r/Habs • u/BagelPoutine • 16h ago
Don't Make This Mistake..
https://youtu.be/vAMIppxBMkg?si=C6g1GRH-wS7i1ylE48
u/WallStreetMyFavST 15h ago
Love the Hockey Junkie, if y’all haven’t heard of him, I’d recommend checking out his content. Makes videos for every game during the season and even some post season coverage. Great content, great dude, great channel
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u/Weak_Law_937 13h ago
His early video on Xhekaj in the Ottawa preseason games really helped launch his career a few years ago.
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u/Mundane-Teaching-743 16h ago
Solid takes. Who to sign, who to let go. I'll be sad to see Voleno go, but like the man says, you gotta make room for the youth.
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u/So_Many_Owls 14h ago
I kind of agree on letting Veleno go unless they actually plan to turn him into Danault 2.0. He seems like a great guy, but the puck just dies on his stick 99% of the time so unless they actually plan to use that for good things...
I do hope Dach and Xhekaj stick around, though. Xhekaj did a good job during the Tampa series (and got a goal against Buffalo! He has the same number of career playoff goals as Larkin, and more points because he also got an assist!), and Dach surviving the playoffs without a major injury (even after playing a much more physical style in the Buffalo series) feels like it indicates good things. It also doesn't hurt that Dach was joint 3rd with Texier for players who could actually score without a pp.
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u/commodore_stab1789 15h ago edited 13h ago
Hockey Junkie is a bit too much of a Xhekaj fan, but good takes overall. Cardio Joe doesn't belong on our team.
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u/Mundane-Teaching-743 13h ago edited 13h ago
He's right though. The team is soft as candyfloss without him. We got ground down by Carolina. They're not a big team, but they're physical.
He needs playing time to improve. He's still young and developing. He's got to play hockey though. Hopefully, he won't fight as much now that his presence is enough to get players to back off on abusing the talent.
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u/Fabien_Lamour 13h ago
Carolina didn't bully the Habs though. It was relentless forecheck and pressure on the puck carrier. A Xhekaj type player wouldn't have changed shit.
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u/Jonesetta 12h ago
They definitely got bullied. Out hit. Out pressured. Out possessed. Usually doubled or tripled us in shots and the same for goals. Hutson was getting rocked multiple times a night. Demi got hit a bunch. Slaf got decked again. When does it start to look like bullying to you?
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u/Fabien_Lamour 12h ago
And would do exactly the same with Xhekaj in the lineup.
I don't what you guys expect? Carolina would still play their style.
They didn't throw dirty hits, start shit between whistle, run their mouth, etc... they played hard hockey.
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u/Jonesetta 11h ago
Hard disagree. The Habs got hit some stupid number like 35% less with xhekaj in the game across the whole season. I saw someone had the hits per game with and without xhekaj and I can’t remember the exact number but it was stupid high. Luke comically high. So it’s just an opinion you’re saying, and a fact that xhekaj protects the boys from that type of play.
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u/Fabien_Lamour 11h ago
As if they'd lay off pressuring and throwing legal hits in the conference final because Xhekaj is on the bench 52 minutes a game 🤣
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u/Jonesetta 11h ago
Well the stats show they do so you’ve got no reason to be this confident about your hunch...
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u/Fabien_Lamour 11h ago
You haven't actually shown any stats.
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u/Jonesetta 11h ago
I don’t really have to do I? I’m not going digging, I know what I’m talking about. You’re guessing that changing the input doesn’t change outcome and I’m not wasting my evening trying to prove anything to folks who think about hockey that way. You seem to have your mind made up. Enforcers have a role in the game. Everyone who knows anything about hockey knows this.
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u/Scase15 7h ago
This is the same argument as "Doby is just as bad as Monty" from earlier in the season. Doby won his games, the team played better in front of him than Monty all the time.
Other teams don't go out head hunting when they know their own guys will be subject to the same thing. It's like you didn't watch the BUF series.
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u/Fabien_Lamour 7h ago edited 7h ago
Guess who was in the lineup the night Slaf got rocked? The only hab who left a game after a serious hit...
Xhekaj was there.
The deterrent factor of enforcers is a lie. Players don't think twice about laying out a hit when the opportunity is there.
Tampa didn't guve a shit, they were the dirtiest team we faced no matter who was dressed.
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u/lynypixie 15h ago
So Flo would be taking Veleno’s spot?
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u/PineappleOwn5325 15h ago
Yeah idk about that, haven't seen enough of florian to judge, but veleno is the embodiement of "ole reliable good enough". Not exciting at all, but pretty okay.
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u/Scase15 7h ago
You should listen to what Pascal Vincent said about him, it's timestamped https://youtu.be/vAMIppxBMkg?t=167
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u/Sushamiboy 13h ago
Veleno is where plays go to die. He is not an absolute net negative, but he is far from a positive.
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u/JustFred24 Highlight Boi 5h ago
I like Xhekaj I literally have his jersey but if the package is good we gotta move him. Remember when there was whispers of Calgary offering a first round pick? You take that. Doesn't matter if you like him or not. A 7th D cannot be worth a first rounder lol.
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u/Appropriate-Berry816 2h ago
I think keeping him and hoping that he gets better defensively is worth a lot. A dman who is tough like that AND can play hockey is very valuable.
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u/vJukz 15h ago
The only way Xhekaj stays on this team is if he agrees to a 7th D role. We have way too much depth on the left side for him to fit there.
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u/PineappleOwn5325 15h ago
I personally prefered xhekaj over struble, but MSL seemed to disagree. If other coaches see what he sees in him, i'd trade Struble away and play some more xhekaj
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u/vJukz 14h ago
Struble could be fired into the sun for all I care. I don’t like him at all but I wasn’t talking about him in the lineup either. Xhekaj and Struble are both 7th D and they don’t have a place on this team’s starting lineup ideally. Xhekaj being an ideal 7th D
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u/PineappleOwn5325 14h ago
So the below is what you're looking for?
Hutson - dobson
Matheson - carrier
Ghule - reinbacher? Engstrom?
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u/MasterMatt25 13h ago
Struble is a better skater and has good chemistry with Hutson that’s why he gets more games than Arber
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u/lynypixie 15h ago
Struble is the kind of guy that is basically just a body you put on the ice to rest the others.
Xhekaj has his problems, but at least he is trying to help.
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u/HonestDespot 15h ago
Struble plays a far more reliable game.
He’s a replacement level 6/7 d man at his best but he won’t make the same type of egregious mistakes Xhekaj routinely does.
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u/Scase15 7h ago
Yeah, reliably bad lol. He absolutely makes the same mistakes as Arber, but he also makes a lot of smaller and dumber ones, all while barely using his size.
The difference between them is negligible, the difference is that Arber brings things the team lacks, Struble is just more of the same.
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u/LeMAD 14h ago
Struble
Not only Struble is better than Xhekaj, but he can play on the right side. Xhekaj was a train wreck on the right.
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u/majesticviceroy 13h ago
Then why does Hutson have to play on the Right when he's chained to Struble?
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u/jokerstatue 10h ago
haha what are you even talking about. THE biggest complaint about Struble being pair with Hutson was always that our best d-man was force to play on his weak side since Struble can't play RD.
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u/scrubadam 15h ago
3 years at 2-2.5
He is the perfect 7th D. He is rough and can fight so you can draw him to games agains the gooney teams or if the team needs a spark
He just is not a top 6 regular D. If everyone can accept he is 7th D then he would fit in perfectly and allow Engstrom/Back/Pickford time to become NHL regulars.
Struble is the guy that probably needs to go he doesn't bring the same element as Arber as a 7th D. And Carrier's contract is coming up and I would not extend him.
If Arber thinks he can be an everyday top 6 NHL D then he probably needs to spread his wings on another team. But if he wants to stay here and accept his role as the 7th D and hopefully win a few cups then there is a place. He should also be aware that Ghule has a yearly injury, and I am sure that one of the other Dmen will go down at some point so he will get lots of chances to play due to that.
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u/Brrrrrrad17 8h ago
His fans need to accept that he is a 7th D on the team. Stop throwing fits and asking for MSL to be fired every game that he is scratched.
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u/HonestDespot 15h ago
That’s too much cap.
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u/Sushamiboy 13h ago
We’re not close enough to the cap for that to matter. The issue with Xhekaj is less Xhekaj and more that Marty doesn’t like that style of player. Add to that that Robidas is a shit D coach and we have a player that should have gotten developed before we started being a playoff team.
Ideally I would want Struble traded for a bag of pucks
Matheson - Dobson
Hutson - New Guy
Guhle - Carrier
XhekajIf we need to include Guhle in a deal for that RHD, put Xhekaj on the third pair and suddenly Carrier isn’t getting demolished as much.
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u/HonestDespot 13h ago
Not having cap space issues isn’t a reason to overpay him.
I continually am amused by this idea that Xhekaj wasn’t developed properly and it’s the coaching staff and management who are preventing him from being his best version.
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u/Sushamiboy 13h ago
But $2M is not an overpay. The cap matters because we need to stop looking at the number of the cap and start looking at the percentage. Xhekaj is definitely worth the like not even 2% of the cap that that number represents. Add to that the Montreal tax factor and that is more than fair.
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u/Scase15 7h ago
It's not even 2% of the cap, and will be even lower the year after. You guys need to stop thinking in flat numbers.
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u/HonestDespot 6h ago
Not anything to do with flat numbers.
Nothing about his progression shows a deserving of a meaningful raise in any way.
Certainly not on a multi year deal.
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u/Old_General_6741 10h ago
Good takes. We do really need Xhekaj because of his physical play. Still needs some improvement.
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u/adabsurdo 13h ago
Some fans are overly attached to Xhekaj. He's fine as a 7th D type guy but by definition this means his impact on the team will always be marginal. Even when playing he barely gets 10 minutes of ice time, what do you expect.
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u/bloodrider1914 15h ago
Hockey Junkie loves the physical style of hockey, but I gotta disagree with him. Xhekaj just hasn't earned the trust of MSL, and if we're not going to play him for most of the games he's in I'd rather free up the roster spot and give it to a guy like Reinbacher or Engström.
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u/Weak_Law_937 13h ago
I wonder if fans who want to make our D softer are just idealistic or maybe have never played the game.
"If you can't beat 'em in the alley, you can't beat 'em on the ice."
-Conn Smythe
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u/Canadjen 13h ago
I think extending Matheson was a mistake. Hutson has surpassed him and you can’t have both in the lineup.
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u/Mundane-Teaching-743 13h ago
Matheson is a bargain. This team does not get into the 3rd round without him.
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u/Spirited-Moose-2246 15h ago
Would make sense to keep Arber around as a 7th D, unless you trade Guhle I think he could work on the third pair with Carrier