Post-Game Talk: DOMInator on full display- Habs win 7-4

[Lafleurs Guy]

Dude i actually THINK your guy lafleur!

"We have four fourth lines..."

 

[sandysan]

Stop trying to change the subject.

He took a dumb selfish penalty last night and he does it too often. This is not about his play. It's not about his year. It's not about his contract.

It's about him not being able to control himself. Last night he could've potentially cost us a playoff spot with that little stunt. He needs to smarten up.

And other players don't get a pass on this either. If they do something dumb like this then they'll get called on it as well.

so folin " always dumps the puck over the glass with no pressure" ?

so still sticking with the charging call as legit ?

shaw plays on the line ( unlike pretty much every other hab) which means he's always pretty close to the line, and is likely to get called for it more than anyone else. When he gets called for it on reputation ( the phantom charge) and fans sling arrows at him and not the refs, that's telling.

telling indeed,

 

[Guns n Roses]

"We have four fourth lines..."

 

[Lafleurs Guy]

HiwHmany playerspare having career years is both great to see, and quite revealing about how far we are from contending with this roster...

Things have gone about as well as they could accross the roster & re.injuries, and we are a borderline playoff team.

Tough decisions to make this summer, hopefully they get made wisely & not banking on best case scenarios like this season has been.

I agree in spirit with some of what you're saying but not all of it.

No doubt the team has holes and it is unexpectedly performing far better than I thought it would. I thought we'd be in last place with this D and I never expected our forwards to play the way they have.

But it's not right to say we've been healthy. the Shea Weber injury absolutely killed us for two months this season and all of last year. We are night and day better with him in the lineup because our D is so freaking thin. Losing him was brutal - just as losing Price or Petry would be. So I agree, the team is way too thin back there and needs to be improved. We have no depth. But you can also see how much better we are with Weber in the lineup. And remember - I actually think Weber's an overrated player. It's just that he's a hell of a lot better than Jordie Benn is.

Secondly, in terms of career years I don't think we'll see much regression from most players next year. It's not like we've got a bunch of vets who suddenly had great years without explanation. It's a mostly young team that will likely improve or at least stay the same. Domi and KK have been unexpectedly good - absolutely for sure. I never would've thought they'd have played the way they have. But KK should only improve and I don't see Domi suddenly falling off. Do you?

Gallagher is having a career year but I don't see him falling much below 30 goals next year. Tatar is producing right where he usually does. Byron looks like a legit 20 goal guy now and that's what I'd expect. Even Drouin is only going to be right where he was two years ago in Tampa. If anything I'd say he'll probably be better.

And ALL of these guys would probably be better if we added some help to the left side D. Imagine if we had just an average PP guy to run things.

Dannault and Shaw I think will drop in terms of points. The others I think will be around where they are or better. Especially if we get help on the back end.

 

[Kimota]

Holy crap, only hope there is no concussion. Shaw is getting to that point where every added concussion poses serious risks to himself, let alone his ability to play. I just hope there were no concussion symptoms.

There was no concussion the press misunderstood, the Habs pulled him away cause they felt he was not right in the head.

 

[Miller Time]

I agree in spirit with some of what you're saying but not all of it.

No doubt the team has holes and it is unexpectedly performing far better than I thought it would. I thought we'd be in last place with this D and I never expected our forwards to play the way they have.

But it's not right to say we've been healthy. the Shea Weber injury absolutely killed us for two months. We are night and day better with him in the lineup because our D is so freaking thin. Losing him was brutal - just as losing Price or Petry would be. So I agree, the team is way too thin back there and needs to be improved. We have no depth. But you can also see how much better we are with Weber in the lineup. And remember - I actually think Weber's an overrated player. It's just that he's a hell of a lot better than Jordie Benn is.

Secondly, in terms of career years I don't think we'll see much regression from most players next year. It's not like we've got a bunch of vets who suddenly had great years without explanation. It's a mostly young team that will likely improve or at least stay the same. Domi and KK have been unexpectedly good - absolutely for sure. I never would've thought they'd have played the way they have. But KK should only improve and I don't see Domi suddenly falling off.

Gallagher is having a career year but I don't see him falling much below 30 goals next year. Tatar is producing right where he usually does. Byron looks like a legit 20 goal guy now and that's what I'd expect. Even Drouin is only going to be right where he was two years ago in Tampa. If anything I'd say he'll probably be better.

And ALL of these guys would probably be better if we added some help to the left side. Imagine if we had just an average PP guy to run things.

Dannault and Shaw I think will drop in terms of points. The others I think will be around where they are or better. Especially if we get help on the back end.

Weber's injury was a known factor heading into the season. And if your assessment of his impact on the team's success without him in the lineup is accurate, than it stands to reason that our success without him in the lineup further highlights the "best case scenario" of good fortune that we've seen this year.

I'd actually argue that our record early in the year (& last year with him in/out of lineup) suggests that his impact on W/L is not nearly as pronounced as many suggest.

Certainly, if we add talent to the roster, it should have a positive impact on performances.... But that's precisely the difficult decisions to be made...

Focus on adding "right now" talent and expecting the existing core to maintain/improve on this year's performances (many of which were @/near career best)...

Or leverage some of these career-best performances to acquire future talent/assets to build up a roster with contender-worthy talent over a longer timeframe.

I honestly think one could make a good case for either approach, worst case scenario would be to continue surfing the middle, without a clear direction.

 

[Lafleurs Guy]

Weber's injury was a known factor heading into the season. And if your assessment of his impact on the team's success without him in the lineup is accurate, than it stands to reason that our success without him in the lineup further highlights the "best case scenario" of good fortune that we've seen this year.

Yes, and you'll get no argument from me that the way we've handled this team is asinine.

But if you're taking a forward looking view on the club I'd say what we see right now is what we'll get next year.

I'd actually argue that our record early in the year (& last year with him in/out of lineup) suggests that his impact on W/L is not nearly as pronounced as many suggest.

Certainly, if we add talent to the roster, it should have a positive impact on performances.... But that's precisely the difficult decisions to be made...

Focus on adding "right now" talent and expecting the existing core to maintain/improve on this year's performances (many of which were @/near career best)...

Who do you see in the lineup as not being able to repeat what they did this year? Do you think it will be a big step back for some of these guys? Which ones?

Or leverage some of these career-best performances to acquire future talent/assets to build up a roster with contender-worthy talent over a longer timeframe.

I honestly think one could make a good case for either approach, worst case scenario would be to continue surfing the middle, without a clear direction.

The players I'd probably shop around would be Drouin, Shaw and Weber. No biggie if they don't move but I suspect they're trade value is probably inflated and I'd look to exploit this.

 

[Miller Time]

Yes, and you'll get no argument from me that the way we've handled this team is asinine.

But if you're taking a forward looking view on the club I'd say what we see right now is what we'll get next year.

Who do you see in the lineup as not being able to repeat what they did this year? Do you think it will be a big step back for some of these guys? Which ones?

The players I'd probably shop around would be Drouin, Shaw and Weber. No biggie if they don't move but I suspect they're trade value is probably inflated and I'd look to exploit this.

Agree completely on Shaw/Weber/Drouin... I'd add Tatar to the mix IF we're going the longer term route (contending in 3-5 yrs), simply bc he's unlikely to improve his value by then and will be in-line for a healthy raise despite likely being declining by the time we'd be contending.

I don't think expecting such a large number of players matching/exceeding career best seasons, and avoiding injuries, in consecutive years is a good bet. It's not any one guy in particular, but moreso the odds...

Reminds me a lot of MT's first two seasons... We had league best health luck & a number of young players exceeding expectations in regular season output, but the PO'S exposed the unaddressed roster holes, and rather than address them, MB took a tinkering approach that failed miserably.

Don't want to see that again and us squander another solid young nucleus while waisting 5-6 more years.

Feet to the fire, I'd bet on a regression from Drouin (unless we add a top 6 C he can leech off), a significant injury to either or both Domi & Gallagher, and 1 of Price/Weber battling injury or below expectations performance...

 

[Runner77]

Classic Runner deflecting tactic, toss the hot potato right back at OC. Are you growing an apron by any chance or are you sewing one? I want to see a pic of her wearing it.

What do you want me to say? Share my private life on a hockey forum? For one, nobody is going to care but more importantly, there's more entertaining stuff to talk about.

 

[BaseballCoach]

I know, I like what he brings and for the most part I am willing to accept that he plays a way in which 50/50 calls might go against us. Cost of doing business.

when 10/90 calls go against us, and some of out fan base blames shaw, that's beyond the pale.

he's been very good recently, but those same fans see 65 in the box and then proclaim that "he always does that" regardless if its a soft call of not, or the circumstances that lead up to it.

shaw in box = his fault 100% of the time
everyone else gets a pass, or two, or more.

The extra two for the Skinner attack is what shows he was out of control. We killed the first penalty but were gassed by the end of the second. Even though I think the charging call was borderline, it was not unforgiveable. But the Skinner roughing, how about you say it was selfish?

 

[sandysan]

The extra two for the Skinner attack is what shows he was out of control. We killed the first penalty but were gassed by the end of the second. Even though I think the charging call was borderline, it was not unforgiveable. But the Skinner roughing, how about you say it was selfish?

He was steamed and if it's the correct call, we will that minor. We technically killed the double minor.

I'll take Shaws penalty 10 time out of 10 over folin's.

But then again, when folin gets a penalty shaw doesn't go to the box, which is the REAL travesty here.