Season Preview: Coming Back to Earth?

[Monctonscout]

I think that we're not doing our younger players any favours going about things the way we have. Signing Briere hurts their development (he steals easy minutes they should be getting like DD does) and doesn't provide any kind of protection up front. On the backend, we're leaving Price almost totally exposed in front of the net. That's not good for our other backend guys or Price himself.

By all means, don't trade away the future. If we think Beaulieu's the real deal... hang onto him. But DON'T make the size issue worse and at the very least get a REAL number 4 shutdown guy.

How could we have done this? We had cap space to spare while others were struggling with it. We're pretty stacked prospect wise. Some of those prospects we're probably not going to move up but have some talent. We have the 2014 draft picks that we can trade with, we have an abundance of smaller forwards with some skill that we could move... there's things we can do here.

So what would I have done? I would've signed Morrow as a stopgap for Maccaron. I would've gone out and gone after a guy like Coburn who was apparently available and would've suited us perfectly (leveraging our cap space to our advantage) and I would've at least looked into Bobby Ryan (which we may have done anyway.)

So yeah, one FA (Morrow) and a trade for a good shutdown guy. That's what we needed (and still need.)

Thing is though.... EVERYONE knows we need this. There's nothing special here about what I'm saying. The whole league knows this and our own GM knows it. That's why what we did was such a mystery. Now we have to pray that Murray is good enough and Tinordi's ready. We cheaped out where we needed help and paid a premium for an area where we already had an overabundance. That's not the way to build winners. And yes, I think we could've actually done something this postseason with a Coburn and a Morrow in our lineup. Cup favourites? No. But I'd be valuing our chances a whole lot higher.

If anything Briere helps the kids development by providing them time to develop instead of having them rushed into a role they are not ready for.

How is Price totally exposed? The Habs are one of the better puck posession teams, that in itself protects him by not having to face shots when we have the puck. If anything it's Price that needs to step up and protect them d-men so they know they can trust him and don't have to try and block every shot.

Who are the "#4 shutdown guys" available that would not have cost a top prospect? The best #4 guy we can get is a healthy Emelin. If you think Phillie would give us Coburn for a 4th rounder or another cheap option you're dreaming in colour.

Also MB is on record as saying he is building towards a top team, I don't see the point of trading 2-3 assets for an established d-man right now, a guy that will block guys like Tinordi, Pateryn and Ellis. Murray is there as a temporary option to help out on the 3rd pair and on PK.

 

[Monctonscout]

5 guys out of 9 are smurfs. You are in denial.


Yeah right...

We don't do this (at either end) and we don't win. Guess why?

Why do you think he was able to match Rask? Did you watch the series?

Toews was called out by his own teammate. So he goes to the net and stays there for the rest of the series. All of a sudden the Hawks start taking over and Rask looks a lot more human. Strange how that worked.

Games are won and lost in front of the net man. No not entirely but almost every poastseason game you'll see some battle result in a goal. When a goalie gets hot (see Anderson) all you can do is put traffic in front of him... we don't do this.

You don't understand how the game works dude. Battles in front of the net are key to winning. Why do you think Pronger went to the finals three years in a row on three different teams? Why do you think Chara has been there twice in the last four years? Because apart from whatever else they bring, they are amazing in front of their own net. We don't have anyone like this on the backend or on the front... and we wasted our time with Briere.

How is it that you can't see this? How many playoffs have you watched?

All the more reason why we should've given him some help.

You can call Briere Gionta DD and Gallagher a smurf, that's 4 out of 9. Big deal, most of them won't be here in 2-3 years.

Yes, I watched every game. The reason Crawford matched Rask is he was on top of his game, unlike our goalies at playoff time. Had nothing to do with battles in front of the net. You're way oversimplifying things. Sure, it's great to have a Pronger and Chara, and both guys are top d-men, but they are but one aspect needed to win a cup or at least go far in the playoffs. If it was that simple Chara and Pronger would have more than one cup.

 

[Roulin]

You're grasping at straws man. You're trying to paint it like the Hawks were an undersized team... they weren't. And they had hulking guys in their lineup that we don't.

It was my first post in the thread! If I was grasping at straws, I would've sat that one out, haha. I just saw some posts that were including half the relevant info, so I waded in with the other half.

And with all due respect, when I think of the Hawks none of those guys come to mind. They aren't core players. The only real smurf they have in their core is Kane and he's an elite talent.

...and ideally players like DD and Diaz shouldn't be considered part of our core. Everyone agrees on this, but for different reasons. I believe we need more good players to bump them down the depth chart, regardless of size. If DD can be a Versteeg and Diaz can be a Leddy as depth players, we're golden. If they can't, it's not because we've reach some critical lack-of-mass as a team, it's because they're just not good enough as individual players.

And how did Gallagher do without DD? And how did the team fare in the playoffs?

Gallagher did worse without DD. I'm sure that has more to do with Pacioretty than it has to do with DD, Patches is just the best of those players, but the point is that playing the two undersized forwards together didn't sink the ship like most posters seem to assume it would when looking at their names together on the screen.

In the playoffs, Gallagher outshot the opposition (62.4%) while DD didn't (49.6%). When together, they had 13 shots for, 9 against, 0 goals for, which I'll call goaltending and luck, you'll call not driving to the net - a battle that I don't expect anyone to agree on I wish we had gifs of each of those 13 shots to discuss in detail.

It's not a theory dude... size matters. Why don't we see teams with five foot four players in their lineups? There are lots of five foot four people in the world, why don't they make the NHL?

Saying size doesn't matter is just flat out wrong. It does matter. You need a balance in your lineup or you wind up like us and you get the crap kicked out of you every postseason.

I'm not saying size doesn't matter. Clearly, size is an advantage for an individual player. An undersized player has to have other advantages that allow him to win puck battles and make plays, otherwise he won't be effective.

What I'm saying is, there's no evidence that there is tipping point at which a combination of small players becomes ineffective. I think a forward group of 4 Datsyuks and 8 St Louis' would do incredibly well in every situation.

 

[Lafleurs Guy]

If anything Briere helps the kids development by providing them time to develop instead of having them rushed into a role they are not ready for.

No he doesn't. We already have tons of guys who can do this. He's completely redundant. Anyone can see this. Take off the goggles.

How is Price totally exposed? The Habs are one of the better puck posession teams, that in itself protects him by not having to face shots when we have the puck. If anything it's Price that needs to step up and protect them d-men so they know they can trust him and don't have to try and block every shot.

It's great that we're one of the better puck possession teams and it's great that as a group our blueline is one of the best in the league when it comes to handling the puck.

But that has zero to do with how we handle ourselves without the puck in our end. They are two completely different things. And I'd say we've really ignored the latter and it's going to hurt us and Price.

Who are the "#4 shutdown guys" available that would not have cost a top prospect? The best #4 guy we can get is a healthy Emelin. If you think Phillie would give us Coburn for a 4th rounder or another cheap option you're dreaming in colour.

Since when does a number 4 guy cost a top prospect?

As for Philly... lots of options. They were cap ****ed so offer them a first, take some salary, give back some lesser prospects, smaller forwards, Gorges... whatever man. Make it work. And if they demand a Beaulieu, walk away and let them solve their own cap problems.

Don't sit there and tell me that a number four shutdown guy is going to cost us Galchenyuk though because that's BS.

Also MB is on record as saying he is building towards a top team, I don't see the point of trading 2-3 assets for an established d-man right now, a guy that will block guys like Tinordi, Pateryn and Ellis. Murray is there as a temporary option to help out on the 3rd pair and on PK.

I don't see how a guy like Coburn would do anything but help. He'd carry a lot of the load defensively (something I don't think anyone on this roster can do right now) and help physically protect our goalie and small forwards. Tinordi could come in under his shadow and log less critical minutes. Instead we're basically throwing it all on a rookie and a guy who 29 other teams passed on (and who's now on the DL for the next month.)

Not smart.

 

[Monctonscout]

I didn't like the new " Division " format when it was announced and I still don't like it now. I really don't think it helps a team like us. Boston, Detroit and Ottawa should get the 1-2-3. That means you take away Pittsburgh, Washington and Philly and we are fighting for 2 spots with Toronto, Rangers, Jackets, Devils, Islanders

It's not going to be easy and for us to make it it's now or never for Carey to step up his game to another level

The Habs were supposed to be behind Boston last year and they finished ahead of them. All things being equal we should be ahead of Ottawa, they have little depth up front and guys like Spezza and Michalek are fragile. Doubt Anderson does as well as last year. Detroit was not that good last year and Howard had an all-star year. Their defense is relatively weak and they don't have the depth they once had. I think if Price plays like he can we can win the division, if he is average we can still battle Detroit for 2nd.

Nobody said it was. You are missing the point. It's about balance.

You don't need to be the biggest but we're just too small. Why make it hard for yourself? And why try to make this an 'either or' debate. It's not either or... it's both. You need talent and some size to win. If you don't have enough of either you probably won't win. That's all that's being said man.

You are missing the point that Bergevin is building a team to be a top contender in 2-3 years, not looking for shortcuts for this year.

That's why he isn't willing to trade a bunch of young assets for Ryan and Coburn. Plus, as I said we do have some size on the team, we just need to gradually increase that mix over the next 2-3 years. Guys like Bouillon Briere DD and Gionta probably won't be here in 24 months.

 

[Lafleurs Guy]

You can call Briere Gionta DD and Gallagher a smurf, that's 4 out of 9. Big deal, most of them won't be here in 2-3 years.

Yes, I watched every game. The reason Crawford matched Rask is he was on top of his game, unlike our goalies at playoff time. Had nothing to do with battles in front of the net. You're way oversimplifying things. Sure, it's great to have a Pronger and Chara, and both guys are top d-men, but they are but one aspect needed to win a cup or at least go far in the playoffs. If it was that simple Chara and Pronger would have more than one cup

Yeah... right. I'm not going to sit here and try to convince you that water is wet. It just is. Spin it all you want man...

 

[Adriatic]

Any comparison of Habs with the Hawks line-up needs to stop, it's getting clownish. Habs have less skill and less size and are a much softer team that are unable to play their style when they are are opposed to physical opposition. Someone said we are puck possession team, ya we are only when we don't get pushed around. When playoffs roll around we are not a puck possession team. A real puck possession team like Hawks or Wings are able to be successful at it against anybody..we're not there. We would need to get rid of at least 3 of our smurfs to even come close to hawks forwards size wise, skill is another story.

Toews 6'2
Bickell 6'4
Kane 5'11

Hossa 6'2
Sharp 6'1
Frolik 6'1

Saad 6'2
Handzus 6'4
Bolland 6'0

Shaw 5'11
Bolland 6'0
Stallberg 6'3

 

[Lafleurs Guy]

The Habs were supposed to be behind Boston last year and they finished ahead of them. All things being equal we should be ahead of Ottawa, they have little depth up front and guys like Spezza and Michalek are fragile. Doubt Anderson does as well as last year. Detroit was not that good last year and Howard had an all-star year. Their defense is relatively weak and they don't have the depth they once had. I think if Price plays like he can we can win the division, if he is average we can still battle Detroit for 2nd.

And when the refs put their whistles away in the playoffs we'll get crushed.

You are missing the point that Bergevin is building a team to be a top contender in 2-3 years, not looking for shortcuts for this year.

That's why he isn't willing to trade a bunch of young assets for Ryan and Coburn. Plus, as I said we do have some size on the team, we just need to gradually increase that mix over the next 2-3 years. Guys like Bouillon Briere DD and Gionta probably won't be here in 24 months.

I have no problem with him not trading top prospects. I have no problem with him hanging onto Bealieu (and we'd probably have had to deal him to get Ryan.) But I do have a problem with us not signing Morrow and not getting a decent number four guy. Neither of these options would've cost us a top prospect.

As for Coburn... don't know. Maybe the Flyers would've wanted too much. But I'd have happily given them our next first for him. And if that didn't work we've got other stuff to deal with as well as the cap space we had.

Wasting that money on Briere didn't make sense.

 

[Monctonscout]

No he doesn't. We already have tons of guys who can do this. He's completely redundant. Anyone can see this. Take off the goggles.

It's great that we're one of the better puck possession teams and it's great that as a group our blueline is one of the best in the league when it comes to handling the puck.

But that has zero to do with how we handle ourselves without the puck in our end. They are two completely different things. And I'd say we've really ignored the latter and it's going to hurt us and Price.

Since when does a number 4 guy cost a top prospect?

As for Philly... lots of options. They were cap ****ed so offer them a first, take some salary, give back some lesser prospects, smaller forwards, Gorges... whatever man. Make it work. And if they demand a Beaulieu, walk away and let them solve their own cap problems.

Don't sit there and tell me that a number four shutdown guy is going to cost us Galchenyuk though because that's BS.

I don't see how a guy like Coburn would do anything but help. He'd carry a lot of the load defensively (something I don't think anyone on this roster can do right now) and help physically protect our goalie and small forwards. Tinordi could come in under his shadow and log less critical minutes. Instead we're basically throwing it all on a rookie and a guy who 29 other teams passed on (and who's now on the DL for the next month.)

Not smart.

Which of that ton of guys would have stepped into Ryder's role so that Gallagher didn't have to be relied on in the top 6? Prust? Moen? White? Dumont?

There is more to playing defense in your own end than cross checking guys in front of the net...but that concept seems too deep for you. Guys like Diaz and Markov play effective defense with body position, active stick and good hockey sense.

Trading Gorges and a 1st for a guy like Coburn doesn't sound like a good deal to me. I'd rather keep my 1st and develop my own young d-men. in 2-3 years if the need is still there THEN make that kind of a deal. It's always better to develop your own core than having to overpay for somebody else's.

 

[Monctonscout]

Any comparison of Habs with the Hawks line-up needs to stop, it's getting clownish. Habs have less skill and less size and are a much softer team that are unable to play their style when they are are opposed to physical opposition. Someone said we are puck possession team, ya we are only when we don't get pushed around. When playoffs roll around we are not a puck possession team. A real puck possession team like Hawks or Wings are able to be successful at it against anybody..we're not there. We would need to get rid of at least 3 of our smurfs to even come close to hawks forwards size wise, skill is another story.

Toews 6'2
Bickell 6'4
Kane 5'11

Hossa 6'2
Sharp 6'1
Frolik 6'1

Saad 6'2
Handzus 6'4
Bolland 6'0

Shaw 5'11
Bolland 6'0
Stallberg 6'3

We had strong posession against pretty much everybody. Even Ottawa with some key guys missing. It's not puck posession that cost that series it's goaltending...theirs was excellent and ours was awful.

You lose a lot of credibility on your list when you don't post their d-men(Keith Oduya Leddy) and list Kane at 5'11"...that was good for a chuckle. Kane is 5'9" on his tippy toes.

 

[Monctonscout]

And when the refs put their whistles away in the playoffs we'll get crushed.


I have no problem with him not trading top prospects. I have no problem with him hanging onto Bealieu (and we'd probably have had to deal him to get Ryan.) But I do have a problem with us not signing Morrow and not getting a decent number four guy. Neither of these options would've cost us a top prospect.

As for Coburn... don't know. Maybe the Flyers would've wanted too much. But I'd have happily given them our next first for him. And if that didn't work we've got other stuff to deal with as well as the cap space we had.

Wasting that money on Briere didn't make sense.

That's where we need a guy like Murray. Plus guys like White Prust and Moen to step up.

I wouldn't have been against signing Morrow instead of Briere...but agin, those are short term filler moves...not anything that will affect if the team can win a cup in the window taht can open up in 2-3 years. Saying we had somebody internal to replace him is BS.

Phillie would have moved a lot of other guys before dumping Coburn cheap, I would think he would have cost at least 2/3 of what Ryan cost Ottawa. Top young player, top prospect plus 1st.

 

[Lafleurs Guy]

Which of that ton of guys would have stepped into Ryder's role so that Gallagher didn't have to be relied on in the top 6? Prust? Moen? White? Dumont?

How about... Morrow? Hell, how about Leblanc? Even without Ryders numbers offense wasn't a problem last year. We really don't even need to replace him. Just play the younger guys on the PP. Galchenyuk was awesome at even strength and we gave him no PP time. Why not just give it to him?

Stop trying to justify this stupid move.

There is more to playing defense in your own end than cross checking guys in front of the net...but that concept seems too deep for you. Guys like Diaz and Markov play effective defense with body position, active stick and good hockey sense.

You are wasting everyone's time with this. Again, it's not either or. Nobody is saying that "good hockey sense" isn't important.

You still need guys who cross check in front of the net and we don't have one.

STOP TRYING TO PAINT IT AS AN EITHER - OR position. It's not either-or.... it's BOTH. You need both to win. We don't have the other part of the equation.

Do you get it now? Do you need a diagram? How many times does this need to be explained to you? Stop coming back here with crap like puck possession. Nobody is saying it's not important. Nobody is denying that we're good at this. That's not the problem dude.

Trading Gorges and a 1st for a guy like Coburn doesn't sound like a good deal to me. I'd rather keep my 1st and develop my own young d-men. in 2-3 years if the need is still there THEN make that kind of a deal. It's always better to develop your own core than having to overpay for somebody else's.

I don't think it would have to be Gorges and a 1st. I think it could be one or the other as it greatly would've helped Philly. If it was both... yeah, I'd still do it. Not a great deal but it would help us. And Coburn's still young enough that he could be here for the foreseeable future and really help us.

We had strong posession against pretty much everybody. Even Ottawa with some key guys missing. It's not puck posession that cost that series it's goaltending...theirs was excellent and ours was awful.

You lose a lot of credibility on your list when you don't post their d-men(Keith Oduya Leddy) and list Kane at 5'11"...that was good for a chuckle. Kane is 5'9" on his tippy toes.

You want everything to fit in a neat little box. It's like listening to Leaf fans over the years just blaming goaltending and coaching. It's easy to do this... and it's simply a nice and tidy way of denying the real problems.

The REAL reason we lost is that Anderson had an easy ride. He saw every shot. Price on the other hand had guys in his grill all the time. So yeah, the save percentage numbers look black and white. But you're only looking at your calculator and ignoring the underlying cause.

The goaltending numbers were stark because one guy was screened and the other wasn't. One guy played well beyond his career average and the other played well below. The Senators (not the Bruins dude... the freaking Ottawa Senators) beat the crap out of us on the ice. It was an embarrassment.

Until we learn how this game is played we're not going anywhere in the postseason. You cannot ignore size the way we have, you cannot ignore the front of your own net the way we have and you cannot ignore the other team's crease the way we do and expect to win. It's that simple and all the skill in the world isn't going to change it. Our team needs more balance.

 

[WhiskeySeven*]

We had strong posession against pretty much everybody. Even Ottawa with some key guys missing. It's not puck posession that cost that series it's goaltending...theirs was excellent and ours was awful.

You lose a lot of credibility on your list when you don't post their d-men(Keith Oduya Leddy) and list Kane at 5'11"...that was good for a chuckle. Kane is 5'9" on his tippy toes.

Wrong as usual buddy. Kane's listed at 5'11 and he's a superstar, it doesn't matter how tall he is, he's an extraordinary talent and we don't have anyone remotely like him. And our game against Ottawa was terrible on all fronts, not solely goaltending (which, by all accounts the least of our problems).

We lost against Ottawa because we have a perimeter team and an incompetent coach and a rickety defensive structure. Ottawa was a team that we should've handled easily but they out-coached us.

Anderson isn't that good, we made him look good.

 

[Adriatic]

We had strong posession against pretty much everybody. Even Ottawa with some key guys missing. It's not puck posession that cost that series it's goaltending...theirs was excellent and ours was awful.

You lose a lot of credibility on your list when you don't post their d-men(Keith Oduya Leddy) and list Kane at 5'11"...that was good for a chuckle. Kane is 5'9" on his tippy toes.

Who's talking about defense right now?? The initial point was comparing the top 9 forwards. But if you wanna get into defense we can. I believe they also have a slightly better and faster defense top to bottom right now.

 

[Monctonscout]

How about... Morrow? Hell, how about Leblanc? Even without Ryders numbers offense wasn't a problem last year. We really don't even need to replace him. Just play the younger guys on the PP. Galchenyuk was awesome at even strength and we gave him no PP time. Why not just give it to him?

Stop trying to justify this stupid move.

You are wasting everyone's time with this. Again, it's not either or. Nobody is saying that "good hockey sense" isn't important.

You still need guys who cross check in front of the net and we don't have one.

STOP TRYING TO PAINT IT AS AN EITHER - OR position. It's not either-or.... it's BOTH. You need both to win. We don't have the other part of the equation.

Do you get it now? Do you need a diagram? How many times does this need to be explained to you? Stop coming back here with crap like puck possession. Nobody is saying it's not important. Nobody is denying that we're good at this. That's not the problem dude.

I don't think it would have to be Gorges and a 1st. I think it could be one or the other as it greatly would've helped Philly. If it was both... yeah, I'd still do it. Not a great deal but it would help us. And Coburn's still young enough that he could be here for the foreseeable future and really help us.

As I said, I wouldn't have had a problem with Morrow...but he wouldn't have replaced Ryder's offense but brought other elements.

LeBlanc makes no sense, he was coming off a terrible AHL season, to just plus him in your top 6 is pretty ridiculous. He needs to start AHL and produce plus gain confidence.

Galchenyuk got some PP time last year and should again this year.

As I said earlier, we have Emelin plus Murray and Tinordi and Pateryn on the way in the "big stay at home d-man" mold. So looking long term it's not a big issue unless Emelin walks. Murray is here to help short term.

 

[Monctonscout]

Eric Engels ‏@EricEngels 1h General consensus from replies: Vancouver Canucks are hockey's most overrated team. Start up the flamethrower, I'm saying the Senators are.

 

[Adriatic]

Ok let's klook at defense:

Keith 6'1
Seabrook 6'3
Hjalmarsson 6'3
Oduya 6'0
Rozival 6'1
Leddy 5'11

Keith is an all-star, he's probably one of the top 2-3 skating defensemen and can play 30 min.
Seabrook is the ideal #2. Big, physical, playoff warrior, contributes offensively and can play 25+ min against anybody.
Hjalmarsson is a big body, really good skater, logs alot of minutes, hits hard and is physical.
Oduya is an all-around good d and an incredible skater.
These 4 guys play most of the game. Then they have Rozsival and Leddy is their #6.

I don't think the Habs defense is as good, as fast or as able to play against physical oppenents as this group is just yet.

 

[Monctonscout]

Wrong as usual buddy. Kane's listed at 5'11 and he's a superstar, it doesn't matter how tall he is, he's an extraordinary talent and we don't have anyone remotely like him. And our game against Ottawa was terrible on all fronts, not solely goaltending (which, by all accounts the least of our problems).

We lost against Ottawa because we have a perimeter team and an incompetent coach and a rickety defensive structure. Ottawa was a team that we should've handled easily but they out-coached us.

Anderson isn't that good, we made him look good.

Yup, you're right. Kane grew two inches this past summer.



Who cares if he is the greatest player in the history of the world. He isn't any more 5'11" than Desharnais or Gionta. Give up the condesending tone. Anybody with half a brain saw that our goaltending was bad, just look at the 7-8 bad goals in 5 games. Anderson was fantastic, no matter how you slice it a .950 save % at the NHL level is amazing.

 

[overlords]

Eric Engels ‏@EricEngels 1h General consensus from replies: Vancouver Canucks are hockey's most overrated team. Start up the flamethrower, I'm saying the Senators are.

I really can't stand that guy.

 

[ashtraygirl]

Maybe I'm being nitpicky, but in your first sentence, it should be bleu, blanc et rouge, and not rogue!

 

[Adriatic]

Yup, you're right. Kane grew two inches this past summer.



Who cares if he is the greatest player in the history of the world. He isn't any more 5'11" than Desharnais or Gionta. Give up the condesending tone. Anybody with half a brain saw that our goaltending was bad, just look at the 7-8 bad goals in 5 games. Anderson was fantastic, no matter how you slice it a .950 save % at the NHL level is amazing.

What the hell are you talking about? Gionta and DD are both listed at 5'7. That's 4 inches shorter, much slower and less skilled. You don't think that's a big difference?

 

[Monctonscout]

Ok let's klook at defense:

Keith 6'1
Seabrook 6'3
Hjalmarsson 6'3
Oduya 6'0
Rozival 6'1
Leddy 5'11

Keith is an all-star, he's probably one of the top 2-3 skating defensemen and can play 30 min.
Seabrook is the ideal #2. Big, physical, playoff warrior, contributes offensively and can play 25+ min against anybody.
Hjalmarsson is a big body, really good skater, logs alot of minutes, hits hard and is physical.
Oduya is an all-around good d and an incredible skater.
These 4 guys play most of the game. Then they have Rozsival and Leddy is their #6.

I don't think the Habs defense is as good, as fast or as able to play against physical oppenents as this group is just yet.

Not a big difference either way. Emelin is more physical than anybody on Chicago.

The Habs have more overall skill and mobility than Chicago. If guys like Beaulieu Tinordi Nygren Pateryn develop as expected and Emelin stays, size, skill and mobility won't be a concern on defense.

 

[Adriatic]

Not a big difference either way. Emelin is more physical than anybody on Chicago.

The Habs have more overall skill and mobility than Chicago. If guys like Beaulieu Tinordi Nygren Pateryn develop as expected and Emelin stays, size, skill and mobility won't be a concern on defense.

I don't agree. In terms of skating ability and defensive play their top 4 right now is a lot better. Keith, Seabrook, Hjalmarsson and and Oduya can all play 22-23 playoff minutes per game and they could do it for 4 rounds against anybody. Our top 4 doesn't come close that right now.

 

[Monctonscout]

what the hell are you talking about? Gionta and dd are both listed at 5'7. That's 4 inches shorter, much slower and less skilled. You don't think that's a big difference?

i'm talking about kane being nowhere close to 5'11"!!!!

 

[Monctonscout]

I don't agree. In terms of skating ability and defensive play their top 4 right now is a lot better. Keith, Seabrook, Hjalmarsson and and Oduya can all play 22-23 playoff minutes per game and they could do it for 4 rounds against anybody. Our top 4 doesn't come close that right now.

We have 5 guys that can play over 20 minutes.