Seems a bit early to be tapping yourself on the back, they are awful outside of goaltending this year, had they gotten the kind of tending we had all year they'd be battling it out with Chi and SJ for Celebrini
And wanted to add, they have a 89.93 SV% which is 16th in the league, so statistically they are getting average goaltending
It's more us that has gotten some of the worst goaltending in the league and should be above them easily in the standings but the point is our rebuild is supposed to be 4 years ahead.
A significant difference is they brought in competent people right away and kept/brought some vets like Monahan, Savard and Matheson for example. They have way less talent on the NHL ice as of now but they play with more fire and are tied with us in the standings despite us being done rebuilding, as our ex GM would say.
Eh, they look weak and soft when we play them, with none of those guys beasting at all.
As someone who doesn’t care about the Habs until we play them, I’ll have see them impress me in a game against them before I start buying what you’re selling.
In the mean time, they are hated rivals so don’t expect many people in here to be supportive of your “The habs are better than us” narrative. Just saying… it’s a Sens board, and most in here are passionate fans, the leafs and habs suck when it comes down to it… nice and simple.
As for prospects, until they do something in the NHL they don’t move the needle much, just a bunch of names.
Yeah but this is only their 3rd season rebuilding... They were in the SCF in 2021 (we were in the ECF in 2017), they fell apart in 2021-22 (we did in 2017-18). This season is equivalent to our 2019-20 season in terms of length... so unless they don't progress in the next 4 seasons...
Suzuki and Slafkovský are looking pretty damn good. There's always immeasurable hype in Montreal but Guhle is getting a lot of that too and several others.
I'm not selling anything, I don't want them to be better than us but as soon as Gorton, Hughes, MSL, Lecavalier, Machabée, etc were in place, I have seen their rebuild trend in the right direction. I kept saying for 10+ years that as long as Trevor Timmins is still in charge we don't have to worry about the Habs, but they moved on from him as well
You're right that nobody is going to support a "
The habs are better than us" narrative but it is also not what I am saying. I am saying that their rebuild (which started 4 seasons later than us) has been TRENDING better, which is a very real worry since we might have to compete vs them in the future if we ever become more competitive.
Note that despite some thinking I am some kid of "hater", I was saying on the MAIN BOARDS that the Sens had the best future in the NHL after that 2020 draft which I also called "one of the best in NHL history". The problem is it really went downhill from there with what I call Dorion MESSmanagement
Regarding the Leafs I am not very worried about them because their window is now and many of their players are 30+ (Tavares is 33). Matthews, Marner and Nylander are 26, 26 and 27 so they will keep them competitive but they'll still have to do some really good moves to keep that team competitive.
Finally, you're right about the prospects but Batherson, Stone, Sanderson, Greig, Pinto were all prospects at some point too but many still knew they were going to be good at the NHL level... Habs have several of these guys who will too. For example, Lane Hutson is an elite talent, the only hope is he doesn't become a Quinn Hughes type but a lesser version.
