Montreal @ Florida Thursday Mar 16 @ 7 PM ET

[drkcloud]

What a disgrace to the league and a once revered franchise

[Willie Dog]

Tkajerk and Gudas... douchebac Inc.

[folatre]

Did Montembeault tweak something? Because Allen actually is playing even worse.

[Willie Dog]

Kovacevic couldn't make a pass to save his life

[jkr]

Mar 16, 2023 18:44:22 GMT -5 folatre said:

Did Montembeault tweak something? Because Allen actually is playing even worse.

Maybe they can get the EBUG in there. Couldn't be any worse.

[Willie Dog]

I'm not watching this anymore..

[jkr]

Mar 16, 2023 18:42:18 GMT -5 drkcloud said:

What a disgrace to the league and a once revered franchise

Totally agree. The close losses I can tolerate. But being a punching bag for d!cks like Tkachuk and Maurice , who won't even make the playoffs, is just wrong. Friggin embarassing.

I hope MSL tears a strip off of them. FFS, with Bobrovsky in there, all that need are shots on goal.

[Willie Dog]

Is Guhle hurt? Why is he playing ffs...

[folatre]

The only penalties at this stage should be roughing, boarding, interference, and fighting. What the frick is with all of these stupid hooks, holds, and trips? The coaches have the most penalized team in the league and a bottom five penalty kill. What does Gorton and Hughes make of that?

[jkr]

Of their 4 goals , 3 are by rookies & a 4th liner. Where are the vets that might be able to at least make this debacle respectable. Drouin, Hoffman, I'm looking at you.

[NWTHabsFan]

Mar 16, 2023 19:26:57 GMT -5 folatre said:

The only penalties at this stage should be roughing, boarding, interference, and fighting. What the frick is with all of these stupid hooks, holds, and trips? The coaches have the most penalized team in the league and a bottom five penalty kill. What does Gorton and Hughes make of that?

Burrows has a Teflon suit. I still don’t get it.

[seventeen]

Watching (occasionally) the Pens-Rags game. Announcers said Rangers have lost 46 man games to injury this season. We’ve done that in a week. I wouldn’t bet on any team that’s been that healthy. Adversity is bound to strike in the playoffs and they haven’t faced any this year.

[Willie Dog]

Mar 16, 2023 19:40:58 GMT -5 seventeen said:

Watching (occasionally) the Pens-Rags game. Announcers said Rangers have lost 46 man games to injury this season. We’ve done that in a week. I wouldn’t bet on any team that’s been that healthy. Adversity is bound to strike in the playoffs and they haven’t faced any this year.

[Willie Dog]

Cmon refs... give us 5 more powerplays

[folatre]

Yet another BS call. That is a five minute major crosscheck? Yeah, whatever.

[jkr]

What did Kovacevivc do. NHL.com says he was thrown out.

[folatre]

He must have loudly aired his disagreement to the refs?

[Willie Dog]

Mar 16, 2023 20:39:20 GMT -5 folatre said:

Yet another BS call. That is a five minute major crosscheck? Yeah, whatever.

Marty needs to stop being Mr. Nice guy and call out some of these useless refs

[seventeen]

Here’s what I see with rhe Tkachuk family too often. Matt has 4 points. Three if them came on the 7th, 8th, and 9th Florida goals. Clutch.

[Willie Dog]

Mar 16, 2023 20:46:49 GMT -5 seventeen said:

Here’s what I see with rhe Tkachuk family too often. Matt has 4 points. Three if them came on the 7th, 8th, and 9th Florida goals. Clutch.

A 🤡 father and 🤡 kids

[jkr]

Mar 16, 2023 20:45:42 GMT -5 folatre said:

He must have loudly aired his disagreement to the refs?

If these snowflakes cant take some criticism they're in the wrong job. Throwing a guy out for jawing at you? Bush.

[folatre]

Montreal gives up the defensive blue line way too easily and in general in all three zones gives opponents way too much time and space with the puck. Combined with the propensity to take so many softish penalties, these dynamics make it very hard for Habs goalies. For sure, there are saves Allen and Montembeault need to make on nightly basis which they deserve responsibility for, but management needs to look long and hard about inserting a 'system' type veteran coach to help Marty. Guys like Lemaire and Robinson are not really options anymore because they have effectively retired from coaching and have no interest in the day to day grind of the long NHL season. However, it could be that someone like Jacques Martin still enjoys the work involved.

[habsorbed]

Mar 16, 2023 13:32:04 GMT -5 seventeen said:

Mar 16, 2023 1:12:42 GMT -5 habsorbed said:

Sorry but I'm rooting for Fla in this game. This isn't about Fla sneaking into the playoffs. It's about improving our chances at getting Bedard, or as high a draft pick as possible.

I think we got a better chance of picking up Bedard with a Mtl loss. No doubt if Fla finishes 11th worst we get a 3% better chance in the lottery. Meanwhile if Mtl falls further in the standings we only improve our odds by 1% per team that we let get ahead of us. But while that may be the straight math, one also has to look at the likelihood of those scenarios playing out.

Fla is currently in 14th worst position. So for them too fall to 11th and be eligible for the lottery and first overall, they have to drop 3 places. That means based on the current standings, that 3 of 4 teams (Caps, Sens, Sabres and Wings) need to pass Fla. That ain't going to happen. It's possible one and maybe two of them will pass Fla which means Fla is in 12th place and not eligible for the Bedard lottery. In my view it is extremely unlikely Fla will fall behind 3 of those teams. In fact, I don't believe any of the 4 will do better than Fla down the stretch. Ott is toast and flaming out, and Buff and Wings are struggling. I don't think Caps are that good altho given Ovie and their experience they might pull it off. Bottom line: if Fla doesn't get to 11th, which is likely, we get no benefit for the Bedard pick.

Meanwhile the Habs are in a very tight race. Were are currently 6th worst and could finish anywhere from 5th worst to 9th worst. Every lost point matters. Finishing 5th worst gives us a 8.5% chance at Bedard and 9th giving us a 5% chance. Straight up that's a 3.5% deferential which is more than the 3% pickup if Fla crashes. Moreover, we have a legitimate chance at 5th worst if we can let Philly get ahead of us. They are currently 1 point behind with a game in hand. That would improve our odds from 7.5% to 8.5%. Any points we gain may allow us to finish 9th worst and only get a 5% chance in the lottery.

And lastly, leaving aside Bedard and the lottery, having the 5th pick over the 6th pick, is a lot more valuable than having the 11th pick over the 12th pick. The further up the draft one picks the less a few places matter.

In the end, I believe it is much more important for the Habs to do poorly, than Fla. So I'm rooting for Fla tomorrow., Obviously, the last thing we want is a 3 point game.

It's interesting how 2 people can look at the same thing but come to 2 different conclusions. In this case, the starting point is important. Your goal is Bedard and maxing the probabilities of getting him. I'm resigned to 'que sera sera' and if we get him great, but if not, I want the two best picks I can get. Neither of us is wrong, just having a different primary goal.  The Habs, while not locked into the 6th pick, are probably going to finish in that 5-7 range. I don't see that improving any. There are 16 games to go, Anaheim is 6 points back, the loser point exists etc. etc. It's very hard for teams to make up points late and if Anaheim does pass us, I will celebrate, but I'm not counting on it.

Then we go to Florida. Between Nashville and Detroit there are 7 teams separated by 6 points. Florida is 19th meaning we currently hold the 14th pick. The best case scenario is if Florida can go on a losing streak and get passed by the 4 teams behind them, that improves our pick to 10th. That is unlikely to happen, but even if they can fall to 21st, our pick would then be 12th and fall into the 2nd tier rather than being just out of it unless another team makes a mistake or goes off the board.

So that's my reasoning. Get better picks overall rather than hoping for the the one big win (which is in play regardless). If Florida drops 2 places, it improves our Bedard odds the same as the Habs dropping 1 spot. We're not 'catching' Philly and Anaheim is a tough one too. Better to hope the Panthers fall. A convenient injury to Barkov would do it.

Pretty clear that Allen and Monty agree with me

Mtl plays Fla again March 30. Let's see if we bring a different analysis at that time.

[jkr]

Dont know why but it just hit me now. Three games since Monday & 21 goals allowed. Yikes.

If there's a plus, they scored 15.

[habsorbed]

Mar 17, 2023 2:47:05 GMT -5 jkr said:

Dont know why but it just hit me now. Three games since Monday & 21 goals allowed. Yikes.

If there's a plus, they scored 15.

I suspect it may be a result of other teams picking up their game in the homestretch and we have already picked up our game way beyond what could be expected. This line-up is pretty weak. Never less than 3 rookie dmen, a slew of AHLers up front and rookies, and no #1 goalie. And don't get me going on the has-been vets. No team is icing that kind of line-up. I'm actually thinking Anaheim and Chicago might catch us.

[NWTHabsFan]

So his five and game from last night has now turned into a supplemental fine. Nice work NHL!

[CentreHice]

I was asking about being in records' territory as it was occurring.

CBS Sports

1. Panthers record for goals in one period - 7. (*First team to score 7 in the first period since the Hartford Whalers on Oct. 19, 1985.*)

2. Tied record for first period goals - 10.

3. The fastest first 10 goals of a game.

“I have never seen anything like that. In 25 years, never seen that many goals,’’ Florida coach Paul Maurice said. “There were more goals than chances to score and that is a rarity. All I can say is it affected the game for both teams and I do not think anything on video is useful to the game of hockey. It was almost Twilight Zone: Every puck went in.”

==================================================================

* It was against...the Habs. Final score, 11-6.

[jkr]

"More goals than chances to score".

That quote is quite an indictment on the goaltending.

[folatre]

For sure, the roster was never playoff quality when all hands were on deck. But it is just so depleted right now that it scarcely resembles a NHL team. And while it is nice that some of these marginal types are getting their cookies and hearing the home crowd cheer for them, to be honest most of these guys have exacerbated the existing problems with Montreal's team defense. With all due respect, guys like Pitlick, Gurianov, and Richard are awful defensively. They are consistently on the wrong side of the puck (hence why the team struggles so much at shot suppression) and take soft stupid penalties. And that is an issue when the lineup already had mainstays like Drouin and Hoffman who are all too often not doing the right thing defensively.

Thankfully there are only a few games left in the season.

Florida's pick is definitely not going to be in the lottery, though I continue to believe the Panthers will miss the playoffs. Bobrovsky is playing more games than he can handle at this stage of his career and he's leaking goals. Plus, when Paul Maurice is the guy behind the bench, Florida will not have the coaching advantage.

[Willie Dog]

Mar 17, 2023 10:00:22 GMT -5 NWTHabsFan said:

So his five and game from last night has now turned into a supplemental fine. Nice work NHL!

But a baboon like Gudas can tackle players... this league blows