Habs at Oilers, G58 10-11

One thing about playing the 1970's Montreal Canadiens: there was never much to shoot at and the offensive opportunities were rare.

The 1970's Habs were crazy deep in an era where NHL teams had very little depth. Their AHL team would likely have finished ahead of Oakland, Washington and Kansas City during those years. In fact, they probably could have made the playoffs.
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The Montreal blueline had a top 3 that might have been the best trio in history. Larry Robinson, Serge Savard and Guy Lapointe were outstanding players, complete piss cutters all.
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Oilers have some of the NHL's highest scoring rookies. Here are the even-strength boxcars:

1. Michael Grabner 53gp, 21-9-30
2. Jeff Skinner 58gp, 15-14-29
3. Logan Couture 55gp, 17-11-28
4. Taylor Hall 57gp, 13-14-27
5. Bryan Bickell  54gp, 11-15-26
6. Derek Stepan 58gp, 13-12-25
7. Brad Marchand 54gp, 11-13-24
8. Jordan Eberle 44gp, 9-14-23
9. Tyler Ellis 56gp, 8-14-22
10. Magnus Pääjärvi 55gp, 8-10-18

Steve Stamkos was 79gp, 14-15-29  at even strength during his rookie season.
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I wrote an item on Zach Bogosian possibly being available over at ON yesterday. I think the Oilers would be wise to pursue that option, as it gives them a more mature defenseman and cuts off a couple of years of development. Would you trade Sam Gagner for Zach Bogosian straight up?
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I'm feeling kind of sad for my Ottawa friends today. People like Sean Keough and Kyle's Mom and Yokel from the old HF boards days of a decade ago. Why? Bruce Garrioch spills the news here in a quote from Bryan Murray:

• We know for a fact going forward that we have three or four very good young players that are waiting for a chance to play in this organization that aren’t even in Binghamton yet, then we have to look at a couple of other guys in Binghamton. We’re going to retool the budget, we’re going to retool the organization and you’re right, there are going to be some painful nights here. I’ve talked to Edmonton and I’ve talked to Colorado about going young and how difficult it is at times.”

The scorched earth comes to Ottawa. I remember something about Ottawa being the capital because of geography, maybe that will help them in their rebuild.
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Montreal acquired D Paul Mara from the Anaheim Ducks yesterday. They gave up a 5th rd pick (sounds like it was originally Anaheim's and they traded it for Maxim Lapierre) to get him. I remain convinced that defensemen will be the currency ST deals in at the deadline, with Jim Vandermeer, Kurtis Foster and Ladislav Smid all possible.