I have already written in a previous column, it is an inexplicable oversight. Considered the best defensive forward of the 1960s, Claude Provost appeared in the All-Star game 11 times. He also has nine Stanley Cup rings. Two highs among eligible but excluded players. Unfortunately, it’s getting late for players from the 1960s. In the last 15 years, only one player who played in the NHL during this era has been inducted (Rogatien Vachon).

Cole Caufield hadn’t been bad, far from it, in the 2021 playoffs, with 12 points in 20 games. Your fears could materialize at five against five, but on the power play, he would remain just as dangerous. That said, it is true that many small forwards lose productivity in the playoffs. At Minnesota, Mats Zuccarello (5’8) has produced nearly a point per game for three years, but 12 points in 19 playoff games during that span. Kyle Connor, without being small, is a featherweight (6’2″, 174 lbs) and has qualities comparable to those of Caufield. He has 12 goals in 40 playoff games, averaging 38 in 82 games since 2017. There’s definitely a risk, but potential 40-goal scorers aren’t running around.

You are clever, and it is said with all admiration. But the authors of the rulebook are also smart, and therefore specify, in Rule 38.9, that a review can only be requested “if the puck has not left the offensive zone between the offside and the when the goal is scored”.

It’s a good question. We notice, among the so-called “original” teams, that players who played before the Second World War are relatively few to have had their number retired. In fact, at the Habs, only Howie Morenz’s number 7 was hoisted to the ceiling of the Forum and then the Bell Center, and the organization did so in 1937, immediately after his death. Blake certainly had a great career as a player, but it is above all as a coach that he is remembered. Like others later on – for example, Jacques Lemaire – he had the misfortune to play with several players who had their numbers retired, starting with his linemates Maurice Richard and Elmer Lach. Would he deserve it? Certainly. But with 17 numbers already retired, the Canadiens have to save a few for active players!

Excellent question. In 2017, Sports Illustrated posed this tricky question to Braden Holtby, and the then Washington Capitals goaltender let it be known that the water bottle was, in a way, like a reset button to him. Which makes a lot of sense, when you think about it, because it allows the goalkeeper to try to forget what just happened to him and focus on the task that remains to be done. We should all have such a bottle of water in real life.