Michkov > Reinbacher, Gallagher before Dach, please, and the NCAA money

Maxime Truman
Michkov > Reinbacher, Gallagher before Dach, please, and the NCAA money
Credit: NHL.com

The Canadiens weren't up to par last night. That statement might seem alarming, given that the game meant nothing to the Flyers and that several AHL players had been called up to fill in (and give the veterans a rest).

The Habs, on the other hand, were playing to try to start their series against the Lightning at the Bell Centre. That won't happen.

The game's three stars were all Flyers players.

(Credit: NHL.com)

Needless to say, last night, Matvei Michkov (1 goal, 2 assists, +2, 8 shots on goal, and 16:18) outplayed David Reinbacher (0 points, -1, one costly turnover, and 15:00), right?

“It's a marathon, Max, not a sprint!”

True! That's also why the result of a preseason game doesn't worry me, in the end.

Brendan Gallagher or Kirby Dach?
The Canadiens' best forward last night—aside from perhaps Cole Caufield and his ten shots on goal—might have been Brendan Gallagher. Gallagher was hungry and had something to prove (chip on his shoulder
). His advanced stats show he succeeded in his mission.

Gallagher is the real deal, loved by everyone.

On the other hand, Kirby Dach, Zachary Bolduc, and Oliver Kapanen didn't have a great game.

Which three forwards will be left out for the first game of the series against the Lightning this weekend?

The first is a no-brainer: Patrik Laine.

Next, Martin St-Louis will have to decide which two forwards he'll sit out on Sunday. The options are: Brendan Gallagher, Joe Veleno, Kirby Dach, Alexandre Texier, Oliver Kapanen, and Zachary Bolduc.

I think St-Louis will bench Gallagher and Veleno (or Bolduc), but if he were to rely entirely on the team's performance over the last two months—and especially yesterday's game—Gallagher would be preferred over Kirby Dach.

“Dacher” finished his shift with zeros across the board yesterday. He hasn't found the back of the net since late February, he isn't shooting, he's afraid of getting injured, he has only two measly points in March and April, he played just 11 minutes yesterday in Philadelphia, and he's no longer part of the organization's future. So why give him significant ice time?

Bolduc shoots, Gallagher works hard, Texier is talented, Veleno is reliable (and shoots), and Kapanen can fill in at center if we ever have an injury during a game (because we all agree that on the fourth line, he's not very useful).

But what is Kirby Dach doing?

(silence)

Matheson and Dobson were missing last night
I don't want to throw stones at David Reinbacher, Arber Xhekaj, Kaiden Guhle, Adam Engstrom, and Jayden Struble, but we saw last night just how important Mike Matheson and Noah Dobson are to the Montreal Canadiens. Defensively, but also in terms of sparking the offense…

I just hope the haters of those two guys watched last night's game.

Let's hope Noah Dobson's bones heal and mend faster than the average NHL player.

The Capitals eliminated:
makes no sense
Which team had the sixth-most wins in the regular season this year in the NHL? The Washington Capitals.

Yet the Caps won't even make the playoffs.

Even though they rank 12th in the NHL, the Capitals are victims of the massive imbalance between the East and West this year. The Caps (43 wins, including 37 in regulation and a +19 goal differential) won't be part of the spring dance, while the Kings (35 wins, including 22 in regulation and a -20 goal differential) will be.

It makes no sense!

The NHL really needs to look into a system where the league's top 16 teams make the playoffs, period. And a system where a win in regulation would be worth more points than a shootout win. #3PointsPerWin


NCAA Money

When I saw Michael Hage announce that he was going to play another season in college, I immediately thought: Hage will make more money at Michigan than he would have at Laval.

Given the lineup the Habs will have next year, I'm not convinced there would have been room for the Ontario center from October to April. However, by staying in college, he's guaranteed to earn a few hundred thousand U.S. dollars—thanks to the new rules in place in the U.S.—and when he makes the jump to the NHL, he'll be better prepared for the big league. And he'll likely avoid the American Hockey League…

The fact remains that the landscape has changed with this permission to pay college players. A player who doesn't like the team that drafted him could spend his four years in the NCAA (earning a good salary, if he's excellent) and then choose his NHL team. It was kind of like that before, but playing seasons for free versus playing seasons for a few hundred thousand dollars are two different things.

Will this change how scouts think during the draft? Could it force Kent Hughes to trade Michael Hage in exchange for a highly talented player? We'll see.

The truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth? No need!
Yesterday, Pierre Houde mentioned during the game that Matvei Michkov had come back to life over the past two months because he hadn't gone south like others did during the Olympic break.

Yes, Michkov has been playing better in recent weeks than he was at the start of the season, and yes, it's reasonable to assume he worked hard during the Olympic break.

However, claiming that he didn't go south is false, as evidenced by the athlete's Instagram account.

It wasn't a major mistake on Pierre Houde's part, but it was still a mistake. And I prefer it when people tell me the truth, rather than a lie, on the air…

Except that when I read the comments under my post X, I realized that a lot of people didn't give a damn about the truth: they were defending Pierre Houde.

First, Pierre Houde is excellent… but I think we can still point out his mistakes without freaking out.

Second, I wonder if people would have taken this mistake the same way if it had been made on a Saturday night on TVA Sports. By Félix Séguin, say…

That's what I thought…

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