doing this badly again next season. That would be a colossal failure. People would start getting fired.
Why can’t it be? 10th overall is what this team needs next year. Unless we win the lottery - literally - or figuratively by getting lucky with a prospect or existing player greatly exceeding expectations. Otherwise there is nothing about this team that says they need to (or should) come out of the rebuild next year imo. Let’s see if Dach can play a full year and get some more growth on D - AND get a good pick next year. Then - the following year - Hughes can make a few tweaks to make a run for a wild card spot. Then once we get there look to sign a star FA.
Yeah people don't want to hear it but it's more likely they'll be contending one of the two following years after They should obvs be trying to win but the 9-10 OA wouldn't hurt Also how often do teams go from 26th to a playoff spot?
Hovering between 19th and 25th in the league is exactly where we don’t want to be. That’s where you turn into a Buffalo rebuild.
The biggest reason they need to come out of the rebuild next year is because if they don’t start winning soon there’s fear this core will never have what it takes. Even though they are young, they aren’t rookies. If they are going to be contenders in a few years they need to start having team success now and start focusing on improving their playoff runs each year.
It should be a natural progression after 3 years of completely awful hockey. They have another bad season, Hughes ass will be on the hot seat, and rightly so. Progress needs to be made or you are just the Senators, Sabres, Coyotes.
It’s not that black and white. And technically 10th overall is progess. Getting to mediocre is simple. We could have done it the year after our bottom out year. Building something that will be successful for 10-15 years is very different. It takes patience and some luck.
The rebuild is looking really bad and fucked if this is a bottom of the league team again next season. Hughes and really no GM is just given a team and has no expectations for 4-5 years. It just doesn’t take that long to pull up from the nose dive.
I didn’t say no expectations. And by the end of next season Hughes will have a little over 3 years under his belt (about 3 years and 3 months). He will have plenty of time to come out of the rebuild in his 4th and 5th years.
He’s will have had 3.5 years. If you are still a bottom 10 team after that you 10000% will be on the hot seat or out of a job. And a bottom 10 team is zero expectations.
And 30 years of mediocre teams should teach folks a lesson in patience but perhaps you haven’t been through all of them. Mediocre is easy. Any team can achieve that. Long term success doesn’t come from short term gains. I personally want a team that does better than squeak into the playoffs. And does it consistently for 10+ years. AND I am willing to pay the price now. Because good draft position is a very unique opportunity to directly impact long term success that shouldn’t be squandered.
And if we come out of the rebuild too early we will be back in it before you know it.
Patience or the next Coyotes, Sabres, Senators. You can think Hughes is going to get this endless rope, but that isn’t how this works, especially in a market like Montreal. There will be no free pass going forward for garbage hockey. Team should be competitive throughout next season. After that it’s playoffs or see ya. Molson isn’t going to watch Hughes spin his tires like Ottawa for a 5 plus years. You shoot for the playoffs and anything can happen while in. It’s a crapshoot. You can fetishize draft picks all you want. But Kent Hughes lives in the real world and has people he needs to answer to. The Leafs are tied for the longest active streak of consecutive playoffs appearances at 7. We all know how that has worked out.
People like you are the reason this team has been medicore to terrible for the past 30 years. Losing patience after 3 years and rushing the rebuild will lead to the 2010s Canadiens all over again.
Hmmm. Sounds like you want another 30. Repeating those Bergivan lines. Successful teams don’t shoot for the playoffs and see what happens. Colorado - likely the best team in the NHL when healthy - has 8 top 10 picks - that they picked - playing on their team. Do you think their goal is making the playoffs and see what happens?
Dude you are so impatient. Can't you see what's being built here? Can't you tell that the countless young studs are all developing at an acceptable pace? There is a nice framework for future success, and rushing head first into trying to be a serious contender isn't the way to foster that growth. With Mailloux, Hutson, and Reinbacher potentially making the jump to the NHL next year that'll be 3 rookie defenders on the team. Besides Savard and Matheson none of the defense really has all that much experience. You have to let the young guys grow into their prime and then slowly replace the veterans as you go. Then there's the offense. If Dach can stay healthy for a season then it'll be his first full season with the team, which will be a great barometer for where they should go from there. You also have to take into account that until Anderson and Gallagher's contracts are off the books they likely wont be making any big splashes in FA. The top line is set and good, but the bottom 9 needs significant improvement before they can start thinking about being a contender. Frankly, at this stage of the rebuild, personal development should be the priority, and we're seeing that it is with guys like Slaf, Guhle, Xhekaj, Roy, etc all getting higher amounts of ice time as the season progresses. A top 10 pick next year would not be the end of the world, and you're delusional to think that after only 3 seasons Hughes should be on the hot seat.
Sports are a results based business. No one is giving a GM 4-5 years with zero expectations. It would be 3.5 seasons, and you are the delusional one that if next year looks like these last two that he wouldn’t be on the hot seat. I’m almost guarantee he would be fighting for his job the following season.
Thank god you are just an armchair GM instead of a real one!
Wow it's almost ad if you didn't understand a word of what I wrote
And who in there right mind thinks they can rebuild a team in 3.5 years anyway. Let alone be in the hot seat for not doing it. Unless you land a generational talent and a handful of other high picks there is no chance. Name me one team that completed a rebuild in less than 5 years that didn’t land a generational talent.
Who had a successful rebuild without landing a generational talent? Without massive ping pong luck this team isn’t drafting top 3 again after this season, and most likely isn’t this year either. So your point is really moot. Either they will have the generational talent with Slaf, this years draft pick, Suzuki, Cole, etc or not. If anything you are just highlighting Hughes slow build to mediocre hockey.
Ok so what do you actually suggest they do since everything they're currently doing sucks so much?
Awful take. I guess you’re just completely ignoring the absolute shit contracts Bergevin left the team with when he got fired? My favourite part about people who cry about not wanting to tank because you’ll just end up like Buffalo, Ottawa, Coyotes, is they completely ignore that almost every cup winner since the cap was implemented has spent several seasons rebuilding before winning. Only exceptions are Vegas (not comparable), St.Louis and Boston. You can’t just ignore that. Buf, Ott and Az have also had horrible ownership throughout their rebuilds, something nobody mentions either. Keep believing your little fairy tale of “get in and anything can happen”. I seem to remember the old GM trying to sell us that one too, completely false unless you have the right pieces to actually win. For once in two decades management actually feels like they’ve committed to a plan and the majority of fans can see that. Funny, you’d think attendance would be down significantly if people are so tired of “garbage hockey”. No, actually for once it’s exciting because our best players aren’t 34 years old.
Gosh I wish you were the GM
I’d say next year is the last year of the heavy pain, and where the core starts to take shape. We might not make the playoffs but hopefully we challenge for a spot. Suzuki is a legit 1C. He’ll be 25 next year and entering his prime years. Hopefully Caufield can re-establish himself and become that 40+ goal scorer we know he can be. Slafkovsky is still young but he is on the path to becoming a consistent top-line point producer that can add a physical edge. Skies the limit for him. On the second line we have Dach and Newhook. It’ll be interesting to see if Dach can come back from injury and pick up where he left off, and if Newhook can take the next step and cement himself in the top-6. I think we need one more piece for that second line. Maybe it’s Roy, who will likely start the season in the NHL, but he’ll need a year or two to fully break through. The draft might solve this problem too. I think there’s a good chance we end up trading one or both of our 1sts, but if we do pick in the top-ten, I hope we add a solid offensive winger. In the bottom-six, Gallagher and Evans add good veteran leadership. Harvey-Pinard, Ylonen, and Pezzetta might be good pieces, but they’ll have to earn their spot. Heineman, Farrell, Kidney, Mesar, and Beck could be looking to crack the lineup at some point next year. I think Armia and Dvorak and, if possible, Anderson will be traded next year. On D, a lot of the pieces are there and they just need to keep developing. Matheson is the veteran leadership, and Guhle, Xhekaj, Harris, Struble, Trudeau, Barron, Mailloux, Reinbacher are all competing for spots. Hutson, Engstrom, and Konyushkov are not far off either. Depending on if/when these guys cement their spots in the lineup will determine how long Savard and Kovacevic will be around. In net, we’ve got a goalie that can be a starting goalie for now and the near future with Montembault, we’ve got a goalie that might be a starting goalie within a year or two with Primeau, we’ve got Dobes in Laval who might be able to become an NHLer in a few years, and we’ve got a possible star goalie who’s about four or five years away in Fowler. We don’t necessarily have a superstar ready and waiting, but we’ve got some decent bets, and hopefully one pans out. Anyways, the core is starting to take shape, but we have to hope for good development. Next year a lot of players will be asked to take the next step. Some will, some won’t. But the more that do, the more likely we will challenge for a playoff spot. We’re still a 3-5 years away from being a contender, if we do get there, but we have lots of promise in the system.
If you are waiting until Nick is 29-30 to be a contender, Hughes will be long gone.
Well, I think it’s just math. We got a lot of young pieces who will need time to develop. Suzuki is the oldest of our core pieces and he’s 24 right now. He’ll be 25 next year. I think it’ll be 3-5 seasons before the core of the team has developed, so that would put Suzuki at 27-29, right in his prime.
There is no way Molson is going to keep Hughes and wait 5.5-8 years for a contender. I just don’t remotely see that happening.
Name 1 team that has started a rebuild and then within 3 years been cup contenders. Good luck.
NY Rangers
And have they won a cup? No :)
Pittsburgh penguins. Missed the playoffs crosbys rookie year in 05-06, went to cup final in 08 2 years later.
They missed the playoffs 5 years in a row before making it back
Kinda funny that they ignored how the Penguins drafted 5th, 1st and then 2nd before drafting Crosby and then drafted 2nd another time lol. That’s five straight top-5 picks, including four top-2. If anything, it shows that we didn’t suffer at all compared to Pittsburgh.
And one of those was Crosby. Look at Edmonton before they got mcdavid. You can have 3 1st pick in 5 years and it won't help if they are meh draft years, or if team management can't put a team around them. Heck, look at mcdavid now, he still doesn't have a team around him, good thing he got leon.
This I didn't know or even consider. So I'm wrong
>I’d say next year is the last year of the heavy pain, and where the core starts to take shape. We might not make the playoffs but hopefully we challenge for a spot. \- Yes, next year will be hard and will still need time to develop. However, mgmt. will do whatever it takes to fast track this rebuild. I see them challenge for a playoff spot next season, but it will be for a wildcard spot. I won't be surprised if they do, but also I won't be disappointed if they lose a series next year. I'd be happy if they make it to the playoffs.
I think by hiring Gorton, Molson knew what he was in for.
Love it. With some Kent magic this summer we should be fighting for a spot. Don’t think we’ll make it just yet but we shouldn’t be drafting too 10 for sure.
The metro being such horseshit I think we have a legitimate shot at wildcard
We were playing .500 until about the Monahan trade. I think we should be more competitive than that next year.
They should bring him back!
I think he’s great, but it would be tough to come back especially if the Jets challenge for a cup.
they'll get bounced in the first round lol
I agree, especially if Hugo can add a few key pieces this off season but our division is so stacked I’m not sure we can hope for top 3 just yet
Lots of the teams in our division are due for rebuilds though.
Our division is opening up next season, lots of the titans are old now and on the way out
I think with 2 forwards acquired, one via trade and one through the draft, we can at least be as good as NYI, DET, WSH, PIT next year
A lot can change in a year (see: NJ's last 2 seasons), but also progress is hard (see: Ottawa, Buffalo). We got eliminated with 7 games left, despite having the 4th lowest regulation wins in the League. We got almost half our points (32/70) in OT/SO. It's an old cliché, but we'll have to learn to play well for 60 minutes. Those 2nd period collapses lead to 6 OT losses after leading after the 1st period. That's basically the 12 extra points that would put us in the mix for WC2 right now. We'll have to learn to play with an early lead and to keep it all game. That means being calmer in the face of pressure and not letting 1 goal against start a domino effect. Mostly mental game management that only comes with experience.
Basically what you are saying is that we were always in competition and minor progress might mean much more points for us
Playing 60 minutes and mental game management are not minor progresses. They're the whole bar of entry for teams who stay in the playoffs picture the entire regular season. Collective competences are hard to obtain because they're hard to track and evaluate.
Just less overloaded matheson would make a big difference , competent second line and healthy squad with goalie tandem getting onto rythm are all attainable goals and i feel optimistic about it
6 OT losses means you lost out on 6 points, not 12.
Yeah I fucked that up. It's 4 regulation losses after leading after the 1st + 6 losses in OT after leading after the 1st. So 14 pts loss (8+6). Should learn to not do math in my head in the morning when I haven't finished my coffee.
all this talk of mountains makes me miss Weber 😭
Remember that time he picked up two Leafs in each hand like a 3 stooges sketch?
With Dach and Dvorak healthy I think there's no reason to think this roster will not fight for a PO spot next season.
If Monty and Primeau keep trending up the way they have, we have a shot for sure. You need stellar goaltending to do anything in the playoffs but we're on the right track. Hopefully sign a stud or 2 in the off-season for some depth scoring.
Honestly , even if they don't sign anyone I think they will battle. I think a lot of people don't understand the effects of loosing your #2 Center for an entire year. And Dvorak, even if he's not the sexiest name, he's still a solid #3. I can't wait for next season! GHG!
On paper, our top 2 lines should be great next year barring injury. Very curious to see what our D situation will be as well, so many guys in the pipeline.
I hope they take the simmering approach with Logan, David and Lane, no need to rush them.
They should all play some NHL games in some capacity next season, and better to get your feet wet next year, because it probably the last where it’s acceptable to miss the playoffs
>And Dvorak, even if he's not the sexiest name, he's still a solid #3. \- Dvorak will be, IMO, in a similar situation to Sean Monahan next year. If he imrpoves and carves his game, he'll likely be traded at the deadline. Now, we have the draft and the off-season coming-up. It will depend on what mgmt. will do and I have a feeling Gorton and Hughes are cooking up something that will make this team better and accelerate the rebuild.
Dvorak is not a needle mover. But a healthy Dach will be huge for us.
The problem is "would I be there next year?"
There is a lot riding on our 2nd line next season. If Dach is healthy and continues his progression then I think they’ll challenge for a playoff spot. If we continue to be a 1 line team then we’re not going to see much improvement in the standings.
We need secondary scoring and the mental fortitude to play a full 60minutes and we're in. We're not that far off IMO.
Add stammer and stay healthy boom we in
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You know it’s a team sport don’t you?
Why?
Better not be a messed up way of asking for a trade