Jump to content

Looking back on the 2019 season


xXx..CK..xXx

Recommended Posts

Was this season a disappointment? Encouraging? An overachievement? A sign of progress? What’s your 2019 year in review when it comes to dissecting the Habs season?

 

Personally, I’m not the type of fan who ever thinks there’s been a successful season when the team misses the playoffs. With that being said, this is likely the first season where while I’m not satisfied, I can safely say that the team as a whole played quite well throughout most of the season. Near the end, it was Carey who was shining. However at the beginning of the year, we had a team who actually won games for our goalie. Something I cannot remember from years past.

 

Some negatives included the power play, as well as the reality that we never seemed to be that team who could come back in the late stages of a game. Perhaps these two things are intertwined. We were a better counter attack team who played quickly off the rush, as opposed to a team who could flourish at a relative stand still while set up in the offensive zone with an extra man.

 

The team got 96 points and I remember 100 points being a decent barrier. Call that a naive statement with points inflation and such but the point (no pun intended) still remains that 96 points is the most a team has ever achieved while missing the playoffs at the same time. In an irrational way, while a first round exit is still enough for teams to get butchered by their fan base, one has to feel sorry for this team who almost deserved to have a chance.

 

There are tankers who enjoy 65 point seasons, but I prefer a year like this in terms of assessing the team in a positive way.

 

Here are some random off the head thoughts about this season and you guys can feel free to list any of your own thoughts.

 

2019 season

 

Best player: Max Domi

 

Favorite addition: Tomas Tatar

 

Biggest disappointment: Missing the playoffs

 

Biggest surprise: Jesperi Kotkaniemi (wanted Zadina)

 

Positives

Entertaining stretches 

Carey Price’s finish

Jesperi Kotkanieni 

Team Battled Hard

Domi played well and was leading scorer 

Tatar replaced and surpassed offensive stats lost in trade

Gallagher getting better 

Défense was better overall than anyone gives credit 

Poehling’s last game

 

Negatives

Power Kill 

Mete never scored

Missed the playoffs

Could not be counted on to reverse the outcomes of games late in contests 

Sub-par overtime play

Lack of trade deadline movement (personal choice)

Anti Niemi

 

So was the season an overall disappointment or encouraging?

 

While missing the playoffs was certainly disappointing, having watched every game, the team played well in general and so while I’m mad at them, I don’t hate them. 

 

 

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Best player: Gallagher (on and off the ice)

Favorite addition: Tatar (honourable mention to Weal)

Biggest disappointment: Power play

Biggest surprise: Strength of 5-on-5 play

 

Positives

Speed!

Price (later in the season)

Domi, Gallagher, Tatar, Kotkaniemi

Poehling’s debut

 

Negatives

Power play

Backup goaltending (combination of Niemi's confidence and how he was used)

Third periods (later in the season)

Weise, Hudon

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Best player --- Price , Gallagher 

Favorite addition -- Tatar, weal, 

Biggest surprise -- Domi, Kotkaniemi, Kulak 

Most disappointed  -- Drouin 

 

Take a ways -- for the first time since we won the cup in '93 the Habs in the next 3 years will be strong at center.

Domi 

Kotkaniemi 

Poehling 

Suzuki 

Danault 

 

We need to address the Need for a QB on the power play and I think we can make some noise in the playoffs next year if we address that need.

 

Addition's July 1st I would like to see 

Skinner 

Gardiner 

 

Tatar - Danault  - Gallagher 

Skinner -  Domi  - Drouin 

Byron  - Kotkaniemi  - Armia 

Lehkonen  - Weal - Shaw

 

Gardiner  - Weber 

Mete - Petry 

Kulak  - ? UFA/trade/rookie 

 

Price 

Lindgren 

 

That would be a strong line up 

 

 

 

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

1 hour ago, tomh009 said:

Skinner would likely cost almost $10M for a long-term contract. Would he really be worth that much to us?

I don't think he would. I think in between 

6-7mil 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

1 hour ago, Chris said:

Someone will over pay for skinner, they always do. 

 

Habs need to focus on defense, back up goalie

Yeah who am i kidding lol, I could see someone giving him 9mil.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

2 hours ago, Metallica said:

I don't think he would. I think in between 

6-7mil 

 

The talk earlier was that discussions between him and the Sabres were in the 8-9 million range.  He made $6 million in salary this season and had a career year so he'll be getting more than just a small raise.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

1 hour ago, dlbalr said:

 

The talk earlier was that discussions between him and the Sabres were in the 8-9 million range.  He made $6 million in salary this season and had a career year so he'll be getting more than just a small raise.

Remind me again why we had all those lock outs to keep salaries down again ?.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

1 hour ago, dlbalr said:

The talk earlier was that discussions between him and the Sabres were in the 8-9 million range.  He made $6 million in salary this season and had a career year so he'll be getting more than just a small raise.

 

This. And we would likely need to pay more in order to pry him out of Buffalo (am I really writing this?).

 

And his 5-on-5 scoring is not much more than Gallagher. I didn't look at the advanced stats, though.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

2 hours ago, Metallica said:

Remind me again why we had all those lock outs to keep salaries down again ?.

 

Players get 50% of revenue.  Thats why we had lockouts.

 

If salaries are rising its because revenues are rising.

  • Upvote 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

12 hours ago, Commandant said:

Players get 50% of revenue.  Thats why we had lockouts.

 

If salaries are rising its because revenues are rising.

 

And if revenues are rising it's because ticket prices are rising and the cost of televised games is rising.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

13 hours ago, Commandant said:

 

Players get 50% of revenue.  Thats why we had lockouts.

 

If salaries are rising its because revenues are rising.

 

Exactly. Who cares what players make in absolute terms? The only thing we should care about is how much a player makes as a % of the cap hit. I find a lot of the time there is confusion between these two issues, with fans acting all shocked that Player X got Y amount of dollars, without factoring in rising cap ceilings.

  • Upvote 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

2 hours ago, tomh009 said:

 

And if revenues are rising it's because ticket prices are rising and the cost of televised games is rising.

 

Yup but that is supply and demand in the market place.  

 

People assume the cause of rising prices is the salaries... but its the opposite.  Its the ticket prices that set the salaries.  And if the tickets get too expensive and don't sell then salaries would go down.  As long as the revenues are coming in the cap will keep increasing and players will get paid more.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

100+ would be great. I end up paying online scalping companies like vivid or StubHub as much as 500 for good seats. The league doesn't get most the money made from hockey games. Scalpers do. 

  • Upvote 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

44 minutes ago, BCHabnut said:

100+ would be great. I end up paying online scalping companies like vivid or StubHub as much as 500 for good seats. The league doesn't get most the money made from hockey games. Scalpers do. 

 

I hear you. The funny thing about scalping, though, is that it seems to reveal the actual market value of tickets. It's like when you see tickets for a concert being sold for hundreds of dollars over asking price...sure, the scalpers are gouging scum, but on the other side, the fact that those tickets sell at those prices ironically suggests that the original asking price was much too low.  If you're Bruce Springsteen, you probably can easily charge $1000 per ticket for a show at a small theatre. The fact that you don't seems to be about PR rather than what the market is actually willing to bear. Similarly, if hockey teams are charging $200 for tickets that sell at three times that, then in fact the teams are under-estimating the demand for their own product.

  • Upvote 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

4 hours ago, Peter Puck said:

Plus, I would be much happier paying $400 for a Habs ticket when the money goes to the team instead of some scalper.

 

Well... maybe if they spend to the cap...

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

×
×
  • Create New...