Well, a disappointing end to an amazing run. Can't overlook how lucky I was to have gotten to watch 7 weeks of playoff hockey with my old man. First, we wiped that ****ing smirk right off of Mathews' face. Then downed the Jets in making Sheifele pay for his sins. And third, decisively took down Vegas, a widely considered contender in six games. Tampa was just too much for us to handle and going down 3-0 was a death sentence. Made a strong push in game 2 but couldn't get the W. Had we got a split it could have been a different series...
Where does the team go from here?
As much as I like the physical brand of defensive hockey our top 4 D plays, I think we need to get more offense from the backend. We could benefit bigtime from adding someone with offensive instincts that can be a true quarterback both 5v5 and on the PP. It was hoped that Gustafsson could fill that role but it flopped and he was a disaster defensively. We need a more skilled playmaker/puck-mover, with elite skating ability to carry the puck up the ice and someone able to walk to blue-line and get those shots from the point through AND be able to hold their shit down defensively. As nasty as our dmen are to play against, most of them are average puck-movers and most have average skating ability (Weber/Chiarot/Edmundson). Again, very good defensively, but we need to attack more. I thought Petry could have been that guy to add some offensive punch but he didn't put up that many points. Who knows what Romanov's ceiling is, we'll have to wait and see.
The main reason we got as far as we did was obvs Carey Price. With that being said, although scoring was an issue, there was fairly even production from each forward line (less the Danault-Gallagher-Lehkonen line). Yet this still wasn't enough as a lack of goal scoring really hurt us in the final. Nothing new in we will not get a shot at drafting a top-tier forward anytime soon. Hopefully we get lucky and strike gold in the draft. Nonetheless, Bergevin needs to continue to polish the forward core, improving the scoring depth across our forwards. Hate to say it as much as I love Gallagher, he does not have the skill, size, or foot speed to be effective in the playoffs. Danault also lacks offensive ability so maybe we can work him down to a 3rd line role where he can continue to be counted on as a shutdown guy and maybe get some more favorable matchups so he can get more points. Suzuki can be our new #1 centre and him and Caufield look promising!
Here's hoping that this experience pays off in adding a 'chip on our shoulder' mentality to our team's culture and we can begin to hang around in the playoffs over the coming years, never being satisfied until we get a cup. However, these chances don't come around very often and I notice most teams that make it to the final rarely return anytime soon
Let's hope Carey Price has 3-4 good years left in him
Go Habs Go!
This post was edited by Jamman on Jul 8 2021 09:24pm