Out of Town Thread 2021: Part 8

[Captain Mountain]

His job was to put up points though, that's his role because he's weak defensively. Seems like a good kid but I can't see him being in the league very long

His job should never have been to put up points. It wasn't actually his role, since he never saw the PP. And he's not weak defensively, he's just not a crease-clearing D-man.

 

[Lafleurs Guy]

See my point number 2. This obsession with point production with D-men is part of that complete misunderstanding what makes D-men good.

What Mete has done well in Ottawa (and did well here) was play man-on-man D and transition the puck. He's never going to be a major point producer, but it doesn't matter. Teams generally outchance and outscore their opponents when he's on the ice. And his hockey IQ and puck-management play a role. He's not going to be first pair D-man, but he does quite a lot well and can easily slot into the top-4. At 22.

But this team believes if a D-man doesn't score, they better be big and physical. And many fans do too.

The most important skills a modern NHL D-man needs to great are, in-order:

1) great hockey IQ;
2) being able to manage/move the puck well; and
3) skate well.

Mete has all of that.

Players like Toews and Weegar don't come out of nowhere. But this management group doesn't really care. The D-core they have right now is the one they've always wanted since the Subban-Weber trade.

I'm just hoping they'll be more careful when trying to improve Romanov's defensive game.



That's fine. I generally think any D that isn't viewed as top-2/3 (so a 4/6 D) is generally a bottom pair D-man. I'd just rather Montreal had kept 0n that could help address their very obvious weaknesses.

Funny thing is, we've been terrible in our own end. We're probably better now than we've been in years and it's still not a good group. For all the talk of us having stay at home guys, we still allow cross ice passing and don't do a good job covering up in our zone.

Our 'stay at home' guys don't provide the benefit of good defensive play. They simply don't transition well. And that leads to our goalies getting the shaft and our forwards not having any support. It's our biggest weakness.

We've actually got a good set of forwards. We've got a great goalie. Our D sucks. And I don't understand why we'd let Mete go in favour of a guy like Kulak or Ouellete or whatever other trash we dress up on any given night.

 

[Captain Mountain]

Funny thing is, we've been terrible in our own end. We're probably better now than we've been in years and it's still not a good group. For all the talk of us having stay at home guys, we still allow cross ice passing and don't do a good job covering up in our zone.

Our 'stay at home' guys don't provide the benefit of good defensive play. They simply don't transition well. And that leads to our goalies getting the shaft and our forwards not having any support. It's our biggest weakness.

We've actually got a good set of forwards. We've got a great goalie. Our D sucks.

And the major difference is Montreal's spending a lot more at D and they've gotten bigger at D.

Montreal's actually pretty decent at preventing chances against relative to 4-5 seasons ago, but they've hurt their offensive game so much that its a net-negative.

The lack of transition and the lack of D that can be activated for zone-entries is what really kills this team, specifically since they're built to score off the rush. They still need Price since he's a great with the puck and can start breakouts that the non-Petry D can't.

Even Bergevin must realize it now, which is probably why he tried to get DeAngelo, but that should point to how badly he ignored the issue.

 

[peate]

Mete with over 20 minutes of icetime last night.

 

[BigDaddyLurch]

His job was to put up points though, that's his role because he's weak defensively. Seems like a good kid but I can't see him being in the league very long

Braindead Ben Shyterot is weak defensively on his best day, horrid most of the time, and doesn't put up points...he's on our Top Pairing...
Shea Weber no longer puts up a lot of points and can barely even move laterally, let alone be any good defensively...Top Pairing here...

...gettng rid of Mete for nothing after getting rid of Juulsen for nothing in order to keep Mete and then after all this actually paying for two worse Dmen than Mete or Juulsen is Bargain Bin in a nutshell...idiotic decision after idiotic decision after idiotic decision...

 

[Milhouse40]

AMERICA

 

[JuicyHam]

AMERICA

Congratulations on the assault and battery charge and also you'll never be allowed to attend an MLB game again

 

[Canadiens Ghost]

Congratulations on the assault and battery charge and also you'll never be allowed to attend an MLB game again

On the positive side, he'll have front row seats for UFC events.
Hopefully the Rockies fans put him down for the count also.

 

[MTL-rules]

Congratulations on the assault and battery charge and also you'll never be allowed to attend an MLB game again

And travel since you'll have a criminal record you dumb shit.

 

[Adam Michaels]

Avs clinched the President's Trophy and will have home ice advantage no matter how far they go.

And now every playoff round is confirmed.

North
Toronto Maple Leafs vs. Montreal Canadiens
Edmonton Oilers vs. Winnipeg Jets

East
Pittsburgh Penguins vs. NY Islanders
Washington Capitals vs. Boston Bruins

Central
Carolina Hurricanes vs. Nashville Predators
Florida Panthers vs. Tampa Bay Lightning

West
Colorado Avalanche vs. St. Louis Blues
Vegas Golden Knights vs. Minnesota Wild

 

[Roadhouse]

Lol with those teams the Central might as well be called the South.

Florida vs Tampa feels weird. A bit like MTL-TOR I suppose.

 

[Adam Michaels]

Lol with those teams the Central might as well be called the South.

Florida vs Tampa feels weird. A bit like MTL-TOR I suppose.

I think the Florida/Tampa series is the one that I'm most interested in. The Bruins/Caps one, too.

The Panthers finished the season with 11 wins in their last 15 or so games. They're going into the playoffs hot.

 

[Adam Michaels]

 

[Forum93]

AMERICA

Good to see the other fans jump him, hopefully they got some good shots in.

 

[the]

Looking forward to Florida vs Tampa Bay, I hope the Panthers knock them out cold. Very underrated team in my opinion.

Also an easy win for my Golden Knights against the Minnesota Wild.

 

[Andy]

I would laugh if Calgary wins all their remaining games and don't make it because the habs backed in with OT losses.

Actually, if Calgary wins their last 3 games, they will have 27 wins, Montreal will have had 24. I'm not sure how I feel about a system where a team with less wins in the same division makes the playoffs.

 

[ArtPeur]

Melnyk Typical? It's a weird story overall.. but the pictures of the ship's interior are crazy

 

[Pompeius Magnus]

Melnyk Typical? It's a weird story overall.. but the pictures of the ship's interior are crazy

There is quite literally nothing about the guy that would surprise me at this point. You'd tell me he's been caught naked in a hotel lobby somewhere, covered in baby oil and chasing prostitutes with a baseball bat and I wouldn't even flinch I'd be like '' yep, that sounds about right'' .

 

[Adam Michaels]

 

[417]

Good player...but he turns into Sergei Zubov whenever the Habs play the Sens lol

 

[Adam Michaels]

Before the playoffs or before the season begins, the Canes tend to do a tweet thread about each team.

This is what they wrote about the Leafs and Oilers:




And this is what they wrote about the Habs:

 

[JianYang]

I would laugh if Calgary wins all their remaining games and don't make it because the habs backed in with OT losses.

Actually, if Calgary wins their last 3 games, they will have 27 wins, Montreal will have had 24. I'm not sure how I feel about a system where a team with less wins in the same division makes the playoffs.

It just means that the habs finished with alot of draws after three periods . They were awful in the circus OT session finishing 4-12 on the season, so the OT actually harmed the habs.

3 on 3 and shootout aren't even a thing in the playoffs, so that can be thrown out the window now.

 

[Andy]

It just means that the habs finished with alot of draws after three periods . They were awful in the circus OT session finishing 4-12 on the season, so the OT actually harmed the habs.

3 on 3 and shootout aren't even a thing in the playoffs, so that can be thrown out the window now.

If it were the reverse, I’d be pissed if a team in the division with less wins, possibly 3 less wins , would make the playoff over the habs.

 

[Runner77]

Melnyk Typical? It's a weird story overall.. but the pictures of the ship's interior are crazy

The best part is all his idiot family and friends signing the ship’s guest book and saying how positive an experience the whole thing was.

 

[Habs]

Congratulations on the assault and battery charge and also you'll never be allowed to attend an MLB game again

my good friend is a defense lawyer, he just tells people to blame it on Covid , being locked up etc and they get off.