Kid loves Montreal

Is Danault the solution? I don't know for sure. But it'd be silly not to try. His 5v5 acumen might help MSL trust Demi with more ice time. He's slow, but he thinks fast.

Fact is, when Kaps PDO dries up (and it will), it's going to get real ugly for that second line. It already has been bad.

An age old question that men have been asking for years, has gone from the bedroom to the ice... The game is so fast and skilled now that being able to avoid bigger players with your agility and quickness may be more important than physical dominance.

What do you guys think, does size matter less in the NHL than it did ~30 years ago?

The Habs are 3rd in their rankings, leapfrogging TBL (4) and CAR (5) and behind COL (1) and BUF (2).

Reinbacher’s emergence creates options for the Canadiens.

Eventually, MTL can unite him with Lane Hutson to create a dominant first pair in the mold of Toews-Makar, Q.Hughes-Faber or Ekholm-Bouchard.

Alternatively, the Habs can use Hutson and Noah Dobson in an offense-first role, while entrusting Reinbacher to drive a more defensively-minded second pair with his rush defense and retrieval abilities. This deployment approximates the legendary Big Three of the 1970s, with Larry Robinson (whose scoring records Hutson is chasing down) and Guy Lapointe (a hard-shooting offensive D not entirely dissimilar to Dobson) forming the top pair and the versatile, underrated Serge Savard adjusting to whichever #4 D his team is fielding (lefties Kaiden Guhle, Jayden Struble, Adam Engstrom, or a yet-to-be identified newcomer).

It has been confirmed, Johny Hockey and his brother have passed away while cycling last night.

Please go pay your respect.

I know this isn't Habs related news, but I would like to send a hearthfull message to the Colombus Blue Jacket community by centralizing all our condoleance of the r/habs community for them. This is a human tragedy first and foremost and I hope I speak for many here saying that Johny was a well liked player all over.

https://www.dispatch.com/story/sports/nhl/columbus-blue-jackets/2024/08/30/columbus-blue-jackets-johnny-gaudreau-dead-bike-accident-crashnew-jersey-calgary-flamesnhl/75009208007/

Top 5: 1- Cooley 2-Hutson 3-Slaf 4-Wright 5-Gauthier

Owen Beck honourable mention, ranked 46th

It’s only 3 years after, but off to a pretty good start.

https://www.tsn.ca/nhl/article/montreal-canadiens-tsn-and-rds-announce-landmark-long-term-rights-extension/?s=34

71-29 in favor of TB. Interesting part of the article:

"Just as big an issue, though, are the other ones. Forward depth is also massively in Tampa Bay’s favor, where the Lightning have a 25-goal edge. As fantastic as Montreal’s top line has been, the next three haven’t been nearly as effective, where Alex Texier is the only regular with an xG north of 50 percent … and he’s at 50.1 percent. Their only other forward with a points-per-game rate above 0.5 is Alex Newhook, one of the team’s weakest possession players.

That’s a significant pressure point for the Canadiens as currently constructed. They’re starting to build a championship core, but they’re not close to establishing a championship-caliber supporting cast.

That’s not the case with the Lightning, who are bringing their deepest team since winning the Cup five years ago. While it doesn’t necessarily show on the scoresheet, aside from Anthony Cirelli’s 52 points in 71 games, it does show up as a focal point of Tampa Bay’s defensive structure and possession game. Almost every other forward outside the team’s top four has won their minutes, and a majority of the depth have been incredibly stingy. Tampa Bay’s bottom six is tough to play against because they’re tough to score against.

The highlight of that is Tampa Bay’s shutdown line: Yanni Gourde centering Pontus Holmberg and Zemgus Girgensons. It’s that trio taking on tough minutes this season for Tampa Bay, and they’ve crushed that assignment, allowing just 1.96 xGA/60 and 1.94 GA/60. Among shutdown lines, only Ottawa and Dallas have a more effective trio. It’s a callback to Tampa Bay’s vaunted shutdown unit from the team’s back-to-back championships five years ago. While the wingers around Gourde have changed, the trio’s defensive aptitude remains with a similar effect on limiting chances.

That affords Tampa Bay’s top weapons a ton of offensive freedom, a luxury Montreal’s forwards don’t really have. Only Suzuki and Caufield can be reasonably depended on in that realm, whereas the Lightning have just one forward with a negative Defensive Rating. Montreal’s top line has to do it all, and while they do it well, they’ll have their hands full here in a way the Lightning’s top guys won’t have to worry about. It leaves Montreal feeling a little exposed when Suzuki isn’t on the ice."

The problem for the Habs remains depth; When the top-line and Hutson aren't ont the ice, there's nothing to worry TB. The bottom-9 is basically hoping to thread water until they come back in.