No one cares about your stupid hall, your stupid 2c, your stupid LHD, or your stupid face.

Well.......actually tell me more about your stupid face.
:p

Hope you had a good summer.
Hugs
- Fakepartofme

I did, Fake, thanks

I hope you did as well, bud

I did, Fake, thanks

I hope you did as well, bud
- RickJames77

Good to hear.
Same as well.

Gonna miss the extra hours of sunlight soon

The Habs likely would have missed the playoffs if it were an 82 games season last year.

But hey, their clutching and grabbing, cross-checking, and circle the wagons and hope for lights-out-goaltending hockey sure took them far in the post-season where refereeing is more of an idea than a reality.

This season? I can't imagine this iteration of the team being any better than last year. But stranger things have happened...
- mjones242

Tears by the bucket loads ?
And if they hadn't made the PO's you could've had your Parade, right ?

Good to hear.
Same as well.

Gonna miss the extra hours of sunlight soon
- Fakepartofme

I was between Alaska, California, Nevada, California again and Arizona for a month. I’m already missing the sunlight

Tears by the bucket loads ?
And if they hadn't made the PO's you could've had your Parade, right ?
- Benny Blanco

Pfft
We still had the parade

He's not Selke but he's been just fine.
- mjones242

Open question:

Can someone explain to me how the determination has been made that Marner is an elite defensive player, yet Nylander is a defensive liability?

Being genuine on this, I'm not a massive advanced stats guy.

I'm looking for something beyond 'because Marner kills penalties and Nylander floats', that's incredibly subjective and without much basis to me. You can literally find minor leaguers who penalty kill well, and as far as I'm concerned they both come with their share of floating.

It would appear across the board that the determination has been made, and Marner is Bergeron and Nylander is Jason Blake.

Full disclosure: I watch 82 leaf games a season, the eye test genuinely doesn't leave me seeing much of a difference between the two defensively. There are times I see one make a quality defensive play, there are times I see one or the other (frank) up. I'm absolutely missing the bus on how we came to the conclusion that there's such a monstrosity of a gap between the two.

Leafs oilers and Jets ain’t nothin to (frank) with.

If Price plays like vintage Price, there’s every reason to think the Habs will have better results.
- Arctic_AARDVARK

It's tough. I'm not sure how their lineup shakes out. . .

Toffoli - Suzuki - Hoffman
Drouin - Dvorak - Anderson
Armia - Evans - Gallagher
Lehkonen - Paquette - Perreault . . .Caufield fits where?

Edmundson - Petry
Romanov - Savard
Chiarot - Wideman

I've seen a projection that doesn't include Hoffman and has Caufield in the 1RW slot. To me if you give Caufield the 1RW, you plop Hoffman as the 2LW and move Drouin down to 4LW since I imagine they like their 3rd line as a grinding unit.

Suzuki is good. I like him. I don't know if he's there for day-to-day 1C duty, but he'll never get there unless he takes those reigns.

I'm not sure there's a ton of goals in that lineup, but it's competitive and won't be fun to play against. After their top-3 D, just like every other team basically, I'm not sure I love their D - but I'm a believer in Romanov.

Price & Allen are a great goaltending tandem; even if Price requires more time to heal, Allen probably spells him nicely. He's as solid as they come.

On paper there's nothing that excels, but they could grind their way into contention. The irritating thing if you're a Habs fan is that Julien may have been a better coach to grind to the playoffs - but Ducharme is still untested, really.

Pfft
We still had the parade
- Fakepartofme

That's the spirit, no need to cry over ancient history.

We’re old

You’re in cap hell

Both (frank)ed!
- RickJames77

All things considered I'd rather have an old team with cup rings.

But I am looking forward to another year of hating and loving my team on alternating days. Just like my kids. What? Nothing.

It's tough. I'm not sure how their lineup shakes out. . .

Toffoli - Suzuki - Hoffman
Drouin - Dvorak - Anderson
Armia - Evans - Gallagher
Lehkonen - Paquette - Perreault . . .Caufield fits where?

Edmundson - Petry
Romanov - Savard
Chiarot - Wideman

I've seen a projection that doesn't include Hoffman and has Caufield in the 1RW slot. To me if you give Caufield the 1RW, you plop Hoffman as the 2LW and move Drouin down to 4LW since I imagine they like their 3rd line as a grinding unit.

Suzuki is good. I like him. I don't know if he's there for day-to-day 1C duty, but he'll never get there unless he takes those reigns.

I'm not sure there's a ton of goals in that lineup, but it's competitive and won't be fun to play against. After their top-3 D, just like every other team basically, I'm not sure I love their D - but I'm a believer in Romanov.

Price & Allen are a great goaltending tandem; even if Price requires more time to heal, Allen probably spells him nicely. He's as solid as they come.

On paper there's nothing that excels, but they could grind their way into contention. The irritating thing if you're a Habs fan is that Julien may have been a better coach to grind to the playoffs - but Ducharme is still untested, really.
- Monkeypunk

That’s a decent lineup. Drouin will for sure rebound. Caufield (when healthy) gets a top 6 spot.

Nick Suzuki has been getting lots of Bergeron comparisons lately, I think he’s a legit 1C.

We’ll have to wait an see how it all plays out, but MTL has the goods to make a push.

Ducharme has shown to be a better coach than Keefe.

Habs have elite goaltending.. Leaf are huge question mark in net.

Ok.
- Fakepartofme

If you think he's below average, give us some examples.

Open question:

Can someone explain to me how the determination has been made that Marner is an elite defensive player, yet Nylander is a defensive liability?

Being genuine on this, I'm not a massive advanced stats guy.

I'm looking for something beyond 'because Marner kills penalties and Nylander floats', that's incredibly subjective and without much basis to me. You can literally find minor leaguers who penalty kill well, and as far as I'm concerned they both come with their share of floating.

It would appear across the board that the determination has been made, and Marner is Bergeron and Nylander is Jason Blake.

Full disclosure: I watch 82 leaf games a season, the eye test genuinely doesn't leave me seeing much of a difference between the two defensively. There are times I see one make a quality defensive play, there are times I see one or the other (frank) up. I'm absolutely missing the bus on how we came to the conclusion that there's such a monstrosity of a gap between the two.
- joel878

IMHO

For a couple of years Marner used to work hard all the time while Willie floated much of the time. Marner was and is intelligent on defense. Willie was clueless on defense.

Last year and a half Marner seems to float more than before. Willie worked pretty hard getting back on D, but still makes defensive mental mistakes. Hopefully now that he appears to be more committed to D, his defensive IQ continues to improve.

As for toughness both use skill to take pucks away, but Willie definitely takes more hits. So if you hate one because “they are soft”, you should hate both.

Line 1- 19 mins (?/M/M)
Line 2- 18 mins (?/T/?)
Line 3- 17 mins (?/K/N)
Line 4- 6 mins 🤷

All things considered I'd rather have an old team with cup rings.

But I am looking forward to another year of hating and loving my team on alternating days. Just like my kids. What? Nothing.
- Monkeypunk

Heck, id take an old non playoff team with a couple of cups under their belt over this team any day.

Line 1- 19 mins (?/M/M)
Line 2- 18 mins (?/T/?)
Line 3- 17 mins (?/K/N)
Line 4- 6 mins 🤷
- mr.sir

Kampf might deserve more than 4-6 min.

How dare he only be plus 10 last season playing on a second line
- Dozzer

I just keep hearing the memes about Willie being afraid to play physical, being horrible defensively, and being a selfish player and it makes me laugh.

He's a league leader in close range goals, he's a career positive in TK/GV who doesn't seem to turtle in the post-season, and his goals/assists ratio doesn't look like a Cy Young W-L stat line.

But he held out for 6.9M+ and had a hard time finding his groove 3 years ago so he's a perpetual scourge with flowing blonde hair. (frank) him!

Line 1- 19 mins (?/M/M)
Line 2- 18 mins (?/T/?)
Line 3- 17 mins (?/K/N)
Line 4- 6 mins 🤷
- mr.sir

Id keep willie on the 2nd line and do a shut down line on for the 3rd.

Tears by the bucket loads ?
And if they hadn't made the PO's you could've had your Parade, right ?
- Benny Blanco

7

I just keep hearing the memes about Willie being afraid to play physical, being horrible defensively, and being a selfish player and it makes me laugh.

He's a league leader in close range goals, he's a career positive in TK/GV who doesn't seem to turtle in the post-season, and his goals/assists ratio doesn't look like a Cy Young W-L stat line.

But he held out for 6.9M+ and had a hard time finding his groove 3 years ago so he's a perpetual scourge with flowing blonde hair. (frank) him!
- mjones242

He is second in the corner on every forecheck. Slow downs and fly bys are the Willy way. Your fancy stats cannot disprove those facts.

Tears by the bucket loads ?
And if they hadn't made the PO's you could've had your Parade, right ?
- Benny Blanco

Tears? Wtf are you on?

Losing John Tavares in the first few minutes of Game 1 hurt our chances. We lost an elite C and had MTL on the ropes but couldn't finish.

He is second in the corner on every forecheck. Slow downs and fly bys are the Willy way. Your fancy stats cannot disprove those facts.
- fifty__missions

Okay, Boomer.

I just keep hearing the memes about Willie being afraid to play physical, being horrible defensively, and being a selfish player and it makes me laugh.

He's a league leader in close range goals, he's a career positive in TK/GV who doesn't seem to turtle in the post-season, and his goals/assists ratio doesn't look like a Cy Young W-L stat line.

But he held out for 6.9M+ and had a hard time finding his groove 3 years ago so he's a perpetual scourge with flowing blonde hair.
- mjones242

I’m firmly convinced that even though people won’t admit it, the Nylander haters simply loathe him for sitting out.

he’s worth that too imo… take a look at the players in roughly the same zone:

https://www.spotrac.com/nhl/contracts/

Ps: hit avg to get the yearly cost, and I know you’re one of the fans who are pro-Nylander as well

He is second in the corner on every forecheck. Slow downs and fly bys are the Willy way. Your fancy stats cannot disprove those facts.
- fifty__missions

Going to the net and scoring is the Willy way. 🥰

That’s a decent lineup. Drouin will for sure rebound. Caufield (when healthy) gets a top 6 spot.

Nick Suzuki has been getting lots of Bergeron comparisons lately, I think he’s a legit 1C.

We’ll have to wait an see how it all plays out, but MTL has the goods to make a push.

Ducharme has shown to be a better coach than Keefe.

Habs have elite goaltending.. Leaf are huge question mark in net.
- Arctic_AARDVARK

That's a loaded and wildly reaching statement.

Id keep willie on the 2nd line and do a shut down line on for the 3rd.
- Fakepartofme

Tavares has made a career of turning average players into stars

Why waste Nylander there?

Let him turn Bunting and Kase into 25 goal scorers👍

Then unable to resign 🤨