Montreal @ Ottawa Thursday Jan 18 @ 7 PM EST

[IamCanadiens]

They went through a pretty challenging schedule with 6 games in 11 nights ending with a back to back last night. They played hard throughout but laid an egg against the Sens. It happens. Can only learn from it and move on.

[folatre]

Last night was a good example of what happens when a very limited roster gets below average play from the goalie. The Habs only have a half-way respectable record (though deceptive as Boston pointed out) because they have actually been blessed with above average goaltending on most nights.

[Willie Dog]

Jan 19, 2024 10:02:18 GMT -5 Boston_Habs said:

Jan 18, 2024 23:05:18 GMT -5 Skilly said:

Just when we were looking like we might challenge for a wild card spot we take two steps backwards. Maddening

Empty calories. Our "tie adjusted" record is 10-19-16, or 36 points in 45 games. That amounts to a putrid 65 points in an 82 game season.

Our 10 regulation wins are 2nd worst in the conference and 4th worst overall. Ottawa has 3 more regulation wins in 5 fewer games played! Our -31 goal differential tied with Columbus for 2nd worst in conference and 4th worst overall. Our GFA is 2.69, good for 5th worst in the league.

By all accounts, we should be drafting no lower than 5th but today we'd be drafting 9th. Somehow there are 8 teams with fewer points than us, albeit with some games in hand.

Agree Primeau sucks. Just no consistency there, which is the key with goaltending. All these guys are capable, athletic, well-coached, etc. It's the mental ability to stay focused and engaged for 60 minutes on a nightly basis that separates the below average, average, and above average goalies.

Growing pains with this group, but it's not THAT hard to play a back-to-back and our record is like 1-8 in those games. This is a young team with plenty of fresh legs. I'm happy to bank the losses as long as they play hard but young players also tend to have less mental discipline than vets.

It's a long season..

We definitely need a good pick this draft, I'm not sold on Newhook, I have a Gomez feel about him, hopefully Roy turns out to be a top 6, but that all I can see from a top 6 point of view

CC-Suze-Slaf
Roy-Dach-??

Mesar might become a top 6, not sure, he sure is playing well for Kitchener in the OHL. Beck will be a 3C, can't see him supplanting Suze or Dach, maybe put him on the wing on the 2nd line

[jkr]

I'm optimistic about Newhook. When he was injured he was on pace for close to 25 goals and 50 points.

He's been gone for about 6 weeks now. Hoping he can regain that form

[Boston_Habs]

Not having Dach and Newhook definitely hurts. Those are two key pieces of the HuGo plan thus far, and I believe we'd be materially better with those guys. Especially Dach. Still TBD on Newhook.

All the more reason to grab another top 5 pick.

[NWTHabsFan]

The only reason to have watched the game last night. Pezz is fearless. MacEwen is a big, dumb lug who got owned by a much smaller guy.

[seventeen]

Jan 19, 2024 3:00:30 GMT -5 habsorbed said:

Jan 18, 2024 20:25:56 GMT -5 Willie Dog said:

Suze is having a really bad game

No surprise there. We're playing one of the worst teams in the league. Nick doesn't care to engage in these sorts of games. Given he only shows up for about 50% of our games, wondering if his salary ought to be $4 million?

It was a back to back game after playing a good team the night before. On top of that, Primeau was laying an egg. I didn't see the game so can't comment on his effort, but just generally, he isn't the kind of guy to give up. Everyone's entitled to a bad game occasionally. Nick's been pretty good so far this year.

[Willie Dog]

The habs played 6 games in 9 days with back to back on the road... Not surprised they got blown out, if Primeau played better they probably would have lost anyways... most likely by 1 goal.

[Skilly]

I’d rather draft 17th than 16th, if we were to just miss. And right now, we are one three game winning streak from that regardless if it is done through OTs or not.

I’m more worried about what this crowd would do with a top 5 pick, to be honest. Our last four top 5 picks we needed then same thing, a dynamic offensive talent. In TWO of those drafts one was there for the taking and we refused to do so. Every offensive player comes with some cocky attitude issue. And our guys don’t like that.

If we could guarantee they’d select the right player, I’d be on board with cheering on losses. But we can’t so I’d prefer to cheer on learning how to win close games

[Willie Dog]

We need more picks because we don't have depth of quality in case of injuries... Dach gets hurt and it throws everything out of wack... you need talent to back fill...

[Skilly]

Jan 20, 2024 12:49:18 GMT -5 Willie Dog said:

We need more picks because we don't have depth of quality in case of injuries... Dach gets hurt and it throws everything out of wack... you need talent to back fill...

Dude, we are a 0.500 team. And that's without Dach, Newhook, Xhekaj , Pearson, Dvorak, etc etc etc

No team can stay afloat with that many injuries.

We have fill-in people in the system, this season proves that. What we don't have is that elite ppg star. And we keep avoiding them in the draft like they are the plague.

[Willie Dog]

Jan 20, 2024 18:10:25 GMT -5 Skilly said:

Jan 20, 2024 12:49:18 GMT -5 Willie Dog said:

We need more picks because we don't have depth of quality in case of injuries... Dach gets hurt and it throws everything out of wack... you need talent to back fill...

Dude, we are a 0.500 team. And that's without Dach, Newhook, Xhekaj , Pearson, Dvorak, etc etc etc

No team can stay afloat with that many injuries.

We have fill-in people in the system, this season proves that. What we don't have is that elite ppg star. And we keep avoiding them in the draft like they are the plague.

Hugo have drafted D, they wanted to build from the D out... drafting D is done, forwards are next...