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Habs Offseason Moves


huzer

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What amazes me is people who still think that Desjardins numbers and performances are better than Rämo's numbers and performances, even if the last one put up his numbers in the NHL instead of the AHL...

What amazes me is that people think that their opinion is the only right one. It is a discussion board. There is no way of knowing who won the trade until down the road. This would be a boring world if everyone thought the same way. Next time I should wait till someone posts on a topic first before I form my own opinion. You'd think with the egos on some people and the fact they are never wrong, that they should be GM.

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I concede we didn't get any new players, but there's something to be said with consistancy, and familiarity, for once there hasn't been a huge shake up. I think the habs are better than a lot of critics think. I think we are in the top 10 if not top 8 in the league, especially since a lot of teams got weaker. Then again it's easier to be pesimistic and act surprised then have faith and be disapppointed :P

I agree, I think that we will have a better first half than last year since guys know how to play with eachother and know the system. Also, having Subban in the lineup while Markov is out is a luxury we didn't have last year. I still get nightmares of MAB. Missing Halak will hurt throughout the season I think, but I think the team will gel better so it's a wash.

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I agree, I think that we will have a better first half than last year since guys know how to play with eachother and know the system. Also, having Subban in the lineup while Markov is out is a luxury we didn't have last year. I still get nightmares of MAB. Missing Halak will hurt throughout the season I think, but I think the team will gel better so it's a wash.

Yeah.. its a wash... we were not a top 8 team last year either.. we scraped into the playoffs. We had a great run in the playoffs, but there was nothing left in the tank for Philly. We looked brutal against Philly, in case people have forgotten. I sure hope management doesn't view the playoffs as validation that we are conference final contenders! We need to keep getting better, not stand still.

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I dunno. While I always hesitate to expect too much of rookies, I do tend to that think Subban will be a major addition, potentially making a significant difference at both ends of the ice. So unless Spacek and Hammer suffer huge regression due to age, our D will by definition be significantly better. At forward, we're still shy a top-6 forward, as BTH sagely points out, but it's not clear that we're any worse than we were last year up front. Indeed, depending on the progress of young guys like Lapierre, Eller, Boyd, Pacioretty, and Pouliot, as well as A. Kostitsyn, we could conceivably even be better. Remember that in fact we only had four top-6 players for much of last season, with Pouliot a late arrival who then suffered a collapse down the stretch and Andrei doing his patented Kovalev-on-valium routine. If one player can step forward, that'd make a difference.

The team bonded in playoff fire and should have a major edge in internal cohesion and buy in, relative to last season.

Conversely, we have perhaps less experience on the bottom 6 (no Metro or Moore).

Barring ridiculous injuries, IF Price consistently plays like Jeckyll instead of Hyde, I cautiously think we have a better team than last season.

That's a big if.

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I'm pumped for a season where hopefully we can see a healthy Cammy for the full year, see if PK can sniff at the calder, etc. I'm going to break the biggest taboo in sports: injuries really hampered the habs last season. At one point it was like $25m worth of players on the IR. I think you can gleam stuff from the playoffs, cause the playoffs frankly was the healthiest the team was all year. Getting better doesn't always mean trading players, it means players improving, and I am optimistic for this season about the younger players getting better and the WHOLE team gelling together.

Brobin drink the kool-aid, it's fruit punch!

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I'm pumped for a season where hopefully we can see a healthy Cammy for the full year, see if PK can sniff at the calder, etc. I'm going to break the biggest taboo in sports: injuries really hampered the habs last season. At one point it was like $25m worth of players on the IR. I think you can gleam stuff from the playoffs, cause the playoffs frankly was the healthiest the team was all year. Getting better doesn't always mean trading players, it means players improving, and I am optimistic for this season about the younger players getting better and the WHOLE team gelling together.

I agree, I think injuries derailed our regular season, and we only caught a whiff of what the real Habs are in the playoffs, IMO. There should have been enough time to "gel" by now and if the Habs stay healthy, I think we'll see what they're truly capable of doing. And if that fails, we can always blame Price. ^_^

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I dunno. While I always hesitate to expect too much of rookies, I do tend to that think Subban will be a major addition, potentially making a significant difference at both ends of the ice. So unless Spacek and Hammer suffer huge regression due to age, our D will by definition be significantly better. At forward, we're still shy a top-6 forward, as BTH sagely points out, but it's not clear that we're any worse than we were last year up front. Indeed, depending on the progress of young guys like Lapierre, Eller, Boyd, Pacioretty, and Pouliot, as well as A. Kostitsyn, we could conceivably even be better. Remember that in fact we only had four top-6 players for much of last season, with Pouliot a late arrival who then suffered a collapse down the stretch and Andrei doing his patented Kovalev-on-valium routine. If one player can step forward, that'd make a difference.

The team bonded in playoff fire and should have a major edge in internal cohesion and buy in, relative to last season.

Conversely, we have perhaps less experience on the bottom 6 (no Metro or Moore).

Barring ridiculous injuries, IF Price consistently plays like Jeckyll instead of Hyde, I cautiously think we have a better team than last season.

That's a big if.

This is just like the 2006-08 team.

The 2006 team ripped off a late season streak 16-9-1 streak after the Olympics and jumped out to a 2-0 lead on

the eventual champions Hurricanes. They had an emerging young core who everybody thought was on the verge of

taking over in Higgins, Komisarek, Plekanec, Kostitsyn and Ryder.

In 2007 they regressed and missed the playoffs. Then in 2008 with everybody expecting nothing they blazed to the

top of the Eastern Conference.

So entering 2011 they have Subban, Price, Pouliot and Eller poised to make an impact.

I would not be surprised with results that mirror 2007 or 2008.

Conventional wisdom would say with all the injuries they suffered they should be better. Conventional wisdom says

that they were more a final four team than the 16th ranked one.

That being said, I don't like the way they continually were dominated in their own zone and were outshot nightly all season

and through three rounds of the playoffs.

I expect about the same, but hope to be surprised like 2008.

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This is just like the 2006-08 team.

The 2006 team ripped off a late season streak 16-9-1 streak after the Olympics and jumped out to a 2-0 lead on

the eventual champions Hurricanes. They had an emerging young core who everybody thought was on the verge of

taking over in Higgins, Komisarek, Plekanec, Kostitsyn and Ryder.

In 2007 they regressed and missed the playoffs. Then in 2008 with everybody expecting nothing they blazed to the

top of the Eastern Conference.

So entering 2011 they have Subban, Price, Pouliot and Eller poised to make an impact.

I would not be surprised with results that mirror 2007 or 2008.

Conventional wisdom would say with all the injuries they suffered they should be better. Conventional wisdom says

that they were more a final four team than the 16th ranked one.

That being said, I don't like the way they continually were dominated in their own zone and were outshot nightly all season

and through three rounds of the playoffs.

I expect about the same, but hope to be surprised like 2008.

Interesting comparisons I have to agree with. I don't know what to expect, but I am fairly optimistic. Especially if the Price is right, and if he is committed to maturing as he seems to have been of late, then everyone looks good, Price included. Have we gone into too may years with Cammy, Gionta and Gomez and a solid Pleks? A PK? I'm making myself happier.

Edited by Toronthab
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Interesting comparisons I have to agree with. I don't know what to expect, but I am fairly optimistic. Especially if the Price is right, and if he is committed to maturing as he seems to have been of late, then everyone looks good, Price included. Have we gone into too may years with Cammy, Gionta and Gomez and a solid Pleks? A PK? I'm making myself happier.

Wamsley's post was very interesting; I hadn't considered the parallel either. On reflection, I'm not sure the parallel is exact. The 2007 team did not have anything approaching the quality veteran core this team has, in my opinion. This bunch is starting from a higher plateau than the 2007 group. But the analogy holds inasmuch as we need a push from the young players if we are to vault to another level and become an unambiguous top-10 team.

There's one other thing to keep in mind that I don't think gets discussed enough. Whatever else happens, we have quite an exciting and dynamic group of players in the guys you list - Cammy is the best offensive forward the Habs have had since Koivu blew out his MCL, if you discount Kovy's one all-star season - supplemented by highly likeable support players such as Gorges and Gill. I can understand fans being nervous about the team's chances, but ever since the Gainey Explosion of last summer I have not been able to understand fans who do not just plain LIKE this team. There are plenty of squads out there with a lot less charisma.

Edited by The Chicoutimi Cucumber
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CC you're right, you can see the potential for great interviews ranging from PK and Cammys overflowing positivity, to Gomez's very dry humour, to JGs and Giontas defense of teamates, and even the brooding/fiery (depending on day) Price comments. I like Crosby as a hockey player, but I kind of wish his personality would shine out more, kind of like Talbots comments on Ovie.

Hockey players should be taught a media class from Jeremy Roenick and Brett Hull on speaking their minds, not that we want hockey to turn into football and basketball regarding the media, but more than the normal "we played a hard 60 minutes, they played us tough...bla bla bla" would make hockey players more interesting and recognizable by those that maybe don't follow as closely as the die hard fans.

I think there's merit in enjoying the hockey thats being played, personally I would trade a winning team for an exciting team. I really like the cast and characters in this current team. There's something to be said about the struggle to get to the top vs. being at the top. Some could turn this around saying, well it's easy to say this when the team hasn't won in 17 years.

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I think there's merit in enjoying the hockey thats being played, personally I would trade a winning team for an exciting team. I really like the cast and characters in this current team. There's something to be said about the struggle to get to the top vs. being at the top. Some could turn this around saying, well it's easy to say this when the team hasn't won in 17 years.

I get the hype going into the new season. Everybody would love for Price to become something close to expectations. To-date that hasn't happened. Markov is out until probably the middle of Nov. We all know what are record is without Markov. We all hope that maybe Subban can make up the difference, but that is asking a lot. There will be injuries, that's just a fact. Who have we got that can step up and be a top six forward, if somebody goes down? Anyone of the above three could make us pretty vulnerable if the chips don't fall our way. I am more inclined to believe that we will have to scratch and pull to retain that eighth seed.

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Wamsley's post was very interesting; I hadn't considered the parallel either. On reflection, I'm not sure the parallel is exact. The 2007 team did not have anything approaching the quality veteran core this team has, in my opinion. This bunch is starting from a higher plateau than the 2007 group. But the analogy holds inasmuch as we need a push from the young players if we are to vault to another level and become an unambiguous top-10 team.

There's one other thing to keep in mind that I don't think gets discussed enough. Whatever else happens, we have quite an exciting and dynamic group of players in the guys you list - Cammy is the best offensive forward the Habs have had since Koivu blew out his MCL, if you discount Kovy's one all-star season - supplemented by highly likeable support players such as Gorges and Gill. I can understand fans being nervous about the team's chances, but ever since the Gainey Explosion of last summer I have not been able to understand fans who do not just plain LIKE this team. There are plenty of squads out there with a lot less charisma.

I didn't intend for it to be an exact comparison, but the basic assumption is that the veteran core is entirely dependent on

the next generation to get to the next level. If Price, Subban, Pouliot and Eller offer up what they were capable of last season

then the Canadiens are going to be fighting for 8th again.

If Price finally steps up and Subban makes a significant impact then the Canadiens can push for the top 5 in the Conference.

Entering 2008 I was enthusiastic when the media ripped the Habs because the media is too lazy to speculate on internal improvement. They tend to take the easy way out and wait for the jump before predicting it. We saw this in 2009 when the

team that everybody thought would miss the playoffs magically became a Stanley Cup contender.

This core is better than 2007 and the youth has higher upside then 2007. Just not sure if we will see the jump in 2011 or 2012.

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Wamsley's post was very interesting; I hadn't considered the parallel either. On reflection, I'm not sure the parallel is exact. The 2007 team did not have anything approaching the quality veteran core this team has, in my opinion. This bunch is starting from a higher plateau than the 2007 group. But the analogy holds inasmuch as we need a push from the young players if we are to vault to another level and become an unambiguous top-10 team.

There's one other thing to keep in mind that I don't think gets discussed enough. Whatever else happens, we have quite an exciting and dynamic group of players in the guys you list - Cammy is the best offensive forward the Habs have had since Koivu blew out his MCL, if you discount Kovy's one all-star season - supplemented by highly likeable support players such as Gorges and Gill. I can understand fans being nervous about the team's chances, but ever since the Gainey Explosion of last summer I have not been able to understand fans who do not just plain LIKE this team. There are plenty of squads out there with a lot less charisma.

If I was you guys, I'd lower my expectations on Hal Gill right now for the next season. I'm pretty sure he won't match his playoffs performance and get back to the good ol' regular season Hal Gill, aka our 6th dman.

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If I was you guys, I'd lower my expectations on Hal Gill right now for the next season. I'm pretty sure he won't match his playoffs performance and get back to the good ol' regular season Hal Gill, aka our 6th dman.

I thought Hal Gill was solid all season.

The guy was a 6th defenseman in the playoffs who is a great penalty killer. Same as the regular season.

Put the guy in a situation to succeed and he will.

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Our team's top 4 D are: Markov, Hamrlik, Spacek, Gorges.

Gill and Subban are the 5 and 6 guys. If Subban pushes for a top 4 spot, it probably means one of Hamrlik or Spacek is playing a lesser role. Out of training camp, I bet Subban gets the extra minutes.

O'Byrne and Picard are battling for 7th spot. Out of training camp, that's a spot in the regular lineup with Markov out.

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If I was you guys, I'd lower my expectations on Hal Gill right now for the next season. I'm pretty sure he won't match his playoffs performance and get back to the good ol' regular season Hal Gill, aka our 6th dman.

I liked Gill all last season, not just in the playoffs, and continue to do so.

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I liked Gill all last season, not just in the playoffs, and continue to do so.

Well... I wanted to get rid of him every single game of the regular season. Somehow, I really liked him in the playoffs.

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Well... I wanted to get rid of him every single game of the regular season. Somehow, I really liked him in the playoffs.

Especially ironic, given your sig, Fred. ^_^

There's no question that Gill was his best and proved his worth in the playoffs, but I thought he was adequate throughout the regular season... nothing more.

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Well... I wanted to get rid of him every single game of the regular season. Somehow, I really liked him in the playoffs.

Gill's huge and a pretty dominant player down low. When your team's on the penalty kill or playing rope-a-dope getting outshot 40-20 (as we routinely were in the playoffs) conditions are ideal for him. These situations require Gill's strengths (blocking shots, breaking up passes, keeping attackers to the outside) and don't really require any of the skills Gill lacks (mobility, speed, puck skills). We aren't going to be playing that brand of hockey during the regular season so I also don't expect Gill to be as dominant as he as during the playoffs. He's an average bottom pairing d-man with leadership abilities and, unlike Gorges, he has a specific use. I'm happy we have him.

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Gill's huge and a pretty dominant player down low. When your team's on the penalty kill or playing rope-a-dope getting outshot 40-20 (as we routinely were in the playoffs) conditions are ideal for him. These situations require Gill's strengths (blocking shots, breaking up passes, keeping attackers to the outside) and don't really require any of the skills Gill lacks (mobility, speed, puck skills). We aren't going to be playing that brand of hockey during the regular season so I also don't expect Gill to be as dominant as he as during the playoffs. He's an average bottom pairing d-man with leadership abilities and, unlike Gorges, he has a specific use. I'm happy we have him.

Gill will be Gill. His play will not make the difference. It is the prospects that have to step up assuming we get what we expect from our top veterans. The hockey news has Boyd ranked ahead of Eller which is interesting. I wish somebody would tell me who is going to play a top six role when we get injuries.

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Gill's huge and a pretty dominant player down low. When your team's on the penalty kill or playing rope-a-dope getting outshot 40-20 (as we routinely were in the playoffs) conditions are ideal for him. These situations require Gill's strengths (blocking shots, breaking up passes, keeping attackers to the outside) and don't really require any of the skills Gill lacks (mobility, speed, puck skills). We aren't going to be playing that brand of hockey during the regular season so I also don't expect Gill to be as dominant as he as during the playoffs. He's an average bottom pairing d-man with leadership abilities and, unlike Gorges, he has a specific use. I'm happy we have him.

The problem is that he doesn't provide any physical presence at all. For a guy who can't skate, I think it's unacceptable. I think the 29 other teams have a leader, maybe enven a PK specialist just like Gill and who can skate. IMO, his long reach and his willingness to block shots frequently are his only advantages. I totally want O'Byrne to surpass Gill at the end of this season.

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I think we still have a void in our lineup that wasn't filled when Komi left. We need a young stud who likes to throw he weight around and block a ton of shots.

I think we have a void in the lineup of a guy who thinks he is tough yet never beat anybody's ass.

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The fun thing about Gill is precisely that his skills are SO limited, yet he manages to do a number of useful things through sheer wing-span and bulk. He's sort of this gargantuan galoot on the blueline. That tickles me. His leadership is also uncontestable.

Having said that, no question that he's something of a specialist that needs to be used correctly. And it's true that we should be grooming OB to replace him (his contract's up next year, right?). Enjoy Gill for what he is, then look to the future.

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