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Post by frozone on Jul 28, 2024 9:12:31 GMT -5
I didn’t see it posted anywhere here, but Laine’s father did pass away suddenly and it’s been rumoured that it may have played a part in him checking into the program. He also has an injury setback that coincided with his admission. While he was with Winnipeg, there were also rumours that he had a video game addiction. Or it could be a reason that no one even knows about outside of his tight circle. Whatever the reason, I don’t think it should really affect our willingness to trade for him. Just checking into the program says a lot about the young man imo.
As for a player who regained his form after exiting the program, I can think of Kassian. Mind you he’s not a skill guy, but I would say that he scraped his ceiling and became a pretty unique player in the league. More importantly though, there are definitely players in the nhl who bounced back after hitting rock bottom, even if they didn’t enter the program. Brock Boeser hit a real low when his father was ill but bounced back stronger than ever.
I would trade for Laine if he truly does love hockey. There’s all kinds of personalities in the NHL. Some guys probably need to obsess over their craft to achieve greatness, while other guys need to find more balance in their life. But if Laine truly loves hockey and can’t live without it, I have no doubt he’ll find what he needs in order to be one of the league’s best again.
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Post by Willie Dog on Jul 28, 2024 9:17:35 GMT -5
I'm not so certain the comparison is interesting. Well not in the same way most are looking at it. Drouin had 63 points in the 94 games before getting traded from TBay. In the next 2 years with Montreal, he got 46 points and 53 points. Which was fairly similar production to what he had in TBay. Liane is a little older than Drouin was, but Laine has 117 points in his last 129 games. Now I'm not saying we should get him. But of all the players names that have been linked to MTL, he is far and away the most productive. So, can we stop acting like this is Drouin in his last 2 years in MTL. As for the Assistance Program. We don't know the names of Players that went in, cause most don't go around talking about it. But has there been someone as productive as Laine in it? It could be as simple as Laine losing the fun in hockey in Winnipeg and Columbus. I would like someone to explain to me why Drouin never played up to his potential. Great skater, accurate shooter, hockey sense and outstanding junior career. He was given lots of opportunities in several different teams and situations. The surprising thing is after smart GMs gave up on him the next GM thinks things will change. PierreLuc has all the tools and opportunities to succeed. I’ll take Pezettas desire and effort over skill and a history of effort. Drouin couldn't handle the pressure, he lacked the confidence and character to deal with it... not his fault he's not wired for it. He never should have accepted the trade to Montreal (not sure he could have stopped it though). And although burgerbrain talked about character, he never knew what it really meant and was surrounded by sycophants, HuGo get it and understand what character means... look at who they draft, all character guys with skill based on their draft position... That's why the future looks bright for this team... We have a captain that is respected by every player on the team, we have a fantastic 1st line but 25-26 will be the year with the greatest jump... We will have a great 2nd line when Demidov comes over and the 3rd line will be awesome as well. We will get better when Armia and Dvorak are gone as well as the retained salary for Petry and Allen come off the books. 25-26 is when the Habs will start to become a force for a decade.
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Post by Douper on Aug 1, 2024 5:28:50 GMT -5
After Armia's second half of the year, if Roy isn't ready why not go Newhook Dach Armia. I'm a big Armia fan. He was one of our best forwards in the second half last year after his time in laval with the sports psychologist.
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Post by Willie Dog on Aug 16, 2024 15:22:18 GMT -5
Newhook-Suze-Slaf Suze and slaf had great chemistry last year, CC was like the 3rd wheel
CC-Dach-Roy... CC could benefit being the primary shooter and having 2 high iq guys on his line
A nice balanced top 2 lines for this season
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Post by folatre on Aug 16, 2024 19:47:49 GMT -5
An NHL season is a long, winding, arduous road. So even when a coach likes certain lines because of the way the pieces feed off each other, lines are always going to get shuffled at some junctures when nothing is going right.
For me I feel confident in the first line because they grew together last season and I liked the chemistry and unselfishness in the trio. There was no second line and opponents still struggled to contain them on many nights. The second line will be better than last year if Dach plays 70+ games. I hope Newhook and Roy get a good 20 game runway with Dach before elevating a vet (Gallagher, Anderson, Armia, whoever).
One other thought about the first line. I see Caufield as the undisputed primary shooter (he took over 300 shots last season). Compared to his first 120 games in the NHL, basically last season looks a bit like an outlier because his shooting percentage was 8.9 compared to the 14.1 over his previous seasons. That is a significant drop and perhaps it was a product of needing to get his shoulder back to full strength over time or perhaps it was just bad puck luck. Even if he cannot get back to the 14 percent range, Caufield cashing in 11 percent of his shots on net would have meant 35 goals, 38 goals at 12 percent.
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Post by seventeen on Aug 16, 2024 20:47:42 GMT -5
Any major injury has a mental component to it. I firmly believe that was Caufield’s challenge last year. Even though his shoulder may have been physically 100%, your brain is still compensating for it and the form isn’t natural and what it was before the injury.
Once he got over that late in the season, the goals came. He won’t have that issue this year.
I’m more concerned, but that’s not the right word, about Slaf’s overpassing. I’d like to see him be more selfish for a while until he develops balance between the two. He loves to set guys up but they get fooled, thinking he’s going to shoot (which he should), and instead they get a pass which they’re not expecting and they miss. More reps, that’s all he needs.
Otherwise, that is a dangerous line and will be even more dangerous with effective 2nd and 3rd lines.
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