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Dec. 27, Habs vs Hurricanes, 7 PM


dlbalr

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The Habs will look to get back over .500 on their seven-game road trip as they travel to Carolina to take on the Hurricanes.

 

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(Line ordering is based on recent TOI; d-pairings are guesses)

 

Max Pacioretty - Jonathan Drouin - Paul Byron

Artturi Lehkonen - Tomas Plekanec - Brendan Gallagher

Nicolas Deslauriers - Byron Froese - Daniel Carr

Alex Galchenyuk - Phillip Danault - Andrew Shaw

 

Karl Alzner - Jeff Petry

Jordie Benn - Joe Morrow

Jakub Jerabek - Brett Lernout

 

Carey Price

 

Scratches: Jacob de la Rose, Charles Hudon

Injuries: Ales Hemsky, Al Montoya, David Schlemko, Shea Weber

 

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Sebastian Aho - Jordan Staal - Teuvo Teravainen

Jeff Skinner - Victor Rask - Elias Lindholm

Brock McGinn - Derek Ryan - Justin Williams

Joakim Nordstrom - Marcus Kruger - Philip Di Giuseppe

 

Jaccob Slavin - Brett Pesce

Klas Dahlbeck - Justin Faulk

Noah Hanifin - Trevor van Riemsdyk

 

Cam Ward

 

Scratches: Haydn Fleury, Josh Jooris

Injuries: Lee Stempniak

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You know I look at this line up, and try to wrap my head around ways to make it more productive, I try to look at it in perspective. I am aware that Pacioretty and Drouin are producing well below their capabilities, that has its effect. I look at a guy like Galchenyuk just getting tossed around the line up the moment he farts the wrong way, that has its effect. I start to wonder if we just let Drouin try to get comfortable as a top center for the first time in his NHL career the entire season, or do we call it soon and Place him on the wing with Danault and Pacioretty, he would essentially become the Radulov, Shaw could go back to centering the 3rd line as he did last playoffs.

 

It is a whole lot of wondering, and tempting tinkering, but ultimately it just looks like more of the same problems with different names in the mix. No matter how I tilt my head and look at this thing, we are still a team that unless everything is going optimally with the players on this roster, it gets away from us pretty quickly. So far we could easily say it has been less than optimal for Price to have a rough injured start, Pacioretty having a career worst start, and Drouin slowing right down in his production the further along this season goes, like the noose is getting tighter instead of looser. 

 

We have to find away to string a very over .500 run for the next few weeks, before we have to start praying every week that the teams ahead of us crash and burn. And then what? does this team slipping in the back window of the playoffs matter? Does it have anymore than a snowballs chance in the desert to get past anyone in the top 3? Do we stress ourselves out over making the playoffs by the skin of our teeth just to get bounced out in 5 games? I need to see some positive roster moves in the next little while to get me re-invigorated for a playoff run, other wise I'd rather finish 12th than 9th. Also I think missing the playoffs would cement Bergevin's fate as Done at the end of the season, making it might tempt the ownership to keep him around another year to see if he can right the ship he is currently sailing into the rocks. For me personally, what he does in the next month or so with the moves he makes to improve this team or not will make or break my view on whether or not he deserves the chance to see this thing through. He has put himself in a spot with me, where unless he has a gangbuster next couple months, he basically needs to be cut loose at seasons end.

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20 minutes ago, Link67 said:

 I need to see some positive roster moves in the next little while to get me re-invigorated for a playoff run

I don't believe there

is much that can be done with

this lineup to make it more productive besides getting production from 67-27-92 ; maybe those that have said that these players need better offensive-D support to produce are right.

 

I hope January brings enough roster changes to give some hope of better days. I still follow the argument that believes "the plan" is to take a chance the team outperforms at some point to make a run in the playoffs; but I think they bank on loading the team this summer for the beginning of contending over the next couple of seasons 

 

That being said: let's trash the Hurricanes !!!!!! :)

 

 

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Just now, dlbalr said:

That was a much better period overall.  Nice to see Hudon get some chances which should help his case for staying in the lineup.

 

I thought he had built that case with his play for the entire season, but, hey, that's just me - I ain't the coach.

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11 minutes ago, Habber said:

What a trade!!! Sergachev for no-heart Drouin. His character sure showed when he quit  in Tampa.

 

 

Oh Yes, because Sergachev playing 18 min a night on this D instead of Drouin would have really made all the difference right? This team would be right in there battling with the Leafs and Tampa if only they still had Sergachev...

 

Drouin is slowly but surely showing signs that the task of centering a top line is probably suffocating him for a variety of reasons, that doesn't mean he is playing with no heart, or drive, he is simply struggling more and more to be productive from a position he is not as comfortable with as it was first thought. It is starting to make more and more sense why Tampa used him as a winger the whole time and why he looked much more dynamic and productive in Tampa than he does here.

 

Had we made the trade, and then used every available dollar to keep Radulov and Markov on this team instead of everything else that went down, we would VERY likely be in a different position right now. This team needed some extra punch up front after last season, the Drouin trade was a step in the right direction to that end, everything that followed it was the problem that has led to this very moment.

 

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