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Senators vs Canadiens 7:30


Guest Stogey24

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Look at the pathetic lot of you!

Some of you are even agreeing with 30/31, no man's land in the message board world.

They were, and still are an excellent contending team.

Maybe they don't go 12-0 to end the year, maybe they go .500 and play Detroit with home ice?

But if you're already setting yourselves up for the mid summer "I told you so" shame on you!

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What the heck is going on?

And please don't give me the ol' "this is the real team finally showing up." You don't stand 1st in the conference after 3/4 of the season and have a 6-game slump be the "real" you. Nor have we finally been "figured out." It doesn't take opponents 3/4 of a season to figure you out.

What I find striking about this slump is the DIRECT correlation between its appearance and the trade deadline. It started, suddenly, in San Jose, after the deadline ended. And we've been scuffling ever since. That seems really strange. It's as though all the players looked up, realized that we had not added a scoring FW, and said, "hoo boy, maybe we really are a team that can't score." Like they were all waiting for another Vanek to appear and were let down. But where I could see that translating into a game or two of lacklustre play, how does it explain the next few games?

Or is it a matter of a team that knows it's in the playoffs taking its foot off the accelerator, and miscalculating how much to do so? Consciously trying to conserve energy and coast in, and getting burned? (This would be a classic mistake from a young team).

A related possibility is that, without intending to, they are looking ahead to the playoffs and consequently getting fried in the present - which is what usually happens when a team looks ahead beyond the immediate task at hand.

Or, it's just a slump. A bunch of players going cold at the wrong time. In this regard, it is heartening that MaxPac scored last night. He is the key.

Finally...maybe it's the CURSE OF JIRI SEKAC!! MB, you fool, couldn't you see he was the guy who made the whole motor run??? AAAAAARRRRGGGH!!!

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I'm not really concerned about the slump. plenty of time to regain momentum before the playoffs start. if this were the final 10 of the season, momentum is an issue. if this slump were in the first round of the playoffs, the Habs would

be toast ... but it's not. it's mid-March and the Habs are too good to slump til April. Nashville slumped, heck, the Kings slumped to the point they are scratching to make the post-season!

I could worry - but I'm not. not yet. this is the abberation ... and I'm actually glad it's now rather than any other time in the season.

(why do I think this is a good time? its late enough in the season that we aren't panicking over making the postseason and the trade deadline is passed, and early enough that the ship can be

righted)

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What the heck is going on?

And please don't give me the ol' "this is the real team finally showing up." You don't stand 1st in the conference after 3/4 of the season and have a 6-game slump be the "real" you. Nor have we finally been "figured out." It doesn't take opponents 3/4 of a season to figure you out.

What I find striking about this slump is the DIRECT correlation between its appearance and the trade deadline. It started, suddenly, in San Jose, after the deadline ended. And we've been scuffling ever since. That seems really strange. It's as though all the players looked up, realized that we had not added a scoring FW, and said, "hoo boy, maybe we really are a team that can't score." Like they were all waiting for another Vanek to appear and were let down. But where I could see that translating into a game or two of lacklustre play, how does it explain the next few games?

Or is it a matter of a team that knows it's in the playoffs taking its foot off the accelerator, and miscalculating how much to do so? Consciously trying to conserve energy and coast in, and getting burned? (This would be a classic mistake from a young team).

A related possibility is that, without intending to, they are looking ahead to the playoffs and consequently getting fried in the present - which is what usually happens when a team looks ahead beyond the immediate task at hand.

Or, it's just a slump. A bunch of players going cold at the wrong time. In this regard, it is heartening that MaxPac scored last night. He is the key.

Finally...maybe it's the CURSE OF JIRI SEKAC!! MB, you fool, couldn't you see he was the guy who made the whole motor run??? AAAAAARRRRGGGH!!!

I can't argue with your theories CC, maybe it all figures in somehow. I see a few in denial. We can't deny there is a slump. I am pretty sure we aren't as bad as we have been playing or as good as our record suggests. I see a powerplay that hasn't been fixed and a goalie that is over exposed night after night. Just wearing down thats all.

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I am pretty sure we aren't as bad as we have been playing or as good as our record suggests.

The record is actually the only way that matters how to measure a team. Every single thing that goes on in a game comes down to wins and losses. Powerplay sucks? Can't generate offense? Give up too many shots? Who cares as long as the team wins. It never ceases to amaze me how short sighted people can be. It's an 82 game season and that's how you have to look at it. It's not game 62-68 that matters, it's the whole thing. This team is tied for FIRST place in the league. So what that means is that every other team has gone through bad stretches just like this and worse. Of course it would be nice to blow every opponent out of the water but that isn't realistic. I mean, even during winning streaks some just find the negativity in it. Therrien has stated that defense is their first priority and guess what, they are the very best in the league at keeping the puck out of their net. Is Price the best goalie in the world? Probably, but the best goalie in the world doesn't do it all on his own. The team has an identity that everyone has bought into, and that is a defensive club that looks after their own end first and worries about the other end second. They have been playing playoff hockey all season, so you better believe they will be ready for it when the time comes.

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Guest Stogey24

I can't argue with your theories CC, maybe it all figures in somehow. I see a few in denial. We can't deny there is a slump. I am pretty sure we aren't as bad as we have been playing or as good as our record suggests. I see a powerplay that hasn't been fixed and a goalie that is over exposed night after night. Just wearing down thats all.

The margin for error is so low for Carey. Everyone can say all they want about a top 6 RW not being available. When your team is in first place right before trade deadline and the one real thing your missing is goal scoring, then make it your mission to pry that player from a team. Maybe it cost you a first rounder, but this team owes at least that much to Carey Price.
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Guest Stogey24

The record is actually the only way that matters how to measure a team. Every single thing that goes on in a game comes down to wins and losses. Powerplay sucks? Can't generate offense? Give up too many shots? Who cares as long as the team wins. It never ceases to amaze me how short sighted people can be. It's an 82 game season and that's how you have to look at it. It's not game 62-68 that matters, it's the whole thing. This team is tied for FIRST place in the league. So what that means is that every other team has gone through bad stretches just like this and worse. Of course it would be nice to blow every opponent out of the water but that isn't realistic. I mean, even during winning streaks some just find the negativity in it. Therrien has stated that defense is their first priority and guess what, they are the very best in the league at keeping the puck out of their net. Is Price the best goalie in the world? Probably, but the best goalie in the world doesn't do it all on his own. The team has an identity that everyone has bought into, and that is a defensive club that looks after their own end first and worries about the other end second. They have been playing playoff hockey all season, so you better believe they will be ready for it when the time comes.

Second time I've posted this from article.

Only five teams in the NHL allow more shot attempts against than the Canadiens do. Only eight teams in the NHL allow more shots against than the Canadiens do. Only nine teams in the NHL allow more scoring chances against than the Canadiens. If your entire system is built around minimizing risk, and you're still bottom 10 in the league in every defensive category, you're not a defensive team.

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Thought about Martin last night, while thinking same thing.

Habs best game of year might have been the 5-2 win in st. louis......coming off a 5-2 win against jackets. Both Patyrn and Tinordi were in the line up for both those games. NB played played top four, 20 plus minutes. MT actions after that. Drop Pateryn, Tinordi to hamilton, drop NB to bottom pair cut his ice time majorly. Habs lose five of next seven playing horribly.

Keep in mind that Pateryn was in no way, shape, or form, a Therrien decision. He had to be sent down to comply with 23-man roster restrictions as a result of the moves made on trade deadline day. That's not on Therrien. With him back up, it'll be interesting to see if he plays tomorrow or if he's just injury insurance with a three game road trip on the horizon. (For anyone who keeps track of the post-deadline recalls, this is #1 of an allowable 4.) Based on practice lines, he's lined up on the 3rd pairing with Beaulieu on the '4th' pairing.

Slumps happen, better now than in a month. That said, the top six that aren't named Pacioretty need to step up. It's one thing to lose when you're not getting the timely contributions from the bottom six that every good team gets but when you're not getting that on top of some of the primary scorers not scoring, boy is it tough. I do, however, expect them to bounce back tomorrow against the Isles. The Habs have matched up well against them so far this year.

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Second time I've posted this from article.

Only five teams in the NHL allow more shot attempts against than the Canadiens do. Only eight teams in the NHL allow more shots against than the Canadiens do. Only nine teams in the NHL allow more scoring chances against than the Canadiens. If your entire system is built around minimizing risk, and you're still bottom 10 in the league in every defensive category, you're not a defensive team.

That spells it out loud.

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Last night we were up 2-0, the boys figured "well that's it we have it won". They proceeded to take the next 2 periods off. We are not a team that can score goals, cause we got only 1 goalscorer on the team. Our power play is crap. We had 2 double minor power plays and got 1 goal. Nobody can tell me that if we get at least 1 more goal on the pp (maybe 2) that this isn't a different game. Nobody can tell me that killing off the last double minor and getting what in reality was a short handed goal didn't give the momentum to the Sens. Let's face it the game ended right there. Defence first is a great philosophy if you can win 1-0 every night, which is what we basically do, when we win. Our defence is Carey Price. We need to remember we have to score goals, no matter how good our defence is cause Carey can't score goals. He could use a little help now and again from the "goalscorers" on this team. This wasn't the end of the world but the last 6 games have shown us that there are some serious weaknesses in this team. The only way they have a hope of going deep in the playoffs is they ALL have to play like this could be their last game. A little desperation can go a long way. Le Genius needs to get his blender fixed, it ain't working. Or drink more Scotch what ever it takes.

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Second time I've posted this from article.

Only five teams in the NHL allow more shot attempts against than the Canadiens do. Only eight teams in the NHL allow more shots against than the Canadiens do. Only nine teams in the NHL allow more scoring chances against than the Canadiens. If your entire system is built around minimizing risk, and you're still bottom 10 in the league in every defensive category, you're not a defensive team.

You're right, it's all Price. It's nothing to do with the D clearing rebounds from shitty shots from the outside, nothing to do with all their blocked shots, or nothing to do with QUALITY scoring chances.

I'm not sure if you've watched a Habs game all season or just spend your time looking up stats to support your opinion. When was the last time there was a breakaway against? 2 on 1s are a rare sight. "Scoring chances" is a subjective stat and changes from each and every home rink. So here's my fancy stat backup: Habs have allowed 30.4 shots against per game, Chicago have allowed 29.7, Rangers 29.4, league average is 29.65. Chicago and NY are tied for second behind Habs for least amount of goals against, are they defensive teams? We are talking about less than one frigging measly shot against per game from being average and 3.4 from being the best. Too many people getting caught up in stats and not worrying about how to win a hockey game, in my opinion. Leafs sure have cut back shots against lately, that's working out well for them.

So if they are not a defensive team like you've stated, and they can't seem to score at all, then what are they?

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Good post, illWill. You make a great point about these stats, which is that people obsess over rankings, but pay insufficient attention to whether those rankings really mean squat. 3 whole shots a game means f**k all.

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You're right, it's all Price. It's nothing to do with the D clearing rebounds from shitty shots from the outside, nothing to do with all their blocked shots, or nothing to do with QUALITY scoring chances.

I'm not sure if you've watched a Habs game all season or just spend your time looking up stats to support your opinion. When was the last time there was a breakaway against? 2 on 1s are a rare sight. "Scoring chances" is a subjective stat and changes from each and every home rink. So here's my fancy stat backup: Habs have allowed 30.4 shots against per game, Chicago have allowed 29.7, Rangers 29.4, league average is 29.65. Chicago and NY are tied for second behind Habs for least amount of goals against, are they defensive teams? We are talking about less than one frigging measly shot against per game from being average and 3.4 from being the best. Too many people getting caught up in stats and not worrying about how to win a hockey game, in my opinion. Leafs sure have cut back shots against lately, that's working out well for them.

So if they are not a defensive team like you've stated, and they can't seem to score at all, then what are they?

I think our regulars' appearances on this board more or less constitutes that they're watching the games so that probably doesn't need to be called into question. I've seen this comment on here from a few different posters lately and we can do without that.

I didn't get to see all of the game last night but from what the radio crew were describing, Ottawa had a lot of odd man rushes and in the part I did see, I noticed the Sens were carving up the transition defence. It's an area I think they've slipped in lately to be honest compared to where they were earlier in the season.

The Habs' defensive system more or less is let teams shoot from the outside as much as they want to and try to limit chances from the prime areas (some games this works a lot better than others). As a result, their shots allowed is higher than most though as you note, it's not as if they're way, way worse than the best teams in the league in terms of fewest shots allowed. There isn't a big difference between 28 and 30 shots per game, especially if those two extra shots come from the outside. (On off nights where those extra few shots are grade 'A' chances, then it's an issue.)

Down the stretch, I'm hoping they can find a way to shore up their defensive play as playoff opponents have much more of an opportunity to exploit any systemic weaknesses. On top of having players find their scoring touch and the always-crucial battle to stay healthy, there's a lot to strive towards over the final few weeks.

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Guest Stogey24

You're right, it's all Price. It's nothing to do with the D clearing rebounds from shitty shots from the outside, nothing to do with all their blocked shots, or nothing to do with QUALITY scoring chances.

I'm not sure if you've watched a Habs game all season or just spend your time looking up stats to support your opinion. When was the last time there was a breakaway against? 2 on 1s are a rare sight. "Scoring chances" is a subjective stat and changes from each and every home rink. So here's my fancy stat backup: Habs have allowed 30.4 shots against per game, Chicago have allowed 29.7, Rangers 29.4, league average is 29.65. Chicago an d NY are tied for second behind Habs for least amount of goals against, are they defensive teams? We are talking about less than one frigging measly shot against per game from being average and 3.4 from being the best. Too many people getting caught up in stats and not worrying about how to win a hockey game, in my opinion. Leafs sure have cut back shots against lately, that's working out well for them.

So if they are not a defensive team like you've stated, and they can't seem to score at all, then what are they?

Well seeing as I've watched every game this year besides the odd Saturday, stats aren't the only facts I'm spitting out.

Listen to Therrien's presser. He said its not our offense that's the problem, its our defensive zone coverage and losing control of the neutral zone( I don't agree that socring isn't the problem). Not really sure what your talking about with 2 on 1s and breakaways? That's basically what broke this team out west.

Those teams you mentioned giving up close to as many shots are all tops in the league in scoring. They're pushing the fore check most nights.

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Well seeing as I've watched every game this year besides the odd Saturday, stats aren't the only facts I'm spitting out.

Listen to Therrien's presser. He said its not our offense that's the problem, its our defensive zone coverage and losing control of the neutral zone( I don't agree that socring isn't the problem). Not really sure what your talking about with 2 on 1s and breakaways? That's basically what broke this team out west.

I must admit I missed 3 of the late games out west so I can't comment on that. But like I've stated, there is a whole lot of people being too short sighted in my opinion. This is a rough patch, it happens to each and every team. Would you be happy with being tied first overall in the league at this point in the year before the season started? Is the season over yet? Do they have to play better to win? Yes of course they do. It's a long ol' year for those guys and they know there is a tough grind ahead of them in the playoffs. They are focused on that and have stated how much they want to go deep. Personally I won't judge them on some meaningless games during the first week of March, but rather withhold judgement until they are done for the year, with or without the Cup in hand.

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Always thought that a Habs' GM, Bergevin in this case, primary objectives would be to ice :

1. Carey Price

2. A defense that can allow 2 or less pretty much every game

3. An offense that can score 3 or more pretty much every game.

Seemed like it was working before February.

Not working since February.

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Guest Stogey24

Always thought that a Habs' GM, Bergevin in this case, primary objectives would be to ice :

1. Carey Price

2. A defense that can allow 2 or less pretty much every game

3. An offense that can score 3 or more pretty much every game.

Seemed like it was working before February.

Not working since February.

Look at the difference in teams on the schedule.
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Look at the difference in teams on the schedule.

Well... The 29 teams in the NHL prior to February are the 29 they still face now... We were winning games, we're not anymore...

Still believe we can turn this around though.

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Guest Stogey24

Well... The 29 teams in the NHL prior to February are the 29 they still face now... We were winning games, we're not anymore...

Still believe we can turn this around though.

Yeah, I read your post wrong.
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So Beaulieu is a scratch tomorrow for Patteryn. What a Joke

Doesn't bother me any. Neither he nor Gonchar have played particularly well lately. Each of them can have the odd night off, Gilbert too once in a while. They'd be wise to get everyone playing with some regularity to keep them in game shape. The catch is, someone has to sit to make that happen. Tomorrow, it's Beaulieu. Next game, it probably should be Gonchar.

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Well seeing as I've watched every game this year besides the odd Saturday, stats aren't the only facts I'm spitting out.

Listen to Therrien's presser. He said its not our offense that's the problem, its our defensive zone coverage and losing control of the neutral zone( I don't agree that socring isn't the problem).

I actually agree with this. The transition from goalie to neutral zone, poor execution through the neutral zone have hampered the habs system. When they are playing well, the puck enters the habs zone and they turn and use speed and passing and positioning to get chances the other way. Lately, they have not had good execution on the transition and the result is a dump in followed by a quick transition against. Essentially what I am seeing is the other team beating Montreal at their own game. The way to remedy it is to improve puck movement in your own end. It is crucial the MT system. Which he DOES HAVE.

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Guest Stogey24

Doesn't bother me any. Neither he nor Gonchar have played particularly well lately. Each of them can have the odd night off, Gilbert too once in a while. They'd be wise to get everyone playing with some regularity to keep them in game shape. The catch is, someone has to sit to make that happen. Tomorrow, it's Beaulieu. Next game, it probably should be Gonchar.

Ya, I guess your right. I would rather see JUST Gonchar in the press box. We now have 5 D-men who play the right side out there.

I actually agree with this. The transition from goalie to neutral zone, poor execution through the neutral zone have hampered the habs system. When they are playing well, the puck enters the habs zone and they turn and use speed and passing and positioning to get chances the other way. Lately, they have not had good execution on the transition and the result is a dump in followed by a quick transition against. Essentially what I am seeing is the other team beating Montreal at their own game. The way to remedy it is to improve puck movement in your own end. It is crucial the MT system. Which he DOES HAVE.

Yup, teams are putting a heavy fore check out
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problem is we are giving up our blue line to easy... teams just walk into our zone and set up shop! been saying it forever... 2 man forecheck 3 in the neutral zone force the dump and have price retrieve 60% of those dumps...

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