MK1

I was having a conversation the other day with a good buddy of mine and this came up in a roundabout way. How come the flu ravages players so badly? My best guess was that the amount of fluids the players lose during the course of a game/practice, alongside the dehydration that comes with most flu bugs, makes it dangerous for them to compete while ill. Add that to the fact that teams dont want them near anyone else for fear of it spreading, and I'm pretty sure that is valid reasoning for players missing time to the flu each season. Is that about right, or am I missing something crucial?

Exactly. While they don't have a cakewalk schedule (re: their last 6-8 games) they certainly don't have a hard schedule. Take a look at the Flames or the Rangers, those are hard schedules. This is a solid test for the Habs down the stretch for them to get the points from the weaker teams they play so that the final 3 games of the regular season against legit playoff teams don't all have to be MUST-wins in order for them to get in.

I think the resignings aren't really done during the regular season for reasons other than the speculation above, however even if that is the case I think it is a poor way of running that crucial aspect of the organization. With 11 UFAs currently, BG has to know at least 2-3 (being conservative too) aren't coming back regardless of what they do down the stretch. WHY WHY WHY do you let them all hang around and lose them for absolutely nothing just out of principle?!? It would mess with the team chemistry you say? As I recall the team was in a tailspin at the deadline and they had just/were about to fire the head coach for Christ's sake! Too many examples of this happening to them in the off-season recently and just letting players walk in return for not even a late rounder.

Good God those two are terribad ... best 7M ever!

I would add the following to each column: Good News: -Higgins showed up and played very well, that is great news for balance on the lines -They won more important draws that I can remember in any recent game Bad News: -Whatever pseudo-trap Gainey tried to play to protect a 1g lead was a horrible idea, I hope he buries that idea since this team is brutal on D most nights -live and die by the PPG, as per usual

Well the next three games against CHI NYI TOR this week are really going to show the fortitude of this team. They need 5-6 points, 4 would be a bare minimum, and anything less than that is epic fail on home ice. These are the last of the coaster games in front of the home crowd, and 2 of 3 opponents are already mathematically eliminated. No more of the excuses/bs about "they are tough to play because they are loose and playing for pride etc" .... these teams are below in the standing for a reason and there is absolutely ZERO excuse for losing to them this close to the playoffs. With the final 4 games mostly being against legit contenders, these next three absolutely have to be looked at as necessary points to make it in. Let's see how they respond.

You hit the nail square on the head with that statement. This team needs EVERYTHING to go right and get 5+ pp chances per game in order to compete on the scoresheet. If the majority of the game is played 5v5, its not even close. Everyone keeps talking about BOS slowing down ... they've beat NJ and PHI recently and they just play harder and stronger than the Habs do most nights. Over 6-7 games it's going to be quite noticable, and while I don't think the Habs will get swept, BOS is #1 in the conference and has been all season for a reason.

Eight PPs usually lets a team get into a groove offensively in any game, let along against the 27th best team in the league... I don't recall this time period where Price was "playing well again", I recall Carbo being axed and the Habs losing five of six mostly with Price between the pipes, save for one Halak loss to the Leafs where no one else showed up either (other than laps/lats).

He needs to just stay the course and get more and more comfortable in the show. AK46 has something that the vast majority of guys just dont have .... an AMAZING release. This guy has the sheer raw talent to be a 40g scorer he just needs to realize it and start shooting the way Ovie and Kovalchuk do, which is pretty much anywhere, anytime. He has flashes of it every now and then where he just grabs the puck in the neutral zone, gains the blueline and uses the D as a screen and lets it go and handcuffs alot of tenders. Just keep showing him tapes of that, and translate for him "do THAT more".

Marian Gaborik has one of the highest goals/game ratios of any player active in the NHL. He is right alongside Heater and Ovie, if not then just slightly below them. His problem is that he is a china doll, but when he gets in the lineup he is a bona fide superstar, and that is WITH playing in Minny under such a defensive system. He may be an 80 point guy over a full season, but 55 of them would be Gs.

The last dozen years for both clubs have been subpar so I take no solice in that knee-jerk statement. The only consolation is that the Habs only have to think back 15yrs to when they last won whereas the Laffs have to think back 42yrs. From 1994-present neither team has done much of anything other than make a boatload of money off their fans.

Great effort by almost everyone out there tonight, but lets not get ahead of ourselves here. We beat ATL for christ's sake, this is a team we should be beating 6-3 every single time given where they perennially sit in the standings. But great for the room and great for Carey in particular, although 3g on 25 shots isnt anything to write home about, given his recent play it was exactly what he needed! I want to see this effort against a top quality team, and to me the playoffs are going to be foreshadowed by the three games played to end the regular season, all against playoff-bound teams if I remember correctly. On a small side note, even though he did play a much better game tonight, Koivu took a terribad penalty at the beginning of the 2nd that ended up in an ATL ppg. Had Price not robbed Kovalchuk moments later, the game could've taken a significant turn. Saks is wearing the C for a reason, and although he's not expected to pot 40g he can't do that kind of shit either.

New lines I think will make a big difference, I predict a win tonight although still a steady dose of the giveaways and bad D we've seen since the ASG.

NP completely understand

Umm hi, do you remember last year's playoffs at all? I know, I know, Price has had another full season to develop so he's more confident and more mature this year .... oh wait. It is pressure like this that is ruining this poor kid. No, right now he isn't ready to "carry the team against all odds", have you seen PHI NJ play lately??? It would be a massacre.

I completely agree. If you play Price consistently when you shouldn't be (and it has been the wrong move for the past 7-8 starts) even if he does win one tonite it does not make BG a smart man. This is just another poor decision with Price. Of course if you just keep starting him he's eventually gonna win one, that is not rationale for strong coaching ability. The only place I would dream of starting Carey would be on the road in a weak building, starting him at home is potentially setting him up for another massive failure and crushing this poor kid even more.

If BG resigns either of Koivu/Kovy for anything longer than 2yrs and anything north of 3M/per yr than he is trying to grasp at something that just isn't there. I don't think that will happen, but if it does it will definitely make me question his ability as GM a whole lot more. 15 seasons and a grand total of 3-4 round two wins says this team needs a new direction and it isn't gonna come from either of those two.

Watching the postgame sat night, or maybe it was hotstove, either way one of the talking heads brought up a good point about the habs this season. When you think about it, a guy like Carey Price has never really faced much adversity in his short lifespan, both on and off the ice. When his whole world began crashing down a month or two ago, what does he have to lean back on to pick himself back up? When you couple that with some very questionable leadership in the room, I think you get the sense that is he is just lost right now. It's sad when you really think about it in that context, but the only thing that will turn it around is time. If I were BG I wouldn't dream of starting him again unless it was a road game in a relatively non-hostile barn, he simply can't handle a home game right now. If the fans truly want to help this team succeed, they would just cheer for them, all game, whenever anything good happens, just cheer. Did you see the way the team loosened up after Laps potted his first and second?!? It's easy to criticize, it takes a real fan to know what the team needs and to really support them.

Let's be honest here, that magical 2-goal game was a total fluke in an otherwise invisible 2 months for Saks. The one bounced off his logo for christ's sake! On a side note, I'm personally starting to get a little tired of guys that only produce when they are on the PP (hi, Kovy/AK). Give me a guy that scores 20g even strength over one that pots 30g on the PP anyday. Don't get me wrong the extra goals are nice, but the PP is always a chance to get the skill guys out there and even terribad teams score somewhat consistently with the man advantage. Over 82 games you need guys that can consistently push the play even strength or you aren't going to be successful. There are alot of guys that can make a PP hum if they have the right chemistry, I just think that lauding a player for having 35g when 25g come on the PP is just stroking their ego a tad and overinflating their worth.

They will make it in and sit either 7th or 8th and draw either BOS or NJ. Buffalo is hurting bad with Miller out, and Florida is inconsistent at best although getting healthier. Either way, I think the chance at missing the playoffs is very slim. The whole point is that the Leafs are a team that claw their way to hopefully be 7th or 8th, this team has failed miserably for 2 months and is sitting in 8th, so "just making it" just doesn't cut it with this lot.

I don't expect Lats/Laps/Kosto to be the top line, but I do expect them to get the rest of the guys on the bench going so they can start producing the way they should be. Everyone needs to know their role, and those guys seem to be playing with the heart that mostly everyone else on the team is not. It was no coincidence BG referred specifically to Max in the postgame saying just as much, although he could've easily included Lats in the same sentance.

Tanguay-Koivu-Kovalev AKost-Plekanec-Skost Kosto-Lapierre-Lats Higgins-Metro-Dandy That has to be the line that gets things going for this team, the rest is just shuffling deck chairs....

Totally agree. He has a cup already, he lives in Florida, there is little to no media hype, he's got a honey contract for the rest of his life, why exactly would he be thinking about leaving Tampa?!? Maybe in a year or two if he gets the itch for another cup run, otherwise he'd be nuts to leave.

Cherry was feeling bad for Gainey because he can see that the vast majority of the guys on the ice simply aren't playing for anyone right now and Gainey's move to stir them up by axeing Carbo hasn't done anything to inspire the leader's on the team. It must be a tough spot to be in as a coach/GM, and while the CBC guys did a good job picking up on the line shuffling producting a couple goals in the 2nd, really when you've tried everything to no avail and solution_17 happens to produce something positive what else is there to say?

Have to keep Laps, Lats, Kosto, AK46, Markov and Komi (he'll get going again). Kovy, Koivu etc can stay for reduced salary + salary perks based on performance. Just need to look at who got things going for that brief period on SAT night, it was 100% on the heart guys like Laps/Lats, they brought it almost every shift while the rest sat on the bench and followed it up with sweet F all. Gainey isn't stupid he knows who is playing for him and who isn't.