CN - The Final

AB in DC

OG Football Writing
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Jul 10, 2002
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Springfield, VA
Boring end to a boring series. Was hoping that Montreal would rediscover whatever got them through the Knights series just to make things intereating again, but no.
 

cshea

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Nov 15, 2006
36,047
306, row 14
This probably worked out well for us on the Montreal side. They are a bad team that got hot at the right time and took advantage of breaks a long the way. Molson will probably give Bergevin an extension. They'll think they are closer than they really are. He'll continue to overpay for mediocre veterans. They'll go back to missing the playoffs on an annual basis. Riots ensue.

On the other side, the dead contracts Tampa took on for LTIR purposes are gone, so the Bolts are at $85 million against a $81.5 million cap to start the offseason. They'll probably find a way to lose Tyler Johnson's $5 million (Kraken?). That gets them under but still probably need to move another middling salary to facilitate filling out the roster. Even moving Johnson plus another dude, I don't think they could bring back UFA's Goodrow, Coleman or Savard. Goodrow is probably the best bet. On the trade front, they'll have the NMC/NTC minefield to dance around. Stamkos, Kucherov, Hedman and Vasi have full NMC's. Gourde has a full no-trade. Johnson, Killorn, Palat, McDonagh and Maroon have differing no-trades, though fairly flexible. Palat and Johnson give 20 team yes lists. Killorn is a 16-team no list and McDonagh is a 12-team no list. Maroon is cheap and probably doesn't leave. The only players without no-trade protection making decent money are the young stars that are ineligible for trade protection. Even still, hard to see them trading one of Point, Cirelli or Sergachev.

So, in short, who for Tampa has an injury that will require precisely 3 months of rest, followed by surgery with a 6.5 month recovery? Hedman this year?
 

54thMA

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Aug 15, 2012
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View: https://twitter.com/bradytrett/status/1412994001163063300?s=21


This is amazing. Have to watch the whole clip to get to the best part — the comments about the Habs fans
Hockey players are on another level when it comes to professional sports, they are a joy to watch and listen to.

Tampa is quite a wagon, were it not for that quick exit in 2019, they might be looking at a threepeat.

I'll defer to other more knowledgeable hockey posters here, but who is standing in their way for a threepeat in 2022?
 

NYCSox

chris hansen of goats
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Hockey players are on another level when it comes to professional sports, they are a joy to watch and listen to.

Tampa is quite a wagon, were it not for that quick exit in 2019, they might be looking at a threepeat.

I'll defer to other more knowledgeable hockey posters here, but who is standing in their way for a threepeat in 2022?
Fatigue, salary cap crunch, injuries (not LTIR related :)), hot goalie in playoffs, etc.
 

Silverdude2167

Member
SoSH Member
Oct 9, 2006
4,683
Amstredam
Hockey players are on another level when it comes to professional sports, they are a joy to watch and listen to.

Tampa is quite a wagon, were it not for that quick exit in 2019, they might be looking at a threepeat.

I'll defer to other more knowledgeable hockey posters here, but who is standing in their way for a threepeat in 2022?
The salary cap and health...they have been really healthy during their playoff runs the last two years (maybe I am forgetting something from last year).
 

cshea

Member
SoSH Member
Nov 15, 2006
36,047
306, row 14
Seravelli sums up my thoughts on the Tampa cap situation. It may have been legal by the books, but you'll never convince me they didn't slow play the Kucherov injury to circumvent the cap. A doctor prescribing "rest" is basically a get out of jail free card for them, but they probably knew surgery was the recommendation to clear it up for good. The Bruins were bounced 8/31 last year and Pastrnak was under the knife for the same injury by like 9/15. I haven't seen any sort of update, but I'm guessing Rask has also already had his surgery.

View: https://twitter.com/frank_seravalli/status/1413166346280517633?s=20
 

burstnbloom

Member
SoSH Member
Jul 12, 2005
2,761
This probably worked out well for us on the Montreal side. They are a bad team that got hot at the right time and took advantage of breaks a long the way. Molson will probably give Bergevin an extension. They'll think they are closer than they really are. He'll continue to overpay for mediocre veterans. They'll go back to missing the playoffs on an annual basis. Riots ensue.

On the other side, the dead contracts Tampa took on for LTIR purposes are gone, so the Bolts are at $85 million against a $81.5 million cap to start the offseason. They'll probably find a way to lose Tyler Johnson's $5 million (Kraken?). That gets them under but still probably need to move another middling salary to facilitate filling out the roster. Even moving Johnson plus another dude, I don't think they could bring back UFA's Goodrow, Coleman or Savard. Goodrow is probably the best bet. On the trade front, they'll have the NMC/NTC minefield to dance around. Stamkos, Kucherov, Hedman and Vasi have full NMC's. Gourde has a full no-trade. Johnson, Killorn, Palat, McDonagh and Maroon have differing no-trades, though fairly flexible. Palat and Johnson give 20 team yes lists. Killorn is a 16-team no list and McDonagh is a 12-team no list. Maroon is cheap and probably doesn't leave. The only players without no-trade protection making decent money are the young stars that are ineligible for trade protection. Even still, hard to see them trading one of Point, Cirelli or Sergachev.

So, in short, who for Tampa has an injury that will require precisely 3 months of rest, followed by surgery with a 6.5 month recovery? Hedman this year?
Agreed - this is what I had hoped for in this mess of a final (assuming a sinkhole didn't swallow the bell center into the earths core). The habs are not very good but they will think they are which means more years of mediocre until Price ages out. I am distraught over how good Suzuki and Caulfield looked this year though. That sucks for sure.

Tampa has all sorts of cap issues and a pretty bad crop of prospects. They will move Johnson with a 1st to Seattle, I bet. Killorn has some value and he goes as well. Ryan Kesler stands out as a leafs esque salary cap circumvention acquisition that would give them some more space. They will be good again next year but take a hit and that will continue for the next couple of years until they are shit again. The circle of life.
 

Zososoxfan

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Jul 30, 2009
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FWIW, Killorn has a broken Fibula from blocking a shot in Game 1 of the SCF. Probably makes it harder to move him. So Johnson plus one of Palat, Gourde (signed for another 4 years so unlikely), or Cirelli. With Cirelli only being 23, I'd be trying to move Palat. That's going to be tough to swallow as a fan since Palat (and Cirelli) have been so key to this run and are generally awesome, but the salary cap is a bitch.
 

Dduncan6er

New Member
Apr 16, 2020
335
Springfield, MA
Does Montreal even make the playoffs next year? I know injuries and things happen but it seems like Tampa, Toronto, Boston, and Florida are all better teams by a fair amount. I'm hoping we'll be back to the normal divisions next year.
 

cshea

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Nov 15, 2006
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306, row 14
Does Montreal even make the playoffs next year? I know injuries and things happen but it seems like Tampa, Toronto, Boston, and Florida are all better teams by a fair amount. I'm hoping we'll be back to the normal divisions next year.
Probably not. The pandemic and typical Montreal hysteria and overreaction has thrown them out off what was once a solid rebuild. They were full on rebuilding in 2019-2020. They collected a ton of picks and put together a top 5ish farm system. They were well on their way to a playoff DNQ when the shutdown occurred. By the gift of god, they made it to the bubble as the 12 seed in the east. They knocked off Pittsburgh in the play-in round and were competitive against top seeded Philly in the first playoff round. They responded to this small sample in a bizarre time by thinking they were close, so they dumped a TON of money into middling, good but not great veterans. Josh Anderson, Tyler Toffoli, Ben Chiarot, Joel Edmundson. Those 4 plus Weber and Price take up 44% of their cap space now. They're similar to Toronto except the guys making a lot of money aren't stars like Matthews, Marner, Tavares and Nylander.

That got them to 56 points in 56 games this year. They aren't a playoff team if they aren't in the North. We'll see where they go. They still have a ton of picks (11 this year) and a solid farm system that's paying some dividends already with Caufield. Problem is, unless the kids hit, they don't really have the cap space to be a major player this offseason. They have $15 million available with only 15 players signed. Some of that money will go to Kotkaniemi who is also kinda a bust given his draft position. They also have to sign/replace Danault.
 
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NYCSox

chris hansen of goats
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Not to mention it took bizarre outlier seasons from Toffoli and Anderson. And about 10 SHG the first two weeks. And the Canucks getting wiped out with covid
 

Dummy Hoy

Angry Pissbum
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Jul 22, 2006
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Not to mention it took bizarre outlier seasons from Toffoli and Anderson. And about 10 SHG the first two weeks. And the Canucks getting wiped out with covid
I don’t disagree with the basic premise here, but I wouldn’t call Anderson’s season a bizarre outlier…he pretty on track with what he did two years ago.