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May 3rd - Game 2 - Bolts vs Habs, 6 PM


dlbalr

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Yeah, it's summer. Between Center Ice and the Panthers, I watched way too many games this year. I'd love for the Habs to get one and make a game out of the third period, but that's not going to happen.

All of our lives stay exactly the same win or lose.

no kidding

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Ha! Well, I'm all for a better power-play coach, anyway.

The reason for the bizarre suggestion of taking PK off the PP is that the ENTIRE power-play is driven 100% by the monomaniacal idea of setting up his one-timer. It's ridiculous, predictable, and, ultimately, all too easy to defend against. PK is a beast, but if he had the capacity to beat goalies single-handedly with his point-shot on that automatic a basis, he wouldn't be a 15-goal scorer; he'd be a 40-goal scorer. Heck, just to get a 20% success rate on the power play, Subban would have to score 65.6 goals over 82 games (assuming 4 PP per game). Any fool can see that's a crazy stratagem.

I'm sure the coaches have tried to tell the players to do other things. But somehow they keep coming back to the one, failed trick - it's as though their awe of Subban's shot has them all hypnotized or something.

I've been thinking about taking Subban off as well. Different reason though. Subban really needs to simplify things out there and there is WAY too much indecision between him and Markov and it was bad enough when him and Markov would be trading spots. Now it's gotten to the point when the habs have 3 guys almost bumping into each other at the blue line.

Subban can't be looking to take the big blast and doing spinnorammas at the blue line. If you are going to do that you need to take wristers, snap shots and moving the puck fast.

If he wants to be the shooter, the habs need to have at least one other shooting option setup and move the puck around FAST, down low and the point, have one option in the slot and one at the point. Make quick decisions and shoot, instead of passing back and forth at the blue line and taking the low option away by having three guys bumping into each other at the blue line.

However, as ineffective as Subban and Markov have been on the PP, this 99% a coaching issue. At the end of the day, the PP setup and personnel is a coaching decision.

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I'm a big fan, but I think after the Ottawa comments and the Stepan suspension that it's time for the team to move on from Prust.

I think Prust is really falling his Mr. No Excuses lead from last game.

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I was sooo frustrated and po'd at this squandered game. We had been playing excellent hockey. What utter crap. Same as last game.. crap penalties ruin a great game. UGGHH. Terrific disappointment. And what the hell is with PK? How many times does he have to take a stupid and unnecessary penalty right after one ends. Tiresome crap.

We blew both those games.

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I'm a big fan, but I think after the Ottawa comments and the Stepan suspension that it's time for the team to move on from Prust.

I agree it's time to move on. He's supposed to be a character guy but each time we've lost a playoff series he doesn't show much character. Like with Moen parts of his role are slowly being taken over by other players in the organization.

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Prust is a great guy and works hard, however he takes some dumb penalties. For the last year he has not been as effective as he was previously, at least it seemed to me. Too many injuries? He was not injured this year, he played 82 games, is he playing to protect himself and not get hurt? Wouldn't be the first guy. So yeah it is time to move on get what you can. He has one more year, I believe, so move him out. As to the comments after the game..... well if what he says is true and I have no reason to disbelieve him, then the ref should be fired. There is no way a ref can call a player a mother forker and a coward etc and remain ref in this league I hope.

We lost this game because we can't score, same as many other games, we are not going to learn to score overnight. It is a sad day for Habs fans, cause this has been coming for a while. They had a statisticaly great year, playoffs are different. You play the same team night after night and you both learn what the other can do. TB knows we can't score so it is balls to wall and shoot. Not big enough to keep them at bay so they run over us. We can beat these guys but we have got to score. We have to score 5 on 5 and we must score on the PP. We have some very good players so what is the problem? We need some lines that will produce some offence cahnces just aren't good enough, the puck has to get in the net. We knew we were going to lose this game at 3-1 so running Bishop was a good plan should have done more of it. We need to get him out of his comfort zone and we need their defenceman to be looking for anything but the puck. Jam the net. They have been trying but the leader of that group is about 5 ft 6. We need Smith Pelley getting in there and hitting and bumping and grinding along with Brendon.

Anyway very tough night, we can beat these guys but right now our guys are shell shocked. They need someone to snap them out of it and get the ball rolling, I really feel if they can get a 2 goal lead and win a game this series will change dramatically. these are just my ramblings on a frustrating night. :habslogo:

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i said it a million times that A) we can't gain the zone effectively and B) we have no stability at the points... subban plays way to erratically at the point and markov is unable to QB from the left as his space is consistently invaded by subban, their one timer never works because they seem to always be a million miles apart giving the goalie ample time to square up.

the PP is actually pretty simple to execute. 1 QB and 4 guys finding the lanes moving the puck quickly.... get the goalie moving latterly and screen his shots. we do none of them at this point!earlier i mentioned using patch at the right point with marky on the left only because beaulieau is out and gonchar has not drawn in which i think was the first mistake to begin with.

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I think at this point you got to think out of the box, because you have nothing to lose. I put Subban on the wing and leave him there for the rest of series. As far as expectations go, if you were expecting a different result, you haven't been paying attention.

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Prust is a great guy and works hard, however he takes some dumb penalties. For the last year he has not been as effective as he was previously, at least it seemed to me. Too many injuries? He was not injured this year, he played 82 games, is he playing to protect himself and not get hurt? Wouldn't be the first guy. So yeah it is time to move on get what you can. He has one more year, I believe, so move him out. As to the comments after the game..... well if what he says is true and I have no reason to disbelieve him, then the ref should be fired. There is no way a ref can call a player a mother forker and a coward etc and remain ref in this league I hope.

We lost this game because we can't score, same as many other games, we are not going to learn to score overnight. It is a sad day for Habs fans, cause this has been coming for a while. They had a statisticaly great year, playoffs are different. You play the same team night after night and you both learn what the other can do. TB knows we can't score so it is balls to wall and shoot. Not big enough to keep them at bay so they run over us. We can beat these guys but we have got to score. We have to score 5 on 5 and we must score on the PP. We have some very good players so what is the problem? We need some lines that will produce some offence cahnces just aren't good enough, the puck has to get in the net. We knew we were going to lose this game at 3-1 so running Bishop was a good plan should have done more of it. We need to get him out of his comfort zone and we need their defenceman to be looking for anything but the puck. Jam the net. They have been trying but the leader of that group is about 5 ft 6. We need Smith Pelley getting in there and hitting and bumping and grinding along with Brendon.

Anyway very tough night, we can beat these guys but right now our guys are shell shocked. They need someone to snap them out of it and get the ball rolling, I really feel if they can get a 2 goal lead and win a game this series will change dramatically. these are just my ramblings on a frustrating night. :habslogo:

agree totally... this series should and would be 2-0 habs if only we could shoot to score rather then shoot to shoot. I'm watching flynn on his 2 golden chances in the 1st to make it 2-0 and the first in the slot he shoots off his pad... the 2nd he is looking bishop off the whole way not once recognizing a spot to shoot finally taking another wrister dead middle of his pad. thats our problem. the chances are there the talent to actually execute isn't. mitchell dangle was beautiful and his aggressive move thwarted by a goalie that is playing well... we had many chances to win both games and control the series more then doubling TB in scoring chances 5on5... can't score can't win.

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and a horrible PP is magnified as witnessed when your PK fails you... 4 PP goals surrendered is a fail of epic proportions.

MT has disappointed only because he is scared to do the right thing and demote PK from the 1st unit. he understands the situation by bring petry up but its the wrong guy he is demoting. markov on the left point with a lefty on the right and opposite wingers on each half boards...

so patch, galchenyuk or any lefty willing to get into space for the one timer on the right boards and a righty doing the same on the left boards.

funny 3 of TB 4 PP goals all came the way I'm describing... including hedman sneaking in backdoor, once a weapon we use to use with markov to great success!!

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2009 WJC

Subban was inside the box on the PP. In the slot for one times. Able to get infront of the net or end up at the point with a pinching Dman.

As I recall It worked great and he looked real good there. Granted it was the WJC and Canada's team was stupid good.

Tokarski was on that squad as well. If I remeber correctly he out played Chet Pickard that tourny.

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At the end of the day I don't give a f**k what fans of other teams think, even more so what the Toronto based media thinks. I do find it remarkable that our favourite team is proving them right, to perfection. We all knew it would be tough for our forwards in the playoffs. But this is pathetic. Even game 2, both goals scored by D. Nice job boys, proving that all we are is a great goalie.

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and a horrible PP is magnified as witnessed when your PK fails you... 4 PP goals surrendered is a fail of epic proportions.

MT has disappointed only because he is scared to do the right thing and demote PK from the 1st unit. he understands the situation by bring petry up but its the wrong guy he is demoting. markov on the left point with a lefty on the right and opposite wingers on each half boards...

so patch, galchenyuk or any lefty willing to get into space for the one timer on the right boards and a righty doing the same on the left boards.

funny 3 of TB 4 PP goals all came the way I'm describing... including hedman sneaking in backdoor, once a weapon we use to use with markov to great success!!

cooper out coaching therrien......... did you say therrien is "scared" to make a coaching adjustment?

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I've been thinking about taking Subban off as well. Different reason though. Subban really needs to simplify things out there and there is WAY too much indecision between him and Markov and it was bad enough when him and Markov would be trading spots. Now it's gotten to the point when the habs have 3 guys almost bumping into each other at the blue line.

Subban can't be looking to take the big blast and doing spinnorammas at the blue line. If you are going to do that you need to take wristers, snap shots and moving the puck fast.

If he wants to be the shooter, the habs need to have at least one other shooting option setup and move the puck around FAST, down low and the point, have one option in the slot and one at the point. Make quick decisions and shoot, instead of passing back and forth at the blue line and taking the low option away by having three guys bumping into each other at the blue line.

However, as ineffective as Subban and Markov have been on the PP, this 99% a coaching issue. At the end of the day, the PP setup and personnel is a coaching decision.

How about pleklanic and dd being the centermen on the powerplay. Therrien has the D and the wingers ....... he does not have the centers.

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Yep, we have a structural problem at C. The key is that the two young centremen we had hoped would step up by about now - Eller and Galchenyuk - have both singularly failed to do so. Eller tops out as an adequate third-line C. Galchenyuk is still a passenger after three years as an NHL winger.

The idea was to upgrade on either DD or Pleks - preferably both - from within. But that no longer looks likely, although there's still a (diminishing but not totally unrealistic) chance that Galy can do it.

I thought maybe we could get away with our relative weakness at C via the 'scoring by committee' approach that has sometimes worked for this team. But it's clear that we would need stronger W to do that.

So, I'm not sure what's to be done. The emerging failure of Galchenyuk - and again, I'm not anointing him a definitive failure, I'm just saying that he seems scarcely closer to emerging as an impact NHL centreman than he did three years ago - has ominous ramifications for the entire rebuild.

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I liked Flynn tonight. But i really wouldn't have selected anyone as a star tonight.

Unfortunately, it's hard to do a Montreal 3 Stars column without picking some 3 Stars. Some nights it's pretty easy, others (like this one), it's a bit more challenging.

Add me to the list of those who would play Gonchar on Wednesday. Not that Pateryn is playing poorly, but a bit more poise on the back end, plus another PP threat, is needed. Taking Subban off the #1 unit isn't a crazy idea either. I think I advocated for that a while back actually, just to take away the crutch from the other players on the ice.

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Yep, we have a structural problem at C. The key is that the two young centremen we had hoped would step up by about now - Eller and Galchenyuk - have both singularly failed to do so. Eller tops out as an adequate third-line C. Galchenyuk is still a passenger after three years as an NHL winger.

The idea was to upgrade on either DD or Pleks - preferably both - from within. But that no longer looks likely, although there's still a (diminishing but not totally unrealistic) chance that Galy can do it.

I thought maybe we could get away with our relative weakness at C via the 'scoring by committee' approach that has sometimes worked for this team. But it's clear that we would need stronger W to do that.

So, I'm not sure what's to be done. The emerging failure of Galchenyuk - and again, I'm not anointing him a definitive failure, I'm just saying that he seems scarcely closer to emerging as an impact NHL centreman than he did three years ago - has ominous ramifications for the entire rebuild.

Galchenyuk centered for about three weeks before he was replaced for the rest of year. A young guy; you got to leave him their and take your lumps. It is good to see that you have finally come over to the dark side and agree that a front line center is essential.

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Thought Rose/Pelly played fine once again and was nice to see Eller get almost 3 minutes on the PP.

So how could Therrien of coached different so that Subban didn't take most costly penalty at end of 1st? And should of gone to dressing room up 1-0.

Don't think coaches draw up Subban spinarama's neither, but many fans cry that Subban needs to be unrestrained by coaches to play his best, well double the PP time of all others and mega minutes dosent seem to be all it was hoped for.

You would think he might see how effective Petry's wrist shot from point was?

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At the end of the day I don't give a f**k what fans of other teams think, even more so what the Toronto based media thinks. I do find it remarkable that our favourite team is proving them right, to perfection. We all knew it would be tough for our forwards in the playoffs. But this is pathetic. Even game 2, both goals scored by D. Nice job boys, proving that all we are is a great goalie.

That can change really quickly, though. Dallas got Seguin and Spezza in the same calendar year. I'm not saying that's what is needed, but nothing is static.

My one hope is that they can extend the series to at least six games, so in the offseason we don't see the franchise crushing decisions teams like San Jose and Boston made to compete within the division. The playoffs are a game of inches, this team is shooting 2% right now.

There's a fundamental mistake with the team Bergevin has tried to build this year, he focused too much on depth. How much did Brian Flynn do last game versus someone like Charles Hudon?

For me, the obvious solution is to put Pacioretty back with Desharnais. Every frigging time we break those two up, the scoring dries up. Accept it. Galchenyuk was playing well with Plekanec, too.

Pacioretty-DD-Gallagher

Galchenyuk-Plekanec-Weise

So how did EGG do last night? I guess giving Eller some prime wingers did little to change the fact that he's a mediocre third line center.

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I don't think MB made any mistakes at the deadline. His acquisitions have helped. How quickly we forget what a liability it was to have a POS fourth line, eh? Or what is was like to have a physically vulnerable, smallish team? My one complaint is all the picks we gave up for a rental in Petry. But personally, I'm happy we didn't give up a 1st round pick + Tinordi or Beaulieu for Vermette, which is what we'd have had to do, probably. And had we made that deal, everyone would be howling with outrage.

Assuming no shocking series comeback by les boys, I'll be very, very interested to see what Bergevin does in the off-season. It might be time for him to show his hand and finally pull off a core-altering deal. It's going to be fascinating to observe how he goes about it.

Conversely, it wouldn't completely floor me to see Therrien let go. Unexpected, sure. Except for the PP, he's done a good job. But MT is going into year four of his tenure - a tune-out is inevitable eventually - and barring a turnaround I think this series will damage his cred with the players. There's a case to be made for being proactive rather than waiting for Therrien to go stale and either missing the playoffs or suffering a pathetic first-round rout in consequence. Replacement ideas? Other than Babcock, I'd say we're looking at either an unknown from the minors, Claude Julien, or Marc Crawford.

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I don't think MB made any mistakes at the deadline. His acquisitions have helped. How quickly we forget what a liability it was to have a POS fourth line, eh? Or what is was like to have a physically vulnerable, smallish team? My one complaint is all the picks we gave up for a rental in Petry. But personally, I'm happy we didn't give up a 1st round pick + Tinordi or Beaulieu for Vermette, which is what we'd have had to do, probably. And had we made that deal, everyone would be howling with outrage.

Assuming no shocking series comeback by les boys, I'll be very, very interested to see what Bergevin does in the off-season. It might be time for him to show his hand and finally pull off a core-altering deal. It's going to be fascinating to observe how he goes about it.

Conversely, it wouldn't completely floor me to see Therrien let go. Unexpected, sure. Except for the PP, he's done a good job. But MT is going into year four of his tenure - a tune-out is inevitable eventually - and barring a turnaround I think this series will damage his cred with the players. There's a case to be made for being proactive rather than waiting for Therrien to go stale and either missing the playoffs or suffering a pathetic first-round rout in consequence. Replacement ideas? Other than Babcock, I'd say we're looking at either an unknown from the minors, Claude Julien, or Marc Crawford.

The deadline deals didn't address any needs. Bergevin and likely MT in his ear chose to double down on D and "dep." This team is dressing Dale Weise on the first line, as they have off and on all season. Our LW depth would be even worse if we made the fabled Galchenyuk to C franchise saving move.

The fourth line is what it is. The difference between Bournival/Tangradi and Flynn is one or two goals in a long run. For me, the main mistake was loading up on D and 4th liners in the offseason and the first 40 games.

I have bad news, gang. There's no guarantee that a 110 point season where the Habs are up for three awards will happen again. In five years, we might look at this year as a major missed opportunity.

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To be fair with Prust, I don't remember any referee taunting a player like that after a call.
He really kept going until Prust said something just for the sake of giving an extra 2.

Actually, I think I remember that last time I saw that. Ref came back at Mario Lemieux and he threw his stick at the ref.

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