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The Team.....


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I presume no one knows what is wrong with this team otherwise they would have fixed it! So let's take a shot at figuring some things out. 

 

We've talked about or are talking about Bergevin so let's not  go there for now, except maybe for a few comments.

 

Here are some of the components that I believe are all possible factors as to why we are second last in the entire NHL as of today, in no particular order. Both Negative and Positive signs.

 

Negative:

 

1. Character: MB said he would build his team on character. There seems to be not even one person who is standing up capable of leading this team in the room or on the ice.

 

2. Skill: Are we really this bad? With Price and Max P. in a slump is there nothing else available, no one who can begin to pick up the slack and score some goals? Shockingly, it appears there may not be. I think we know what Max and Carrey are but after that have we overvalued many of our players. Are we a lousy team overall??  

 

3. Defence: MB's statement earlier this season or preseason that he believed this years defence was better than last years. At this point this rivals some of Brian Burke's outrageous statements about who and what the Leafs were going to be during his years running that franchise, and they need up being terrible, laughable. Other than Mete we seem to have slow, not very skilled defencemen. Petry, Alzner, Benn, they all seem lost and constantly getting beat and hung out to dry. 

 

4. Forwards: They can skate and rush the puck and in spurts control parts of games effectively, but it seems no one can put the puck in the net. But at other times they also appear disorganized, fragile [after only 8 regular season games??], and look to me like some are playing just to get paid or to get traded [Alex??].

 

5. Goalies: Terrible GA, terrible Save %, easy goals going in, confidence gone? Where is our goalie coach?? 

 

6. Talent Evaluators: At this point you have to ask, you have to wonder...really? Did MB and Rick Dudley, who I've heard and read many times that they have reputations in the NHL as well above average talent evaluators, really choose this group and put this team together?? I wonder if it was more that MB was caught totally by surprise when he lost Markov and Radulov and went out and signed what he could....Streit and Hemsky? If that's true that very poor preparation and asset management. I always wondered, if their concern was they would lose Beaulieu in the draft why then did they trade Beaulieu and then also expose Emelin. I can't say I'm an expert on evaluating defensemen but weren't these guys better than some of what we have now?? 

 

Positive:

 

1. It can't be this bad: Hopefully we will steal a game, outwork a team for 60 minutes and begin to string together some wins and maybe sneak into the playoffs. I know, what's the point of sneaking into the playoffs and getting annihilated in the first round. 

 

2. Max P,  Drouin and our top 9 will begin to score and get their confidence back.

 

3. Carey Price will get back to being his regular self and stop the weak goals and steal a few games for us.

 

4.  MB $8 million dollar reserve will bring in one or two really good quality players to help us get back on track and build for the future.

 

 

Prediction:

 

I know it's early, but I personally don't see a lot of hope, maybe a little, but not a lot.

We do have some good players but a lot that need to be replaced by younger, quicker, more skilled players.

The only positive, if we continue like this and miss the playoffs is some good draft picks and with one or two really good free agents and again, our $8 million dollars, we may be able to turn this around within a year.

But as previously stated in another thread, I now have lost confidence that MB should be the man to take us into a partial rebuild, if it comes to that.

 

What do you think? 

 

 

 

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Team?

 

What team?

 

I don’t see no team. 

 

They have collectively all dialed out out right now. 

 

Why?

 

You're guess is as good as mine. Time to either strip patches of the “C” or move him out of town. 

 

You can’t come out and openly say that you are the worst of the bunch and then not throw your body into the fire. 

 

Its either patches or Bergevin right now. 

 

Who do you pick?

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Patches playeda darn good game after making those comments.  I dont see that "he didnt throw himself into the fire"

 

I also dont see a team that gets 30 shots in a period as being a team of players that has dialed out.

 

The lossesare frustrating.. but that doesnt make a narrative that the team js giving no effort true.

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7 minutes ago, Commandant said:

I think this roster is good enough to be a playoff team... even win the division.

 

I have no confidence in MB to get it to the next level

 

My exact thoughts as well.

 

 

We should be a playoff team, should be battling it out with Tampa and Toronto for the division, But if MB is capable of building anything more than that, I would be as shocked as anyone. the team does not need a rebuild, it has 8 million in cap, solid pieces all over the place and lacks a few elements to take it to the next level. It doesn't seem that Bergevin knows how to take it out of this state, and we very likely need a new vision and plan to evolve it further, or else it will continue to regress little by little in the coming years until we have become  nothing more than an opportunity that fizzled away.

 

There is a 10% chance Bergevin starts making decision and moves to get this train rolling during the season, save his job, and get us looking like a formidable team. There is a 90% chance he is fired by the end of it, and a new regime takes a go with this team for a few years before deciding if we tear it all down or not.

 

Those are my thoughts on this current state of things.

 

 

 

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23 minutes ago, Commandant said:

Patches playeda darn good game after making those comments.  I dont see that "he didnt throw himself into the fire"

 

I also dont see a team that gets 30 shots in a period as being a team of players that has dialed out.

 

The lossesare frustrating.. but that doesnt make a narrative that the team js giving no effort true.

 

I'm with you. But I will say that the team has to start getting rewarded soon - say, within the next for or five games - or else a critical mass of players will indeed start checking out.

 

As for Bergevin, he has had a team for five years that looks as though it just needs 'a few extra pieces.' We're living in a fan version of Groundhog Day. Putting faith in Bergevin is, by this point, an act that conforms to the definition of insanity - doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different result. He is hapless and has had five years to prove this over and over.

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Canadiens record in 2017 including 2016-2017 season, 2017 playoffs, and 2017-2018 season: 28-27-0-5

 

I agree 100% with Commandant that this club can still make the playoffs and maybe win the division. That defence though is bad and getting worse not better. It's starting to make me think this will be a wildcard team at best. 

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Guest Stogey24

Last season it took 95 points to make the playoffs in the Eastern Conference, so the Canadiens will now need 92 points over 74 games to hit that mark. That works out to a 46-28 record — depending on how many loser points they might get in overtime

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1 hour ago, Link67 said:

 There is a 90% chance he is fired by the end of it,

He has contract through the 2021-22 season, Molson might not be too keen to fire him or convert him to high paid scout.:spamafote:

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2 hours ago, The Chicoutimi Cucumber said:

 

I'm with you. But I will say that the team has to start getting rewarded soon - say, within the next for or five games - or else a critical mass of players will indeed start checking out.

 

As for Bergevin, he has had a team for five years that looks as though it just needs 'a few extra pieces.' We're living in a fan version of Groundhog Day. Putting faith in Bergevin is, by this point, an act that conforms to the definition of insanity - doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different result. He is hapless and has had five years to prove this over and over.

I agree with everything. They haven't checked out yet, but they've been giving it their all and there comes a point where they'll stop believing and start accepting. 

 

As for Bergevin, that's completely true. The main difference is the cap space this season. There hasn't been any great solution as to how we could use it seeing as we'd have to send players the other way or even take back a large contract but the fact remains that moves should be expected this season and it's partially because we have that cap space. The type of move made may simply depend on the timing and where we are in the standings when it happens. 

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1 hour ago, DON said:

He has contract through the 2021-22 season, Molson might not be too keen to fire him or convert him to high paid scout.:spamafote:

 

No I am sorry, if this season ends up being a circus that sees us free falling for most of the year and the main issues stem from a defense he thought would be better, and a lack of elements while we sit around with 8 million in cap, then he must be fired, contract or not, this was his last season in my eyes to prove he could take this thing a step forward. Thus far it looks like the furthest thing from that, it had looked all along that it would be more of the same, sideways, type of year, but in fact it is starting to look more grim than that. He will not be sparred like he was while price was hurt, this is his team he put together and clamored about being better at the golf tournament that is faltering out there. This is his coach he put in place and trusted to make his pieces work, who is out there trying to get them playing 60 min the way he is asking them to. He has to own it, one way or another, Schlemko is the only piece of his vision that is missing out there, and we all know he will be a nice complimentary piece to add, but the furthest thing from what will right this ship..

 

So again, I insist, if this team can't be pushed forward with a few solid management moves in the coming weeks and redeem itself, along with its season, he should be removed at the end of the season. I have a hard time envisioning the first part of that outcome coming to fruition, which leaves me to believe this is likely his last season at the helm.

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5 hours ago, Link67 said:

 

No I am sorry, if this season ends up being a circus that sees us free falling for most of the year and the main issues stem from a defense he thought would be better, and a lack of elements while we sit around with 8 million in cap, then he must be fired, contract or not, this was his last season in my eyes to prove he could take this thing a step forward. Thus far it looks like the furthest thing from that, it had looked all along that it would be more of the same, sideways, type of year, but in fact it is starting to look more grim than that. He will not be sparred like he was while price was hurt, this is his team he put together and clamored about being better at the golf tournament that is faltering out there. This is his coach he put in place and trusted to make his pieces work, who is out there trying to get them playing 60 min the way he is asking them to. He has to own it, one way or another, Schlemko is the only piece of his vision that is missing out there, and we all know he will be a nice complimentary piece to add, but the furthest thing from what will right this ship..

 

So again, I insist, if this team can't be pushed forward with a few solid management moves in the coming weeks and redeem itself, along with its season, he should be removed at the end of the season. I have a hard time envisioning the first part of that outcome coming to fruition, which leaves me to believe this is likely his last season at the helm.

 

I'm pretty sure Molson can afford the financial hit of paying Bergevin to do nothing but collect designer suits for four years. And don't forget, a bad GM means lost playoff revenue. What he maybe can't afford is being pilloried every time he walks down Ste Catherine's St, which is what will happen to him if the season turns into a disaster. The Randy Cunneyworth debacle shows how much he cares about public opinion. If things go completely pear-shaped, I say he pulls the trigger - the only question being, how soon.

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After 'Max Patioready" gave me a good hearty laugh after the conclusion of the playoffs last season, I thought I'd seen the ultimate play on our lax Captain's name....until today.  I found this gem while perusing another fan forum:

 

" After watching this guy float around lifelessly for the majority of the season and listening to his emotionless interviews I thought "this guy belongs in a wax museum."

Captain Wax Statueretty? "

 

:lol:

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I presume no one knows what is wrong with this team otherwise they would have fixed it! So let's take a shot at figuring some things out. 

 

 

Wrong, i know whats wrong with the team....Bergavin  screwed up a contender roster over the summer. Andrei Markov is the backbone of the Habs defense core. He's holds things together in the lockeroom, the only player that was with the habs since beginning (17 years). He was disrespected by Bergavin and that has a moral effect on the players as well to a certain degree. You cannot replace Markov, even though hes old he is an elite player and brings a lot to the table...Also Radulov shouldve been signed..who cares about Alzner, dont need him. Get Markov Radulov signed first

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Guest Stogey24
43 minutes ago, sbhatt said:

After 'Max Patioready" gave me a good hearty laugh after the conclusion of the playoffs last season, I thought I'd seen the ultimate play on our lax Captain's name....until today.  I found this gem while perusing another fan forum:

 

" After watching this guy float around lifelessly for the majority of the season and listening to his emotionless interviews I thought "this guy belongs in a wax museum."

Captain Wax Statueretty? "

 

:lol:

That's good 

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