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Now that the deadline has come and gone, everyone's anxiety seems to have left their bodies for the time being. No more fretting about who's coming and going, just really letting the next 18 or 20 games play out and maybe you start worrying again in a couple weeks.
That's nice.
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So a lot of the questions this week were kind of random, which I like.
Let's chop it up:
Isaac asks: "At what point do the Habs eschew the practice of pulling the goalie when down late given their incompetence with the man advantage?"
Yeah man, I didn't realize it was like this but the Habs have one extra-attacker goal this year. That's in roughly half an hour of hockey with the goalie pulled. So call it two goals per hour with the goalie out.
That's a little more than 50 percent worse than the 2.91 goals per 60 they score at 5-on-5, so you're not totally wrong that they might as well keep the goalie in. But given that they're only pulling the goalie for 60 or 90 seconds at a stretch, we're talking about a difference in goals per goalie-pull that's really marginal. It probably wouldn't add a single point to their total. And that's if we assume their shooting luck is this sustainably low, which I doubt.
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Also, if you're getting to the point in the game where you're going to pull the goalie, the odds are that you're gonna lose anyway. So really, it's kinda whatever to me.
Rob asks: "The trade for Montour should help in the near term, but Botterill is rightly focused on the future. What can they do to get back in the playoffs next year?"
Defense — specifically the lack of ability to get the puck out of the back end effectively — seems to be the biggest problem. Hard to address, though. You probably have to overpay for someone on the UFA market (for someone like Jake Gardiner ) or trade what you can for Jacob Trouba . Or both.
And probably get a top-two pick in the draft at the lottery. You could definitely use some forward depth even if you re-sign Skinner, which is a who-knows thing. How much can they reasonably spend without finding a trading partner for Kyle Okposo ? I don't know.
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I might kick the tires on a coaching change too. "Next year" is tough no matter how you slice it, especially in that division.
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Sambu asks via email: "The Dallas Stars ' underlying fundamentals are considerably down year-on-year with new coach Jim Montgomery. Do coaches need time to adjust to the NHL or is there something about his philosophical style of play?"
First of all I think you can argue the roster got a little worse, and as much as you can like Jim Montgomery and how he sees the game, I think there's gonna be a step back when you go from Ken Hitchcock (one of the best ever, for my money) to a guy who has never coached pro hockey before.
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I think there is an adjustment period, for the coach but also the players he's in charge of, but the fact is that the team just isn't that good when the top line is off the ice and Mats Zuccarello and Ben Lovejoy were never gonna change that.
I always thought that, in bringing in a college coach with no pro experience, the team was acknowledging the need to take a step back and retool, but it hasn't happened yet. Arguable that it's a multi-year process and it just started. So MAYBE the fact that they're only on pace to finish three or four points lower than they did last year (in what I'd say is a slightly tougher Central) isn't such a bad mark for Montgomery.
Jay asks: "After which round will San Jose regret not trading for Jimmy Howard ?"
Whichever one they're eliminated in, I guess. As long as you're winning, it probably doesn't matter whether your final scores are 5-4 or 3-2.
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Kyle asks: "What do you see as Cale Makar's professional floor/ceiling?"
Well first of all he's the clear Hobey Baker winner for me. I've seen him live (only five times in two seasons, but that's life) enough to know that this kid just does everything. Thinks the game on a level that you don't see often, has insane wheels, ridiculous skill. He's good for a takeaway-into-a-breakaway twice a game.
He still does some stuff that he won't be able to get away with in the NHL, which he's 100 percent ready for and was probably ready for it last season. That, as an opposing coach said over the weekend, is mostly him just toying with lower-level opponents. My theory, anyway.
So what's his ceiling? I don't know for sure because I don't know if I've ever seen a defenseman this immediately and clearly great. Even, like, Noah Hanifin who came in as a clear high-end prospect and has been in the NHL for a long time wasn't this franchise-changing, for lack of a better word. UMass used to be a joke and Makar (not totally alone but more or less) made them respectable as a freshman last year. People compare him to Erik Karlsson and that's more about style than talent level, but I can see him being an NHL All-Star no problem. Low end, I don't know, he's maybe a really good No. 2?
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He's really as good as the hype, don't know how else to say it.
Gabriel asks: "Was Gretzky a product of his era or was he really that far and away better than everyone else?"
I mean the absolute absurdity of his totals is a product of the era, for sure. Two hundred points in a season is ludicrous, and he did it twice. The fact that every highlight looks like the goalies and defense have never skated before helps. Plus he got help from a team of future Hall of Famers who all had a lot of success elsewhere, so they weren't a product of a system or of playing with Gretzky. Elite players all just happened to be on that team at that time. Great coincidence for him.
But at the same time, yeah he was that much better than everyone, too. The stat gets overused a lot but it can't be overstated: If he never scored a single goal, he would be the all-time leading scorer in league history, but he's also the all-time goals leader by a mile.
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Even if you adjust for scoring eras and everything like that, Gretzky is the all-time leader in career points by nearly 300, ahead of Gordie Howe, whose appearance on the list is basically more like an attendance record. Jaromir Jagr, who played two fewer seasons than Gretzky, is almost 400 points behind him.
Bobby Orr was better though.
Brad asks: "Does Houston get another AHL team in the near future?"
I guess it's possible the Senators move soon.
Ryan Lambert is a Yahoo! Sports hockey columnist. His email is here and his Twitter is here .
All stats via Corsica unless noted otherwise. Some questions in the mailbag are edited for clarity or to remove swear words, which are illegal to use.
