Oh my! Not quite the season we Habs fans had hoped for.  When I first signed up to write for Rabid Habs Magazine I did not think I would be writing my end of season article in February. So what do we do now, Habs fans? Well, here are my 3 random thoughts:

1. Habs’ bottom 6 for the 2016-2017 season

One of the Habs’ biggest problems is that they have too many bottom 6 players on the roster right now. So the first thing we are going to do is trim it down. Goodbye to Devante Smith-Pelly, hopefully MB can convince another team that he is a playoff performer or at least a depth player (DSP did have 5 playoff goals for Anaheim). Goodbye to Tomas “Tommy Boy” Fleischmann, I am sure MB can get a pick for him. A sad goodbye to Dale Weise, a player that has given his all to the Canadiens, but he will get a contract between $2 and $2.5 million next season and that is simply too rich for his offensive production. My fourth line is Byron-Mitchell-Flynn. This line is everything you want from a 4th line, minus maybe a little big bodied grit. They will bring speed that causes issues for other 4th lines and 3rd D pairings and of course Mitchell-Byron is a great PK pairing. Throw in Lucas Lessio as a depth player and I think we have a solid 4th. My third line is Andrighetto-Desharnais-Carr. This line is not the ideal 3rd line and to be honest even though I am a DD fan, Lars Eller is more suited as a third line C. The obvious thing is Eller is more movable than DD, so this is what I think MB should do in the off season. There is simply no longer room for them both anymore. The best thing about this bottom 6 is you get them all for less than $10 million in cap space, giving MB lots of cap space for, perhaps, dare we dream, Steven Stamkos or a real top 3 player. As I said, dare we dream.

2. How to save the season

As I said, I never thought I would be writing an end of season article in February, but here are three ways the Habs can “save” the season (and no, this done not mean playoffs, that ship sailed many games ago).

1) Shut down Carey Price. I am not sure what is wrong with Carey and, frankly, I don’t think anyone does. The thing I do know is that players who are out 3 plus months with an injury have a serious one. There is no point at all in bringing a goalie who has not played that long and has an injury to one of the most important parts of a goalie’s body back to a team that is shutting it down for the season. Let him rehab very slowly and get him ready for 2016-2017 season.

2)Play the kids. One of the things every organization wants to know is what do we have on the farm. Most teams don’t get to see this through properly, especially the Canadiens as Michel Therrien has shown they prefer to go with vets rather than the youngsters. So lets see Sven, JDLR, Hudon, McCaron, Dumont, Ellis, Bartley, Scherbak and even Bud, and see what we have. We might find a surprise or a few players we can package together for an offseason trade.

3)Get what you can at the deadline. If we are looking to acquire a top 3 forward in the offseason the one thing that goes well with good young players is draft picks. If we can stock pile a few picks for Weise, DSP, and Fleischmann this would help our trades without raiding our own draft picks. Wonder what Tinordi would have brought back at the deadline? Hmmmm…..

3. My three mistakes of 2015-2016

I wrote a blog earlier in the year about MT haters admitting that they were wrong. And while that is more debatable now, the point here is that you get more credibility when you admit that you maybe weren’t 100% right about certain opinions you might have had.

1) Tomas Fleischmann. I still agree 100% that TF deserved to make the team out of camp, but in October/November I called for MB to extend him to a 2 year/3 million contract. I realize now that while Tommy Boy is a valuable depth player, he is more suited for another teams 4th line than our 3rd. That being said I do believe Fleischmann’s NHL days are behind him and he will not be back in the league next season.

2) Canadiens can win without Carey Price. Again I think I was fooling myself. I do not believe the Habs are as bad as the team we have seen since December, but one thing that has become abundantly clear is that this team is not capable of scoring enough goals that anyone besides Carey Price could win on a regular basis. I was wrong, but the great thing about that is I think MB has finally realized this as well.

3) You guys thought I was going to say MT or DD right? Wrong! Although I do believe that this team does need a coaching change, this is more about a change of scenery than MT not being a capable coach, and DD is still a solid NHL player who, if put on the 3rd line with productive linemates, is still capable of putting up 60 pts, which in this NHL at $3.5 million would be a steal. So I guess my third mistake is not really a mistake at all. Does that make it a mistake? Ponder that as I take cover from all the MT and DD haters.

Those are my thoughts. I would love to hear yours. Follow me on Twitter @scottobrien99.

Go Habs Go!