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Feb 21, Montreal @ Ottawa, 7PM EST


TurdBurglar

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Well, geez. I honestly thought we were the better team for most of the night. Sens did a good job of collapsing in front of their net and blocking out the slot, and our PP stunk. That, plus some poor execution in OT, made the difference.

 

They have too many offensive passengers up front - Danault and Gallagher need to produce, man - and maybe most critically, the blueline is simply not providing much supplemental offensive push. It is time to get Kulak back in the lineup for sure. AND KEEP HIM THERE. I don’t like Mete’s game down low, but I still say I would leave him and Kulak in and subtract Edmundson. That’s not a knock on Edmundson, who has played well; the problem is that we have too many big, lumbering slowfoots on the back end. And say, where is Weber’s cannon from the point, anyway? He doesn’t seem to be getting it off like he used to.

 

Bleh.

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I was hoping the Habs would go back to playing the system they were playing at the beginning of the year or in last playoffs: relentless on the forecheck, speed on all lines and driving the net.

 

Well, that didn't happen. At least not the parts of the game I watched (1st & 3rd period)

 

Seeing Romanov flat on his stomach trying to poke the puck on that first goal was almost as upsetting as seeing Mete bounce off at his blue line and try to catch up there after.

 

I liked KK's game and Allen made MB look good again.

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1 minute ago, alfredoh2009 said:

I was hoping the Habs would go back to playing the system they were playing at the beginning of the year or in last playoffs: relentless on the forecheck, speed on all lines and driving the net.

 

Well, that didn't happen. At least not the parts of the game I watched (1st & 3rd period)

 

Seeing Romanov flat on his stomach trying to poke the puck on that first goal was almost as upsetting as seeing Mete bounce off at his blue line and try to catch up there after.

 

I liked KK's game and Allen made MB look good again.

 

Agree on KK. I don’t know the minutes totals from this game, but at this point I would like to see KK used as our #2C and Danault framed as a primarily defensive 3rd line C. KK is rounding into form, Danault is providing all the offence of a Brian Skrudland.

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I think the habs record was inflated, as were their egos, by playing Vancouver.  They were flying high and confident by some easy wins... while the team did improve over the summer we didn’t go from a complete dog to a top tier team... this is a middle of the road team. They will have some good streaks and some bad streaks..

 

sad to day, the habs are not nearly as good as the leafs.. if we were in our regular division we would be on the bubble. Boston and Toronto are significantly better teams. 
 

still.. we have dropped two games to Ottawa... that is not a good sign...

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Julien is an idiot at times. 
 

Playing Chairot in OT was dumb. 3vs3 against a young, fast team is stupid!

 

Slow ass Chairot!

 

Is Playing Chairot a move to try and win? No it’s a move to try not to lose -slow ass Chairot.   
 

It is this thinking from CJ that got him fired in Boston and I hope he gets fired here too

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7 hours ago, The Chicoutimi Cucumber said:

 

Agree on KK. I don’t know the minutes totals from this game, but at this point I would like to see KK used as our #2C and Danault framed as a primarily defensive 3rd line C. KK is rounding into form, Danault is providing all the offence of a Brian Skrudland.


i have a feeling we will. Or see a change like that before next

week. Seems like CJ makes changes after a periodic number of games ( after 10 games, after 20% of games, etc)

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2 hours ago, Prime Minister Koivu said:

Julien is an idiot at times. 
 

Playing Chairot in OT was dumb. 3vs3 against a young, fast team is stupid!

 

Slow ass Chairot!

 

Is Playing Chairot a move to try and win? No it’s a move to try not to lose -slow ass Chairot.   
 

It is this thinking from CJ that got him fired in Boston and I hope he gets fired here too

 

I remember going 'why is Chiarot out there' when I saw him.  Sadly, he may have been the one who played the best among the D in the OT although that's a really low bar to clear.  Given Mete's speed and the fact that OT is transition-heavy, that seems like a good spot to try to use him.

 

1 hour ago, Prime Minister Koivu said:


I thought Tatar looked pretty good. I wonder why he was benched?

 

Or is he hurt?

 

Benched.  He was benched for stretches of the Toronto game as well.  He does not have Julien's confidence right now, that's for sure.

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Just now, dlbalr said:

 

I remember going 'why is Chiarot out there' when I saw him.  Sadly, he may have been the one who played the best among the D in the OT although that's a really low bar to clear.  Given Mete's speed and the fact that OT is transition-heavy, that seems like a good spot to try to use him.

 

 

Benched.  He was benched for stretches of the Toronto game as well.  He does not have Julien's confidence right now, that's for sure.


I thought Tatar looked pretty good and the KK line was dangerous again. Yet KK line does not get much ice time. 
 

Why not bench Danault? He is not doing well at all. 
 

Part of our struggles are due to important vets in decline:

 

Weber, Price, Danault 

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You can count me in among those assigning a share of the blame to the coaching staff.  Icetime does not seem to be indicative of performance for many, a week of practices seems to have done nothing to cure the special teams woes, and I have yet to see a mid-game shift in strategy that effectively countered what our opponents were doing to give us difficulties.  We need more from Julien/Muller/Ducharme/Richardson as much as we need more from Tatar/Gallagher/Danault/Drouin

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While I’m not a Julien hater by any means, I don’t think this is the first time he’s thrown slowfoots out there in OT. I can’t document this, and may be talking through my hat, but it seems a fairly regular occurrence that I find myself asking “why is so-and-so out there in OT?” during his tenure.

 

And in general, I find myself growing a bit frustrated by the way our D are used. The coach seems to identify certain guys as “reliable defencemen” and then use them in any situation, irrespective of whether they seem to be too slow for that situation. E.g., 

 

-he keeps shuttling Kulak out of the lineup, but Edmundson is a lock

-he keeps putting Chiarot and Weber together and gives them huge minutes, even though both are lumbering and struggle against a high-octane forecheck

-he throws a plumber like Chiarot out there in OT

 

I would like to see the team start by having one puck-moving quality skater on each defensive pairing. Do that much, at least.

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12 hours ago, tomh009 said:

Why on earth does Julien get Suzuki to take the faceoff in OT, when it is so critical?

 

Habs were pinned in their own end for over the last minute before the game losing goal, but that was not due to the opening face-off ... and when he puts Danault out to start O/T others critique him for initially ceding the offensive game to the opposition

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5 minutes ago, GHT120 said:

 

Habs were pinned in their own end for over the last minute before the game losing goal, but that was not due to the opening face-off ... and when he puts Danault out to start O/T others critique him for initially ceding the offensive game to the opposition

 

Yeah, when you have one good face off man, it is impossible to use him in every situation where we need a FO win.

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10 minutes ago, The Chicoutimi Cucumber said:

 

Yeah, when you have one good face off man, it is impossible to use him in every situation where we need a FO win.

 

An interesting target might be Luke Glendening with Detroit ...RHC 67.2 % on faceoffs ... 4th line minutes, so not a key player ... but $1.8 cap-hit, which makes a cap-balanced trade difficult

 

Beagle in Van is another option ... another RHC, with 55.7% face-off success ... but $3 million cap-hit and a M-NTC, so it would also take some planning

 

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I'm not sure if it was the beer, but in overtime it seemed like the Habs were confused as to how to play hockey. No idea about positioning or who to cover, and so passive they looked scared to make a play. The more overtimes this team plays the more it seems like a coaching issue. If you aren't trying to win you are going to lose. 

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46 minutes ago, illWill said:

I'm not sure if it was the beer, but in overtime it seemed like the Habs were confused as to how to play hockey. No idea about positioning or who to cover, and so passive they looked scared to make a play. The more overtimes this team plays the more it seems like a coaching issue. If you aren't trying to win you are going to lose. 

 

OT was a disaster. That clown Tony Marinaro was breaking down the GWG on the radio this morning, and he made the point that none of our guys knew who their man was on that goal.

 

I may be wrong, but it seems to me that that atrocious OT has coloured fans' response to that game, a game which, to my eye, the Habs were the better team overall.

 

1 hour ago, GHT120 said:

 

An interesting target might be Luke Glendening with Detroit ...RHC 67.2 % on faceoffs ... 4th line minutes, so not a key player ... but $1.8 cap-hit, which makes a cap-balanced trade difficult

 

Beagle in Van is another option ... another RHC, with 55.7% face-off success ... but $3 million cap-hit and a M-NTC, so it would also take some planning

 

 

The Canucks are desperate for cap space and would certainly be eager to discharge that comically dumb contract. We might even be able to get a pick thrown in. But I'm not sure it's a good idea to have that $3 mil on the cap next season for the Habs either.

 

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13 minutes ago, The Chicoutimi Cucumber said:

 

OT was a disaster. That clown Tony Marinaro was breaking down the GWG on the radio this morning, and he made the point that none of our guys knew who their man was on that goal.

 

I may be wrong, but it seems to me that that atrocious OT has coloured fans' response to that game, a game which, to my eye, the Habs were the better team overall.

 

 


We certainly had chances but the same issues were loud and clear

 

PP was awful again

D slow as hell

unable to mount sustainable pressure 

Danault lots of ice time Despite sucking ass - Julien favourite 

KK dangerous every shift but no ice time

OT was nothing short of awful. 
 

Think back to when CJ was fired in Boston. The exact things were happening 

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4 hours ago, Prime Minister Koivu said:



 

Part of our struggles are due to important vets in decline:

 

Weber, Price, Danault 

 

I doubt Danault is "in decline" at age 27. His issues are almost certainly contract-related.

 

But you make an excellent point about Weber and Price. The clock has been ticking on them for a while, and it is certainly realistic to think that they are now definitively declining. I have been furrowing my brow at Weber all season, really; even during the hot start, when he was getting points, I was struck that he wasn't getting his bomb off like before, and he looks clunky in his own end.

 

Also of note, Tatar has sucked and even Gally has been so-so. The team’s veteran core is, apart from the awesome Jeff Petry, simply not delivering.

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13 hours ago, brobin said:

I think the habs record was inflated, as were their egos, by playing Vancouver.  They were flying high and confident by some easy wins... while the team did improve over the summer we didn’t go from a complete dog to a top tier team... this is a middle of the road team. They will have some good streaks and some bad streaks..

 

sad to day, the habs are not nearly as good as the leafs.. if we were in our regular division we would be on the bubble. Boston and Toronto are significantly better teams. 
 

still.. we have dropped two games to Ottawa... that is not a good sign...

Yes -- we did not instantly turn into a Cup contender. And the early season did flatter us.

 

But, I do believe that with the players we have today, we should be a solid playoff team, not a bubble one (which we were last year). And it's disheartening to see that Julien hasn't been able to adjust the lineup and/or the game plan after the other teams figured out how to play us.

 

Ottawa is the new Detroit.

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52 minutes ago, The Chicoutimi Cucumber said:

Also of note, Tatar has sucked and even Gally has been so-so. The team’s veteran core is, apart from the awesome Jeff Petry, simply not delivering.

Tatar has not delivered so far this season, in general. But what did you think of him next to Kotkaniemi and Armia? To me, it seemed like he had some newfound energy. Or am I imagining things?

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10 minutes ago, tomh009 said:

Tatar has not delivered so far this season, in general. But what did you think of him next to Kotkaniemi and Armia? To me, it seemed like he had some newfound energy. Or am I imagining things?

 

I think Tatar has looked better since he was scratched. That's a small sample size, though.

 

The evaporation of Danault and Tatar, and to a lesser degree Gallagher, is happening at the same time new players have stepped up (Suzuki and even KK) or been brought in (Anderson, Toffoli). This may not be a coincidence. Those older guys are still getting major minutes, so that can't be the problem per se. Has something in their usage changed? Or - and this had better not be the case - are their noses out of joint because suddenly they're no longer "the" guys up front? Or is at as simple as Danault being a boat anchor dragging down his linemates?

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I think you guys are being too harsh for that game.  It’s was the second game of a back-to-back and as the game progressed, it showed.  Habs came out strong in the first and you saw the legs dwindle as the game went on, which was very evident in OT.  


The worse player on the ice last night was Mete, so I’m glad he didn’t play any OT.  Let’s face it, the first 2 Ottawa goals were flukey, odd bounces that floated over the Allen’s shoulder.  You see maybe 2 of those a year and Ottawa had 2 in a row.  Habs had some great chances and didn’t bury them.  

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