Post-Game Talk: Habs lose to the Wild.

Rob Sense

Registered User
Apr 26, 2015
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This team is clearly not bad enough to be in the Bedard sweepstakes but it's also not good enough to make the playoffs

So i'll call it right here right now : Habs will draft between 8th and 12th in 2023
Oh...we'll be bad enough...December is coming!
 

ChesterNimitz

governed by the principle of calculated risk
Jul 4, 2002
5,152
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Haha, one fight and the league is on notice. Lol.

Sorry, but Nilan, Odelein, Corson, etc would have charged into that pile. I don’t have a problem with the hit, but it is exactly the time he needed to step up.

He will learn but he didn’t do his job tonight. No way, Evans should have been the guy with him on the ice.
His job? Perhaps its time for all of us to move on from the juvenile ‘My daddy can beat up your daddy’ mindset. Xhekaj played one of his best games last night against one of the more skillful teams in the league. He played a physical game, made numerous subtle passes in both the defensive and offensive zones, almost scored with several wrist shots from the point and showed unexpected closing and recovery speed. He did his job with growing effectiveness. And my assessment is not undermined by the fact that he didn’t beat up a player half his size to assuage the frustrations of a segment of the fan base as a result of the team having lost a game rather badly score-wise.
 
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Grate n Colorful Oz

Hutson Hawk
Jun 12, 2007
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Chris Lee's looks like a cats crusty anus.

th-jpeg-29.jpg
 

RationalExpectations

Registered User
May 12, 2019
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This team is clearly not bad enough to be in the Bedard sweepstakes but it's also not good enough to make the playoffs

So i'll call it right here right now : Habs will draft between 8th and 12th in 2023
Not too sure. Besides Caufield Suzuki nobody seems to be able to score which is worrying in a system fully focused on offense. not sure how long Allen and Monty will perform as well as they have until now.
 
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ChesterNimitz

governed by the principle of calculated risk
Jul 4, 2002
5,152
10,575
Not too sure. Besides Caufield Suzuki nobody seems to be able to score which is worrying in a system fully focused on offense. not sure how long Allen and Monty will perform as well as they have until now.
We will be considerably lower than 50/50 team and our winning percentage will take a material hit as we start trading off our most marketable assets.

The good or bad news is that we will again be drafting high in the upcoming deep draft.
 
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Catanddogguitarrr

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Jul 3, 2016
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Habs gallagherized that game.
That being said, I like Gallagher a lot. He has little gas left in the tank but he's giving everything he have. He should be an example to others who doesn't give 20% of what Gally gives. I saw Gally being maltreated yesterday and neither Xhekaj or Anderson dropped gloves to defend him. This team is not yet a real team like in the good old time of Nilan, Corson and Roberge.
 

Habs 4 Life

No Excuses
Mar 30, 2005
41,027
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This team is clearly not bad enough to be in the Bedard sweepstakes but it's also not good enough to make the playoffs

So i'll call it right here right now : Habs will draft between 8th and 12th in 2023
Agreed, as most of the experts are saying though in terms of next year's draft you just want to be in the top 8, so let's hope we are.
 

Catanddogguitarrr

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We will be considerably lower than 50/50 team and our winning percentage will take a material hit as we start trading off our most marketable assets.

The good or bad news is that we will again be drafting high in the upcoming deep draft.
I think the two wins were a mirage. Suddently our pp worked, for one game, and it falsy changed our perception of the team. The hard reality will hit soon. I expect many losses. I just hope that the Leafs will be back on their track soon. I don't want them in the sweeptake of Bédard. What I expect is Habs will be picking between 5th to 8th. We have to forget about Bédard and it's sad. But at least Habs are more exciting to watch this year, even when the score is low. I think Monty have still improvement to developp, like Ghule, Harris, Slaf and Xhekaj.
 

Habs 4 Life

No Excuses
Mar 30, 2005
41,027
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Not surprised by how a Wild shill account characterized X:



X was held back by a linesman, when chaos broke out:



Bottom line is Slaf needs to learn from this. He headed to the boards with the puck and vulnerable to his opponent. He didn’t anticipate the hit. He should have braced himself for it but that all has to do with inexperience.

Not surprisingly, Wild fans underscored the size difference between Rossi and Slaf to argue that the hit was legit but as anyone knows, it doesn’t matter what your size is when you have not braced yourself for a hit.


What a steal, he will be a leader in no time here and respected around the league!
 

Grate n Colorful Oz

Hutson Hawk
Jun 12, 2007
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I think the two wins were a mirage. Suddently our pp worked, for one game, and it falsy changed our perception of the team. The hard reality will hit soon. I expect many losses. I just hope that the Leafs will be back on their track soon. I don't want them in the sweeptake of Bédard. What I expect is Habs will be picking between 5th to 8th. We have to forget about Bédard and it's sad. But at least Habs are more exciting to watch this year, even when the score is low. I think Monty have still improvement to developp, like Ghule, Harris, Slaf and Xhekaj.

There's always the lottery. At 5th, iirc chances are at about 15% of getting either top picks.

They could still end lower than that. Either Spooky or CC missing games for a significant amount of time because of injury and we'll easily spiral down close to dead last.
 

Catanddogguitarrr

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That check is what you all are upset about? :laugh::laugh::laugh:
Xhekaj not droping the gloves and letting Evans to drop the gloves is like if in the 80's Nilan would not drop the gloves and let Djell Dhalin drop the gloves. Totally illogical as Mr Spock would say.

Maybe someone ask Xhekaj to not engage a fight unless someone invites him and he have no choice doing it.
 

First Line

There’s something about Marty
Aug 21, 2002
4,571
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Xhekaj not droping the gloves and letting Evans to drop the gloves is like if in the 80's Nilan would not drop the gloves and let Djell Dhalin drop the gloves. Totally illogical as Mr Spock would say.

Maybe someone ask Xhekaj to not engage a fight unless someone invites him and he have no choice doing it.
Laraque faxed him a copy of the “code”
 

Kshahdoo

Registered User
Mar 23, 2008
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Moscow, Russia

Russian

Plus he was signed for like 4 years in the KHL so it was a long wait.

He wasn't signed at the draft. It's just Russian leagues were heavily underscouted back to then, and Kaprizov had not very successful WJC U18 before the draft. Nowadays he would have gone in the first round for sure, probably top15-20. 8 points in 31 KHL game as 17-18, it's very good.
 

Catanddogguitarrr

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Fleury must love playing the Habs this season, probably his two best games so far.
This must be a curse. When a franco plays for the Habs, he under-perform because of the media pressure (a logic explanation).
And when a franco plays vs the Habs, he over-perform, maybe because of his pride and concentration.

Apart of his PO embarrassing mistake, Fleury have an history of wins vs les Canadiens.
 

Whitesnake

If you rebuild, they will come.
Jan 5, 2003
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Xhekaj not droping the gloves and letting Evans to drop the gloves is like if in the 80's Nilan would not drop the gloves and let Djell Dhalin drop the gloves. Totally illogical as Mr Spock would say.

Maybe someone ask Xhekaj to not engage a fight unless someone invites him and he have no choice doing it.

First, Evans was going to meet Rossi. Small for small player. He met Shaw along the way. Yet, Shaw is also a small player. Xhejaj to establish himself as a fighter CANNOT attack smaller players. If refs wouldn't have been around and Middleton would have really wanted to dance, Xhejaj would have GLADLY drop him.
 

Rapala

Registered User
Mar 29, 2013
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His job? Perhaps its time for all of us to move on from the juvenile ‘My daddy can beat up your daddy’ mindset. Xhekaj played one of his best games last night against one of the more skillful teams in the league. He played a physical game, made numerous subtle passes in both the defensive and offensive zones, almost scored with several wrist shots from the point and showed unexpected closing and recovery speed. He did his job with growing effectiveness. And my assessment is not undermined by the fact that he didn’t beat up a player half his size to assuage the frustrations of a segment of the fan base as a result of the team having lost a game rather badly score-wise.
His job was to peel Shaw off Evans before anything happened because it was a total mis-match. That's what a policeman does they don't go around chasing after fights. When a scrum ensues find the mismatch and negate it. Shaw would have calmed right down no doubt.
 
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Catanddogguitarrr

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First, Evans was going to meet Rossi. Small for small player. He met Shaw along the way. Yet, Shaw is also a small player. Xhejaj to establish himself as a fighter CANNOT attack smaller players. If refs wouldn't have been around and Middleton would have really wanted to dance, Xhejaj would have GLADLY drop him.
He could have make an invitation with a large guy later in the game. He was with someone who seems large when the fight happened, he could have dropped the gloves, maybe for only one hit if the other one is not a good fighter. I know it's easy to write this from my desk at home and I wasn't on the ice. It happened in a way that Xhekaj had no control. He should have shout to Evans don't go, it's my job. The whole Habs team was handcuff yesterday. Lack of experience from the coachjing staff and the players. Maybe there is something we don't know. Maybe Xhejaj have an hand injury from his only fight. I remember he hit the helmet at least one time.

It's too bad I can't listen to Laraque today, I would be curious to hear what he would say about this, the famous 'code'. Anyway, Laraque with the Canadiens was a huge flop. He came here not in shape at all and he did nothing good. And Gainey trew him out of the team because he was giving inside infos to the journalists. He knew he was going to make his living in the medias after the Canadiens. Gainey have been betrayed many times and it's sad, for Gainey and for us Habs fans.
 

Adam Michaels

Registered User
Jun 12, 2016
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Typical Gallagher


I love that about him. Always have and always will. He does succeed in getting out of the zone to avoid the off-side. But the best part is that after battling in front of the net and getting bumped down to the ice, he got up and went to the bench. No bitching, no whining, just took the punishment and went to the bench to catch his breath for the next shift.
 

Deebs

There's no easy way out
Feb 5, 2014
16,861
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I love that about him. Always have and always will. He does succeed in getting out of the zone to avoid the off-side. But the best part is that after battling in front of the net and getting bumped down to the ice, he got up and went to the bench. No bitching, no whining, just took the punishment and went to the bench to catch his breath for the next shift.
He works his ass off every shift, that must be respected.
 

Whitesnake

If you rebuild, they will come.
Jan 5, 2003
89,444
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He could have make an invitation with a large guy later in the game. He was with someone who seems large when the fight happened, he could have dropped the gloves, maybe for only one hit if the other one is not a good fighter. I know it's easy to write this from my desk at home and I wasn't on the ice. It happened in a way that Xhekaj had no control. He should have shout to Evans don't go, it's my job. The whole Habs team was handcuff yesterday. Lack of experience from the coachjing staff and the players. Maybe there is something we don't know. Maybe Xhejaj have an hand injury from his only fight. I remember he hit the helmet at least one time.

It's too bad I can't listen to Laraque today, I would be curious to hear what he would say about this, the famous 'code'. Anyway, Laraque with the Canadiens was a huge flop. He came here not in shape at all and he did nothing good. And Gainey trew him out of the team because he was giving inside infos to the journalists. He knew he was going to make his living in the medias after the Canadiens. Gainey have been betrayed many times and it's sad, for Gainey and for us Habs fans.

A guy hits another severely. What's the response even if it's legal? It's to attack the guy that hit. You remember seeing a tough guy inviting another tough guy to fight because ANOTHER guy hit somebody from your team? What Xhejaj did was great. As he also chased Rossi and hit him without being portrait as a fake tough guy for dropping the gloves against him. Also, Xhejaj isn't Brian McGrattan. He has WAY more to offer than being a fighter.

Also, while the NHL'errs doesn't see it this way, in my world, I would have had NO PROBLEM with the Rossi hit. I have WAY more problems with Slafkovsky not realizing that he's in a NHL rink. And TOTALLY agree with St-Louis. The game isn't over till it is. And you have to protect yourself at all time. Slaf looked like a pee-wee in that sequence. Xhejaj did nothing wrong.
 

Habby4Life

Registered User
Nov 12, 2008
3,388
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His job? Perhaps its time for all of us to move on from the juvenile ‘My daddy can beat up your daddy’ mindset. Xhekaj played one of his best games last night against one of the more skillful teams in the league. He played a physical game, made numerous subtle passes in both the defensive and offensive zones, almost scored with several wrist shots from the point and showed unexpected closing and recovery speed. He did his job with growing effectiveness. And my assessment is not undermined by the fact that he didn’t beat up a player half his size to assuage the frustrations of a segment of the fan base as a result of the team having lost a game rather badly score-wise.

Yep his job. If you are the tough guy and you see the 18 yr old take a tough hit you don’t watch Jake Evans do the receipt. Sorry but that was the exact time he should have been all in. All the stupid stuff at the very end was weak and lame.

AX should be sent down as soon as Eddy or Math are set to return.
 

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