OffThePost.org

Did this a couple years back, quite liked it as a resource, but didn't keep it up in years following. Let's try it again.

Opening night vs Toronto:

Wolverine - DD - Smear
Galchenyuk - Plexo - Melons
Bork - Eller - Forrest
Prust - Malhotra - Weise

Emelin - Fartypants
General - Gilbert
Brolieau - Weave

Price
Tokarski

Scratches: Bournival, Moen, Tinordi

Pretty good starting point, crazy to think Bournival is a scratch considering his solid rookie year and his plus speed. Obviously the first injury insert, victim of the team wanting three scoring lines with one line of beef, and he's got in between both those realities.

_________________
Injustice? Cobain died and Eddy Fucking Vedder lived to haunt us with his shitty fucking voice, trite lyrics and his Eddy Vedderness.



- Ancient Chinese Proverb

Guys, you can take over from me on occasion in this thread.

Game 2 was:

Pacioretty - Desharnais - Parenteau
Galchenyuk - Plekanec - Gallagher
Bourque - Eller - Sekac
Prust - Malhotra - Moen

Emelin - Subban
Markov - Gilbert
Beaulieu - Weaver

Tokarski

Therrien switched up Gallagher and Sekac mid-game, and Emelin got hurt. Might be out for Game 3.

_________________
Injustice? Cobain died and Eddy Fucking Vedder lived to haunt us with his shitty fucking voice, trite lyrics and his Eddy Vedderness.



- Ancient Chinese Proverb

Wolverine's dead, by the way.

That's because he was no longer Wolverine, though. Pacioretty is still Wolverine.

Practice today had Gallagher up with DD/Pacioretty, Sekac with Plex/Galchenyuk, and Parenteau with Eller/Bourque. RW's be shuffling around. Moen still in the lineup with Weise out, Markov and Emelin took the day off. I expect Markov to take a lot of between game skates off for the rest of his career.

_________________
Injustice? Cobain died and Eddy Fucking Vedder lived to haunt us with his shitty fucking voice, trite lyrics and his Eddy Vedderness.



- Ancient Chinese Proverb

Hey no one is bothering to update this, you guys. Again, I've only watched one game (vs Boston) so I'm not much of an authority here.

What I do know is that the Habs are in first place in the NHL, Subban is making Emelin look good (TRADE VALUE: ACTIVATED) and people are still complaining about Gilbert even though the team is in first place and there's no reason to complain about anything at this point. It's amazing how much people like the aesthetics of a player over actual results.

_________________
Injustice? Cobain died and Eddy Fucking Vedder lived to haunt us with his shitty fucking voice, trite lyrics and his Eddy Vedderness.



- Ancient Chinese Proverb

We'll always have the playoffs, Rene.

_________________

GET HIM NOW, PATTY! NOW'S YOUR CHANCE!

_________________

Kind of weird this Bourque thing. They definitely have a very narrow view of what his role could be in the NHL, which isn't totally unjustified, but still is pigeonholing. Also, they neither need the cap space this year (they could add over $17m in cap hit at the deadline before they sent him down) nor the roster spot... Bournival is hurt for the time being and now they're sending Bourque down? Doesn't make a ton of sense.

I hope he's been on the trade block all year long, including after the playoffs, because it's not like they couldn't have been expecting this kind of cold streak from him.

Anyway, hopefully we don't waste his hot streak in Hamilton.

_________________
Injustice? Cobain died and Eddy Fucking Vedder lived to haunt us with his shitty fucking voice, trite lyrics and his Eddy Vedderness.



- Ancient Chinese Proverb

Did I read somewhere that his cap hit is about the same even if he gets sent down?

_________________
Thanks Chuck, E.L. and Harmy!

I don't know about that, but his cap hit doesn't really matter since the Habs have a fair bit of room for maneuvering.

Drayson Bowman has been recalled. He might have a legit shot to prove himself here.

_________________

All these moves make me wonder if there is a bit of conflict going on between coach and GM here. Clearly, the GM thinks guys like Bournival and Sekac should be playing and he made moves to make sure they would. However, with Gonchar added to the D mix, the same thing could happen with Beaulieu now.

The Habs have a ludicrously old D now. If Beaulieu sits, the youngest guy is Subban at 25, followed by Emelin at 28. The rest are over 30, and three are over 35, including now the oldest Dman in the league.

I envision a scenario where like four D get hurt in one game with this group.

_________________
Injustice? Cobain died and Eddy Fucking Vedder lived to haunt us with his shitty fucking voice, trite lyrics and his Eddy Vedderness.



- Ancient Chinese Proverb

No doubt whatsoever that Therrien is eventually gonna get shitcanned. Too bad the team is so stacked right now that they're winning no matter what the coach does to hobble them.

The other crink in this is that Gonchar, much like Emelin, is a left-handed D who has played most of his pro career at RD. Do the Habs see him as a RD? If so, that means Weaver should be out, not Beaulieu. Which, with the new pairings, would give Emelin a puckmoving partner which is what the Habs kind of want.

Markov - Subban
Beaulieu - Gilbert
Emelin - Gonchar

Weaver

But of course, Therrien doesn't see it that way. He insists Gonchar is left handed, so therefore should play LD, like the belief that Emelin is better at LD than RD even though there is absolutely zero evidence of this, with him playing his best hockey on Markov's right side.

So Beaulieu sits and the Habs D is, on average, as old as I am.

_________________
Injustice? Cobain died and Eddy Fucking Vedder lived to haunt us with his shitty fucking voice, trite lyrics and his Eddy Vedderness.



- Ancient Chinese Proverb

Per Louis Jean, Gonchar is so old that he has been teammates with both the fathers of Jarred Tinordi and Alex Galchenyuk.

_________________
Injustice? Cobain died and Eddy Fucking Vedder lived to haunt us with his shitty fucking voice, trite lyrics and his Eddy Vedderness.



- Ancient Chinese Proverb

This 7D thing is kinda fun. At least Therrien hasn't just sent Beaulieu into exile in the meantime, and both Gonchar and Emelin seem to be doing better than they were pre-trade.

Judging by ice time, Weaver would be the one to sit if they went back to a 12F/6D setup, which one assumes would happen when Bournival returns at the very least but by then someone else could be hurt.

I still consider Bork the de facto 13th forward, they're just trying to save a few bucks especially post Gonchar trade by having him down there.

_________________
Injustice? Cobain died and Eddy Fucking Vedder lived to haunt us with his shitty fucking voice, trite lyrics and his Eddy Vedderness.



- Ancient Chinese Proverb

So the Habs beat the Blues 4-1 and Gonchar played 21 minutes.

Was that 15-16 contract dump more than meets the eye?

I'm not so convinced Allen will take Beaulieu's spot. Allen will play a bit, but there might be a bit too mileage on his big frame.

_________________

The Habs have 4 D that are older than me. This isn't a very good plan.

Hey Bergevin, if you played with or against a guy for more than two seasons, he's too old. You've been retired for a decade now!

That said, getting out of these contracts a year early is nice.

_________________
Injustice? Cobain died and Eddy Fucking Vedder lived to haunt us with his shitty fucking voice, trite lyrics and his Eddy Vedderness.



- Ancient Chinese Proverb

Depth chart:

Subban
Markov
Emelin
Gonchar
Gilbert
Weaver
Beaulieu
Allen
Tinordi - AHL
Pateryn - AHL
Drewiske - AHL
Nygren - AHL

_________________

"Maybe if we have 8 3rd pairings that'll fix our depth"

How I'd list 'em:

Subban
Markov
Gilbert
Gonchar
Beaulieu
Emelin
Allen
Weaver
Tinordi (probably 7th at worst) - AHL
Pateryn - AHL
Nygren - AHL
Drewiskie - AHL

Pairings:

Markov - Subban
Beaulieu - Gilbert
Emelin - Gonchar

If you can't give Beaulieu a long look when you're in first place in the NHL and it's November then you're never going to give him a proper look.

_________________
Injustice? Cobain died and Eddy Fucking Vedder lived to haunt us with his shitty fucking voice, trite lyrics and his Eddy Vedderness.



- Ancient Chinese Proverb