As D’Amico mentioned, is it really sending a good message that you keep Gallagher and Anderson getting prime minutes in the top 6 while demoting Slaf as he’s in the middle of the best stretch of his career so far?
I don’t like this, but I’m not a coach. Trust Marty
Les trios du CH à l’entraînement :
Caufield-Suzuki-Monahan
Gallagher-Dvorak-Anderson
Pearson-Evans-Slafkovsky
Armia-Stephens-YlonenMatheson-Lindstrom
Guhle-Barron
Struble-Kovacevic @CanadiensMTL @DetroitRedWings— Patrick Friolet (@PFrioletRDS) December 2, 2023
by _JPG97_
48 Comments
I’m honestly okay w this if it keeps Slaf away from Anderson and Dvorak. 3rd line will prob get similar TOI to 2nd, Evans works hard and has sneaky hands, Pearson goes to the net. Could work out
Eeeeeeeshhh
Slaf in for Anderson and I wouldn’t hate this.
This is fucking rough just play Cole Suzuki Slaf together and put something together with other lines…
Terrible
Oh man that sucks for Slaf, he was doing pretty well point wise and now he most likely wont produce for a while. On the bright side, he still has a chance to produce a tiny bit since he’s not with Anderson.
I’d do
Caufield-Suzuki-Slafkovsky
Gallagher-Monahan-Ylonen
Armia-Dvorak-Anderson
Pearson-Evans-Stephens
With lines like these, maybe I’d watch the game.
Jesus fucking christ.
Really don’t like how often Slafkovsky takes a back seat to other priorities with this team. I get it, Marty needs to at least try to win games and the Newhook injury created a really rough situation. But Slaf has been playing his best hockey as of late and has been developing good chemistry with another key piece of our core, and has demonstrated that he plays better when he gets more minutes. So naturally the answer is to give him worse line mates and probably less time on ice?? Idk, I don’t like it one bit. He’s still pretty raw, I’m not sure he can carry a line on his own yet, especially if he’ll be playing with Evans and Pearson. I guess we’ll see but I’m skeptical of this decision, not sure that Slaf playing bottom 6 minutes now will help make him a better top 6 player in 4 years time.
Rewarding Slaf’s form with reduced toi is certainly a decision
Why not get ylonen a chance in the top 9?
Gallagher-Dvo-Anderdon will henceforth be known as the “please trade for these guys” line
Marty you are pushing it…
While I would prefer to see Slaf with Nick and Cole, I’m happy that Monahan is getting good player to play with. As for Slaf, I will wait and see and much time/opportunity he get tonight before judging if putting him on the third line was really a demotion or not since Pearson/Evans is not that different from Gallagher/Dvorak.
free slafko dude
Did Ylonen shit on Marty’s lawn or something?
Slaf might get promoted to pp1 so I’m not too mad about this decision, I don’t think his TOI will decrease that much
[Monahan has 2 EV points in November and is -13 during the same period](https://www.nhl.com/stats/skaters?reportType=game&dateFrom=2023-11-01&dateTo=2023-12-02&gameType=2&position=F&playerPlayedFor=franchise.1&filter=gamesPlayed,gte,1&sort=evPoints&page=0&pageSize=50). Perfect stats for a promotion on the 1st line!
Good news is that we finally assembled a true first line !
Bad news is that we can’t really expect anything from the other 3 lines.
Is this the beginning of “Marty becomes a vilain” arc ?
Nice to see Nick and Cole back together.
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Anyone notice last game that Gary Galley called our top pairing boy “Lundstrom”?
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He did it a couple of times in the same comment during a replay I believe.
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I can’t stand Gary Galley & I’ll never hesitate to point out how weak he is in his current position.
​
So here I am
Talk about putting all your eggs in one basket. That top line should dominate, but everything else? Yeesh.
Fuck Anderson
Is Stephens the giant? He should learn to play the Defensive position.
Habs pre game tonight will honour the Alouettes
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Nice!!
Yea this makes no sense. These lineups have been really strange. Slaf does not deserve to be in the bottom six especially since he was picking up chemistry with Caufield. Another season another shit show along with tons of injuries. A truly habs season…
It’s like they want Slaf to be a bust, how can you justify keeping him out of the top 6 with all our injuries.
Anderson has a pulse for half a game (in which he had 0 pts) and gets into a useless fight in garbage time and hes back on the 2nd line.
Makes 0 sense…
What the fucking fuck seriously. I just don’t get it. What kind of fucking message are you sending to your young players?? “Hey guys don’t bother playing your best hockey ever, ill send you with some plugs, and put Anderson on prime minutes and top PP. I’m fucking pissed. Seriously Marty what the fuck are you doing
Nah, those lines looks weird. 2 Cs in first line, winger on C.. hope it will be changed prior game.
Cole – suz – slaf is obvious first line in years to come. Imo meanwhile Marty tries to find chemistry btwn other players to have at least 2 competetive lines. And really wants to get anderson going to either help team on ice or, trade with value.
All for this.
Gotta get the top line clicking somehow, this is the best bet we have now frankly. Previous attempts of spreading out the offense across multiple lines just doesn’t work.
Monahan has 2 assists in like the last 13 games. Also -13. The obvious choice is
cole-zuk-slaf
Gallagher-monahan-ylonen
Pearson-dvo-anderson
Whatever the fuck for 4th line
For some reason Marty seems allergic to logic this year
Omfg I read this as “Caufield, Suzuki, Monahan, Slafkovsky to bottom 6” and I was *very* confused.
Happy for Monahan ! I think it’s going to be a really good line.
I also don’t think Slaf is ready for 1st line minutes against the best Ds in the league. He’s certainly getting better but he’s not there right now imo. Too much hesitation and too little execution speed in his game to play on the 1st line. Which is expected out of a 19 year old.
Tbh im missing the production of Monahan- Pearson-Gally. They had some secret sauce that just clicked.
I am stoked for Suzy-Caufield again though.
Hey r/Slaf bros, the kid is only 19. Do you really want him getting run over by each team’s best line, game after game? Evans and Pearson are both fast and experienced. I think this is a pretty good option for a developing player.
Guy is playing well and they drop him to the bottom 6. No wonder this franchise can’t develop any players.
Bruh… Slaf is playing the best hockey he’s ever played right now. He’s better than everyone on the second line. Wouldn’t they want to continue developing him as a top 6? Hell, with Caufield and Suzuki there’s a perfect opportunity to form a great first line for the future. Give them the occasion to have this chemistry…
I’m starting to think that MSL would not even have let Marchand – Bergeron – Pastrnak together.
I don’t get this at all. Monahan is a center. One of our centers just went down, why is he off to the wing? So we can promote Dvo and Evans and bring up a rookie? While pushing Slaf down? Completely bonkers.
from a rough set of options he somehow picked the worst option. maybe the worst lines i’ve ever seen.
I’m don’t hate the line combinations at all, and I’m perfectly happy with Pearson-Evans-Slaf as a line. I’m not going to pass judgement based on what a reporter thinks is the “2nd line,” and which one is the “3rd line.” I can see them both being used pretty much equally.
I don’t get anything anymore or the logic behind it to be quite frank with the lines.
[https://imgur.com/a/PNEhWfU](https://imgur.com/a/PNEhWfU)
Slaf is our first overall should he playing with our best guys, starting to doubt Marty tbh. Why isn’t guhle on the pp either
The sad part is, this is still better than Dvorak/Anderson, not good to stick your 1st overall pick on a checking line though.
Is this really that big of a deal? The second and third line get equal deployment anyways.
Slaf’s been our best player last 5 games, I hope he’s given decent teammates. But who’s left?
Anderson in the top 6 is wild, i get Marty being a players coach but come on man
Holy shit literally all anyone seems to care about is Slaf haha.
I for one am stoked to see Cole and Nick reunited