Montreal @ Winnipeg Monday Dec 18 @ 7:30 PM EST

[NWTHabsFan]

Perfetti is a rare small guy on a pretty heavy Jets team.

[Skilly]

Ever notice when MTL passes it bounces over a stick or is just out of reach, but when other teams pass it is tape to tape ... laziness

[Skilly]

The goal is on Evans again, in my opinion.

Evans flipped the puck to the point. If he took one stride and looked to the point he gets that out of the zone. Instead he blindly flips it as soon as he touches it

[Willie Dog]

Sometimes I wish our D would just shoot the puck off the glass

[Skilly]

Sometimes I wish Armia would fall down on those two on ones

[Skilly]

That first PP unit is frustrating to watch ... constant turnovers

[NWTHabsFan]

PP into OT. Normally, that should be a huge advantage. Then, there is Burrows

[drkcloud]

Interesting MSL is drawing up the PP not Burrows

[Skilly]

Someone has to shoot the damn puck

The first unit plays keep away with no intention on putting a puck on net

[Skilly]

Barron shoots and scores .... the "stars" wouldn't shoot

[NWTHabsFan]

Barron the GOAT 😳

[Willie Dog]

No more Matheson on the PP... Barron has a better shot

[Skilly]

Don't look now, but MTL is two points out of a playoff spot 👀👀

[Willie Dog]

I like winning in Winterbug ever since they were beating the habs in MTS Place and were chanting we want Carey... Price was injured

[folatre]

Good movement on the OT PP. Suzuki and Caufield can sling it around fast and the Jets kind of lost track of Barron considering that in a 4v3 situation the point man can smartly get low enough to uncork a wicked wrister. And that is one of the best tools in Barron's toolbox.

[Tankdriver]

I just wish we had a better defenceman coach. NOthing against robidas or the rest of the staff but man I agree Richardson would look good. Is Gerard Gallant available?

[habsorbed]

Dec 18, 2023 22:11:53 GMT -5 Willie Dog said:

No more Matheson on the PP... Barron has a better shot

Same. I've said many times, Matheson should be on the 2nd PP where he can do all the skating and puck hogging he wants. Get a passer on the point on the 1st PP and we'd be in business.

[habsorbed]

Maybe Struble'w worst game as aHab. Hope it was just an off night and not the real Struble and why he took forever to get to the NHL.

[habsorbed]

Don't know what to think about Cole. He fumbles, bobbles and misses so many passes. His stick looks like it's made of cooked spaghetti. Is it his shoulder has no strength? Between his poor shooting and the fumbles i am starting to get concerned.

[Boston_Habs]

Sell high on Justin Barron? I'm not a huge fan but he maybe has a knack for putting the puck in the net. Beyond that we have serious logjam on the blueline in terms of good young players and prospects: Guhle, Harris, Barron, Xhekaj, Struble, Hutson, Reinbacher. Nice problem to have and best case that's going to be the position of strength from which HuGo fills other needs. Not saying it has to be now, but you also want to sell high on the right guys.

Personally, I don't think anyone on D is untouchable (including Guhle) since I'm not sure anyone is a legit top pair, All Star level player.

[seventeen]

Projecting is so difficult. I'm usually better at picking out who is going to not make it, but even then, I'm wrong often enough to keep me humble. One key aspect to me is how well a player processes the game. If they're anticipating well, but not reacting well, that could be a physical thing and that can be corrected. (On that point, why does Matheson lose an edge so often, coughing up the puck?). That's probably the single most important skill to me. I'm really high on Struble, with my reasoning centering around his panic threshhold. He seems to have ice in his veins when he has the puck. He has moved it when necessary and at other times held on to it when I have thought he was going to lose it, yet space opens up and he makes a better play than one I anticipated. Another aspect of his is the position he leaves his teammate in when he does pass him the puck. He catches guys at speed, or in open ice, but seemingly always in a position where his buddy has space and time to make a play.

So Struble is a guy I think will be top pair. Not a flashy guy like Matheson, but perhaps more productive and certainly not giving his coach near heart attacks like Matheson does. (My belief is still that Guhle will be our top D.  He's going through a rough patch, but that's normal.  He's going to be only 22 in January.  Lots of greatness to come. 

So...back to Boston's worry, that none of our guys will be a legit top pair, All Star level player. That's top 4 in the league as there are only 2 all star teams selected. He may be right, but do we need a top 4 guy? What if Guhle is the 7th best dman in the league? Is that elite enough to be the dominant dman a SC winner needs? IMO, Guhle may reach that level, Reinbacher may get there, Struble may get there. Hutson will be elite offensively but perhaps not defensively, like Samuel Girard. We haven't seen Engstrom. We have enough numbers that the hope is one, perhaps 2 of them may get to that level of excellence such as top 10 defenseman league wide.

The main reason you need that type of guy is to munch a lot of minutes, so your less effective defenders don't have to play as much. But if your top 4 are all pretty good dmen who play at a much higher than average level, does that matter as much?

But going back to the point about trading Barron....I have no issues at all with that. If he's impressing another GM right now who has a young, scoring winger we can use, let's make a deal and hope both players turn out. I've noted about Hughes that he doesn't try and screw other teams. He aims for win/win situations. Sure, we got Dach, but Chicago has Frank Nazar who may turn into a useful centre. The Islanders have a solid young defenseman in return for their 13th overall pick. Hughes gave up Toffoli and Lehkonen and both helped their teams. It's easier to make a trade when you follow that path rather than thinking you have to win every trade hands down.

[Willie Dog]

Dec 20, 2023 14:03:19 GMT -5 seventeen said:

It's easier to make a trade when you follow that path rather than thinking you have to win every trade hands down.

This is what other GMs might think as well... Hughes is a win/win guy, not like burgerbrain... and your right it is easier to make a trade when it's win /win... in 10 plus years burgerbrain only had a couple of big trades that made a difference Suzuki, weber and Petry... the rest are small stuff...

[frozone]

Dec 20, 2023 14:16:32 GMT -5 Willie Dog said:

Dec 20, 2023 14:03:19 GMT -5 seventeen said:

It's easier to make a trade when you follow that path rather than thinking you have to win every trade hands down.

This is what other GMs might think as well... Hughes is a win/win guy, not like burgerbrain... and your right it is easier to make a trade when it's win /win... in 10 plus years burgerbrain only had a couple of big trades that made a difference Suzuki, weber and Petry... the rest are small stuff...

Well... to be fair... Hughes did fleece Calgary. A 1st rounder just to take big, injury prone center off their hands? Granted, at the time, it did look like Calgary was a better team after the Huberdeau/Kadri signings, but I have no doubt that Hughes smelled opportunity here and pounced.

That being said, I do agree with the idea of trading Barron. However, we're a little light on the RHD. Not that we absolutely NEED Barron to work out, but we have a better chance of balancing out the lineup if we can trade a young LHD instead. Although, out of our long list of young defenders, I probably like Barron the least. He has offensive upside, but there's a little too much Patrick Traverse in his game for my liking.

[seventeen]

Note to everyone. Jordan Harris has played RHD before. In fact I believe Struble was his partner at that time at Northeastern. When Harris gets back why not pair up the two again? (Besides the fact so many seem to want to trade Harris)

[Boston_Habs]

It's less about winning the trade than dealing from a position of strength. These days, most GM offices are run by professionals with plenty of data and scouting info about pretty much every player. It's hard to fleece another team under normal circumstances, so it's easier to just try and make it work for both sides. And you "win trades" by making your team better. Like Steve Yzerman did when he traded Drouin for Sergachev. Even if Drouin had worked out for Montreal, TB still would have been happy because they dealt from surplus to address a deficit and made their team significantly better. For the Habs, the Drouin trade was a lateral move at best (Radulov out, Drouin in or Subban out, Weber in). You want to avoid those situations where you just end up treading water.

I have no clue about Barron or Harris or Struble or Hutson. It may be too early on all of these guys to determine which have the highest likelihood of success. It just seems the blueline could be an emerging area of strength with more high caliber prospects than I can remember for a while. If HuGo play their cards right and the talent comes through, then Montreal will be in a good spot to make a real team building move.

[seventeen]

Dec 21, 2023 14:56:09 GMT -5 Boston_Habs said:

It's less about winning the trade than dealing from a position of strength. These days, most GM offices are run by professionals with plenty of data and scouting info about pretty much every player. It's hard to fleece another team under normal circumstances, so it's easier to just try and make it work for both sides. And you "win trades" by making your team better. Like Steve Yzerman did when he traded Drouin for Sergachev. Even if Drouin had worked out for Montreal, TB still would have been happy because they dealt from surplus to address a deficit and made their team significantly better. For the Habs, the Drouin trade was a lateral move at best (Radulov out, Drouin in or Subban out, Weber in). You want to avoid those situations where you just end up treading water.

I have no clue about Barron or Harris or Struble or Hutson. It may be too early on all of these guys to determine which have the highest likelihood of success. It just seems the blueline could be an emerging area of strength with more high caliber prospects than I can remember for a while. If HuGo play their cards right and the talent comes through, then Montreal will be in a good spot to make a real team building move.

No disagreement here. It will be interesting watching the development of these guys. I don't think any of us, me included, expected Struble to step in so smoothly and look as good as he has. Neither his NCAA career or what we heard from Laval suggested he could do that at this time. Will any of the other kids surprise us the same way? I hope they all do and raise their value, both for playing for us or for another team.

[Disgruntled70sHab]

Dec 21, 2023 14:56:09 GMT -5 Boston_Habs said:

It's less about ... dealing from a position of strength ... and you "win trades" by making your team better. Like Steve Yzerman did when he traded Drouin for Sergachev. Even if Drouin had worked out for Montreal, TB still would have been happy because they dealt from surplus to address a deficit and made their team significantly better.

Good rundown, BH ... the way I remember it is, the one thing Steve Yzerman didn't have, was a blue-chip defensive prospect to replace Victor Hedman, when that time came ... the other thing was, TB was winning without Jonathan Drouin in the lineup ... Yzerman wasn't giving up a lot to bring Mikhail Sergachev into the rank and file so, for him, anyway, the deal was a no-brainer ...

I have no clue about Barron or Harris or Struble or Hutson. It may be too early on all of these guys to determine which have the highest likelihood of success. It just seems the blueline could be an emerging area of strength with more high calibre prospects than I can remember for a while. If HuGo play their cards right and the talent comes through, then Montreal will be in a good spot to make a real team building move.

The player most-forgotten, IMHO, is Mattias Norlinder ... it wasn't too long ago when he was considered to be a top defensive prospect ... now, he's getting lost in the numbers of excellent young defenders ...

Cheers.

[Willie Dog]

Dec 21, 2023 20:44:21 GMT -5 Disgruntled70sHab said:

Dec 21, 2023 14:56:09 GMT -5 Boston_Habs said:

It's less about ... dealing from a position of strength ... and you "win trades" by making your team better. Like Steve Yzerman did when he traded Drouin for Sergachev. Even if Drouin had worked out for Montreal, TB still would have been happy because they dealt from surplus to address a deficit and made their team significantly better.

Good rundown, BH ... the way I remember it is, the one thing Steve Yzerman didn't have, was a blue-chip defensive prospect to replace Victor Hedman, when that time came ... the other thing was, TB was winning without Jonathan Drouin in the lineup ... Yzerman wasn't giving up a lot to bring Mikhail Sergachev into the rank and file so, for him, anyway, the deal was a no-brainer ...

The deal was a no Brainer because burgerbrain took a disgruntled player, gave Yzerman cap relief and a blue chip top D prospect... Yzerman made burgerbrain his 🐝 with an itch... what a Dummy.