GDT: Montreal Canadiens vs Toronto Maple Leafs (7PM EST)

[Tyson]

I do think he needs time in Laval. There's absolutely nothing wrong with that this year. Getting used to the NA style and longer season. They drafted him because he has the tools, size and attitude that they can work with. They didn't pick him thinking he'd dominate right away. Some may think it would be embarrassing to send the first pick down given the Wright controversy, but it's not. I have way more confidence in the development team now than in the past 10 years.

Logical post...pass it on!

 

[Supersonic]

While watching the tepid response from the Leafs fan base I was wishing the game was here in Montreal where those guys would have gotten the real eruption they deserved. For some of us that series was an epic "you forget where you were watching" particularly the 4 games in Russia. True story I met Paul Henderson when my brother attended his hockey school in Sundridge Ont in 70 or 71. Naturally he immediately became my favorite player as the first NHL'r I'd ever met. Needless to say I was over the moon with his performances in Russia. What a gem Paul "Garnet" Henderson.

Thanks for sharing.

I’m much to young to remember that moment, but funny that Paul was interviewed in between periods and he made a joke/quip that he had been “living off that one goal for 50 years”. Seems like a great guy.

 

[Legend123]

LOL....the leafs did not even ice a team that was anywhere close to being a contender

3 out of the "big 4" were not even playing

But all their Ds were amd that's what matter vs offense

 

[Nedved]

I don't think so. What did he do that was so great? He played 13 minutes, got boxed out & had some good shifts and bad shifts. He didn't stand out in anyway against Calgary's C team.

Nemec has already been criticized by his coach for his defensive play & Cooley is going to NCAA hockey and isn't even in camp.

People's expectations for this draft need to be cooled down. Slafkovsky is the right choice for this organization.

Ideally, you want a Rantanen/Draisaitl type development where he takes 1-2 years to continue to develop his game outside of NHL.

Slaf is the right choice for this club & what HuGo is trying to build. But, it isn't this year.

I mean, that's what we all want to happen, I'm just unimpressed by Slafkovsky. He just doesn't have what I want, right now, as a player. He seems like a project, a big project. Hopefully he turns into the best player this draft, or even top 3, I just have KK vibes and PTDD. I just don't trust this organization to get it right, and I think that's fair, as we've had issues with 1st round picks for years. Price was our only superstar drafted in the first round in 20 some odd years.

 

[habsgirl5000]

I'm just unimpressed by Slafkovsky.

For somebody with as many posts as you have, you should know better by now than to get your hopes up over our draft picks,

You don't need to keep touching the fire to know its hot, you should learn the first time,

SLAF will become a chucky 2.0

 

[Wats]

For somebody with as many posts as you have, you should know better by now than to get your hopes up over our draft picks,

You don't need to keep touching the fire to know its hot, you should learn the first time,

SLAF will become a chucky 2.0

The thing is, both Galchenyuk/Kotkaniemi actually were more impressive at 18. It may have very well been their downfall as well since it led to them being rushed. Even Mete looked better at 19 preseason/camp than Harris/Barron right now IMO. Doesn't mean the end results will be same, just interesting to me that development has a role.

 

[Le Barron de HF]

Kind of late but I'm really liking what I see from Harris and Mesar. They've both shown great flashes at times

 

[Beer and Chips]

No one cares. Seriously. This training camp was never about him making the team. It's learning North American hockey, getting introduced to his teammates, then sending him to AHL. Too bad it's not in NFLD anymore because he needs to be far away from caustic fans like you.

Oh, and he's looked fine.

The HuGo plan very much includes being a shitty team THIS year too, so we can get a top 5 pick in 2023 which is shaping up to be one of the best drafts since 2003 with multiple centers who are better than Wright already.

Slafkovsky is one piece of a larger team picture that includes Suzuki, Dach, Caufield, top 5 pick in 2023 with maybe one or more of Farrell, Roy, Mesar & Beck.

Slafkovsky will grow as a player with the team.

Yep, next year Dadonov, Drouin, Monahan, and Byron, will be gone. Room for Slafkovsky, Mesar, Beck, and Heineman to earn spots, as well as all the young defensemen. That's really the first year of the team that will emerge.

 

[WeThreeKings]

I mean, that's what we all want to happen, I'm just unimpressed by Slafkovsky. He just doesn't have what I want, right now, as a player. He seems like a project, a big project. Hopefully he turns into the best player this draft, or even top 3, I just have KK vibes and PTDD. I just don't trust this organization to get it right, and I think that's fair, as we've had issues with 1st round picks for years. Price was our only superstar drafted in the first round in 20 some odd years.

It's about as fair as bringing all your baggage from a previous relationship into a new one.

Which is to say, it's unfair completely.

Bergevin is gone.
Therrien is gone.

They've added an entirely new development staff. Built an entire analytics staff. They hired MSL.

It's alright to let go of the past and make judgements on the track record of the new regime.

Its about as valid as saying Slafkovsky is going to bust because Wickenheiser did. Or Slafkovsky is going to be a star because Lafleur was.

They can't hurt us anymore.

 

[Beer and Chips]

It's about as fair as bringing all your baggage from a previous relationship into a new one.

Which is to say, it's unfair completely.

Bergevin is gone.
Therrien is gone.

They've added an entirely new development staff. Built an entire analytics staff. They hired MSL.

It's alright to let go of the past and make judgements on the track record of the new regime.

Its about as valid as saying Slafkovsky is going to bust because Wickenheiser did. Or Slafkovsky is going to be a star because Lafleur was.

They can't hurt us anymore.

Nedved's post is valid and Slafkovsky hasn't set the hockey world on fire. Just because he was drafted by the new regime doesn't give him a golden ticket. It's insulting to demean another poster like this by a rose-coloured fan boy. You have been around long enough to know promises are cheap.

 

[morhilane]

The thing is, both Galchenyuk/Kotkaniemi actually were more impressive at 18. It may have very well been their downfall as well since it led to them being rushed. Even Mete looked better at 19 preseason/camp than Harris/Barron right now IMO. Doesn't mean the end results will be same, just interesting to me that development has a role.

Most prospects are sheltered in pre-season games, it's not just something coaches do during the season. The regression start to show up once the sheltering stop and they can't adapt.

MSL does things a bit differently. He has roles/situations for the players and he wants to see how they perform under them so they aren't fully sheltered. The pre-season is all about evaluation to him.

 

[Kudo Shinichi]

Nedved's post is valid and Slafkovsky hasn't set the hockey world on fire. Just because he was drafted by the new regime doesn't give him a golden ticket. It's insulting to demean another poster like this by a rose-coloured fan boy. You have been around long enough to know promises are cheap.

How many players have set the hockey world on fire after 2 preseason games?

 

[Twisted Sinister]

It's about as fair as bringing all your baggage from a previous relationship into a new one.

Which is to say, it's unfair completely.

Bergevin is gone.
Therrien is gone.

They've added an entirely new development staff. Built an entire analytics staff. They hired MSL.

It's alright to let go of the past and make judgements on the track record of the new regime.

Its about as valid as saying Slafkovsky is going to bust because Wickenheiser did. Or Slafkovsky is going to be a star because Lafleur was.

They can't hurt us anymore.

Molson is still here, and I personally don't think this ownership group is a good influence on the team from what I've seen. That's why I still have a bit of jilted lover in me, to continue your analogy.

 

[MilesNewton]

What center is he pushing out of the lineup?

I would take some of the pressure off of him send him down for the year let him develop- not sure why the expectations are so high from so many

 

[JoelWarlord]

Nedved's post is valid and Slafkovsky hasn't set the hockey world on fire. Just because he was drafted by the new regime doesn't give him a golden ticket. It's insulting to demean another poster like this by a rose-coloured fan boy. You have been around long enough to know promises are cheap.

The comments about Slafkovsky not impressing him thus far are perfectly fair and reasonable. Attaching Slafkovsky to a lineage of bad development decisions and carrying forward the baggage from another front office with different coaches over a decade is not fair or reasonable in my view.

If the new guys had signed Alain Vigneault to coach the team and spent this summer desperately trying to plug roster holes to scrape back up to 85 points and talking about how Caufield needed to learn to play better defence I would understand viewing them as an extension of the past regime(s), but they didn't. They hired a rookie head coach who is saying and implementing things that are polar opposites of the Martin/Therrien/Julien/Ducharme defence-first coaching lineage, spent the offseason signalling a deliberate rebuild year focused mainly on trialing players for their offensive production, and we just saw Suzuki and Caufield go PPG in the 2nd half of the season after both guys had their production crater under Ducharme.

We haven't seen enough to know if the new front office are good at development yet, but I think we have absolutely seen enough to know that they're different from the last group in a significant way, so I don't think it makes any sense to carry the baggage forward from Bergevin. I guess to put it simply, I don't think it is rational to have the fear of Kotkaniemi, Galchenyuk, or Kostitsyn repeating as a bigger presence in your mind than the encouragement of Suzuki and Caufield's second half just last season under the new coach.

 

[cphabs]

We just heard from an analytic specialist on TSN 690 who stated that his organization/scouting service placed a red flag on Slafkovsky because his top speed was at the cut-off level for viable play in the NHL. Only one player in the league had a top speed below that level.
He's a terrible skater with respect to his speed - yet another one of his myriad deficiencies.

That doesn't mean that he cannot improve his top speed, but he may have put on too much weight for his frame in anticipation of engaging in "rougher" NHL play.

Who’s the expert?

 

[WeThreeKings]

Nedved's post is valid and Slafkovsky hasn't set the hockey world on fire. Just because he was drafted by the new regime doesn't give him a golden ticket. It's insulting to demean another poster like this by a rose-coloured fan boy. You have been around long enough to know promises are cheap.

His post is valid in the sense that he feels that way but it's not a valid excuse.

I never said being drafted by the new regime gives anyone a golden ticket. What I said is we can't put the past sins of the organization, from people no longer here, on the regime and the players here now.

What you are saying is:
Let's say your spouse says I want to try this new Italian place 3 doors down and your response is no, I don't want to go there because 15 years ago it was a Chinese place and I got stale noodles.

That's not a valid reason to not want to go there even if on a psychological level it makes some sense you're attributing a negative experience to the location but nothing about it is the same other then it is in the same spot as the Chinese restaurant.

 

[Nedved]

The thing is, both Galchenyuk/Kotkaniemi actually were more impressive at 18. It may have very well been their downfall as well since it led to them being rushed. Even Mete looked better at 19 preseason/camp than Harris/Barron right now IMO. Doesn't mean the end results will be same, just interesting to me that development has a role.

And then you see heineman and wonder what we're doing wrong, he looks like an nhl player. Or we trade for Suzuki and he ends up being our best center. I'll give credit about Caufield, he seems to have "it" but man it goes to show how important development is for hockey players because MSL's version of Caufield and Ducharme's version of Caufield has never showed me how much development/coaching matter, even for a guy with as much talent as Caufield.

 

[Paddy17]

Yep, next year Dadonov, Drouin, Monahan, and Byron, will be gone. Room for Slafkovsky, Mesar, Beck, and Heineman to earn spots, as well as all the young defensemen. That's really the first year of the team that will emerge.

I'm hoping Ylonen wins a spot too.

 

[Nedved]

His post is valid in the sense that he feels that way but it's not a valid excuse.

I never said being drafted by the new regime gives anyone a golden ticket. What I said is we can't put the past sins of the organization, from people no longer here, on the regime and the players here now.

What you are saying is:
Let's say your spouse says I want to try this new Italian place 3 doors down and your response is no, I don't want to go there because 15 years ago it was a Chinese place and I got stale noodles.

That's not a valid reason to not want to go there even if on a psychological level it makes some sense you're attributing a negative experience to the location but nothing about it is the same other then it is in the same spot as the Chinese restaurant.

I understand, but it's more like-- still the same restaurant, same owner, even the same dishes and chairs, but new manger. I wish it was the old Chinese place, then maybe Gillette would come back to the habs, lol. So, I ask my wife: Why do we keep coming back here? It's not what it use to be for date night? Oh well, I guess the new waiter is big and sexy.

I'm saying I want them to prove it. I have my guard up because I don't want to dive in and trust this regime. I'm not impressed so far with some of the moves. Dach, bye bye Romanov, didn't care for some of the draft picks, and I look at this team and wonder what the direction is because we got some random hit or miss players this off season, and I don't think they want to tank. Why make some of the moves they did? beats me.

I really hope I eat crow. I don't think we've improved much, outside MSL. He has earned a chance to prove himself and some patience. He is getting the most out of his players.

 

[Chr1s97]

We missed out on a franchise player....AGAIN!!!

It will end up being a repeat of 2018 draft,

Wright = Tkachuk
Slaf = KK

We missed out on a franchise player....AGAIN!!!!

Slaf will end up being chucky 2.0

Wright…. Franchise… Player…. ??? He’s good at hockey but he’s far from being a Franchise player.

 

[Talik Sanis]

Who’s the expert?

It was an individual from a private scouting firm with their own unique analytics and tracking systems, brought on as a guest, with his comments on Slaf replayed on Conor McKenna's morning show on Wednesday morning: their organization tracked - apparently - NHL players' top speeds and found a cutoff point below which there was only a single player currently in the league. Slaf was right at that level. Sadly, the name of the analyst himself escapes me at the moment.