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Canadiens @ Islanders - November 17th, 2011


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Why?

...and why?

2nd night of a back to back, their building, many injured defensemen, backup in net...

Seriously, why were this points automatic?

Could not agree more

If someone told me the Habs would get 2 of 4 points with that D and playing the back up one night I would give you odds and bet you.

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I wouldn't say the 2 points were automatic but they were playing the worst team in the Eastern Conference and knocked out their starting goalie in the 1st period and put in a player that is more hated by islander fans then gomez is by habs fans.

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Why?

...and why?

2nd night of a back to back, their building, many injured defensemen, backup in net...

Seriously, why were this points automatic?

Playing the worst team in your conference - should be an easy 2 points.

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Why? ...and why? 2nd night of a back to back, their building, many injured defensemen, backup in net... Seriously, why were this points automatic?

A rare voice of reason in the blogosphere. Anyone outraged by this loss should go back and look at the lineups - specifically our defence corps. Playing .500 hockey with those guys is an impressive feat. Like I said before the Carolina game, we might win one or two with that bunch, but over time we will lose a lot more than we win.

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A rare voice of reason in the blogosphere. Anyone outraged by this loss should go back and look at the lineups - specifically our defence corps. Playing .500 hockey with those guys is an impressive feat. Like I said before the Carolina game, we might win one or two with that bunch, but over time we will lose a lot more than we win.

Less sorry than I was at missing the game, but hats off to our D , these young guys desperately trying to fulfill too tough assignments for the inexperienced. I'm happy with the two points of four.

Go Habs Go!

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Josh Gorges, a #3/4 guy who's played 383 NHL games, was our most experienced defender. Subban, his partner, is in his sophomore season (though playing well enough to say he's avoiding any slump). We had Diaz, Emelin, St Denis and Weber - all of whom had to play reasonable minutes because we can't just have two defenders on the ice. With a healthy defence corps, probably three out of these four guys are in the AHL. The other either on the wing or in the press box. Yes, we played the Isles. But we played them on the rear end of a two-in-two-days schedule. Our defence are young, inexperienced, and not used to playing so much at such a high level in such a short time. So even if it was the Isles, there were going to be mistakes. Price can't play 82, Budaj has to get in the net. Every once in a while Price flops, last night Budaj wasn't at his best.

In a perfect world, we beat the Isles. I'm sure the Bruins are thinking that, in a perfect world, we don't take two straight against them. Excrement happens. The team learns and moves on. By the way, the Isles have beaten Minnesota, Tampa, the Rags, and Washington. It's not like we lost to the worst team ever. Parity means that the worst can still beat the best.

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Josh Gorges, a #3/4 guy who's played 383 NHL games, was our most experienced defender. Subban, his partner, is in his sophomore season (though playing well enough to say he's avoiding any slump). We had Diaz, Emelin, St Denis and Weber - all of whom had to play reasonable minutes because we can't just have two defenders on the ice. With a healthy defence corps, probably three out of these four guys are in the AHL. The other either on the wing or in the press box. Yes, we played the Isles. But we played them on the rear end of a two-in-two-days schedule. Our defence are young, inexperienced, and not used to playing so much at such a high level in such a short time. So even if it was the Isles, there were going to be mistakes. Price can't play 82, Budaj has to get in the net. Every once in a while Price flops, last night Budaj wasn't at his best.

In a perfect world, we beat the Isles. I'm sure the Bruins are thinking that, in a perfect world, we don't take two straight against them. Excrement happens. The team learns and moves on. By the way, the Isles have beaten Minnesota, Tampa, the Rags, and Washington. It's not like we lost to the worst team ever. Parity means that the worst can still beat the best.

yes we had a young line-up last night but there was no excuse out there. We just played horrible. Those are the games we have to win and we did not regardless of who was playing.

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IMO the problem wasn't with our D (as a group), but our overall setup in our end.....guys (forwards) not picking up the extra man coming in etc....

And once again, (from what I saw in the 3rd) we looked like we were playing for a tie (even though we were down 2)

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IMO the problem wasn't with our D (as a group), but our overall setup in our end.....guys (forwards) not picking up the extra man coming in etc....

And once again, (from what I saw in the 3rd) we looked like we were playing for a tie (even though we were down 2)

Emelin didn't look good out there either. A couple of plays where he was in the wrong place, covered the wrong guy, was looking the wrong way.

Gotta love Martin as well. Hmmmmmmm we need a goal with under 2 mins to play. Hmmmmmm should I use Pacioretty or Cole......Na......let's go with Gomez who has not scored a goal in the NHL since February.

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Playing the worst team in your conference - should be an easy 2 points.

The worst team in the conference is still gonna finish the year with around 65 points.  This isn't the 1993 Senators.  There is so much parity in the league that they are gonna get their points by the end of the year.

As for questions about Budaj starting. It was not only a back to back... it was 3 games in 4 nights, and including our next game part of a stretch of 4 games in 6 nights. The back to back was also being played in 2 different cities. Price can't play 82 games, and if you don't start Budaj in games like this one, you are basically saying that you can never start him. He also was coming off a good game vs Nashville. Unfortunate he didn't play great, but its tough with that defence in front of him too.

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Man, I can't believe all the negativity stemming from this loss (only partially on here, but check out Habs Inside Out). Actually, I can believe it. In the thread on the Carolina game, I predicted that we were bound to lose games with this AHL roster on D, but that after one loss the fans would start drawing extravagant conclusions about the awfulness of the players, coaches, management, universe, etc., etc..

Well here we are.

When fans are using this loss as proof that Martin should be fired, or as the basis for ANY conclusions about the Montreal Canadiens, they have really lost the plot.

Whatever the merits and demerits of our players, coaches, and management, our fundamental problem is that we are decimated with injuries. What we need is our actual NHL players to play games for us. Period.

Incidentally, by all accounts Emelin sucked balls last night. Those who propound simplistic theories of how young player X should be playing 20:00 per night but is being crushed by the evil Martin might want to take that sort of thing into account.

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In fairness it's pretty much been the same mentality for 2 years with Martin. There is a general dislike with the way he coaches the game and perception of players he avoids playing. Whether it is a win or a loss, there is a discomfort with the way Martin coaches.

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We beat the Canes with this beat up D because the Canes flat out sucked. The Isles got a goal and built some momentum. People are acting like this is the only game the Isles have won this year. They are very inconsistent, but like most teams, can have good games. The habs dug a hole, but they almost came back. They pushed hard. Frankly, I thought not getting scored on with the goalie out was progress for the habs. :)

People will second guess the backup starting, but it holds no water. Could you have pulled him after 2? I though so, but the team pushed in the 3rd anyway and Budaj was solid. People love to point at Gomez and blame everything on him. Some question why he was even out? Well, if you take the blinders off, he was playing hard. He helped our PP setup by gaining the zone and maintaining control on the boards. No, he can't score to save his life, but he wasn't brutal at all. I saw terrible plays by Eller, DD, even Pleks, but some people only see the mistakes when 11 in on the jersey.

If our D starts to get healthy, we will probably fight all season for a playoff spot. I am not convinced we are a shoo in for the playoffs, but I won't say they can't make it either. I don't think we are contenders until we make a few more upgrades on the team, but a total overhaul is not needed. Does JM drive me nuts? Yes, but I don't see anyone better out there and he does squeeze points out of teams. (I think his style doesn't win you cups however).

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Emelin didn't look good out there either. A couple of plays where he was in the wrong place, covered the wrong guy, was looking the wrong way.

Gotta love Martin as well. Hmmmmmmm we need a goal with under 2 mins to play. Hmmmmmm should I use Pacioretty or Cole......Na......let's go with Gomez who has not scored a goal in the NHL since February.

Emelin looked a bit off, indeed. When he took his holding penalty on Tavares, is it just me or did he seem like he had him in a good position for a hit just moments before?

As for Gomez, I am literally pulling my hair out watching him take so many shots from dead angles. Not only that, be he shoots quite high, limiting rebound potential. Argh.

However, with last night's sleepy performance, there is plenty of blame to go around.

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I thought giving the start to Budaj was the right choice. My attitude towards coach Martin matches his personality. I'm completely indifferent. Interviews, sound bites, I refuse to listen to a word he says. But this loss isn't on him. However, if we're sitting in 9th place on that final weekend of the season, this loss becomes worse.

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Emelin didn't look good out there either. A couple of plays where he was in the wrong place, covered the wrong guy, was looking the wrong way.

Gotta love Martin as well. Hmmmmmmm we need a goal with under 2 mins to play. Hmmmmmm should I use Pacioretty or Cole......Na......let's go with Gomez who has not scored a goal in the NHL since February.

Completely agree with everything you said. After a stellar performance on Wednesday night, Emelin had a lousy game, but seeing as he has about 10 NHL games under his belt, I'm more than willing to cut him some slack.

Can someone please explain to me why Gomer was out there with 75 seconds to go in the third? We needed 1 goal, and instead of having two of our hottest guys out there(Patches and Cole) he sends Gomer?

After the game, i was frustrated and somewhat pissed-off cause our guys didn't show up for most of the first 2 periods, and I find that to be unacceptable! But then I tell myself to be patient and to wait for the return of Gill, Spacek and especially Markov. Like I said earlier this year, if we can stay within 3-4 points of 8th place while we wait for the return of Markov, I think our chances of making the playoffs will be good, but if we fall behind too much, even the arrival of Markov won't garantee a playoff spot.

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For me I don't care who is in the line-up it is their job to win. And I am sorry but to be happy with a .500 record after playing Carolina and the Islanders is absolutely ridiculous. Yes we had 4 rookies, a player who only played 100 games and Gorges on D but the Islanders are the 2nd worst team in the league and iced a pretty ad line-up as well.

Streit, Jurcina, Mottau, MacDonald, Staois and Hamonic......Apart from Streit is that an NHL d-core on any other NHL team except for the Islanders? Our forwards should have dominated the Islanders forwards and should have been difficult for the Islanders D to contain. But we didn't. And to give up 2 points like that should never be recommended because of the effort.

But for anyone to argue against Budaj, seriously? If not against the worst team in the league then who? Were you complaining after Budaj stoned the Preds a couple of games ago as well?

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Yes the Isles are a bad team... but the reason they are bad is not because every team that plays them will go 4-0-0 against them. It is because teams will go 3-1-0 or 2-1-1 against them.

Over the course of the year, they'll get some points against nearly every team. Expecting the Habs (or any NHL club) to be perfect against the teams below them in the standings is ridiculous.

Just last night Washington lost 4-1 to Winnipeg, and frankly Winnipeg isn't much better than the Isles, if at all.

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