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Shea Weber named Captain


dlbalr

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Much to my chagrin, the Habs went and named a captain for the upcoming season.  Shea Weber gets the nod with Paul Byron and Brendan Gallagher as the alternates.  Management made the choice, not a team vote this time.

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7 minutes ago, Metallica said:

Guess this means he will be traded soon ?

Traded him to the leafs today in NHL19 for Timothy Liljegren and Marleau planning my own rebuild. ?

Also managed to send Alzner to the bruins for pics. 

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8 minutes ago, Dalhabs said:

Traded him to the leafs today in NHL19 for Timothy Liljegren and Marleau planning my own rebuild. ?

Also managed to send Alzner to the bruins for pics. 

 

Marc Bergevin:  (furrows brow furiously)

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21 minutes ago, Dalhabs said:

Traded him to the leafs today in NHL19 for Timothy Liljegren and Marleau planning my own rebuild. ?

Also managed to send Alzner to the bruins for pics. 

Been playing nhl19 also but I made my own expansion team and did the expansion draft.

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45 minutes ago, dlbalr said:

Much to my chagrin, the Habs went and named a captain for the upcoming season.  Shea Weber gets the nod with Paul Byron and Brendan Gallagher as the alternates.  Management made the choice, not a team vote this time.

why chagrin?

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6 minutes ago, JoeLassister said:

No surprise here.  90% of the refs around the league hate Gallagher...

You polled the refs? Or pulling that stat out of thin air?

 

I ask because over the last 3 seasons combined, he has combined all of 100pims or so, so your claim seems bit hard to believe.

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49 minutes ago, DON said:

why chagrin?

 

I didn't want a captain named.  Considering there was a lot of support for Gallagher to get it, this will make a lot of fans mad and start the next version of Subban vs Pacioretty, especially since it wasn't even a team vote this time.  Naming a captain, in my opinion, does more harm than good.

 

We were going to run a Writers Weigh In piece today about what to do with the captaincy but clearly, there's no need now.  This was my argument for not naming a captain:

Has everyone forgotten the controversy that came about when the last captain was chosen?  It pitted one player (Max Pacioretty) against the other (P.K. Subban) in the eyes of the fan base and how long did it take for that controversy to go away?  (Oh yeah, it’s still going on even though both are gone.)

Then there’s Pacioretty admitting that the weight of the ‘C’ got to him and made him put more internal pressure on himself.  That’s not a good thing and played a role in his struggles last year (and subsequent trade to Vegas).

I’d also suggest that the Habs don’t have a great in-house option for this season.  Weber is one but he’s going to miss at least two months.  Gallagher is admired for his heart and hustle but he’s hated by officials for his tendencies to mouth off and embellish from time to time.  Considering a big part of being the captain is talking with the referees frequently, that’s not ideal.

Those players aren’t going to talk any more or less to the media whether or not they have the ‘C’.  They’re going to be frequently interviewed one way or the other so it’s not as if naming a captain shifts any obligations on that end either.

Carey Price is the real leader of this team and he’s the one that’s going to shoulder the weight of this team for the long haul.  However, he can’t be named captain.  So instead, do the next best thing - don’t name one.  Have the three alternates with Price as the de facto captain without the actual letter on his sweater.  That’s the truest reflection of the leadership group and it can be done without the PR nightmare that will inevitably ensue if they actually do name a captain.  More teams are going away from naming one realizing it can sometimes do more harm than good.  It’s time Montreal follows suit.

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27 minutes ago, DON said:

You polled the refs? Or pulling that stat out of thin air?

 

I ask because over the last 3 seasons combined, he has combined all of 100pims or so, so your claim seems bit hard to believe.

Out of thin air, but based on the number of calls that he gets and that guys like Tavares wouldn't.

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I think this might confirm that the organization thinks they don't have to rebuild and just a refresh was needed. Does not inspire much confidence for me.

 

That said good for Weber. Probably the only guy who can say no to Price so the locker will respect him unlike Pacioretty. Except something inside of me is a little angry because there was an argument back in the day we couldn't name Markov captain if he was injured long term and here we did it with Shea. A whole lot of our captain issues in the past would have been solved if Markov got the C after Koivu and held it all the way up until his retirement/exile by Bergevin. 

 

First Canadian captain since Damphousse for those who care about that sort of thing.

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I never had much doubt. First of all, Weber is a sound choice on its own terms: a universally respected veteran. But more important from the perspective of management, the whole rationale for acquiring him has nothing to do with hockey and everything to do with his LEADERSHIP. So for them to not name him captain would be tantamount to admitting that The Trade was a mistake, which they obviously cannot do. In other words, Bergevin's ego absolutely required that Weber be named captain; so even if Weber is a disastrous choice (which he's clearly not) he would still be the guy.

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Weber makes the most sense.  Gallagher is as much a pest as he is a skilled player, and isn't very well liked by the officials, so I think that has to be a consideration in naming a captain.  Gallagher would not command the respect from officials that Weber can when communicating on the ice.  I also don't want Gallagher to bear that cross...let him focus on pushing for 30 goals.

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Good choice 

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1 hour ago, JoeLassister said:

Out of thin air, but based on the number of calls that he gets and that guys like Tavares wouldn't.

I think he has gained some respect of all in NHL, he doesn't accidently-on purpose fall on goalies as often anymore and scored 31 goals simply from working his ass off all season long on a bad team. Am sure 30 other GMs would love to see him on their roster.

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16 minutes ago, DON said:

I think he has gained some respect of all in NHL, he doesn't accidently-on purpose fall on goalies as often anymore and scored 31 goals simply from working his ass off all season long on a bad team. Am sure 30 other GMs would love to see him on their roster.

I keep comparing them, coincidently, because it’s been for different reasons, but would you envision Marchand succeeding Chara as captain Boston? It’s similar. 

 

I would have been fine with Gallagher as captain but I think the clear choice is Weber. He’s more like the Chara compared to Marchand, regardless of Weber’s length of tenure with us.

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15 minutes ago, DON said:

I think he has gained some respect of all in NHL, he doesn't accidently-on purpose fall on goalies as often anymore and scored 31 goals simply from working his ass off all season long on a bad team. Am sure 30 other GMs would love to see him on their roster.

 

Agreed.

 

The “officials don’t like Gallagher” is worn out news. The guy is 100% heart and soul and probably next in line for the captaincy.

 

I remember his first season on opening night when the camera panned to him (he didn’t dress). 

 

You could see the “You guys are making huge mistake” in his eyes. Gotta love the dedication.

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15 minutes ago, zumpano21 said:

The “officials don’t like Gallagher” is worn out news. The guy is 100% heart and soul and probably next in line for the captaincy.

1

 

Both statements can be true though.  He's a heart and soul player and most referees don't like him.  He already got into it with an official once in the preseason when he decided to argue a justified penalty call.  He does not get the benefit of the doubt from most officials and argues calls too often.  That has been out there for years because it's true to this day.

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1 hour ago, dlbalr said:

 

 and most referees don't like him.

Come on...34pims last year in 82 games. = 1 minor/4.8games

So a different player who gets the benefit of doubt would only have 20pims or 10? Is that realistic for a guy who plays as much as he does?

Numbers dont lie, seems BS that refs call him more often for penalties.

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17 minutes ago, DON said:

Come on...34pims last year in 82 games. = 1 minor/4.8games

So a different player who gets the benefit of doubt would only have 20pims or 10? Is that realistic for a guy who plays as much as he does?

Numbers dont lie, seems BS that refs call him more often for penalties.

It's not the amount of penalties, it's the penalties themselves.

It's always some BS  goalie interference  before/during scrums around the net.

Half of the penalties he took last season were definitely not blatant penalties.  And among these, I suspect that guys like Tavares or Weber would have avoided like 75% of them.

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12 minutes ago, JoeLassister said:

It's not the amount of penalties, it's the penalties themselves.

It's always some BS  goalie interference  before/during scrums around the net.

Half of the penalties he took last season were definitely not blatant penalties.  And among these, I suspect that guys like Tavares or Weber would have avoided like 75% of them.

1 penalty every 5 games...good god who cares what is called for?

We all love him going hard to net....dont we?

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