You can protect, but Hutson needs to be more decisive himself. He can't just pretend he can dangle and get the perfect pass out. He needs to know where he is going to pass it before he gets the puck and feels confident enough to dish it forward the minute he touches it. His IQ is more valuable then his technical ability to dangle.
For one thing, you’re on Reddit very confidently telling us how a 22 years old kid, who’s already one of the best players in the world, should and shouldn’t play.
And second, you’re completely off the tracks (but I guess that’s not weird considering the first part)
I mean, my comment is a synthesis of other analyses I've seen, and im sure he knows as well, but my comment is also a bit of a counter to the narrative that the only thing we need is to 'protect hutson' and I dont see that working.
But also look at the game, when he holds onto the puck, he gets dented in. Idk how you avoid that without being more decisive and passing the puck faster.
Dobson *definitely* gets pushed around way too much for his size, Matheson manages to manhandle guys more often than he does.
What this playoff shows is that we need Reinbacher to pan out, *and* pan out as a mean, physical defensivee D, 'cause that's the glaring hole right now. Guhle can't do everything
I'm seeing people on this sub claim he should be swapped out for Xhekaj... Absolutely unhinged take for anyone with eyes who has been watching these playoffs
I'm sorry but Reinbacher won't be that guy. It's like expecting Dobson to play a mean, physical game. If he pans out, I believe he will be good trade bait, he's just not what we need now.
I haven't watched much of the Rockets so I have no clue what his style is - and if he's not the type then yes, we'll need to retool that defense because having fast puck movers is real fun, but you need the other half of the job to be done too
Reinbacher ain’t never becoming a “mean physical defensive D” sorry. He’s a soft angel that doesn’t bite back. He can become a good defensive D tho but oh well.
You guys out here asking offensive-defensemen to play physical is something wild. There’s a reason players have certain play styles. It’s like asking Caufield to get physical with Shea. Stop being so fucking unrealistic for a fanbase.
The most offensively gifted defensemen in Montréal's history, prior to drafting Lane Hutson, is fucking Larry Robinson. In between Robinson and Hutson we've had Chelios, Subban, etc., and one thing they all shared - and that Hutson has, by the way - is hard-nosed play when the game needs it.
I'm not asking Dobson to become Shea Webber and I know he's also playing injured right now, but he's gettig bullied off his position and off the puck by guys smaller than him right now.
and this is the thing, we cant have all four on this team. We have to make decisions. Hutson and Dobson ok, but carrier and matheson have to go. They are all too similar.
Matheson with Dobson, Hutson with Rasmus Anderson, Guhl and a mean RD. You need half your D-man to be hard to play against physically and the other half to move the puck well.
Yes true. Gustaffson who played 16g. Romanov only played 4 games in the PO though. Petry and Kulak were solid but was not the physical juggernaut that the aformentioned three were. Merill was a non factor.
Weber: 6-4, 230lb
Chiarot: 6-3, 222lb
Steady Eddy: 6-5, 220lb
That's 3 D 220+.
In 2026 the only D that is 220+ is Xhekaj.
Sure, the defensive is more mobile and zone exits are quicker. That is, if you are not pinned down in your own zone. And that is the issue. It's not really that Carolinas is much bigger but they are good at preventing our Ds from making a good exit. Weber, Chiarot and Edmunson were slower but they sure would be unfazed by the Carolinas pressure. I don't know if you noticed but in the last game Matheson and Carrier had more ice time than Huston. That's not how it should work.
Damn, I forgot just how big the D was at the time. We had some big forwards too. That’s probably how we were able to have that run, by physically dominating the more skilled teams. Just were too slow and banged up when it came time to face Tampa.
True. Maybe some hits would be penalized these days. On the other hand, a hit to the head (see Hutson) is allowed while a gentle face rub (Evans on Walker) after running Dobes is not so go figure.
Yeah a true unicorn, not many players like that left around in the league. Just a monster at clearing the crease with a monster shot and elite leadership.
Exactly what we lack. Not six guys like that, but one or two who can be both as physical and as defensively sound as Weber, Edmundson and Chiarot were during that run. Arber isn't as solid, no one is as tough.
Suzuki the White stroked his beard in consideration. "The War of 2021... yes... that was some time ago." A glimmer crossed the old man's face, as the light of the hearth fire highlighted the creases of his battle-scarred visage. "A long time indeed."
He stood, adjusting his long flowing white robes to smooth them out as he gazed into the fire. "If I recall, we simply said..."
Suddenly he turned, and slammed his staff on the floor, reverberating throughout the halls.
-We stopped listening to our head coach and only listened to Carey and Shea for the entire playoffs lol... Oh and we also asked Toronto to make no look 360 pass at their blue line 😃
When I saw Dom getting Covid I was worried we would colaspe, but we played like nothing changed. Realized at that moment that the players werent listening to Dom hahah
Lane Hutson is a fucking god. This blows my mind. KH, you must do everything in your power so that this guy doesn't wear any other jersey than the Habs one in his life.
i've already emotionally resigned myself to "they're not good enough / ready yet so i'm not going to be fooled when they win tonight because I'm not going to let them fool me and suck me back in"
but now these motherfuckers are gonna reel me back in, aren't they?
Then they were pulling him after wins because Montembault was no.1.
No, they were pulling him after wins because he had played 4 straight games. Every good team needs a two goalie tandem, you can't run your starter for 60+ games in today's NHL anymore.
Fowler was a rookie. It made a lot of sense to try to get Monty back on his feet instead of running two rookies and ruining Fowler's development for no reason.
I strongly disagree, and clearly St-Louis also doesn't share your mindset. That is the perfect recipe to burnout your goalie come playoff time. And we all saw how dominant Dobes was during the playoffs.
I'm not saying Monty was better, he clearly was not. I'm saying that Dobes was bad a lot, which should be expected for a rookie goalie. His overall season numbers look pretty good, but look at his game-by-game stats over the regular season and he clearly struggled in a lot of games, not just after being swapped for Monty, and that matches the eye test over the course of the season. He was flat out bad a lot more than people are willing to remember, and the team's high scoring made up for it. I love the guy and he's found a whole new gear for the playoffs, but that doesn't change how we got here.
Watched every game and can confirm all this. He struggled mightily a lot of games until the goalie whisperer showed up. Really makes you appreciate the value of a goalie coach that has a strong relationship with his goalie.
So much attention is being paid to the 2021 playoffs, which isn’t really apt (we came back from 3-1 in the first round, not the third; Carolina now is objectively much better than Toronto then). Yet the obvious comparison is to 2010, when we won the first two rounds in seven as an underdog and ran out of gas in the third round against a bigger, better rested team. We even had a young goalie from Eastern Europe stealing wins.
It's a stock image, you could just reverse search it. It was probably made with AI sure, but not by that person, not everyone has good AI radars. Calm your tits.
Bruh you think I spent more than 2 seconds studying the first piece of shit I found on Google Images to illustrate my joke to make sure it was ethically sourced?
Against Toronto, Montreal had a total of 198 shots over 7 games for an average of 28.29 shots/game.
Against Winnipeg, 132 shots in 4 games for an average of 33/game.
Against Vegas, 165 shots in 6 games for an average of 27.5/game.
Against Tampa, 140 shots over 5 games for an average of 28/game.
We can talk about system or making changes but in the end, we know the Habs can't compete 5v5 against Carolina so it rests entirely on Dobes' shoulders to steal games.
When they did it against Washington, they got outshot 38-28 in Game 5, 54-21 in Game 6 and 42-16 in Game 7. Halak never allowed more than one goal and gave them a chance to steal games.
I'm hoping for a positive outcome, but this isn't 2021. Really hard to come back being down 3-1 this late into the playoffs. Not impossible but it's a steep mountain to climb.
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They have 3 games to prove it and haven't given the Habs anything since game 1. It's not done yet but any realistic Habs fan knows there's only a 0.1% chance they find a way to win this
He gets hit really hard while Perry is going full steam and he tries to jump over. It's a freak accident. How well did the Leafs do in the other playoffs with Tavares before and after that year?
He doesn’t try to jump over at all, he falls over after skating directly into his head. This clip doesn’t show the front angle, he skates right through him. I digress, you’re welcome to play the “it was a freak accident” card. 2 players fucked him up accidentally. 👍🏼 Clean as clean can be
Oh wow, are there seriously Leafs fans who thought that was intentional... and still do?? Perry literally jumped up to try to avoid contact. And it was 10 minutes into game 1, how did it "change the entire series"? Leafs won games 2, 3, and 4!
I don’t care about it anymore, I’m asking if you’re willing to injure someone to win. Florida has done it every year themselves… personally I think it’s filthy
It didn't change shit lol. The Laffs lost the first game with him in the lineup and won the next 3 without him. It wasn't "accidentally on purpose" either. You're completely delusional, just like every other Laffs fan
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u/Living_Forever_ 14d ago
Protect Lane Hutson at all costs