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GDT #3 Habs @ New York Rangers, October 8th 2017


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34 minutes ago, TheDriveFor25 said:

It's only been a few games, but I was wrong about this team.

 

The defence is terrible. Weber is good. Alzner is good. Other than that.. yikes. Petry has regressed, Streit is done, Davidson is awful and Mete is young and not being used properly. He'll be gone before the 9 games.

 

The forwards are too easy to play against. There's little battle in them. Pacs floats, Gally gets knocked around, Galchenyuk is uninterested and Drouin has been good but invisible at times.

 

The worst of it - Price isn't stealing games. He's been good, but not the CO the Habs have banked on for years.

 

i smell a trade .. or a long season.

So now you don't think Drouin will get 81points?

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Man I thought I would use reverse psychology and be hard on this team thinking they would in then play good........ But man oh man are we in trouble. This 90's style D can't hold up against the speed of today's game. Who's the top pick in this years draft?????

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3 minutes ago, Habsfan1989 said:

Man I thought I would use reverse psychology and be hard on this team thinking they would in then play good........ But man oh man are we in trouble. This 90's style D can't hold up against the speed of today's game. Who's the top pick in this years draft?????

I used to use reverse psychology but I had it backwards. :huh:

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1 hour ago, Stogey24 said:

Can I just stir the pot here a bit and say that thus far(3 games, I know), from what I've seen, Drouin doesn't even come close to carrying an offense like Radulov. 

Radulov's grit+skill is exactly what we need again. This team with him would be wildly different. The addition of Drouin plus Rad would actually give us a great top 6

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A pop gun offense that is very likely worse than it was last year, and a dumpster fire on the blueline.  No surprises thus far for me at all: they are the team I thought they would be.  Schlemko and Juulsen getting healthy and being very good might help extinguish the dumpster fire and help the D corps take a big step up to mediocrity, but these forwards...hooboy.  Bargain Bin Bergevin has F-ed this team royally. 

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5 hours ago, Toronthab said:

It's too early to feel like a lifelong leafs fan... 

 

Hey, I've been saying for a while - the Bergevin Habs are the late 1990s Leafs.

 

Get used to it.

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5 hours ago, The Chicoutimi Cucumber said:

 

Hey, I've been saying for a while - the Bergevin Habs are the late 1990s Leafs.

 

Get used to it.

 

This is the perfect emote for the season:surrender:

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12 hours ago, TheDriveFor25 said:

It's only been a few games, but I was wrong about this team

 

I can just quote this part to hopefully prevent people from jumping off the cliff.

 

It's only been a few games, win or lose

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19:28 for Mete and he looked fine.

Easily outshoot Rangers, only gave up a flukey goal and the other goal was Drouin's man wide open in front of net for easy one.

I thought Davidson was a definite upgrade on Strait.

 6 shots for Lehkonen and he looked good.

 

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Is it just a matter of time before Weber is named captain?

 

"Victor Mete hasn’t looked bad so far, but you wonder if he performance is skewed by being with Weber most of the time and Weber being the best player on the team right now. At this point if Weber walked out next game with the “C” and everyone in the locker room was completely in support, it wouldn’t surprise me. Not to say Pacioretty has been bad, I don’t think he has. I just feel that Weber is leading by example and the team did play better tonight,..." Smillie

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Guest Stogey24

I'm sorry, but what idiot wrote that.

 

As for mete, he doesn't need Weber and he's proved that playing with Benn and Streit. Mete has played on his own two legs, not Webers.

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25 minutes ago, DON said:

 

3g in 3 games, remind me of the Playoff Habs, not the normal Oct version of Habs...so far.

 

I had to laugh - the Globe and Mail ran a piece this morning on how goal-scoring is off the chart to start the season, with quotes from coaches saying it's pond hockey, that teams have to adapt and crack down defensively, etc.

 

:1vomit:

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I think the team is struggling to find its rhythm. Too many new blue liners, and a new coach.  It kind of reminds me of the senators last season. It took about a month to get everyone on the same page.

 

I guess the silver lining here is that MB has 8mil and a bunch of picks in next years draft to deal to improve this team.  And now he has an opportunity to really see what the team needs. 

 

Glass half full?

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Or just go all in on the tank and get high picks for the draft.  Use that cap space to take on other teams bad contracts + first round picks and prospects. 

 

Make a couple of savvy trades to fill some holes. MAYBE GET ACTUAL CENTERS and not wingers who moonlight as centers. And hope for Carey to light it up next year. 

 

Or Just blow it up and go all in for John Tavares.  

 

so many options.  

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11 minutes ago, The Chicoutimi Cucumber said:

 

I had to laugh - the Globe and Mail ran a piece this morning on how goal-scoring is off the chart to start the season, with quotes from coaches saying it's pond hockey, that teams have to adapt and crack down defensively, etc.

 

:1vomit:

We all know that article was prompted by the Leafs hot scoring start

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3 hours ago, bar said:

 

This is the perfect emote for the season:surrender:

Yep we should just forfeit the rest of the season( insert sarcasm emoji here)

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29 minutes ago, Davehab said:

I think the team is struggling to find its rhythm. Too many new blue liners, and a new coach.  It kind of reminds me of the senators last season. It took about a month to get everyone on the same page.

 

I guess the silver lining here is that MB has 8mil and a bunch of picks in next years draft to deal to improve this team.  And now he has an opportunity to really see what the team needs. 

 

Glass half full?

 

Obviously, the team is not going to go 0-82 and score an average of one goal per game. There must indeed be an adjustment issue with the new players, and maybe even with CJ's newly-implemented systems (whatever they are). In fact, you make a good point about the coaching. One part of the team's problem is that its second or third most talented FW (Galy) is playing like a useless, confused rookie; and, amidst our speculations that he wants out or has lost confidence, we forget the third possibility that he may just be struggling to adjust to those new systems after five years of Therrien's garbage. At day's end, he just may not be very bright. But one thing is clear: the Habs have enough trouble scoring, without Galchenyuk being MIA. They need him.

 

In terms of the 8 mil, yes, hope lies there, in principle. Not too keen on trading picks, if only because I find myself with very little faith that an organization run by the current clown in the GM's office will ever win anything...so trading away the future just seems a recipe for eternal pain. At least with picks there is some sort of hope.

 

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I think the lines are all wrong right now and eventually Julien will put the right combos together to get the offence going. But this offence struggles partly because they have to carry the puck. So even if they get going, they are gonna have to work harder than other teams because the defence is only good at falling on the ice.

 

This team is absolute trash to watch right now. I find no enjoyment in watching the Canadiens or even discussing them these days. It's like having a good friend in a bad relationship. You want things to get better but you've been there multiple times when they said it would be over and it wasn't. And you have to listen to the excuses. And how things are not as bad as you think. And how you gotta trust them. And you want things to get better and you hope one day it will but as a great man once said, "The waiting is the hardest part."

 

The Habs are the worst kind of bad. There's still a lot of great talent that can win. They are not bad enough to build for the future. Not good enough to be a Cup contender.

 

Just waiting for the fall.

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I don’t know, to me the chances to score have been there... going all the way back to the playoffs. We just can’t bury our chances. It seems to me more and more as a “talent issue” rather then an adjustment to the system. 

 

On the defence 

 

Petry and Benn look weak and mistake prone thus far. Davidson played a decent game and Alzner Weber and mete were just fine!

 

mete is looking more and more  like an absolute 4th rd steal the more he plays. His composure and iQ are off the charts for a 19yr old. He’s daring on the pinch and is willing to hold the line more so with the belief he has the speed to recover as well as the confidence Weber will cover for him... I like him thus far. He’s got a great first pass and his stride is definitely better then most on the team. I think this guy ends up sticking all year unless he has an epic collapse in the next 6 games.

 

 

 

 

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48 minutes ago, Machine of Loving Grace said:

I think the lines are all wrong right now and eventually Julien will put the right combos together to get the offence going. But this offence struggles partly because they have to carry the puck. So even if they get going, they are gonna have to work harder than other teams because the defence is only good at falling on the ice.

 

This team is absolute trash to watch right now. I find no enjoyment in watching the Canadiens or even discussing them these days. It's like having a good friend in a bad relationship. You want things to get better but you've been there multiple times when they said it would be over and it wasn't. And you have to listen to the excuses. And how things are not as bad as you think. And how you gotta trust them. And you want things to get better and you hope one day it will but as a great man once said, "The waiting is the hardest part."

 

The Habs are the worst kind of bad. There's still a lot of great talent that can win. They are not bad enough to build for the future. Not good enough to be a Cup contender.

 

Just waiting for the fall.

 

I have the same basic attitude of fundamental non-belief in this organization, but again, the team is not going to be THIS bad all season. It will even have a hot streak at some point. There is probably a scoring explosion in the near future, some 6-2 win which will make us all feel better, before the club reverts to its norm of scratching and clawing for every goal; and even as it is clawing and scratching there will be stretches where it's reliably coming out on the right side of those 2-1 games. Whether it all adds up to a team that can win a playoff round, or even make the playoffs, remains to be seen.

 

The boldfaced part of your post is what really bothers me with the way this team is constructed. The D-corps is filled with "pass the puck out" guys rather than guys who can rush the puck. This puts a disproportionate weight on our FWs - who are, as a group, average to mediocre in terms of pure talent - to quarterback their own offence. Normal NHL teams in the modern era have had defencemen who can lead the rush and play that "quarterbacking" role. We called Markov The General for a reason - defencemen like him really are generals on the ice and add more value to an offence than even their stats show. Weber is a horse,  Sheldon Souray on steroids, but he does not play that kind of game. Petry is a second-tier guy of this type while Mete is 19. It's as if our GM missed the memo that this is not 1956. It's bizarre.

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55 minutes ago, Machine of Loving Grace said:

I think the lines are all wrong right now and eventually Julien will put the right combos together to get the offence going. But this offence struggles partly because they have to carry the puck. So even if they get going, they are gonna have to work harder than other teams because the defence is only good at falling on the ice.

 

This team is absolute trash to watch right now. I find no enjoyment in watching the Canadiens or even discussing them these days. It's like having a good friend in a bad relationship. You want things to get better but you've been there multiple times when they said it would be over and it wasn't. And you have to listen to the excuses. And how things are not as bad as you think. And how you gotta trust them. And you want things to get better and you hope one day it will but as a great man once said, "The waiting is the hardest part."

 

The Habs are the worst kind of bad. There's still a lot of great talent that can win. They are not bad enough to build for the future. Not good enough to be a Cup contender.

 

Just waiting for the fall.

I agree with some of this. The problem to me is when people stay on the same side of the argument regardless of the situation. My whole life, I've gone into every season expecting that the Canadiens would have a shot at the Stanley Cup. One could argue that this has been a naive view since we've only done it once and I don't even remember it. With that being said, this was the first off season I've gone in with the view that we legitimately don't have cup potential in October.

 

Sure a few years ago we we were the worst team in the league and we've had other years where injuries hurt us but this sentiment was different. Markov has been a Hab as long as I can remember and the team decided not to sign him when we have all this cap space available. I don't even want to get into how silly the excuse sounds coming from our GM, stating that players have market value and that Markov's wasn't as high as he felt. Markov had no set market value because the only team

he was willing to sign for was us. There

are basically no other players in the league like him. Relatively skilled for their age but would rather retire than play for 30 NHL teams. Also, who cares about market value when you are the Montreal Canadiens, can spend money, have a clear void in the lineup, and have the cap space to use anyway. Even if you pay Markov like a top 2 player and he doesn't play too 2 minutes, one can still imagine how we'd be better with Mete, Markov and Alzner on the left side. It doesn't take much to make our team that much better, and he was right there.

 

Some say things are fine at this point and direct attention to shot totals and things we've done well. I've been on that side before because there's nothing more I don't like than having Habs fans bash their own team. Other NHL teams love when teams get bashed by their own fan base and they become a laughing stalk. The way we've played so far was predictable however, based on the players we have dressed and the cap space we still have available.

 

The other side of the fence is that it is indeed too extreme to throw in the towel on the season. It is still too early to know what the rest of the season brings. Like any season, there will be moves and quite frankly as much as the negatives like to point out that there are no options out there for us to acquire anyone because of reasons 1, 2 and 3, I still to believe we can improve our team this season. Even trading Galchenyuk could be a good move it it brings us back a more effective player. "Oh but we didn't develop him

right, but he didn't get his chances, but he's a superstar..." Regardless of all that, there are moves that can be made and I tie my personal hope to the season on that.

 

Not for one minute did I ever assume that this Habs team wouldn't get better as the season went on. I still expect that to be the case. I don't agree that we had to go into the season with that being the case by such an obvious measure, but I still expect the team to improve as the season goes on, and that could be a good thing.

 

 

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I thought I made it clear that this isn't the worst but I guess not.

 

Julien will configure the lines and the forwards will get clicking. I see a lot of potential in them. Just the lines are wrong. The defence will be tweaked as well and get to at least a place where Price doesn't have to stop four straight screened shots in a powerplay every game.

 

But I don't see this as the worst, or the norm/average of the team, or their best. But it's closer to their norm than it is their worst. This is still a playoff team, but not much else.

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I don't necessarily think they are the worst and I didn't even want to make a post since there's some negativity going on and it would only seem like I was adding to it.  I just personally have viewed the Habs as cup contenders in the past when others haven't (even last season).

 

In August and September, it became hard for

me to see how we could win one this year with the way things transpired. We lost Radulov and Markov and they are two

very good players. We also lost a few other NHL caliber players. 

 

We replaced Danault with Drouin

We replaced Radulov with Gallagher

We replaced Markov with Mete

 

Sure this isn't exactly true but it's where they are in the lineup and while that 3 for 3 swap may be a decent trade overall, it's not a great trade in a 1 season sample size.

 

We're not a terrible team but for me it's been hard to see how we can be a contender when we have voids and cap space. I mean, one player doesn't make or break a team but does t it seem normal to assume that a team would have a better chance with a 5-6 million dollar player who is deserving of the space? For the record, I do consider Markov and Radulov deserving of those salaries. Plekanec is still more valuable to this team than given credit for but him, not so much.

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