Pre-Game Talk: Game #1 Habs vs Knights, Monday June 14th 9pm

[Hansman]

Full capacity Game 6

 

[JustAHabFan]

I read that the NHL removed awarding the conferences trophies a few weeks ago, but they changed their minds. The Habs are now fighting for the Clarence S. Campbell bowl. The only trophy they have never been allowed to put their hands on because it was in the other conference.

Ducharme used "have you ever done something special?" to motivate the team pre-Leafs game 5. Now they can do something no other Habs team have ever done and probably will never be able to do again.

The Habs also get the title 'King of the North' that no other Habs team can claim.

 

[Hansman]

They got no one to post with. There are not enough of them to have more than one on the board at the same time.

made me chuckle

 

[Prendan Brust]

I trust entrails more than tea leaves.

Good point… I might use my neighbor’s cat tomorrow morning.

 

[Saundies]

Serious question:

Do you consider this season a success regardless of the outcome of this series?

1. Beat the leafs in what will become an all time classic comeback
2. Swept the Jets to come out of the North.
3. Great showings from the youth (Caufield, Suzuki, KK)
4. Price showing he's best in the league come playoff time.

Frankly, #1 alone is enough for me. I'm excited and optimistic (voted habs in 7) but will be content with how the season ends if we don't get to the final.

Absolutely yes. We limped into the playoffs, no one gave us a chance against either team, and we killed them all. Vegas is a GREAT team. I want us to win and I think we have a path to winning, but if we do lose there's no shame there.

The young guys have played amazing and gained back some confidence they may have lost in the regular season. Free Agents look at our team different just because of how far we've gone.

Absolutely it's a win.

 

[Habs Icing]

Yeap! That's how I see it.

 

[Prendan Brust]

Are you sure those 'leaves' your looking at are tea leaves, and not the 'special' kind of GREEN leaves instead?

Lol, just kidding.....
One of my annoying 'HABits' is my penchant for bad jokes!
Sorry everyone, please carry on intelligently...

Not only tea leaves, but Sacred tea leaves blessed by the archbishop of habs fefans, Rejean Tremblay himself. I have high confidence in the material I use for my rituals.

 

[buddahsmoka1]

May all hell fall down on the OP for not capitalizing June.

 

[abo9]

gotta get one of the first two in Vegas... then hope CP can go nuclear as the series wears on to make up for our D that is going to get absolutely abused and ground down as the series wears on. Gotta bet that DeBoer is going to start the series going heavy and with marching orders for Reaves, Roy, Tuch, Kobesar to take a pound of flesh from our d every shift...

offensively, gonna need the JKO and Staal lines to be able to contribute because if the the Knights figured out how to neutralize Mackinnon's line outside of the PP, Suzuki & co. are in for a tough series... and Fleury is in a groove putting him right up there with Price's best...

this is very much a david/goliath battle... if the habs pull this one of, will be one of the more impressive series upsets i've seen in my lifetime!

Idk if we have to worry about them targetting one line to shut down, not ala Mack at least.

I think our lack of superstars kinda works in our favour in that the opposing team always has a line that dominate ours and we force them into our trap...

For example, Stone is their best defensive forward, but that line probably dominates any of ours. So what can they shut fown when they're on the offensive facing the Danault line?

 

[bonneaug]

Whether that storm of full capacity in Vegas for the first 10 minutes and that'll be a victory right off the bat.. then just continue to do what you've been doing, habs.

I think its the Habs that are gonna come out flying. They need that 1st goal to mentally confirm their trend is still going on from the last 7 games, to calm that crowd, etc.

Also, I predict it’s gonna be a breakout series for Caufield. He’s a gamer, thrives under pressure, and Fleury is no Helleybuck; smaller frame, wonky moves... There has to be a no-angle shot that will go in this time around.

 

[sandviper]

You obviously never watched Andre 'red light' Racicot play.

I'm still trying to forget.

 

[waitin425]

I too predict a breakout series from Caufield. Also, if the Czar stays in I expect him to play a huge role, with his physicality and lateral movement.

 

[AyyoCully]

I read that the NHL removed awarding the conferences trophies a few weeks ago, but they changed their minds. The Habs are now fighting for the Clarence S. Campbell bowl. The only trophy they have never been allowed to put their hands on because it was in the other conference.

Ducharme used "have you ever done something special?" to motivate the team pre-Leafs game 5. Now they can do something no other Habs team have ever done and probably will never be able to do again.

The NHL probably changed it because like most of us they're assuming Vegas will destroy the Habs and an eastern conference team will win the Prince of Wales so both the Wales and Campbell trophy will go to their respective conferences anyway lmao.

Hopefully we can change that!

 

[ReginaHabs]

It's been amazing to me throughout this year how completely the divisional format of the league has broken people's brains. We're still talking about individual and team stats and awards like they mean something outside of the bubbles within which they were played. Individual awards are going to players who "earned" them playing against a handful of teams. Las Vegas is going into this series as a massive favourite based on limited and flawed data, filtered through a set of analysts who have consistently gotten things wrong.

Yes, Vegas deserve to be the favourites here. You won't find one rational person who would disagree with that. The degree to which they are the favourites and the Habs are expected to be crushed is absurd based on the limited information we have. I won't be surprised if they do crush the Habs, but I also won't be surprised if the Habs do very well--unlike the rest of the league, who seem to never learn from underestimating teams that don't have a particular sort of hype machine behind them.

 

[Treb]

Baron Perry and Baron De Staal will lead the One Man Armia to victory!

 

[lottster14]

So is Montreal increasing their fan attendance? Just go 100% already, f***.

 

[Miller Time]

Idk if we have to worry about them targetting one line to shut down, not ala Mack at least.

I think our lack of superstars kinda works in our favour in that the opposing team always has a line that dominate ours and we force them into our trap...

For example, Stone is their best defensive forward, but that line probably dominates any of ours. So what can they shut fown when they're on the offensive facing the Danault line?

i think the combination of Danault's line being in tough just trying to keep Stone/Patches in check, and Pietrangelo being a big minute neutralizing #1 d (the likes of which we haven't faced yet) that will see Suzuki's line all game long, will make it tough for either of those lines to find much 5/5 opportunity...

Avs got done in by their other 3 lines not being able to step up... kadri out really hurt and moving landeskog down didn't cut it...

twice in the last 4 games the knights held them to 20 shots or less (which is crazy when you consider just how offensively skilled that Avs roster is, especially on D), and they got 4 goals in 4 games outside of that top line (one of them was Saad, but while he was with compher) to close out the series.

1 goal/game from 3 lines, with that offensively minded d group supporting them, is not much... and our top line doesn't have the chops of Mackinnon/Rantanen to still be getting 1-2 goals/game while being "shut down".

offense is going to be tough to come by, we'll need a big productive series from Staal/Perry and JKO/anderson to have a shot imo

 

[Adam Michaels]

 

[Hannibal]

Weird

 

[salbutera]

Not shocking, Gainey was a favorite of Senator Molson and is close to Jr’s old man (Eric) - always found it hard the family would just cut total ties..

Besides that’s how Gainey got the GM gig w Habs, after leaving Stars, he took time off to look after his daughter who had substance issues, called up the Molson family and said “I’m ready to get back to management”, Andre Savard was promptly notified he was no longer GM...

 

[abo9]

i think the combination of Danault's line being in tough just trying to keep Stone/Patches in check, and Pietrangelo being a big minute neutralizing #1 d (the likes of which we haven't faced yet) that will see Suzuki's line all game long, will make it tough for either of those lines to find much 5/5 opportunity...

Avs got done in by their other 3 lines not being able to step up... kadri out really hurt and moving landeskog down didn't cut it...

twice in the last 4 games the knights held them to 20 shots or less (which is crazy when you consider just how offensively skilled that Avs roster is, especially on D), and they got 4 goals in 4 games outside of that top line (one of them was Saad, but while he was with compher) to close out the series.

1 goal/game from 3 lines, with that offensively minded d group supporting them, is not much... and our top line doesn't have the chops of Mackinnon/Rantanen to still be getting 1-2 goals/game while being "shut down".

offense is going to be tough to come by, we'll need a big productive series from Staal/Perry and JKO/anderson to have a shot imo

Staal/Perry have already been big. JKO is one of our best playoff scorers.

That said, we need to lower our offensive expectations. The Jets series was fun, but we can't expect this team to dominate the play against Vegas. Imo it's gonna look more like the Toronto series, and us winning will rely on a combination of excellent goaltending from Price and opportunistic scoring. And if Fleury doesn't do the job they still have another excellent netminder in Lehner to take over, which is different than what we've faced against the Jets and Leafs.

The one thing I'd love to see is us playing disciplined while getting in their heads - like against Winnipeg. Reaves is a big dummy enforcer, if we can make him take stupid penalties and capitalize on the PP, that could be big.

It's obviously gonna be a tough one, but anything is possible. Only delusional fans could possibly think that we're not heavily underdogs.

 

[Adam Michaels]

 

[abo9]

"for some time" ie 3 years?

 

[SB164]

 

[Adam Michaels]