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April 20th, 2009 | Canadiens vs. Bruins | Game 3 Thread


Cataclaw

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Playing Price here (not saying he suxes) was something like the desperate gambler who has lost bad, but keeps laying his chips down on the same number because he believes his luck has to change . . . If the number comes up everything is ok. More likely, though, the opposite happens. Might as well play Price in game four, still some chance for redemption. . . . . . . . . . . . .. .. .

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I sure as hell hope not.....Jaro deserves a playoff start.

I know what you're saying, but Halak deserved it in game three (maybe in game one!) Yeah, 20/20 hindsight but I think we're guilty of having given too much consideration to Price's 'price' (the 5th overall pick) rathr than his 'value' (still a shakey youngster).

I don't care any way. It's too late IMO, but if Halak starts and the team rallies and we get the win, then we go to Boston and he steals one . . . . well, a guy can dream can't he?

I'll assume you were drunk when you posted. There's far too much idiocy and negative, kneejerking generalizations for this to possibly be a lucid post.

Maybe JHB found the key to the ship's liquor room hehehe.

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I'll happily take Schneider back, or have you already forgotten what he's done for Montreal's powerplay?

I would hazard a guess that the PP looked "sooo good" a couple weeks before the playoffs because the Habs were playing balls teams in the basement of the league (and still having trouble with them). The PP down the stretch, against legit contenders, was average at best and certainly not this juggernaut certain folks on this board think it was.

Bottom line is that last night the Habs threw everything they had, physically and mentally, at the Bruins and it wasn't enough. No one expected them to win this series for a reason, namely because the Bruins are a much better hockey team over 60min night in and night out. They aren't a one trick pony (hi PP goals) which can be neutralized like we have seen in this series with amazing efficiency. Back to the drawing board, and maybe this time BG can build a team that goes into the corners and in front of the net once and a while, with a dash of defensive capability sprinkled on the whole lot.

And as much as everyone loves BG and thinks he is the be-all and end-all of hockey minds out there ... he has been thoroughly out-coached by Julien this entire series.

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I would hazard a guess that the PP looked "sooo good" a couple weeks before the playoffs because the Habs were playing balls teams in the basement of the league (and still having trouble with them). The PP down the stretch, against legit contenders, was average at best and certainly not this juggernaut certain folks on this board think it was.

Bottom line is that last night the Habs threw everything they had, physically and mentally, at the Bruins and it wasn't enough. No one expected them to win this series for a reason, namely because the Bruins are a much better hockey team over 60min night in and night out. They aren't a one trick pony (hi PP goals) which can be neutralized like we have seen in this series with amazing efficiency. Back to the drawing board, and maybe this time BG can build a team that goes into the corners and in front of the net once and a while, with a dash of defensive capability sprinkled on the whole lot.

And as much as everyone loves BG and thinks he is the be-all and end-all of hockey minds out there ... he has been thoroughly out-coached by Julien this entire series.

Wow, just checking out the forums to see the reactions to the series so far and..... A breath of fresh air! Nice post MK1 as you are not a habs fan with Blinders set on full BLIND.

This is the team Bob built which is marginally better than the teams that missed the playoffs. This is the team that Bob will move forward with minus the useless Koivu, Kovalev and a few more UFA's. Time to finally address the centre position by trading with a team up against the cap. This will require Bob to take back a bad contract, however the position will be filled. Habs could even trade up in the draft just by taking a bad contract if there is a certain centre available. Anyone wanting Koivu+Kovalev experiment back at a discount is misguided as home town discounts are rare. Plus these guys are no show in the playoffs. No Wins = No Show.

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First off, no reason to sign Schneider, he has a good shot but minus 14? As stated earlier, only Markov should be back. Weber looked ok, especially offensively, made a few mistakes defensively. So there is 2 D men, Hamrlik can't be moved witht that contract, that's 3. So i am looking for 3 new D.

Komi was awfull last night, nothing new there, on the ice for 3 out of the first 3 goals, turnover led to a goal, not covering Ryder cost them the second. So i know it's cool to blame Price but i'm not sure which goal was soft.

The offense was invisible, desperate measures, down by 1 goal and mustered up an incredible 5 shots in the third period, nice effort guys.

They certainly played well the first 10 minutes. But then, same old some old, turnovers, lost battles, no offense, no leadership, no desire to win. What's with all the blind passes at the bluelines? I think they teach you at 8 not to do that.

Well the good news is i only have to watch them one more time this year.

It will be nice to see a new look team next year, at least i hope so.

What a joke booing the national anthem, sometimes it's embarrassing being a habs fan, and not just watching them play.

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I don't know if i'd blame him for 2 of 3 losses, but he has given up at least 4 or 5 bad goals...(the worst being the 3rd goal in the 2nd game. He really needed to make that save, but was unable to keep us in it!)

I hope he will learn from this and come back stronger(mentally) next season!

Deja vu... that is what we said last year...

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I know that Komi is a supposed core piece of this team, but realistically he just isn't that good to pay him anywhere near the kind of money he could get from one of the other 29 headcase GMs out there. He is not offensive in the slightest, so you are going to justify paying him 5M+ per season (he will get that too sadly) for his DEFENSIVE PLAY?!?!?! Cut the cord and get some serious talent in return from some other sucker team. He is worth maybe 4M/season based on his skillset and the salary cap era, but he will never settle for that being in the prime earning years of his career, and frankly I couldn't justify paying him 5M+ based on his play consistently this entire season. The talent in the farm is plenty good enough to let him walk and give some others (Weber et al) some playtime back there for a fraction of the cost. They certainly can't be any worse than Komi defensively and they may actually score a goal once and a while!

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Deja vu... that is what we said last year...

And he came back stronger.

You have to admit that he was never the same after his injury.

His first half numbers were great.

16-4-5 2.29 GAA .921 SV%

Post injury

7-12-5 3.35 GAA .891 SV%

What a shock, inconsistency from a 21 year old goaltender. That never happens.

He will be fine.

Edited by Wamsley01
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I know that Komi is a supposed core piece of this team, but realistically he just isn't that good to pay him anywhere near the kind of money he could get from one of the other 29 headcase GMs out there. He is not offensive in the slightest, so you are going to justify paying him 5M+ per season (he will get that too sadly) for his DEFENSIVE PLAY?!?!?! Cut the cord and get some serious talent in return from some other sucker team. He is worth maybe 4M/season based on his skillset and the salary cap era, but he will never settle for that being in the prime earning years of his career, and frankly I couldn't justify paying him 5M+ based on his play consistently this entire season. The talent in the farm is plenty good enough to let him walk and give some others (Weber et al) some playtime back there for a fraction of the cost. They certainly can't be any worse than Komi defensively and they may actually score a goal once and a while!

Mark my words...if we let him go you'll be the first one to bitch and moan that this team lacks toughness on the blue line. True that Komi doesn,t have much offensive talent, but not only is he solid defensively(when he's not injured) but he lead the league in blocked shots and bodychecks last year. Had he not been injured this year, he would have done the same this year.

Before Komi came along, many of you were complaining that we did not have a bone-crunching stay at home d-man on this team since Craig Ludwig...well now we have one and he's damn good at it­...now that we have to pay him, you wanna let him go after all the growing pains we went through...now that he is in his prime you wanna let him go for 1 million$???

You have to admit that he was never the same after his injury.

His first half numbers were great.

16-4-5 2.29 GAA .921 SV%

Post injury

7-12-5 3.35 GAA .891 SV%

Agreed. the difference is quite astounding.

Edited by Habsfan
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Komi had toughness 2 years ago. This year he is honestly a joke. He is not physical, he isn't tough, he turns the puck over all the time, passing is weak, he can barely get the puck to the net 1 out of 10 times.

Get some one liek Witt, Adding Emelin adds toughness as well. Supposedly.

Komi isn't even worth 4 mill.

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Komi had toughness 2 years ago. This year he is honestly a joke. He is not physical, he isn't tough, he turns the puck over all the time, passing is weak, he can barely get the puck to the net 1 out of 10 times.

Get some one liek Witt, Adding Emelin adds toughness as well. Supposedly.

Komi isn't even worth 4 mill.

The Lucic beating changed Komi forever. I don't think he will ever be the same

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Komi had toughness 2 years ago. This year he is honestly a joke. He is not physical, he isn't tough, he turns the puck over all the time, passing is weak, he can barely get the puck to the net 1 out of 10 times.

Get some one liek Witt, Adding Emelin adds toughness as well. Supposedly.

Komi isn't even worth 4 mill.

How many time do we have to tell you that he was playing injured? I'm not the only one who says it. even the most knowledgeable guys in the media are saying the same thing! The fact that he came back earlier than he should have just goes to show that HE DOES care about the team.

You are blinded(and frustrated) by the loss last night. you aren't making much sense lately!

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I have been frustrated since the all star break.

Komi himself has said and i quote " I am not injured, there is no injury affecting my play". I saw this once on TSN before game interview, once the Rangers announcers asked him about it between periods.

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I have been frustrated since the all star break.

Komi himself has said and i quote " I am not injured, there is no injury affecting my play". I saw this once on TSN before game interview, once the Rangers announcers asked him about it between periods.

Yeah, how many times have we heard players say during the regular season that they aren't injured, only to tell a different story once the season is over? Lets wait and see what the medical staff and bob Gainey will say after the habs get eliminated by the bruins(tomorrow or saturday). I'm willing to bet he's been carrying some kind of upper body( most likely his shoulder) injury since christmas!

Edited by Habsfan
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Yeah, how many times have we heard players say during the regular season that they aren't injured, only to tell a different story once the season is over? Lets wait and see what the medical staff and bob Gainey will say after the habs get eliminated by the bruins(tomorrow or saturday). I'm willing to bet he's been carrying some kind of upper body( most likely his shoulder) injury since christmas!

Yup. I'm not convinced he was ever 100% after the injury from the fight with Lucic. Even missing 16 games he finished 4th in the league in blocked shots. People complain about the turnovers, but EVERY Montreal defenseman was turning the puck over the last 3 months. Markov turned it over just as much, while Brisebois and Hamrlik both averaged about 1 a game also. Either none of our D can pass, or there's something seriously wrong with the entire transition game, i.e. forwards not coming back to help exit the zone.

Komi himself has said and i quote " I am not injured, there is no injury affecting my play". I saw this once on TSN before game interview, once the Rangers announcers asked him about it between periods.

Players never lie about being hurt, do they?

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i.e. forwards not coming back to help exit the zone.

I'll admit that most of our d-men(except markov) aren't the most talented passers...but I think you hit the nail on the head. How many times this year have we heard hockey analysts complain about the fact that our forwards don't come back to help our d-men? How many times have our d-men tried the "long bomb" to some forward who is at the opposing team's blue line(and have the pass miss and turn into an icing)?

Like I said, it's obvious that our d-men aren't the best passers out there, but our forwards aren't helping them out either!

Edited by Habsfan
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keep going we are behind you all the way don't listen to the bandwagon assholes.

See, it's comments like this that discourage me from participating in these boards. Someone who doesn't agree with you gets called a name, "bandwagon assholes." I suppose YOUR opinion is the RIGHT one, correct?

I also happen to disagree with you and am willing to bet have been a fan MUCH longer than you (I'm 58). I think Gainey has to go because of a SERIES of mistakes: Price, Streit, Huet, Carbonneau, Ryder, Ribeiro and not because of the poor team performance this year. Also, I'll repeat what I've said earlier: why is Price ANNOINTED to the Habs job? Even Fisher has been questioning this throughout the year. Why doesn't PERFORMANCE determine who plays? In all my years rooting for the Habs, I've never seen something like this.

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Game 2 was a write off. They were not going to win that game.

People are mistaking goals that a dominant Price would have stopped for BAD goals.

When a player is allowed to blast away from the hash marks, as long as it doesn't slip under your arm

"cough cough" Tim Thomas, it is a legit scoring chance.

Tonight Price made some minor mistakes that ended up behind him, but can I lay it at his feet as allowing

bad goals? Nah, he was average tonight. He gave the Habs what a Chris Osgood would give you, Thomas

was sheltered and can get away with that, Price is A. better than that and B. had to be dominant.

He was not. But it was hardly his fault. If I had to list the players in order of disappointment based on

an average expectation, Price is in the middle. If you judge Price based on expectation of him stepping

up, then he will be higher up the list. But he showed NOTHING over the last 3 months to make me believe

he could reel in his dominant self out of nowhere.

I hope he could, but knew he wouldn't.

I don't understand how you can say a goalie who has an .888 save percentage is AVERAGE?!! I think you're looking at things through rose-coloured glasses. I believe that is the 2nd worse save percentage in the playoffs. The numbers simply don't lie...

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When did I say I wanted to get rid of Bob???? What I said that he made poor decisions during this series. I also think he made a major mistake in how he handled free agents this year by not renegotiating during the year (the same way he made the mistake of not signing Streit last year during the season). Streit even said that if the habs had offered a long term deal in Nov/Dec, he probably would have signed for $2m.

Just because BOB GAINEY made the decisions, doesn't mean I have to like his decisions or agree with them!!! I do have my own brain and not going to agree blindly with every decsion he makes just because he is bob gainey. IMO he didn't have the right line combos for success, his strategy of trying to out hit the big bad bruins was a bad one (compared to the last regular season game, when it was the bruins who were taking stupid penalties).

Lastly, his decision to start Price who is clearly off his game. Mentally, and technically he is messed up right now. Maybe long term he will be stonger for it. But it could end up ruining him long term.

As much as I hated Ribeiro, my jaw dropped when I heard all we got was a washed up defensemen that probably wouldn't have cracked Dallas's lineup.

I also wanted to throw my glass at the TV when the habs picked Kostitysn over Getzlaf and my brother was pissed that the habs didn't take Parise.

I was pissed when the picked Fisher as high as they did, bcoz, he probably could have been picked up in the second round, as he was rated MUCh lower then where the habs picked him.

However, I still think Gainey is the best choice to lead this team. I became a habs fan while growing up during the 70's and remember all the hoopla over Bossy and was pissed that the habs didn't take him, or that upon his retirement, Pollack had picked Grundmen as his succesor, when Bowman left a year later, I was pissed, but does that mean that i didn't like Pollack. He was one of the best GM's in history, but that doesn't mean he didn't make mistakes.

When Savard traded Lemieux for Ms. Sylvie Turgeon, i was pissed, just as i was pissed when he gave away Chelios, for a guy the habs should have drafted a decade earlier. I still think Savard was one of the better GM's the habs had. he also made mistakes.

Similarly, this year, it was Gainey the GM making game decions rather then Gainey the coach - and he made some terrible decsions. As GM he sees price as the future, even though it was pretty obvious, Price didn't appear to have confidence - look at his body language, positioning, rebound control - he wanted to go with his annointed future goalie. As a GM, he signed Laraque to a ridciculous contract in a cap system, and used him WAY more then he should have as a coach. Nobody is going to convince me that these decisions were not mistakes - even if it was #23, past captain and current GM of the Habs who made those decisions.

Having said all that, do I think Gainey should be dumped - definitely no. He is better then the dark years under Tremblay and HOule (BTW, according to your logic since Houle and Tremblay were part of the Dynasties of the 70's, no one should criticize them either).

However, I do hope he learns a lesson from some of his decisions this year, because this year he made more bad decisions then good ones. It was a bad year all around where everything that could have gone wrong did.

Do I think Carey Price is to blame for these three losses??? No, Do I think we could have won the series with all the injuries we had to deal with (game 1 & 2 were bad enough, and then we lost Tanguay and Schneider)??? Most likely not - but this is the Bruins, and anything can happen. And for it too happen in these circumstances your goalie HAS to be your best player. And it was apparent that while Price wasn't the reason for us losing, HE COULDN"T POSSIBLY BE THE REASON THAT WE MAY WIN, given the way he was playing.

You still need to make decisions by giving your best players a chance to be your best players. Which is why I think not using Koivu-Tangauay-Kovelev, prevented the habs a legit chance to generate more offence in games 1 & 2. I also think Halak DESERVED to start more then Price - especially tonight. Gainey seemed to be starting Price HOPING that he would turn it around, when all signs are that Price is not on his game - not mentally, not technically. 21 year old kids with confidence problems, don't suddenly turn it around overnight!!

And as far as my loyalty, I've been a habs fan since I got into hockey, and despite living in the West have remained a habs fan through thick and thin - through the bumbling Grundman years and through the ridicilously stupid idiotic incompetence of the Ronald Corey/Rejean Houle/Mario Tremblay years. I remember when a friend told me that the Canadiens traded Roy and Mike Keane to the Avalanche I thought Ok, this is not good, but at least we just picked up Sakic, Forsburg, Kamensky or Ozolinsh. I was speachless wehn I heard what the return was. And through those miserably horrible years under those three stooges, I still rooted for the habs and still listened to every game on radio-canada, bcoz, that was the only option in the west to follow the habs, even though the only french I know are some hockey phrases.

But I guess its disloyal to be pissed of that your team stunk for most of the year and looked like they gave up in the the 3rd period in what was the most important game of the year, or that the GM/Coach was to blind in his faith that his annointed starter would get it together.

Just a terrific, well-reasoned post!!! (Although I disagree about keeping Gainey.)

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See, it's comments like this that discourage me from participating in these boards. Someone who doesn't agree with you gets called a name, "bandwagon assholes." I suppose YOUR opinion is the RIGHT one, correct?

I also happen to disagree with you and am willing to bet have been a fan MUCH longer than you (I'm 58). I think Gainey has to go because of a SERIES of mistakes: Price, Streit, Huet, Carbonneau, Ryder, Ribeiro and not because of the poor team performance this year. Also, I'll repeat what I've said earlier: why is Price ANNOINTED to the Habs job? Even Fisher has been questioning this throughout the year. Why doesn't PERFORMANCE determine who plays? In all my years rooting for the Habs, I've never seen something like this.

+1

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Just a terrific, well-reasoned post!!! (Although I disagree about keeping Gainey.)

I think Gainey has made a ton of mistakes, but at least he usually doesn't panic. I just don't see another viable option at GM - particularly with the language issue. I really don't want Gauthier in that role. his problem is that I think he has a tendency to be too loyal to his players and players he is familiar with. He also tends to put blinders when he thinks he is right. But, again, who else do you bring in. With the rabid media in Montreal, you need someone who can be a calming influence.

The big question is who do you bring in as coach??? I REALLY don't want to see Hartley, just bcoz he is french. He is a lousy coach and won in spite himself with a loaded lineup in Colorado. But hasn't done anything since. I think i'd rather even have Patrick Roy over him - even though he probably isn't ready either.

Personlaly, from the available coaches, I like Laviolette, but he is not french. I really wish that Gainey had hired Andy Murrey as a head coach instead of a consultant a few years back. He would have been the first career, NHL experienced coach the Habs had since Demers.

Edited by hab29RETIRED
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See, it's comments like this that discourage me from participating in these boards. Someone who doesn't agree with you gets called a name, "bandwagon assholes." I suppose YOUR opinion is the RIGHT one, correct?

I also happen to disagree with you and am willing to bet have been a fan MUCH longer than you (I'm 58). I think Gainey has to go because of a SERIES of mistakes: Price, Streit, Huet, Carbonneau, Ryder, Ribeiro and not because of the poor team performance this year. Also, I'll repeat what I've said earlier: why is Price ANNOINTED to the Habs job? Even Fisher has been questioning this throughout the year. Why doesn't PERFORMANCE determine who plays? In all my years rooting for the Habs, I've never seen something like this.

+1

Also, you forgot to mention SOURAY in that paragraph full of BG fail over the past few seasons.

BG canned his close personal friend at the most opportune time for HIMSELF to shine, and he still failed miserably down the stretch and into the playoffs. Seven straight losses now, most since 1937 ... bravo BG, captain of the failboat.

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