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April 22th, 2009 | Canadiens vs. Bruins | Game 4 Thread


Cataclaw

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FG, that was also my instinct, gut reaction when I saw his salute; but it was more the memory of Roy, fear of it really.

I don't think there is any way he is gone in Mtl. though I understand if people had that reaction.

Oh, my, maybe I am that pessimist!

Edited by tokyohabs
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I knew it all along: Komisarek played with an injured elbow. He was not able to play his game and it explains his very poor play since his return in January. No wonder we could not compete. Markov was out, along with Bouillon, Schneider and Brisebois. Komisarek was not the shadow of himself. That left us with an aging Hamrlik, a courageous but limited Gorges, a rusty Dandenault, and a few youngster still learning their trades: O'Byrne and Weber.

Let's put it plainly: we were extremely weak on defense.

As for offense, the big problem I have seen for too many years is the lack of a real centre. IMO, Koivu has never been the answer on the first line. His passing skills are simply not good enough. We need a centre like Savard, Crosby or... Ribeiro. I know we had that guy in the line-up and it was obviously a mistake to trade him, but I won't blame Gainey for that. IMO, he was not able to take the pressure of playing in Montreal. Gainey had no choice.

Talking about the pressure of playing in Montreal, we may well see another youngster quit the city for another team where he will become a star. I see that coming with Carey Price. Expectations are high, but he simply does not have the team to support him right now. All the focus is on him, but it's not fair. Halak had the same problem, He, too, looked very bad some nights. And he doesn't have the skills and physical attributes to become a no. 1 in the NHL. Price does.

JMHO

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I knew it all along: Komisarek played with an injured elbow. He was not able to play his game and it explains his very poor play since his return in January.

I think it was his shoulder, not his elbow!?

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Christ, watch him play this playoffs. . Back in, back in, back in, surrender at all costs. Bad with the puck, panics, hopeless on attack, weak in front of the net; worse, he delays every time he gets the puck back of his own net, waits and invites the forecheck, then does this absurd dance where he tries to muscle the opponent out of position. All this needless, losing it or firing it blind up the boards, or pressuring the team as the opponent moves in.

I meant embarrassment in the playoffs. He was mediocre this year, a decent start with some good aggressive play, but became like he was last year; everyone went nuts over his glorified +/- stats. He is a nowhere man. I'm hoping it was more learning curve stuff from him, but really he plays defense about as bad as anyone on the team, slows the whole team down hopelessly. I don't know, maybe he's told to play like that, concede until you are standing in your own crease.

You know what is funny.. I have no idea who you are referring to. You just described half the team.

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I would've rather Komisarek broke his stick on Lucic's face, trust me. The suspension will be someone else's problem when they sign him.

I'm right there with ya. That was the best part of the game, i just wish that Komi had really gotten Lucic square across the face and mangled his face. At least Komi went down showing some nastiness. It's not like Lucic didn't deserve it.

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Ugh. I just got back from the gym where the TVs were on RDS, and in the hour and a half I was there, I must have seen the Price gesture replay (no joke) at least 40 times. Not an exaggeration. Slow-mo, every possible angle.

Like, c'mon already. I didn't see as many replays in such a short amount of time for Rick Nash's goal!

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Jaro BETTER be in net. If not, Bob Gainey is a bona fide idiot. Not only does Jaro deserve the start, but as was mentioned before...the fans will be out for blood, and hearing a WE WANT JARO chant after the first goal is certainly not something you want to subject Price to at this point.

:angry: So f-ing predictable that there would be an incident with the fans and Price.....WTF Bob! Everyone knew the series was over, and that it didn't matter who was in the net at 3-0....so the only play that makes sense is to put Jaro in there for the last stand.

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At least Price was showing some emotion.............he was frustrated and it showed; lookingup/down the bench these past 4 games very little chatter amongst players, all basically staring out into space

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I still wish we played Washington.. they were beatable.

The hell they were.....they are only beatable with stellar goaltending....something the Rangers have and we don't.

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You cannot ignore the first half of the season because it is not in the recent past.

Price had some outstanding games in the first half of the season, he struggled in the second half.

All young goaltenders are inconsistent, it comes with the territory.

You have offered no reason as to why Halak will be better, so it is just conjecture on your part.

Price lost me last year during the playoff series against Philadelphia. See, the problem was, that I thought we had a legitimate shot at the cup last year. I was completely and totally surprised when Price went south during that series. We outplayed Philadelphia for the first four games and ended up being down three games to one, mostly due to horrible goaltending. Up to that point, I had been a big Price supporter. (I was actually at the last game in Hamilton, when the Price-led Bulldogs won the Calder Cup.)

If you listen to some people on this board, you would believe that the second half meltdown and this year's playoff performance is merely an aberration by Price, but in actual fact, it's more likely to be the norm as far as he's concerned. I look at Price, and I see Marc Andre Fleury.

I find it interesting that you say I offer no proof as far as Halak is concerned. I pointed out his superior save percentage. I made mention of the three or four games that he single-handedly won by handling over 40 shots. Price didn't do any of those things during the year. Halak was also the better goalie coming out of training camp but performance doesn't count anymore on the Canadiens.

I'm not saying that I can guarantee Halak will be a very good goalie. However, based on the evidence presented over the past year and a half, he certainly looks like he'll be a better goalie than Price. At the very least, he deserves the chance to be our number one, based on PERFORMANCE, and not misguided expectations.

(Management keeps underestimating Halak and I simply don't understand why. Remember three years ago when we lost that last game against Toronto? Halak had played really well replacing an injured Huet up to that point. But they put Huet into that last game and he was bad. I don't know what this kid has to do to get the starting job! They just don't like him for some reason.)

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:angry: So f-ing predictable that there would be an incident with the fans and Price.....WTF Bob! Everyone knew the series was over, and that it didn't matter who was in the net at 3-0....so the only play that makes sense is to put Jaro in there for the last stand.

There was not a chance in hell that Gainey would play Halak. Imagine if he played and stood on his head; imagine how stupid that would make Gainey look. The way to avoid a goaltending controversy is simply not play one of the goaltenders. You've already seen the effect of that on this board. How many people here have said, "What would Halak have done?" As long as his playing time is limited, there can be no controversy because we simply don't know what Halak is really capable of. So why does Gainey prefer Price? Isn't the answer obvious? Number five draft pick by none other than Mr. Robert Gainey.

Edited by jackp
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There was not a chance in hell that Gainey would play Halak. Imagine if he played and stood on his head; imagine how stupid that would make Gainey look. The way to avoid a goaltending controversy is simply not play one of the goaltenders. You've already seen the effect of that on this board. How many people here have said, "What would Halak have done?" As long as his playing time is limited, there can be no controversy because we simply don't know what Halak is really capable of. So why does Gainey prefer Price? Isn't the answer obvious? Number five draft pick by none other than Mr. Robert Gainey.

This is his mess....he should pay the price for it....pardon the pun.

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Anyone who caught the HNIC postgame show would've seen PJ Stock's comments regarding the team in general. They barely beat the 8th seed and got pounded by Philly last season because they were soft and had no grit. So Gainey addresses this in the off-season by going out and signing Lang and Tanguay, two more perimeter players, the latter of the two a perennial no-show in the playoffs since the early 2000s. Bravo, the team clearly needed more soft regular season perimeter scorers .... hi Plex, K brothers, Kovy etc.

In the end they are what they are, an above average regular season team that can score lots of PPGs and win more than they lose against the entire league. But when it comes to tough playoff hockey against a legit contender each night they lack the fortitude to compete at that level.

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Anyone who caught the HNIC postgame show would've seen PJ Stock's comments regarding the team in general. They barely beat the 8th seed and got pounded by Philly last season because they were soft and had no grit. So Gainey addresses this in the off-season by going out and signing Lang and Tanguay, two more perimeter players, the latter of the two a perennial no-show in the playoffs since the early 2000s. Bravo, the team clearly needed more soft regular season perimeter scorers .... hi Plex, K brothers, Kovy etc.

In the end they are what they are, an above average regular season team that can score lots of PPGs and win more than they lose against the entire league. But when it comes to tough playoff hockey against a legit contender each night they lack the fortitude to compete at that level.

This is a valid point....reminds me of a conversation I had with the guy sitting next to me at last night's game:

Guy: I don't understand...look at how many shots we have...and we only get one goal. The Bruins get a few shots and have 3 goals. All series is like this....why?

Me: Ever notice where those shots are coming from? Most of ours are from the perimeter, where it's easy for a good goaltender to stop them. Most of theirs are from the slot, or just to the side of the slot. Most of their players have the balls to cut to the middle of the ice and go at the net..most of ours do not. Big difference.

Edited by sbhatt
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Anyone who caught the HNIC postgame show would've seen PJ Stock's comments regarding the team in general. They barely beat the 8th seed and got pounded by Philly last season because they were soft and had no grit. So Gainey addresses this in the off-season by going out and signing Lang and Tanguay, two more perimeter players, the latter of the two a perennial no-show in the playoffs since the early 2000s. Bravo, the team clearly needed more soft regular season perimeter scorers .... hi Plex, K brothers, Kovy etc.

In the end they are what they are, an above average regular season team that can score lots of PPGs and win more than they lose against the entire league. But when it comes to tough playoff hockey against a legit contender each night they lack the fortitude to compete at that level.

The way I remember it, we didn't lose to Philly because of our lack of grit. We were skating circles around them, we just hit a ton of goal posts and God-tier Biron stopped the rest. Plus, I don't think anyone has the right to criticize Gainey for those two signings. Lang played stellar until he was injured, so it's useless to predict how the rest of his reason and the playoffs would have went for him. Tanguay played really well when he was healthy, and he was playing injured in the playoffs (all of two games). Sounds to me like PJ Stock doesn't know what he's talking about.

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The way I remember it, we didn't lose to Philly because of our lack of grit. We were skating circles around them, we just hit a ton of goal posts and God-tier Biron stopped the rest. Plus, I don't think anyone has the right to criticize Gainey for those two signings. Lang played stellar until he was injured, so it's useless to predict how the rest of his reason and the playoffs would have went for him. Tanguay played really well when he was healthy, and he was playing injured in the playoffs (all of two games). Sounds to me like PJ Stock doesn't know what he's talking about.

And Carey Price tanked again.....that was the first time. This year was the second

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Wow, so many armchair GM/s blaming Price. Yup, Habs score 6 goals in 4 games and it is Price's fault as he did not score any goals. This team lost because they don't drive the net, don't hit the net with their shots, have NO offensive weapons clicking, and play like a soft team.

Too many Euro's in core positions on this team, they just dissapear at playoff time.

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Please don't start again with that horse****.

Never said they were bad, just that they are CORE players on this team and it don't work. Detroits CORE eurpean players work because they drive the net, score goals and work on plays without looking over their shoulders to see if they are going to get hit.

Truth hurts sometimes.

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Never said they were bad, just that they are CORE players on this team and it don't work. Detroits CORE eurpean players work because they drive the net, score goals and work on plays without looking over their shoulders to see if they are going to get hit.

Truth hurts sometimes.

But what does it got to do with them being European? Either they drive to the net or they don't.

Edited by ForumGhost
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Price lost me last year during the playoff series against Philadelphia. See, the problem was, that I thought we had a legitimate shot at the cup last year. I was completely and totally surprised when Price went south during that series. We outplayed Philadelphia for the first four games and ended up being down three games to one, mostly due to horrible goaltending. Up to that point, I had been a big Price supporter. (I was actually at the last game in Hamilton, when the Price-led Bulldogs won the Calder Cup.)

If you listen to some people on this board, you would believe that the second half meltdown and this year's playoff performance is merely an aberration by Price, but in actual fact, it's more likely to be the norm as far as he's concerned. I look at Price, and I see Marc Andre Fleury.

I find it interesting that you say I offer no proof as far as Halak is concerned. I pointed out his superior save percentage. I made mention of the three or four games that he single-handedly won by handling over 40 shots. Price didn't do any of those things during the year. Halak was also the better goalie coming out of training camp but performance doesn't count anymore on the Canadiens.

I'm not saying that I can guarantee Halak will be a very good goalie. However, based on the evidence presented over the past year and a half, he certainly looks like he'll be a better goalie than Price. At the very least, he deserves the chance to be our number one, based on PERFORMANCE, and not misguided expectations.

(Management keeps underestimating Halak and I simply don't understand why. Remember three years ago when we lost that last game against Toronto? Halak had played really well replacing an injured Huet up to that point. But they put Huet into that last game and he was bad. I don't know what this kid has to do to get the starting job! They just don't like him for some reason.)

Boy am i thankful you aren't the GM!! :rolleyes:

You are blaming a 21 year old kid with the hardest job in the NHL!?!? Yeah, he let in some weak goals, but he WASN'T THE REASON WHY THE HABS TANKED!!

If you compare him to marc André Fleury, then it must be a compliment. look at Fleury now in Pittsburgh!!(and he's 4 years oldder than Carey)

You don't even know what you're talking about!

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Wow, so many armchair GM/s blaming Price. Yup, Habs score 6 goals in 4 games and it is Price's fault as he did not score any goals. This team lost because they don't drive the net, don't hit the net with their shots, have NO offensive weapons clicking, and play like a soft team.

Carey Price had a 4.50 + GAA and a save percentage well below 0.90. That screams of tanking. YEs its a team game and he had no help alot of the times, but he still tanked

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