Where would you rather the Montreal Canadiens finish this year?

[Bacchus1]

All of the below

1. Stanley Cup
2. Finals
3 Conference finals
4. Don’t care as long as it is exciting
5. Top 3 overall pick

 

[Cobra Commander]

The team isn't good and they aren't that far from the bottom. 4-5-1 in the last ten. Constantly giving up more than 3-4 goals a game. Domis PDO will come down as it isn't sustainable. 4 pts out of the second last place in the conference and the Devil's have two games in hand on us, with just one win and we are 4 pts from absolute bottom in East.

The fast start has made the team overrated. We are still very much in contention for another tank year.

It's just taking the good teams longer to separate themselves this year.

Don’t forget that Weber will be back soon, and don’t be surprised if Bergevin trades for a D-man. We should be allowing fewer high scoring chances against once Man Mountain is back, and our PP should also improve.

As for Domi, he’s looking very dominant, it’s looking very easy out there for him. You never know he might hit 100+ points this year lol. I think he should have no problem finishing the year with 80-85 points. He’s breaking out right now, he looks elite.

I’m seeing a playoff team here, our 5 on 5 scoring has been pretty good. PP and PK should improve with Weber back.

 

[sandviper]

Don’t forget that Weber will be back soon, and don’t be surprised if Bergevin trades for a D-man. We should be allowing fewer high scoring chances against once Man Mountain is back, and our PP should also improve.

That is what is so baffling. Didn’t our PP actually improve last year when Weber got hurt? We were forced to be more dynamic.

Granted, I get losing Chuck and Max hurts the PP.

 

[Bacchus1]

Don’t forget that Weber will be back soon, and don’t be surprised if Bergevin trades for a D-man. We should be allowing fewer high scoring chances against once Man Mountain is back, and our PP should also improve.

As for Domi, he’s looking very dominant, it’s looking very easy out there for him. You never know he might hit 100+ points this year lol. I think he should have no problem finishing the year with 80-85 points. He’s breaking out right now, he looks elite.

I’m seeing a playoff team here, our 5 on 5 scoring has been pretty good. PP and PK should improve with Weber back.

When Weber comes back we will have a very good top 4. I don’t think we will actually need to trade for a D, unless we are offered something we can’t refuse. Like Alzner and Sherbak for a #1 or #2 D, which isn’t happening.

Weber-Mete
Petry-Juulson
Reiley-Schlemko
Oulette-Benn

Is fine.

 

[covfefe]

When did Weber and Petry switch to the left side?

 

[Kriss E]

Don’t forget that Weber will be back soon, and don’t be surprised if Bergevin trades for a D-man. We should be allowing fewer high scoring chances against once Man Mountain is back, and our PP should also improve.

As for Domi, he’s looking very dominant, it’s looking very easy out there for him. You never know he might hit 100+ points this year lol. I think he should have no problem finishing the year with 80-85 points. He’s breaking out right now, he looks elite.

I’m seeing a playoff team here, our 5 on 5 scoring has been pretty good. PP and PK should improve with Weber back.

I would actually be surprised if Bergevin trades for a D, or anything else. I think he makes minor moves a la David Drewiske, for the sake of saying he made moves. Otherwise, he's riding this wave and waiting on the kids.

 

[Cobra Commander]

That is what is so baffling. Didn’t our PP actually improve last year when Weber got hurt? We were forced to be more dynamic.

Granted, I get losing Chuck and Max hurts the PP.

We’ll I don’t see how it could get any worse, we are at the bottom, only way to go is up. Pacioretty doesn’t produce on the PP, he never has.

 

[Cobra Commander]

When Weber comes back we will have a very good top 4. I don’t think we will actually need to trade for a D, unless we are offered something we can’t refuse. Like Alzner and Sherbak for a #1 or #2 D, which isn’t happening.

Weber-Mete
Petry-Juulson
Reiley-Schlemko
Oulette-Benn

Is fine.

Reilly-Weber
Mete-Petry
Ouellet-Juulsen
Alzner-Benn

 

[Bacchus1]

Reilly-Weber
Mete-Petry
Ouellet-Juulsen
Alzner-Benn

Schlemko?

 

[Tyson]

Another top 3 pick would not bother me

 

[Cobra Commander]

I would actually be surprised if Bergevin trades for a D, or anything else. I think he makes minor moves a la David Drewiske, for the sake of saying he made moves. Otherwise, he's riding this wave and waiting on the kids.

I wouldn’t put it past him, he might be working on another brilliant move. He’s on a good streak and I hope the trend maintains. I’m fine with waiting on the kids though. Man it’s an exciting time to be a Habs fan right now, we have two fist line centers, some great young roster players and many good young players in our pool. Think of how depressing our situation looked a few months ago, and now we’ve done a complete 180. I’m blown away. I still want Bergevin gone ASAP though. I could never forgive him for certain bad things he has said and done in the past, but my gut is telling me we are stuck with him. I’m just so excited to be a Habs fan right now, I wasn’t expecting this at all.

 

[Cobra Commander]

Regarding the poll question, don’t forget that some playoff experience could be very valuable for guys like Domi, Kotka, Mete, Reilly, Juulsen etc etc.

Realistically we aren’t a bottom 5 team, we are too good for that this year. We’re more of a middle of the pack team. If we can land a draft pick around 15th I think we could get a very solid prospect. And playoffs would be really fun guys, even if it’s only one round, it could be two or three you never know. But watching this team is really fun, that I’m sure most of us can agree on.

 

[Kriss E]

I wouldn’t put it past him, he might be working on another brilliant move. He’s on a good streak and I hope the trend maintains. I’m fine with waiting on the kids though. Man it’s an exciting time to be a Habs fan right now, we have two fist line centers, some great young roster players and many good young players in our pool. Think of how depressing our situation looked a few months ago, and now we’ve done a complete 180. I’m blown away. I still want Bergevin gone ASAP though. I could never forgive him for certain bad things he has said and done in the past, but my gut is telling me we are stuck with him. I’m just so excited to be a Habs fan right now, I wasn’t expecting this at all.

I don't share your level of excitement. To me this team is very similar to 12-13.
Price-PK-Patches were all very very solid kids to have. Markov coming back, Plek still very effective.
To that, we added Gallagher, and we finally drafted what everyone thought would be our next top center in Galch. We also had some decent veterans.
Difference between then and now is our kids are not quite as ready.

Now, you claim we have two top line centers...One is playing on the 3rd line and barely 18 so, that's anything but a given at this point. The other is Domi who, despite being absolutely awesome, is playing way above anybody's expectations. Will he actually keep this up to the 40 game mark? The entire year? Next year as well? Again, anything but a given at this point.
The defense is also still a complete mess. Weber is not a savior and I'm not liking the puck moving abilities from the back end.

Certainly, Domi, Kotka, Suzuki, Poehling, there are interesting things coming. But this team is far from being complete or arrived. If Domi stops producing like a ppg guy, things will also look a lot bleaker.
So I'm containing my excitement for now.
It is fun to watch this group however, or at least it has been so far.

 

[JuicyHam]

Like last year my most lovely scenario would be make an exciting season to just barely miss out on the playoffs but win the lottery and get a top 3 pick. That or a long playoff run.

 

[montreal]

Same thing for other teams,

Bergeron - on pace for 40 g 78 asst 118 pts
Pasta - on pace for 70 g 40 asst 110 pts
Morgan reilley 38g 70 asst 108 pts

and the list goes on

They dont need to keep this pace for us to make the playoffs, unless this goals pace that we have right now in the league stay on for all season but i doubt it, they just need to play better defensively and for CP to find his game back

Look at the leafs, it's one thing for Reilly to be putting up all those points but when you have Matthews, JT, Marner, it's not surprising that they are killing it. But when you have Domi going from 45 pts to being on pace for 100? Petry over 20 pts higher then his career high, Tatar etc... that just really sticks out to me.

The defense and Price will to be a lot better if the scoring drops off, would be surprised if that happens.

Sheldon Souray couldn't break 10 points but once , but when he turned 27 he turned into a goal scoring machine. Never know sometimes I guess.

yea but there are always rare examples although he had a lot of injuries if I recall.

 

[Cobra Commander]

I don't share your level of excitement. To me this team is very similar to 12-13.
Price-PK-Patches were all very very solid kids to have. Markov coming back, Plek still very effective.
To that, we added Gallagher, and we finally drafted what everyone thought would be our next top center in Galch. We also had some decent veterans.
Difference between then and now is our kids are not quite as ready.

Now, you claim we have two top line centers...One is playing on the 3rd line and barely 18 so, that's anything but a given at this point. The other is Domi who, despite being absolutely awesome, is playing way above anybody's expectations. Will he actually keep this up to the 40 game mark? The entire year? Next year as well? Again, anything but a given at this point.
The defense is also still a complete mess. Weber is not a savior and I'm not liking the puck moving abilities from the back end.

Certainly, Domi, Kotka, Suzuki, Poehling, there are interesting things coming. But this team is far from being complete or arrived. If Domi stops producing like a ppg guy, things will also look a lot bleaker.
So I'm containing my excitement for now.
It is fun to watch this group however, or at least it has been so far.

I’ve been watching Domi like a hawk, i would be very surprised if he changed his current style of play, he just looks to me like a guy who’s reaching his ceiling and playing to his potential. He’s driving the offensive out there, making high IQ plays, his vision is ridiculous and his soft hand accurate passes are a wingers dream. His shot is quick and accurate, his defensive play is great, he skates like the wind and is a grinder. He does everything well. I might be jumping the gun on him but I don’t think so. I think his production will maintain at around PPG.

Kotkaniemi has 1st line center written all over him. I would comfortably bet the house on that one. And their is no rush for him, no pressure right now.

Of course we’re still a mess Kriss, I’m not desputing that, we are a long way from being cup contenders. But I really believe we are set at center for the next decade+, and that’s the last thing I was expecting to happen to us, I thought we were truly doomed. Our luck seems to be turning, I feel like that #1 stud D-man is coming as well.

Bergy destroyed the 12-13 potential, the mess he made of it all is unforgivable. But personally I’m much more excited about the future now because we have high end centers. It’s the most important position IMO, you can’t win a cup without them. I really wish we had Subban right now though I’m not gonna lie.

 

[Kriss E]

I’ve been watching Domi like a hawk, i would be very surprised if he changed his current style of play, he just looks to me like a guy who’s reaching his ceiling and playing to his potential. He’s driving the offensive out there, making high IQ plays, his vision is ridiculous and his soft hand accurate passes are a wingers dream. His shot is quick and accurate, his defensive play is great, he skates like the wind and is a grinder. He does everything well. I might be jumping the gun on him but I don’t think so. I think his production will maintain at around PPG.

Kotkaniemi has 1st line center written all over him. I would comfortably bet the house on that one. And their is no rush for him, no pressure right now.

Of course we’re still a mess Kriss, I’m not desputing that, we are a long way from being cup contenders. But I really believe we are set at center for the next decade+, and that’s the last thing I was expecting to happen to us, I thought we were truly doomed. Our luck seems to be turning, I feel like that #1 stud D-man is coming as well.

Bergy destroyed the 12-13 potential, the mess he made of it all is unforgivable. But personally I’m much more excited about the future now because we have high end centers. It’s the most important position IMO, you can’t win a cup without them. I really wish we had Subban right now though I’m not gonna lie.

Well I'm just not as convinced as you are. Becoming a legit consistent top center in the NHL is no joke. So I'm gonna reserve judgment a bit here, as I said, Domi is playing way above expectations, so I'll need more than an 18 game sample to truly believe he can do it. Kotka, again, he is just a kid and right now he's not there yet.
It is exciting to have some prospects down the middle though, that I can agree with.

 

[Cobra Commander]

Well I'm just not as convinced as you are. Becoming a legit consistent top center in the NHL is no joke. So I'm gonna reserve judgment a bit here, as I said, Domi is playing way above expectations, so I'll need more than an 18 game sample to truly believe he can do it. Kotka, again, he is just a kid and right now he's not there yet.
It is exciting to have some prospects down the middle though, that I can agree with.

Domi has been playing at an elite level for around 40 games now if you factor in his very nice finish to last season. We’ll see if he keeps it up. Kotka just makes me happy, he’s an absolute beauty, gives me hockey butterflies. I know it seems to good to be true right now to have a 1A/1B situation fall into our lap, but if you consider the horrible luck we have had since Roy was traded, we deserve this.

 

[Kriss E]

Domi has been playing at an elite level for around 40 games now if you factor in his very nice finish to last season. We’ll see if he keeps it up. Kotka just makes me happy, he’s an absolute beauty, gives me hockey butterflies. I know it seems to good to be true right now to have a 1A/1B situation fall into our lap, but if you consider the horrible luck we have had since Roy was traded, we deserve this.

I don't think it's too good to be true, I'm just not going to get ahead. It's exciting, but at this point it's still just prospecting. We still have no idea how Domi will respond when he hits a wall. Is he on a complete high right now? Or is it him establishing a new ceiling for himself? We don't have these answers yet.

 

[Scintillating10]

I just want to enjoy watching the games again. This season, for the first time since probably 2014 or 2015, I have actually enjoyed watching this team play.

It is a good position to be in. Make the playoffs or draft another Kotkaniemi. Habs are in tough division with Tampa, Boston and Toronto, who should have good teams. If we make it be a wild card team.

This is a good team, 10-6-3 without our captain and best player. His absent has really hurt our powerplay and penalty kill, spread the defense thin at times.

 

[bsl]

Sorry if my questions misled you. What I was actually trying to do was figure out your logic regarding how finishing in the bottom-5 is preferable, not where you thought they would finish. It's like me, I prefer they finish with 115 points, would be happy if they finished with 95-100 but actually believe it will be closer to 85-88. But this thread is about what we prefer, about what we "would rather".

So you are saying you would rather get a high draft pick that yields a top 6 center. However in this preference scenario, the top 6 center is added to a lousy team that finishes around 70 points. My observation of 70 point teams is that they are much weaker than the teams that finish with 95+ points, especially if the playoff team does so organically, without trading picks for rentals. or doing other things that would hurt the future.

So let me ask you this: if you KNEW that the GM would not use the proximity to making the playoffs to abort a good deal that moves an expendable player for likely better futures, and that the coach would not start playing it safe and cutting back the kids' ice time for fear of a mistake, would you still prefer that the players be bad, that Domi proves he is not a top 6, that Drouin is more often zero than hero, that Armia is no better than Smith-Pelley, that Kotkaniemi's skating is the problem some people thought it might be, that Juulsen is highly flawed, that Reilly turns out be as bad in his own zone as Beaulieu, but with fewer points? I ask this because I think the only way we finish bottom-5 is if we have 7-8 holes in our lineup, and therefore that in addition to the top-6 C, the LHD and the scoring winger you think we need, we would also need a second top-3 D, another good C, another top-line winger and another middle-6 winger and at least one more bottom-3 D?

I think a 70-point season this year would be a disaster because it would mean that all the players we added this year and are counting on for the future will have shown they are unable to make any difference, and that we are just as bad as last year.

Why would you prefer that? I mean if it happens, I want the best possible new player too, but I can't see how Cozens or Dach or even Quinn or Kakko, instead of a 17th pick (for example) will be able to single-handedly make up for all the other setbacks that a 70 point season would likely result from.

So, to sum up, if you knew that management and coaches would continue to build with total focus and not be derailed by the short-term goal of making the playoffs, would you still PREFER the team to be just as crappy as last year's team was?

Yes. We need talent.

 

[bsl]

They are hoping that the team is already pretty good, and that an improving Kotkaniemi, the return of Weber, and the additions of Brook, Suzuki, Poehling and maybe Fleury and Evans will put it over the top.

It won’t. Not even close.

 

[BaseballCoach]

Sorry if my questions misled you. What I was actually trying to do was figure out your logic .....

I think a 70-point season this year would be a disaster because it would mean that all the players we added this year and are counting on for the future will have shown they are unable to make any difference, and that we are just as bad as last year.

Why would you prefer that? I mean if it happens, I want the best possible new player too, but I can't see how Cozens or Dach or even Quinn or Kakko, instead of a 17th pick (for example) will be able to single-handedly make up for all the other setbacks that a 70 point season would likely result from.

So, to sum up, if you knew that management and coaches would continue to build with total focus and not be derailed by the short-term goal of making the playoffs, would you still PREFER the team to be just as crappy as last year's team was?

Yes. We need talent.

Just wow. Person says he wants talent but wishes we don't have any, and that the last 5 guys we added didn't work out.

 

[BaseballCoach]

They are hoping that the team is already pretty good, and that an improving Kotkaniemi, the return of Weber, and the additions of Brook, Suzuki, Poehling and maybe Fleury and Evans will put it over the top.

It won’t. Not even close.

No, that is a mischaracterization of the position of those of us who think it is better to have 6 pieces and need 2 more, than to have 1 piece and need 7 more, but a high pick to help.

So let me be clear. An improving Kotkaniemi, the return of Weber, and the additions of Brook, Suzuki, Poehling and maybe Fleury and Evans will not put the Habs over the top. But an improved Drouin, a Top-6 C in Domi, emergence of Reilly, Juulsen and Mete, Tatar hitting 25g/50 points would bring us closer than if everyone we added this year is crap and so we end up with 70 points again, and with the consolation prize o a chance to snag a top-5 player.

 

[DAChampion]

No, that is a mischaracterization of the position of those of us who think it is better to have 6 pieces and need 2 more, than to have 1 piece and need 7 more, but a high pick to help.

So let me be clear. An improving Kotkaniemi, the return of Weber, and the additions of Brook, Suzuki, Poehling and maybe Fleury and Evans will not put the Habs over the top. But an improved Drouin, a Top-6 C in Domi, emergence of Reilly, Juulsen and Mete, Tatar hitting 25g/50 points would bring us closer than if everyone we added this year is crap and so we end up with 70 points again, and with the consolation prize o a chance to snag a top-5 player.

I was actually giving you the benefit of the doubt, but, ...

OK, so you're not just hoping for 7 things to go right, you're hoping for 16 things to go right.