State of the Habs 2024-25

Kapanen sent home. Condotta recalled.

Probably just means Pez pencils into the lineup more often.

Projected NHL standings at The Athletic have us finishing 3rd last on 73 points, ahead of only SJ (67 pts) and Ana (66 pts). Interestingly, Calgary is being projected 12th-last at 85 pts, but only 1 point ahead of Buffalo and Pittsburgh. If the Calgary pick is outside the top 10, we get it instead of the Florida one (currently projected as 31st overall). So right now, we're conceivably looking at something like pick 3 and 12.

I would love to see Calgary finish in pick slots 11-15, and I believe there is a high probability that will occur.
I am not too enthused about finishing 3rd last - the fan base including myself wants to see some progression. Who knows what will happen at the trade deadline on some of our vets, and the return of Laine should give us some more traction. 

A lot of noise on the depth / quality of our prospect pool and echo some previous posts that prospects are just prospects until you see a trajectory. Look at Buffalo and all their picks and prospects, and they haven't put anything together of note as  Cozens (0 time in AHL), Krebs (1/4 season in AHL), Kulich (2 seasons in AHL) Benson (0 time in AHL) and Quinn (1 season in AHL) are all crashing. 

On the positive note, finally starting to see some upward potential in Laval and I hope Pascal Vincent can continue the development there.

It is too early to view next year's draft, but our RHD stud won't be found in this year's pool. We would be wise to pick up some size / scoring / skating forwards in a Martone, Misa, Frondell, McQueen but by all reports it is not a deep draft.

Pick 3 and 12 sounds nice but after 3 years picking in the top 5 , and no offence to Mr Slafkovsky , those picks probably won’t help immediately , so I’m not going getting excited about how high or how many picks we got 🥱🥱. It’s like getting excited because I got two Lotto Max tickets instead if 1 for this Friday’s draw 🤣 I wanna see some on ice improvement not what we’re seeing this year 

After the NJ game

Last in the division
Last in the conference
Tied for 2 nd last in the league

🤦🏻‍♂️

I suppose it's possible they prefer him to help lead the Rocket given that he's not gonna turn around our fortunes in Montreal.

I really thought he was gonna make the team out of camp, but... Right now, I'm fine with him having success in Laval since the parent club is not doing well.

For the first time, it seems like MSL is running out of cards to play to get his team going. At least last year, it felt like the team was playing reasonably well and improving over time. Suzuki had a career year. Slafkovsky took a big jump. Matheson had a career year. There were at least some signs that were promising for the future. This year, it feels like a lot of stagnation. So ultimately, while we weren't going to be a Cup contender and while results of the games aren't necessarily the most important thing, you want to feel like progress is being made on the ice, and it isn't right now. There's a lot of sloppy hockey. So what cards does MSL have to play while we wait for Laine's return? Here are a couple of options:

1. I've said it before, but I think he needs to split up Suzuki and Caufield. This should have happened long ago, but you can't really afford to bench either guy, yet both have underwhelmed in terms of their overall games and defensive play. Their line is getting dominated on a nightly basis. We know they're buddies, but splitting them up may get their attention and likely earns one of them better match-ups. I'd like to see CC with Dach again. Maybe you reunite the entire trio of CC-Dach-Slaf. Maybe you keep Slaf with Suzuki. But I think Caufield's got to be moved off the Suzuki line. I think Gallagher has earned a try in the top 6, and I still like the idea of giving Heineman another look there too. Those are two of the harder-working bottom 6 players, so it's also a nice way to reward guys playing well. So whether it's Heineman-Suzuki-Slaf and CC-Dach-Gallagher or Heineman-Suzuki-Gallagher and CC-Dach-Slaf, I think you need to try that as your top 6.

2. Benching a veteran. Dvorak is the guy who comes to mind here. Again, hard to take a top player like Suzuki or CC out. Anderson and Gallagher are giving you an honest effort, as is Evans. Armia has been a scapeegot before. So Dvorak makes the most sense, and he's not a guy in the longterm plans here anyways. On the back end, I think you could do the same with a Savard or Matheson if it came to that.

3. Recall a player. Joshua Roy is maybe the only guy worth a recall right now who could shake up the top 6 while you wait for Laine. There's room to make it work. None of Newhook, Armia, or Evans has shown they deserve to be in the top 6, so it leaves the door open here.

4. Change the PP. A lot of guys see this as their reward or sometimes they see it as something they're owed for their pedigrees. But there are players lower down the line-up who have earned more ice time than some of the first-wave guys. That first unit has been inconsistent and not very creative. Hutson for Matheson seems like an easy option. Again, Gallagher or Heineman for Dach seems like another. Xhekaj on the 2nd wave for his big shot could be another. But without benching a vet completely, cutting their PP time could be an attention-getter.

It almost seems MSL has lost the room to be honest.   They play is unorganized, confused and seems to consist of literally running around the ice like the keystone cops.    Bieksa thinks otherwise, he says they seem to be playing hard.   I'm not so sure.    They just don't seem to be playing with any kind of plan and I'm seeing a lot of half hearted efforts at backchecking, forechecking etc.    Given the talent/potential of the players we have in the top 6, its shocking really but this looks as bad as the early 2000s teams.  

As to the PP, yeah ... Evans, Slaf, Gallagher up front ... Hutson/Wifi on the point maybe.