ChiLla

Lovely, they truly never fail to disappoint 😊

Hopefully he ends up in the West, I‘d be okay with Winnipeg actually.

Absolutely, they do seem rather similar as far as playing styles. I don't follow the Flyers much but went through their most recent lineups this mornign and generally don't think we match up very well (going purely by feeling here, didn't compare any stats/advances stats). They don't seem to have any real studs on D though, so there's that. In addition to the guys you've mentioned, we also need a little more from Drouin I think. If those three can turn it on and the kids plus Price keep playing the way they did, this could be an interesting series. Wishful thinking? Maybe, maybe not. Let's see.

Hmm... not the best memories. If I recall correctly, the last time we eliminated the Pens and faced the Flyers, some dude named Umberger channeled his inner Gretzky and essentially won the series on his own. I'd still rather face the Flyers than the Bolts though, even without Hedman.

Great win! Didn't really expect it but that makes it all the better. Just based on what I've seen tonight, this team is going to go as far as Carey takes them. He looks calm, composed, totally in the zone. If he can give them a chance to win, the boys can get it done.

Well, some excitement at least

Yeah, it's clear nobody wants to mess up. Makes for some boring hockey, but we'll get to see some excitement for sure. Hopefully. Maybe

Nice goal!

Pretty boring game so far, let's go boys

Great to see the boys win a couple, it'll be good for developing the kids for sure. Let's seal the deal tomorrow, and I can probably even watch this time since the game starts a little earlier

Same here. The major problem I had with the deal at the time was that wingers can usually be signed in free agency. Scoring centers and legit top 4 defencemen? Not really, usually you'll have to trade for them and give up additional assets. Bergevin pulled the trigger (giving up additional assets in the process!) and the whole Drouin becoming-a-centre experiment clearly didn't work out, so we ended up trading a legit top 4 Dman (who was regarded as such back then, possibly even top 2) for a ~50-point winger with no defensive game to speak of. Now we're extremely thin at LD while Drouin is what he is, a guy with a tantalizing toolset and glaring consistency issues. If he's on his game, wow, if not he's arguably our worst forward on the ice.

I have a feeling it'll hit rock bottom soon.

Not going to lie, it feels good finally being able to watch some Habs hockey again. Only caught the highlights after getting up this morning and it all seemed rather weird without fans in the standings, but it's the ACC so the noise level was still close enough to where it usually is Unfortunately, that also seems to apply to the performance level of our abysmal PP Two shorties, eh? Amazing.

Yeah, that definitely makes sense. I've read as well that there's a good chance Romanov could sign a 1-year deal in the KHL if the Canadiens didn't burn a year of his ELC, according to reports the KHL plans to start the new season at the beginning of September, i.e. six weeks down the road. He hasn't played a game since March and training camps for next season probably won't start before November, which is definitely not ideal. Then there are rumors about NHL teams planning to organize some sort of tournament or even several tournaments to give players a chance to play as early as September, which would be good for Romanov to get used to the rink size and experience the NA game first-hand. Plus you're giving him plenty of time to settle down and get to know Montreal before next season starts, which is another bonus.

That's the thing, anything can happen really. Home-ice advantage won't be a thing, from what I've read players are (understandably) reluctant and some flat out don't want to play, it's a best-of-five series in neutral territory without any fans in the standings. Players are fully rested but haven't played meaningful hockey in months. Heck, some won't have seen their teammates in months. If you're from Europe, there aren't many places where you can lace up your skates come April because rinks are closed. There's also a point to be made that we don't even deserve to participate in that play-in round. It's pure chaos and given the parity in the league, there doesn't seem to be any clear-cut favorite at this point. So someone in the league thought hey, let's reward the best teams in the standings with a shot at the #1 draft pick because they have to beat one of the worst teams in the standings in a 5-game series to have a shot at the cup? Honestly, I just don't get it. It's great that we'll get a chance to compete in this year's "playoffs" but I still don't like our chances. I'll take a 12.5% shot at Lafreniere vs. having to face the #1 seed in every round any day of the week and twice on Sunday.