Pokecheque wrote:
Berkshire said on Twixter that the Habs have really good underlying numbers at even strength. They've largely been undone by bad goaltending.
Especially on the PK. Montembeault is a good 5v5 goalie, the team totally crumbles with their passive PK style. I'm also convinced Allen would be much better elsewhere, since he kicks his rebounds out far by trade, and the passive Habs defence leaves guys open in front to collect the rebounds.
I hear grumbling about MSL and don't buy it for a second. This is what everyone signed up for: a teaching coach. Maybe he's tired and wants to go back to Connecticut.
The defence is a tricky thing because most of them still have ~ or < 100 games experience. Not enough to truly assess. But as a unit, it's too much inexperience, and the two experienced guys you have are Matheson, who can be feast or famine, and Savard who's hanging on by a thread but eats hard minutes. They're bringing in more rookies before the season is out in Hutson and Reinbacher, so it'll only get more crowded and more mistake-prone. Next year, Guhle and Harris (if he stays) will be relied upon to hold things down while the younger guys go through more growing pains.
There's a lot of vitriol being thrown Caufield's way for a relatively down season of 58-19-27-46. The heat grew even more when Slafkovsky started scoring more, but Caufield is a PPG player since the break without scoring too much, so how worried should we be? Guy clearly has some post-shoulder surgery yips, because he's not hitting those one-timers as cleanly. Again, should even out over time.