HF Habs: Do the Habs need to lose?

[japhi]

Price is no Hasek, and this team isn't anywhere close in quality to that Wings team. Granted, I could see Price possibly winning if he was traded to a stacked team. I should have probably said it's his last shot at it with MTL.

there was only one Hasek for sure. But there is a long history of HOF goalies playing well into their late 30s. Thomas, Belfour, Brodeur, and on and on. Some guys has their best years at 32 plus.

I would guess price has a good 5-7 years left health willing.

 

[Miller Time]

Adding elite/blue chip prospect = better than winning a round of PO's.

With a competent GM in place, no reason we couldn't do both (ie leverage expendable assets &/or cap & spending capacity to secure a net addition of an elite prospect (or better shot at drafting one).

With status quo... 12.5% shot at drafting AL = better for our cup odds than beating Pens

 

[Sasha Orlov]

Lafreniere or bust

They will get plenty of playoff experience during their first cup run with Laf Suzuki Caufield tearing up the league

 

[Schwang]

If your team only makes the playoffs due to special dispensations, there won't be a lot of chances.

The future looks brighter than it’s been in years to be honest. I think there’s more hope then has been seen in a while.

 

[Grand Admiral Thrawn]

At this point,I couldn't care less anymore.

Laffer can go to the Leafs, Pens, Oilers, who gives a ****.

 

[Lafleurs Guy]

At this point, it's beyond anything we (or even Bergevin) can do. We're here, the games are going to happen and our team is going to try as hard to win as they can. As they should!

I'm a firm believer in rebuilding when appropriate. The time to make moves was at the deadline. We should've sold then. We didn't. So now it is what it is.

Barring a cup win (something that is extremely remote with this club) we are obviously objectively better off losing this series. But seriously, I'm not going to sit on my couch and HOPE we lose. I mean what the hell am I watching the team for if that's the case?

Watch the games and enjoy them. Cheer the team. If we lose, there's a silver lining, a shot at Lafreniere. If we win, we get more games and at least the team shows some guts.

 

[Scintillating10]

Brian Burke is only media member I heard who picked Montreal to win this series. He said becsuse Price was a money goalie and Pitt were flat last year in playoffs and had lost 8 of last 10 playoff games.

 

[Kriss E]

The future looks brighter than it’s been in years to be honest. I think there’s more hope then has been seen in a while.

Well, there was a ton of hope back in 2014. Us reaching the ECF, PK, Price, Max all entering prime years and doing well. Gallagher, Eller, Galch as blossoming prospects. We had some depth guys and crappy vets coming off the cap like Bourque, Murray, Gionta, that we were all hoping would be replaced by upgrades.

Things were very promising. There was no reason to believe we couldn't become legit contenders, especially considering the East was pretty wide open at that time.
Does our future looks better than back then? Definitely not imo. We have some good prospects, but none of them have reached levels of our previous group. Suzuki is obviously the closest, we're all hoping we don't screw up with KK like we did with Galch, as for Romanov, Caufield, Norlinder, Poehling, Evans, ya...all interesting but they barely have any experience so I wouldn't get too excited about them yet.

 

[Kobe Armstrong]

We certainly don't need to lose. We're a longshot to win but I'm bored during this pandemic and I'd love to see the Habs keep playing for as long as possible

If we win, the other 7 teams will probably be

Boston
Washington
Tampa
Philly
Columbus
Carolina
Islanders

I think there's a good chance we get Philly in the first round too

 

[ahmedou]

A dilemma

 

[Big Empty]

Lafreniere or bust

They will get plenty of playoff experience during their first cup run with Laf Suzuki Caufield tearing up the league

add KK and Romanov to the mix and we have a seriously good young core.

 

[Supersonic]

Taking this series to 5 games and losing is the optimal route, in my opinion.

This board is going to be losing its mind though lmao

 

[JoelWarlord]

1/8 chance at Lafreniere and 87.5% chance at 9th pick is way too good to pass up.

I'm resigned to them winning this series and getting waxed by Tampa in round 1 though. I'll always bet on the Canadiens doing whatever they can to trend towards mediocrity.

 

[Grate n Colorful Oz]

At this point, it's beyond anything we (or even Bergevin) can do. We're here, the games are going to happen and our team is going to try as hard to win as they can. As they should!

I'm a firm believer in rebuilding when appropriate. The time to make moves was at the deadline. We should've sold then. We didn't. So now it is what it is.

Barring a cup win (something that is extremely remote with this club) we are obviously objectively better off losing this series. But seriously, I'm not going to sit on my couch and HOPE we lose. I mean what the hell am I watching the team for if that's the case?

Watch the games and enjoy them. Cheer the team. If we lose, there's a silver lining, a shot at Lafreniere. If we win, we get more games and at least the team shows some guts.

Entertainment?

 

[Lafleurs Guy]

Entertainment?

That's exactly my point. If I'm not going to be entertained then why watch? It's not really entertaining to cheer against your own team. Just don't watch if that's the case...

 

[Lafleurs Guy]

1/8 chance at Lafreniere and 87.5% chance at 9th pick is way too good to pass up.

I'm resigned to them winning this series and getting waxed by Tampa in round 1 though. I'll always bet on the Canadiens doing whatever they can to trend towards mediocrity.

Clearly, the better thing for us long term is to lose the series. That doesn't mean the team should try to lose. That will NEVER happen, nor should it.

What should've happened was us selling at the deadline. THAT makes sense. But it didn't happen and now here we are.

Bottom line though, I actually really enjoyed the game on Saturday. Never expected that I would. But it was fun seeing hockey back and it was a great game to watch. It's beyond our control as to what happens now so I'll just watch and enjoy it while I can.

 

[Grate n Colorful Oz]

That's exactly my point. If I'm not going to be entertained then why watch? It's not really entertaining to cheer against your own team. Just don't watch if that's the case...

You really need to cheer for a team to be entertained?

 

[HabsWhiteKnightLOL]

The only thing we need to know is that , the habs was able to throw the season perfectly and now have a dream scenario to maybe get a franchise player , something we need for the last 20years+ ( Goalies are not franchise players , i said it , they dont score goals and dont play 82 matches a season).
How lucky the fans of this franchise are , we will probably draft at the worst position possible and then resign the scrap of players we have gathered because we are playing 1 of the worst f***ing team in this bo5.

We even got blessed that the #1 draft will be 1 out of the 8 teams eliminated , or have the chance to draft a really good player at #9 , which makes me remember a certain Sergachev we dumped for a LIDL Kovalev

 

[Lafleurs Guy]

You really need to cheer for a team to be entertained?

Yeah.

And I really don't want to cheer against my own team while watching it. That's not my idea of entertainment. I'd rather not watch at all if that's the case.

 

[Sasha Orlov]

Yeah.

And I really don't want to cheer against my own team while watching it. That's not my idea of entertainment. I'd rather not watch at all if that's the case.

I dont really cheer for the pens, I hope our players play great and the series goes the distance but they fall just short in the end to an extremely experienced team and we build from it and add Lafreniere to our roster

I do understand your sentiment as well though for sure

 

[Sweetpotato]

I'd love to see Laf on Montreal as a neutral fan.

 

[the]

I get entertained by laughing and seeing Bergevin's team fail.

This is a clown show and I love it.

 

[JoelWarlord]

Clearly, the better thing for us long term is to lose the series. That doesn't mean the team should try to lose. That will NEVER happen, nor should it.

What should've happened was us selling at the deadline. THAT makes sense. But it didn't happen and now here we are.

Bottom line though, I actually really enjoyed the game on Saturday. Never expected that I would. But it was fun seeing hockey back and it was a great game to watch. It's beyond our control as to what happens now so I'll just watch and enjoy it while I can.

Yeah I'm just happy to see some hockey but I'm going to be very frustrated if we fluke out a bo5 and give up a shot at a franchise forward or even the 9th pick vs 16. Don't think we'll get as lucky as we did with Caufield again any time soon.

Agreed on the deadline, felt like it was time to pick a direction and move on from Petry and Tatar. Both excellent players but I think extending them would be a big mistake. If they manage to win this round I'm going to switch back to Pollyanna fan mode and start boasting about our 5v5 xGF% or whatever but until that happens I'm still on team uh...give Drouin and Weise 22 mins a night for the long term best interests of the team.

 

[salbutera]

McGuire saying many players are fed up of everything involved with living in the bubble and expects teams who fall behind 2-0 in games to pack it in, wanting to head home. Feeling amongst orgs/management is this will be the toughest road to the Cup due to dedication & resolve required amongst teams/players to last the long haul.

 

[Lafleurs Guy]

Yeah I'm just happy to see some hockey but I'm going to be very frustrated if we fluke out a bo5 and give up a shot at a franchise forward or even the 9th pick vs 16. Don't think we'll get as lucky as we did with Caufield again any time soon.

Agreed on the deadline, felt like it was time to pick a direction and move on from Petry and Tatar. Both excellent players but I think extending them would be a big mistake. If they manage to win this round I'm going to switch back to Pollyanna fan mode and start boasting about our 5v5 xGF% or whatever but until that happens I'm still on team uh...give Drouin and Weise 22 mins a night for the long term best interests of the team.

Well, I can sit there and be frustrated about winning the games or I can enjoy them with my son. I'll choose the latter.

Once again, nothing can be done about it now. It will be what it will be. We can't make deadline trades anymore and our players aren't going to play to lose. So, might as well just enjoy the games.

YES it's better for us if we lose in the long run. But I'm not going to let that ruin my night in front of the TV if we're winning a game.