Lovett's Magnatones

Hey, why not? Habs fans are a quasi-captive audience not much different than your average air traveler. Just wait until they cram in extra seats and cut down on legroom.

One fact the BergeyBoyz on here will admit is that Commandant/MoLG/CC isn't a "who's who" of complainers on here. I've been 50/50. Really liked Therrien, wanted GarbageBin scrapped since the end of 2014-2015. Fan enthusiasm is at its lowest I can remember for before a season. Maybe since the Andre Savard days.

The funny thing about comparing Nill and GarbageBin is that Nill did two things this offseason Bergevin couldn't do: sign a top-9 center (Hanzal), and sign Radulov. Not the best argument to pick.

Just be grateful!!!!! You're lucky we even have 82 games, children are starving in China. We owe the franchise nothing. This is entertainment. If the team is stuck in neutral, and frankly, about as exacting as watching grass grow, we can change the channel.

Yah...one series win against the Bruins three years ago. That was the apex of Bergevin's Habs. Forgive me for not dancing naked in the streets.

I don't think he views a number one center or even better center depth as a priority. He's made more trades than any NHL GM. He signed Alzner and Petry to more money than anybody else in the league each respective FA period, and very early on. Petry was before July 1st, and Alzner was within hours. And as you've mentioned, he went into four of five years with DD/Plek/Eller, and each season was worse than the last.

Dallas is one of the most exciting teams in hockey, lol.

Any fan is entitled to entertainment. One of the reasons, imo, behind "Woe Canada" is the loyalty of Canadian fans. Down here in South Florida, forget the Panthers, the Dolphins and Marlins have lousy teams and that equals an empty stadium. Teams that fail to deliver should be hit hard in the pocketbook. With the exception of the Sens and Canucks, Canadian fans line up around the block for whatever crap show skates in an NHL rink. That's a big reason for the lack of Cups in Canada. You can draw a straight line in almost any other sport/team between wins and revenue.

I remember many pundits saying the same thing about Jim Benning. They weren't as effusive, but almost surprised nobody took him out from under Peter Chiarelli. I guess now we know why.

I think Sakic is going overboard. He's trying too hard to win the deal to make up for the ROR trade.

What about Cody Franson? Not sure if I would want him, but Bergevin traded Gorges for him, before Gorges used his NTC. I could see Bergevin signing him.

He made a trade for leadership before firing a coach. How dumb!

Somebody stop the fight! I haven't seen this many haymakers on the board since the days of 30/31.

These are the fruits of the participation generation; even middling results in something as explicitly objective as sports are supposed to be measured against excuses like "the goal is to make the playoffs," and "centers are not available." What people forget is that in areas where MB hasn't been gifted players or met adversity he's failed. He taneed 2015-2016 when all he needed was a competent backup goalie to stay in the race. I think with their start they needed .500 hockey to stay in first place. Not sure...but his answer was Ben Scrivens for Zack Kassian in a move that was quick, dirty, and ineffective. He inherited a center corp that was pretty good, I would give it a B-, with DD, Plekanec, Eller and Galchenyuk waiting in the wings. Now we have Danault, Plekanec--who might get 20 points next year for all we know--, Torrey Mitchell, and questood marks. Bergevin again fails to upgrade the center depth. His draft and development record speaks for itself, and he's been less than proactive in fixing the deficiencies. We're in the same holding pattern as we were with Therrien. There's no vision, no real future, and the team is going to be like watching paint dry. But yeah, Shea Weber was 6th in Norris voting and we've really beaten up on OTT/TOR/BOS over the years.

You're on Contrarian's Island. I can't even discern a point you're trying to make now besides the presence of a persecutory miasma in the fanbase disguising Bergevin's wondrous record of mediocrity. Your points otherwise have been thoroughly refuted. Fans are not impressed with 5-10th place teams out of 30. Especially with the parity in the the league. I think 5 years is enough. If we have to see this team really shit tank hard, he'll be gone at the end of 2019 . I'm not even sure this is a playoff team next year. Jo Drouin and a Pocket Full of Dreams.

Let's flip the script. What does BergeVin have to do to be fired?

Haha, yep. In Nashville, they're just excited to get away from George Strait for a night.* (*We could do with some George Strait in South Florida, along with sellout and team that can ice 80% of an NHL roster).

Yeah, a few people had them in the Stanley Cup Finals before the year started. I think Pierre Lebrun, for one example.

You guys sound like a couple of jive turkeys. "Yoyoyo, it's your boy Louis."

Got to be something wrong with a statistical model that puts the Winnipeg Jets ahead of the Penguins...or makes creates a model from an intangible.

Not my point at all. The comment I made is that Bergevin has said on multiple occasions "the goal is to make the playoffs." I can link two examples, one in 2014 and 2017, if needed. I didn't argue that he should say the goal is to win the Stanley Cup. My point was that we can only take him at face value. I view Bergevin's move through the prism of failure because he's a failed GM. I don't think he has a job for more than three years without the core he inherited, and I put him in the same class of Canadian Old Boys that Suck at GMing. The other members are Dave Nonis, Craig McTavish, Cheveldisaster, and Jim Benning.

Like I've said, it's all about your expectations. Given the core he inherited (and partially dismantled by trading Subban in a lateral move) and the rhetoric about his vaunted five year plan--which indeed he didn't stray from when the team needed one or two pieces to contend--I expect the team to be in contention for the Cup by now, or at least knocking on the door. Instead, in the rearview mirror we have a first round exit, the moral victory of ending the year atop the worst division in hockey, and like Bergevin said himself we "need help everywhere." The same problems persist: a bad powerplay, a prospect pool that includes zero blue chippers, and a center core that is closer to an expansion team than a Cup winner. Perhaps the biggest smack upside the head is the nepotism. Sylvain Lefevbre has made the playoffs once and the team allows him to use the Rocket as a quasi-stopgap job. Trevor Timmons hasn't been a big deal since the Bush administration. Patrice ####ing Briesbois had a job at one point. There's no appreciable player development, and the guy in charge of player development is promoted. And you think the team is on the right track??? Face reality! But it's not on me for judge other fans. For many, including you, Saturday night wins vs Boston/Toronto/Ottawa, a dominant Carey Price, and a sparkling Francophone star like Drouin are more than enough.

Well, when GarbageBin spouts off yearly that "the goal every year is to make the playoffs," what other inference can we draw?

Minus one mullahs at it again.