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Man PRICE is going to have to be a wall back there this year


Habsfan1989

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Our D core looks slow and I got a feeling that they are going to give up a lot of breakaways. If price isn't at his best every night its going to get ugly. If this team gets behind by 4 goals I just don't see them coming back into games. I don't see this team scoring more then 3 goals in a game, and I don't see any blowout wins by the habs this year. 

Man I hope I am wrong, but wow I just have this feeling that its going to go bad.

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So our best player has to be our best player? Not really breaking news there

 

 

 

12 hours ago, dreegking said:

You are not wrong. It was quite obvious that this defense was going to be pretty horrid. 

 

And the O lacks the pizzaz and talent required in the modern game. 

 

It just not a playoff team. It’s pretty simple. 

 

So they upgrade Emelin to Alzner, Beaulieu to Schlemko but lose a 39 year old Markov, and all of the sudden the 4th best defensive team in the league is horrid. 

 

Drouin, Galchenyuk, Pacioretty and Lehkonen aren't pizzazzy enough? Or how about Shaw and Byron on what is arguably one of the best 4th lines in the league? 

 

The only way this isn't a playoff team is if it is decimated with injuries 

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Big mistake to conclude anything about a veteran roster from the preseason.

 

That being said, IF the d-corps is too slow to be hermetic defensively, then Bergevin has plumbed new depths of incompetence, because one thing's for sure, this defence is NOT going to generate much offence or drive the transition.

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I like that this post came out after the second leaf game. 

 

A game where Schlemko, Alzner, Benn, Petry did not play.  Those four guys will be in our regular defence. 

 

A game where Weber was his usual self (aka a top pairing guy). 

 

A game where Mete played well (and he won't make the team). 

 

 

yes, Davidsson, Morrow, Gelinas Streit sucked.... but we might have only 1 in the lineup.  If that, if Jerabek or Mete is the 6th defencemen, then these guys won't even play regularly. 

 

Guess what, every team's 7th, 8th, 9th, 10th defencemen kinda suck. 

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Has nothing to do about losing to the leafs. In today's NHL its all about speed. From what I see from our Dcore just scares me, they look slow and I just feel guys are just going to blow right by them. Also like I said in the post I hope I am wrong with what I am saying but I just see this team giving up a lot of breakaways.

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3 minutes ago, Habsfan1989 said:

Has nothing to do about losing to the leafs. In today's NHL its all about speed. From what I see from our Dcore just scares me, they look slow and I just feel guys are just going to blow right by them. Also like I said in the post I hope I am wrong with what I am saying but I just see this team giving up a lot of breakaways.

Are you a gypsy with a crystal ball perhaps? If so please tell me, will Pacioretty finally get 40goals this year, Galchenyuk get 30, Lehkonen & Weber both get 20 goals, Drouin get 60pts and will Price win Vezina again?

Habs only had two 20+ goal scorers last year, I hope that # will increase this year... exactly how many I cant see; but, hoping you could tell me what you see on the positive side of things.:huh:

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3 hours ago, Habsfan1989 said:

Has nothing to do about losing to the leafs. In today's NHL its all about speed. From what I see from our Dcore just scares me, they look slow and I just feel guys are just going to blow right by them. Also like I said in the post I hope I am wrong with what I am saying but I just see this team giving up a lot of breakaways.

 

We haven't seen our D-Core play together yet. 

 

in fact Schlemko who has decent speed hasn't even played a single game. 

 

Petry and Alzner haven't played much.  

 

There has been a lot of watching Davidsson, Morrow, Streit, Gelinas etc... and these guys aren't even going to play much on this club. 

 

 

There may be issues in moving the puck forward and getting offence, but i don't see the fear of all the breakaways. 

 

It wasn't an issue last year. 

 

Schlemko is a better defender than Beaulieu.

Alzner is a better defender than Emelin. 

 

Markov's offensive contribution will be missed, but he wasn't the fastest skater anymore. 

 

 

I don't see where the defensive side is going to be the huge issue here. 

 

The issue as it always was, will be goals for. 

 

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40 minutes ago, Commandant said:

 

We haven't seen our D-Core play together yet. 

 

in fact Schlemko who has decent speed hasn't even played a single game. 

 

Petry and Alzner haven't played much.  

 

There has been a lot of watching Davidsson, Morrow, Streit, Gelinas etc... and these guys aren't even going to play much on this club. 

 

 

There may be issues in moving the puck forward and getting offence, but i don't see the fear of all the breakaways. 

 

It wasn't an issue last year. 

 

Schlemko is a better defender than Beaulieu.

Alzner is a better defender than Emelin. 

 

Markov's offensive contribution will be missed, but he wasn't the fastest skater anymore. 

 

 

I don't see where the defensive side is going to be the huge issue here. 

 

The issue as it always was, will be goals for. 

 

Unless you believe that Mete is a better defender than Markov,  this is where the huge issue lays.

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32 minutes ago, JoeLassister said:

Unless you believe that Mete is a better defender than Markov,  this is where the huge issue lays.

Mete is ten times as quick as Markov.

In the couple games Mete has played he already had the speed to come back and break up a 2 on 1. So extrapolate that over 82 games and Mete's speed could be a huge plus in defending.

Also see Mete wheel from behind the net and skate away from forecheckers, Markov hasn't done that for a decade (if he ever could).

Mete dosent get beat to pucks dumped in, as Markov would.

Mete already has 2 PP assists...

 

What is biggest issue, is and has been for 20+ years, is lack of all-star forwards (centre in particular) and scoring. That hasn't or wouldn't change with/without Markov.

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FWIW, my reading of our roster on paper is that

 

1. The team should be harder-nosed and at least as strong defensively as last season, probably stronger.

2. The team will be at least as offensively challenged as last season - probably more so, unless somewhat like Mete can make up for Markov's missing 40 points, which I suspect is too optimistic a scenario.

 

So, modest improvement in the D-zone, modest regression in the O-zone, it's a wash out.

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4 hours ago, JoeLassister said:

Unless you believe that Mete is a better defender than Markov,  this is where the huge issue lays.

 

We got worse at Markov's position, and better at the other two spots. 

We also have Benn all season, and thats an upgrade on 3/4 of a season of Pateryn and 1/4 season of Benn.

 

We also got a small bit better at forward.

 

What is the overall change?  Well if you look at the advanced stats  (Dom Luczyshyn had a good article in the athletic today for those who have a subscription), the net effect is a different team, but one who is still the same in terms of overall talent level, and projects as a 102-103 point club. 

 

 

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20 hours ago, DON said:

Are you a gypsy with a crystal ball perhaps? If so please tell me, will Pacioretty finally get 40goals this year, Galchenyuk get 30, Lehkonen & Weber both get 20 goals, Drouin get 60pts and will Price win Vezina again?

Habs only had two 20+ goal scorers last year, I hope that # will increase this year... exactly how many I cant see; but, hoping you could tell me what you see on the positive side of things.:huh:

Yea I will guarantee you Weber does not score 20

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58 minutes ago, kaos said:

Yea I will guarantee you Weber does not score 20

Wrong answer!:rastapop:

Still more negative crap, heard enough of that already...and season hasn't even started. 

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1 hour ago, kaos said:

Yea I will guarantee you Weber does not score 20

 

Guarentee is such a strong word. Here's why you might be wrong.

 

Weber was basically our main PP threat and was usually covered very hard for most of last year.

 

Now we have Drouin who will quarterback the first wave PP which opens up so many scoring threats leaving Weber to use his big shot more effectively should they choose to use it.

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Hey we won guess what the max goals that we scored was.... 3 guess I am a gypsy 

 

 

On 2017-09-29 at 11:54 AM, DON said:

Are you a gypsy with a crystal ball perhaps? If so please tell me, will Pacioretty finally get 40goals this year, Galchenyuk get 30, Lehkonen & Weber both get 20 goals, Drouin get 60pts and will Price win Vezina again?

Habs only had two 20+ goal scorers last year, I hope that # will increase this year... exactly how many I cant see; but, hoping you could tell me what you see on the positive side of things.:huh:

 

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10 hours ago, Scott462 said:

 

Guarentee is such a strong word. Here's why you might be wrong.

 

Weber was basically our main PP threat and was usually covered very hard for most of last year.

 

Now we have Drouin who will quarterback the first wave PP which opens up so many scoring threats leaving Weber to use his big shot more effectively should they choose to use it.

 

Weber is always good for at least 15 goals, and he's cracked 20 goals a few times in his career. "Guaranteeing" he won't score 20 is crazy; the guy scored 17 despite our POS offence last season. This year's offence will not be too much worse, and at least we now have a coach who has some sort of clue - just how much remains to be seen - so a target of 20 is only slightly optimistic.

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1 hour ago, The Chicoutimi Cucumber said:

 

Weber is always good for at least 15 goals, and he's cracked 20 goals a few times in his career. "Guaranteeing" he won't score 20 is crazy; the guy scored 17 despite our POS offence last season. This year's offence will not be too much worse, and at least we now have a coach who has some sort of clue - just how much remains to be seen - so a target of 20 is only slightly optimistic.

 

I agree with everything but I think our PP this year will be even better with Drouin, which is where Weber can get most of his points.

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11 hours ago, Scott462 said:

 

I agree with everything but I think our PP this year will be even better with Drouin, which is where Weber can get most of his points.

 

Maybe, but let's not go crazy in our expectations for a kid who had 53 points last season. Weber has ranged between 15 and 23 goals on PPs that had various configurations of players over the years. Statistically, he is Mr. Consistent. Unless Drouin becomes Wayne Gretzky, expect more of the same. Where there might be a difference this season is that, instead of getting most of his goals in the first two months of the season, they'll probably be more spread out.

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I'm just making an observation based off of what I have seen in preseason with our PP. Obviously a little premature I'm just saying it's a possibility and not that far fetched.

 

Also let's not forget Drouin was Tampas guy on the PP as well.

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19 hours ago, Habsfan1989 said:

Hey we won guess what the max goals that we scored was.... 3 guess I am a gypsy 

9...count em, NINE goals is max goals we scored!!!  It seems Rasputin you are not.

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First i'd like to start with, Price will be a wall back there, as he has been for the better part of that last 4 years, so that is a given on any season in which he does not get hurt, problem solved there.

 

Secondly on the gains and losses of the roster, be it defensively and offensively I am in the same boat as most here, we moved around some chips on the table, gained a little here lost a little there, on paper though. And I would like to highlight that fact because there are areas on this team, based on what I have seen in this pre-season that looked poised for internal growth that cannot be measured on paper. It looks like the team will be relatively the same as last season when all the chips lay on the table, on paper, but I have seen possibility for scenario's to occur that actually allow this team to take a decent little step forward.

 

Gallagher for instance, does not look like he will be scoring any less than 20 this year, Plekanec looks like he will be able to produce more than last year with Hudon and Lehkonen as wingers. Hudon, whatever he produces will be a bonus addition over last years offence, Lehkonen looks like he will continue where he left off while playing with Pleky and Hudon. Drouin looks like he will be one heck of a dynamic weapon both on the PP and 5 on 5, could easily eclipse his production from last year, by how much? remains to be seen, but Drouin playing like he is already, looks like a guy who can easily help this PP look more dangerous and more importantly, unpredictable. He has all the tools out there to be a catalyst on the PP in ways Markov never could be due to position restrictions. Drouin slithers around all over the place, he is dangerous in multiple ways and the attention he is going to draw on every PP will help Weber be even more productive from the point imo. So we reach a place where Drouin can be a 60 - 65 point player this season based on what we have seen of him at center thus far, Weber will have more space to fire his laser beam on the PP, both players could end up eclipsing their previous season productions and all the while, our PP has the ability to improve even further. Hell even Shaw looks poised to have a more productive season than last year, Byron will likely take a dip in production but I still see him able to hit the 15 - 18 goal mark based on his play thus far looking every bit the same as last year. So there is a whole bunch of little offensive growth situations lingering around in various pockets of the roster, that if combined could wipe away the production loss of a Radulov and Markov and even possibly increase it compared to last season's output.

 

Now if you factor all these things, toss them in a blender, and add in a sprinkle of bad luck, and eventual injuries, and hit the on button, what you are left with is a nice little blended sauce that might actually taste better than last year's.

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