Can The Canadiens Make The NHL Playoffs?

18 comments

1. Laine is a much needed piece that Montreal hasnt had in many years. A piece isnt the puzzle 🧩. Most Teams Got Better, The Atlantic Is Very Tough.

2. Askarov Went For Cheap. Opportunity missed

3. It was widely reported that Hughes was in on Askarov until the end !
   Seems Hughes doesn’t have the wild confidence in GVSA some do!

4. Coach your trade offer included Dobes why not Primeau ?

5. Told you its possible too bring Demidov from Russia ! you all sayed No way cant happend and so on …. Money is king in KHL .

6. Nashville appearantly told Montreal that they wanted Owen Beck for Askarov. Montreal said no

7. Roy peut être inclue sur le 2e trio si Newhok ne performe pas et surtout sur le 2e avantage numérique

8. Time to play hockey now 👍👍👍 I’m ready

9. Well hopefully not. If everything works out I think this team could get a bit better this year. A huge improvement seems unlikely. We had average goaltending last year and really bad overall defensive play. We were the third worst in shots given up last year. Only Columbus and San Jose were worse and no one is expecting them to make the playoffs. We gave up six more shots a game than we took and .6 more goals against than we scored. That's terrible.
   The defense lost Kovacevic one of our steadier, older, 26, defenseman and just moved Harris. The time has come for the team to trade Savard, in the last year of his contract. The improvement will have to come internally with improvement from guhle, Barron, Struble, Xhekaj and hopefully some quality input from Hutson, Mailloux, Engstrom , Reinbacher and or Trudeau. I don't see a ton of improvement on the back end defensively though maybe our offensive component will improve.
   Philadelphia last year managed a huge turnaround defensively but they completely reworked their defense with Provorov, D'Angelo out and sean Walker and drysdale at the end in. They also got rid of aging slow forwards like van riemsdyk and hayes and I think just adopted a more defensive style.
   Montreal is not ready to either rework their defense or adopt a more defense first style, I don't think. Our extra lumbering forwards like gallagher , armia and Anderson are immovable and we are waiting for their contracts to expire. Everything seems to be coming together for a big montreal push for the playoffs in two years. By then we should hopefully add another top tier center and top flight defender. I expect Montreal to score a bit more this year with Laine and Dach hopefully for the full year and maybe a little more from caufield and a lot more from slavfkovsky and maybe Roy. Hopefully harvey pinard is back by year end.
   Armia, Dvorak and Savard run out next year. Only one seems tradeable. Price finally comes due the year after next when I expect the habs to make their first solid push to becoming a consistent playoff team.Year after Anderson and gallagher are gone and the habs hopefully finally have a full roster of talented players with not too many wasted contracts.

10. SOO – ZOO – KEE

11. yes !

12. Hello Coach

    Great show and
    You too have a bless day

13. Before watching the video I wanna say yes. To Habs fans we CAN (not will) make the playoffs. Here's why;

    #1 Goalscoring. Compared to last year we have potential to have many more goals. Both Caufield and Laine can hit 40+ goals. Suzuki and Slafkovsky can hit 30+ goals. Dach Newhook Anderson can all hit 20+ goals.

    #2 Defense. Kaiden Guhle is expected to take another step in his defensive game which has already been great and underrated. Not to mention guys like Struble. Savard. Are great at those lock down roles. And our forwards also play great defense. Every forward from last year to me expect maybe Roy played good enough or better defense

    #3 Physicality. Laine Slafkovsky Xhekaj Pezzeta Struble Guhle all are very Physical players. All very big players. Compared to last year where Xhekaj and Struble was mostly in AHL and we didn't have Laine. We should be a tougher team to throw around.

    #4 Culture. The Habs have always had a winning culture in their locker room. And it was prevalent this season. We could've had 25ish wins if the players stopped caring when the games mattered and been a 60-65 point team. But they pushed themselves every game. Getting us to 30 wins and over 70 points.

    #5 Goaltending. Other then Ottawa. Most teams haven't really made a move in terms of their goalies in our division. Red Wings are running Lyon which isn't good enough. Sabres are running Levi and UPL who are maybe a little too young to rely on. I think if Montambeault and Primeau take another step then we could easily finish 6th competing with Ottawa for 5.

    Overall. It's gonna be very tough to make it in. I think Toronto Florida Boston Tampa are still all well above the Habs. I could see the Habs being better then Detroit and Buffalo. And with Ottawa it's a matter of how Ullmark fits in and if they can stay healthy. If not. I think Habs take that 5 spot if it dosent work out for ottawa. Which could be a wild card spot.

14. The last two playoff runs were NOT good teams they did not deserve to be in the playoffs but such is life they got in great.The problem is that they were not realistically a CUP contender and would not win the cup without a LOT of help and luck and I prefer a team with merit and deserving to be there and win it.The last cup in 93 was only a third place divisional team but they did actually have a good team a team so good that imo would be over a salary cap if one existed.
    Coincidence we have not won a cup during the cap era nope poor contract managmeent going way back including over paying Price whom I wanted to be traded for that reason.
    Fast forward we have again some bad contracts IDC what anyone else says they are clueless Suzuki/Cole/Salf /Laine are all BAD contracts with Suzuki being the least of the worst but silll at least 1 mil too much the othrs are 5-6 mil until they actually prove something and NONE of them have proven their worth.

15. YES!

16. They can't passe him to a other twam he as only one year left to his contract

17. ABSOLUTELY Montreal can make the playoffs this season! Kirby Dach was out last year and that made a difference and Harvey Pinard was injured and that made a difference and they had a young set of defencemen who now have a full year under their belts. This team will improve with Dach back and with the acquisition of Laine as well as a second year defense that will also show improvement. If Hutson plays to potential, they could even very quickly become a powerhouse and enjoy a deep run in the playoffs. All of this does not include the possibility of buying out the KHL contract of Demidov who could also impact this team. Montreal lost a lot of games by only one goal last year. This year, they are going to be a beast!

18. Thanks for this daily Coach…hope the HABS have a good year and absolutely love Suzuki’s comments…a real leader.