What is the team's biggest roadblock to make the playoffs next season?

[The Real Timo]

I’m amazed that almost nobody sees coaching as a big roadblock. I do agree with secondary scoring as the biggest road block though. And goalies. So basically everything

 

[salbutera]

Can be all of the above, but Secondary scoring is our biggest flaw (AKA lack of talent)

Special teams would be #2 but this will come with that extra talent (second wave of PP) and experience.

No matter what, we are adding a special player to the core….I’m expecting, without losing key players for months at a time, a 9th to 12th place finish next season with a playoff birth the next.


Monahan would be my target. Pair him Beck, I’d rivet the 2 together and let Beck soak it all in!

Maybe it’s me, but I wouldn’t chance Monahan on a multi-year deal after the wear & tear I expect these playoffs will have on him, especially is the Jets go deep

 

[jaffy27]

Maybe it’s me, but I wouldn’t chance Monahan on a multi-year deal after the wear & tear I expect these playoffs will have on him

Fair point….that would be up to the Habs doctors to decide. I just like the player and person for our youth!

 

[jaffy27]

I’m amazed that almost nobody sees coaching as a big roadblock. I do agree with secondary scoring as the biggest road block though. And goalies. So basically everything

Better coaching would’ve done what exactly?

We had 1 real line all year….with two scoring lines we are basically in the playoffs.

The compete level to the end was most impressive……that’s coaching and players believing in MSL

 

[Fergy22]

Dach isn’t some huge game changer. Hes got a career high pace in the 50s. People need to stop pretending that he’s our savior.

I have his bobblehead so he better be good and healthy

 

[Runner77]

Maybe it’s me, but I wouldn’t chance Monahan on a multi-year deal after the wear & tear I expect these playoffs will have on him, especially is the Jets go deep

After the season he’s logged in, playing every game, he’s convinced me that he’s deserving of a multi-year offer. Only depends on duration and AAV.

When a player embraces this market as much as Monahan appeared to and was so highly regarded by his teammates, you at least have to give it a shot to bring him back.

 

[Captain Mountain]

Every team in the division is deeper and/or has more high end talent.

Making the playoffs next season would require luck and significant improvement from a lot of players, unless they decide to mortgage the future to try to make the playoffs next season (which would be a bad idea).

Montreal finished 5th last in the NHL and there was nothing unlucky about their season relative to other teams. They lack offensive depth and their top line isn't dominant at this point in time. They don't have a true #1 D and may not even have a #2 D yet. Their D depth has upside, but hasn't demonstrated it in the NHL consistently yet. Their goaltending has been average to above average, but isn't a real strength.

Relative to contenders sure, but relative to the teams that fight/just made the playoffs I'm not so sure that's true. Like do we really lack top end forwards/defenders relative to Washington? They had two 60 point playes, one 50 point player and were bailed out by Lindgren. The threshold for playoffs isn't all that high when you look at it.

Washington had a pretty fluky season and might be the worst playoff team in the salary cap era. It seems to be that using them as a bar as a playoff team is akin to using the 2020-2021 Habs as a bar for a cup contender. I'm not sure there's any team in the East that would trade their roster for Washington's right now.

 

[Naslundforever]

It's the guys at the top of lineup (Or lack thereof) that determine whether a team is picking top-5 or not. Even the best depth players can't turn a bad team good. To your analogy, there isn't any bottom-6 players that "you want to marry".

At the end of the day Evans produced pretty much what you should expect from a 3rd/4th line guy. And he did it while getting buried in defensive starts, and leading the league in SH time. So I would argue he very much is a specialist that the coach can use in a given situation. As much as people might want a crash & bang energy 4th line, those tend to require a bit of sheltering defensively putting greater stress on the other lines. Burying the 4th line in defensive starts means you can start your top lines in the offensive zone more often. That's a value added to the team that goes well beyond the 4th line's individual production, which again is pretty much inline with reasonable expectations/NHL average.

one of the worse pk in the league, I would not brag about it.

“rest the top lines” is how you describe every 4th liner to ever play the game. I’d take a goon, a real pk beast like say Byron and a face-off specialist any day before these vanilla interchangeable players, sorry.

@Rapala

I mean, what more can be expected from him? He's hardly the biggest thing that's wrong with this team. A contender would take a Jake Evans on their team any day: reliable, smart, quick and go on Face-offs and defensively.

nothing wrong with him, there are worse on the team, and habs suck.

 

[Vachon23]

Many problems

- the conference is to good
- Lack of talent

Are the 2 major ones

 

[Maitz]

Goaltending, I think we over rate our goaltenders. They have flashes of a starter sometimes but I feel like we still have 2 #2 goaltenders.

 

[JRichard]

Goaltending, I think we over rate our goaltenders. They have flashes of a starter sometimes but I feel like we still have 2 #2 goaltenders.

Not a strength for sure.
Both under .900 lifetime.

I know some rely on advanced stats (cant comment as i have no clue how they come up with those) that would show both are doing great but regular old stats are meh.

 

[Bobby Holik agent]

 

[dcyhabs]

They need to fill some holes. Ideally a true #1 D (could be someone in the pipeline), a real second line, and a shutdown line. The Suzuki line is doing both top line and shutdown, but it's probably more efficient to have cheaper guys do some of the D work.

I doubt they can work on the details until they fill out the roster. They could improve the coaching a bit but it won't help much if they don't have the team to execute. They could work on specific situations but they'll be better off once they have a player or two.

The shutdown line is probably the last stage of the rebuild. It's usually easy enough to get some defensive specialists in the off season. You probably need one guy who's good, the habs are hoping it's Beck, and a couple of responsible guys.

If none of the current D shows they can play top pairing effectively for a whole season they'll need to add. It's likely that at the habs spot they can get a pretty good F or a very strong D so it might be the year to do that. In most cases it's best to take an F high because the stats provide more indication, but the scouting this year doesn't show that. Who knows, if there is a run on D early the habs might get their scorer.

 

[McGees]

You missed the option of 'Anderson'

 

[dinodebino]

Talent.

 

[Estimated_Prophet]

Dach isn’t some huge game changer. Hes got a career high pace in the 50s. People need to stop pretending that he’s our savior.

What a hideously inept take.

 

[Beendair Donedat]

What is the team's biggest roadblock to make the playoffs next season?​

Lack of talent/scoring. Other teams being better. No game breakers.

 

[Bleeker]

We need a 2nd line.

Dach coming back will help ALOT but we still need at least another top-6 talent.

 

[Habssince89]

We're going to get even closer next year, and we could get hot and get a WC spot.

I think the top things missing (but could easily be on their way) are:
1)PPG Players (but we're on the verge and more talent is on the way. A huge injection of skill is coming next year, can't wait)
2)Shut down players/Team Defense (Its a work in progress but I think as the team sheds the dead weight the roster will be more suited for MSL's fluid approach at both ends)
3)Team toughness/Power forwards (We have a couple guys in the system who can bring some jam, but we need to find those warriors who will force garbage goals and take the burden off of Xhekaj and get in people's faces. We can't always be down a Dman for 5mins+.

I think we're trending right on track, but in the end its always going to be up to the players to see if they meet expectations, and if 1-2 guys take a step forward sooner than expected we could see the team shift into contending mode quickly.

Let's say for example we somehow win the lottery and Celebrini is a Hab.

Suddenly we have:
Caufield-Suzuki-Slafkovsky
Newhook-Celebrini-Dach

As a top6, which is both talented and ridiculously young. There's no reason to cement that top 6, and start focusing on stacking that bottom 6 to support all that young talent. To move the needle, you need to push. Now Celebrini might not be a hab, but just one top 10 pick who can play in the NHL right away or soon really shifts everything, especially if they push Dach to wing.

I think Hughes has a good idea of what he'll do, but he's figuring out the best time to do it.

 

[JianYang]

Better coaching would’ve done what exactly?

We had 1 real line all year….with two scoring lines we are basically in the playoffs.

The compete level to the end was most impressive……that’s coaching and players believing in MSL

If it's a structured coach that squeezes every single point out of the team, then the complaint is that the Habs are getting mid round picks and will be stuck in perpetual mediocrity.

If its a more free wheeling coach that can't get more points out of a bad roster, then it's the coach's fault for the failure of the team.

Pick a lane, you can't have both.

 

[Spearmint Rhino]

When our 2nd line is our 4th we will compete for the playoffs

 

[the valiant effort]

Even if you feel health didn’t affect the Habs as negatively as the two previous seasons, health will still be the main factor. Is Caufield fully recovered, can Suzuki maintain this pace, can Guhle get through a full season, can Monty handle what might be a heavier load, can Slaf and his big body handle the extra attention coming his way, Dach, and so on

 

[vokiel]

It should have been a multiple choice poll, but narrowing it down, it has to be lack of secondary scoring for 2/3 of the season. The team started performing towards the end when other clubs lazed off on their defensive coverage. That's a strong hint. Gallagher, Anderson, Armia all scoring within the last tier of the season is not because they are suddenly saving their careers.

They need more threatening forwards up front. They need to work their middle-6 and make sure these guys' roles force the opponents to spread their defensive coverage on multiple fronts.

One could have had:

• Improving defense: There doesn't seem to be many themes on defense other than individual players needing to perform better.
• Improving coaching: With the one point above this one, the team needs more structure than what we've seen. This is not 90s hockey, you won't be able to ride to the cup with individual performances. Coaching needs to be able to structure the efforts of players on the ice into a cohesive organization every game, tailor-made to beat the opponent of the evening.
• Improving injury management: That starts with rectifying the depth's lack of balance. It's deep on defense, shallow on centers, and barely worth anything on the wings.

 

[Bobby Holik agent]

Next years:
We need to score +35 goals.
From 236 to 271.
We need to stop -50 goals from happening.
From 289 to 239.

Main issue are defensive.
Since Price/Weber/Danault/Perry... ... .. KOTKANIEMI is done maybe Zadina ain't filling our nets with pucks but others teams certainly are!

 

[Sorinth]

Washington had a pretty fluky season and might be the worst playoff team in the salary cap era. It seems to be that using them as a bar as a playoff team is akin to using the 2020-2021 Habs as a bar for a cup contender. I'm not sure there's any team in the East that would trade their roster for Washington's right now.

We made the playoffs with 88 points with Gomez so een if we don't count the play-ins/covid seasons that's not true. And last year the Islanders at 93 made the playoffs so again you don't need 95 points to be in the playoffs.