hockeyrealist

This year’s team overperformed, that seems like concencus opinion around here. With thé lack of truly elite (game breaking talent) prospects (I do like our prospects but none are going to be elite to the point thy step in next year and provide significant improvement) I don’t see any improvement next year. More likely I see a regression to the mean, the career year players will probably level off so I predict another playoff miss next year. MB should be to blame, when the coach is beyond reproach (whether right or not) and the players are all playing above expectations you must look to the architect for blame. Speakig of coach. Is this coach the guy we want nurturing some young talent? Does his history support the development of young players? Goaltending: CP31 is great but he cost us points early on that resulted in no playoffs, he was brutal for first half. Literally lost us easy points early on. Upgrade at backup goalie required. Who cares about egos, we need a talented, hungry backup who will take any opportunity and run with it. worst case, CP31 plays less/year and actually lasts until his contract ends. forwards: Inabilty to produce consistent offense, yet again. Upgrades at top 6 required. d: insufficient depth in top 4 dmen, upgrades required. Soecial teams: Complete garbage power play, upgrade at top 6/coaching staff required. Im quite sure this breakdown could apply to many of the past years’ teams so again I place blame on executive team (GM/owner) for not assembling a winner. It is particularly bothersome when you also consider the cap room and outcry for improvements,and the mishandling of Markov/Radu. Imagine we’d had Marky playing limited 5 on 5 but PP specialist, and Radu is still on team. Perhaps with Radu still on board, we’d have kept Sergachev and not gone after Drouin in this scenario, boom our top six is better, left D is all of a sudden excellent. Wow, ramble and ramble. saw half of games this year. About half of those were brutal, other half the team played over the expectations and stymied opposition with speed/goaltending. While I love to see w’s and did get excited this year, once I step back and take a look at big picture I realize there is little reason to expect any significant change in results in the near future. Hopefully I’’m wrong but history tells me Management will continue to lead us down a path of mediocrity.

Interesting line of thought mentioned above. Perhaps, the cost of some extra tix gets worked into pricing of corporate boxes and the “extra tix” from that are used by the club exclusively for schools, minor sports teams, charities? No net gain or loss for team, negligible increase to the price of corporate boxes, does some good for people who may not get to see an NHL game otherwise??? Go Habs Go!

Only proven centre who I see being available is oreilly. What the price would be? No idea but more I think about it the more i think he could handle the job and is only true elite(?) centre that may be available. id trade third overall for him. But would prolly have to throw in a player, maybe a dman given buffalos roster needs? They are pretty deep at centre and had ROR slotted on third line at end of season.

Récent gazette article refers to trading the 3rd overall as a package to get immediate, professional centre. I like that idea as third overall is underwhelming imo. Dahlin and svechnikov are thé only two this year. Problem is where does this centreman come from? Not many available without trading a golden goose (price) Id unload anyone beside price, Weber and Gallagher along with the 3 rd overall for a #1 c. And I’d consider Weber for right price as well.

In a galaxy far, far away Plex goes to Tampa as suggested for the one and only hope for the rebellion, sergachev. as bergy planned all along.

Agreed all around. a friend pointed out return on investment for Byron this year would be sick from an investment standpoint. Could be same thing for Benn too. some teams will over pay for these guys this year in hopes of making a push and there is no reason to hold them as their return will most likely onmy diminish.

Well the original commment said 3-4 years, but yes I believe he has the skills and physical strength to be a strong contributor into his thirties. But it all comes down to cost. i don’t think he cares about Bergevin but I do think he cares about family stability as he’s come out and said. And I believe him when he says he wants to be part of the solution in Mtl. the returns people on the site expect for him are ludicrous and what he would return now is unacceptable. nobody is giving a young future #1 C and more for him which is the consensus on what is acceptable from this site. That is asset management, PLEASE... a player people here say is garbage and needs to go cause he’s washed up at 29 is going to somehow bring back 2-3 future core pieces??? Nevermind he is and has been the habs onlyconsistwnt threat and therefore easy to target for shut down down by other teams. Get him some support as a contender would have for him and he is elite. Is he worth 7 million into his 30’s, not imo but if he will stay for 6 I think the value is better to keep him. If team continues to suck he is still a valuable commodity at 31 with a fair price tag.

Drouin isn’t a centre tho, so that is part of the problem. give max a north-south centre with speed and watch him flourish.

Finally a voice of reason. imagine the bitch fest this site would be when price is celebrating his second cup with another team.

I love how even a gdt turns into a ‘’trade so and so’’ pouting party on here. Also love how commentors assume we can flip just about any player for young talent, as though teams are just dying to give up young twenty somethings that they’ve begun grooming. How about the team explores the idea that Max (who apparently loves Mtl, just moved downtown with his young family) accepts another sweet deal of a contract and we hold onto the only certified goal scorer we’ve had in the past Oh maybe a decade. Hes still quite young and by moving the bloated Contracts of Plex and Shaw at least combined with available cap space try to find a decent centre or even two mediocre ones and stop trying to love our only offensive weapons. You’d think we were an offensive powerhouse the way commentors are calling for trades of max and Galchenyuk. How about supply them with some talent regardless of their native tongue and let them bloom like any other team would. the d Corp needs to be blown up but max is still relatively young, a proven offensive talent and has shown enormous patience, accountability and leadership (yes I know it is rare to hear that) in the way he has handled the teams and his own failure this year. He shouldn’t have been made captain but that isn’t his fault, this team should have stuck with four assistants. He has worn the c with pride, dealt with media with upmost patience and honesty and I really think the added pressure of that affected his game and once that pressure reduced a bit as everyone wrote off the season he was able to hold the stick a little looser and find some puck luck. Pax, Galchenyuk, Gallagher, Drouin, lekonen, Huron make a great top nine winger set. Trade Shaw and Plex, and being in some centre help and this team is not far from competing for years to come.

Except he punches with serious power the few times I’ve seen him go. Weise brought some physicality but Desl is another level of strength and viciousness it appears. Hes grown on me, check out the scrap with Rinaldo I believe to see a good example of how hard he throws them. Def a good reminder to opposition to keep it in line. Either way if you’re only bringing a few goals to the table you’d better bring something else. Scary that some of my fave habs players to watch this year are fourth liners.

Agreed but the Bruins are much quicker now and I see Emmy getting left behind as they blow by him these days. Lucic wouldn’t be able to keep up on the current roster.

When I look at the lineup, and forget the past few months of play, the forward group looks like it could be competitive with four fast lines and some skill. Could wreak havoc for opposing d. Obv this hasn’t been the case for any sustained period. Makes me consider what is causing this and why the team hasn’t solved it. Of course easy answer is lack of #1 C , but I personally think that damage can be overcome or minimized at least. To the eye test it seems there is too much perimeter play and shooting with a lack of pressure on the opposing net. Lots of ‘’one and done’’, lots of shots but not enough high quality chances? Need some net drive, puck hounds. Ideally not just Gallagher. Looks like a lack of smooth entries dues to weak outlet passes, which aren’t catching our fleet-footed forwards in stride? Obv we had that for 900 plus games in #79. Gave away a couple possible replacements and haven’t recovered yet. Thats what I see and would address with some roster adjustments and intensive coaching. The d corps presently is scary though. Mete and Schlemko pairing seems like a high risk situation (as do the rest haha), hopefully the high reward makes it worthwhile. The top d in the lineup tonight would ideally be a #4 depth-wise? Optimistically, I am hoping that a few big game challenges like this next bunch are, is what it takes for this group to rally around each other and hit one of those 10-12 game win streaks that we’ve missed this year and make a season of this yet.

I love and respect your positive outlook but watching these games doesn’t Instill much confidence.

If we had shipped an established problem player who went to a new team and barely produced for a very young dman who even cracked and held a roster spot at that age we would be singing bergy’s praises so on the reverse side I think any criticism is justified.