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Is Aebischer Theo's Clone?


Strummerman

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It's scary to contemplate but...COME ON. It's not like this guy has been a total piece of crap. His career numbers suggest that he's at least a good goalie...he was playing very well before the trade...and frankly, how can the Habs have TWO established goalies go utterly in the tank in the same season? That is absolutely bizarre, so the odds suggest that Abby is probably just having trouble adjusting to the new team, new style of play, new opponents (different conference), etc.. The key will be for him not to have his confidence shattered in the way Theo had his, by the high-pressure Montreal pressure cooker. If he can survive this season, I suspect he'll bounce back and play well in 2006-07. Or at least, as I say, that has to be the law of averages.

Edited by The Chicoutimi Cucumber
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3 games, 5 goals against every time.

Wouldn't you be at least a bit concerned?

Guys all of you calm down.

Abby wasn't good tonight, but he wasn't bad either. Our D left him out to dry and its pretty hard stoping 3rd and 4th scoring chances on the same play. He made a few excellent saves, but yet again the result was 5 goals and that won't cut it. As a goalie playing with a new team and new defensmen in front of you, there is going to be an adjustment period, hopefully he'll get in that zone soon because with 11 games left you can be sure he plays another 2 or 3 times.

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I hope that he adjusts soon. Aebi is a good goalie though if he is not destroyed by the media and public in Montreal he will turn out to be a gem. You can see this guy was angry at HIMSELF after ever goal. Of course 5 goals against in three straight games is terrible but he now has a win under his belt. All that said he may not see action until the Canadiens play back to back games against Buffalo and Boston in mid April

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Listen, let's not insult Theodore here. Aebischer is a piece of crap. This trade was made solely on the purpose of changing the dynamic of the team. Maybe it will work out at the end but for a pure talent stand point Montreal lost out.

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It's only fair to wonder whether Aebischer's play this season and last was due to the quality of players in front of him, but at the end of the day, the guy still needs to make the saves. You don't post a 30 win season as an average goalie.

I agree that Theo is the more talented player, problem is he hadn't shown it lately. There were some posts complaining about how much money Koivu was being paid whilst 'underperforming' but at what the Habs were paying Theo, you expect him to steal games on skill alone when the defense hangs him out to dry.

I don't get to watch any games down here (no pay tv and Australia just doesn't care) so can anyone tell me if the defense is providing solid coverage and clearance?

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Listen, let's not insult Theodore here. Aebischer is a piece of crap. This trade was made solely on the purpose of changing the dynamic of the team. Maybe it will work out at the end but for a pure talent stand point Montreal lost out.

How old are you, dmx?

That's a slightly-out-of-puberty or, at best, a slightly-out-of-adolescence comment. No one 'is a piece of crap'.

It may very well be that this trade, in a performance-for-performance basis, will be in the favour of Colorado again, it may very well be that Aebischer will never fit in with the Canadiens situation but to go from there & say what you did is inaccurate and, more importantly, cruelly wrong.

Edited by shortcat1
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I think there are better days ahead for sure.......right now he is so scared to screw up that he's screwing up. Imagine trying to play better then Huet at the moment......this guy is freaked out.

When Huet has a slump, which hopefully won't be any time soon, is when Abby will come in and save us. Untill then he will flop around like a fish.........Abby has proven he can play, he just needs to settle in.

Leave him alone, and just be thankful for HUET right now.........

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I haven't liked Abi's playing myself, however he is a new goalie to our system, and the team right now is used to playing with a goalie who doesn't allow rebounds (whereas Abi does). Many goalies in the league allow rebounds, the difference is that their teams clear the rebounds. So either Abi will have to learn to stop rebounds, or his defence will have to adjust to clearing them, but until then he will have an inflated GAA.

I'm sure he isn't as bad as he has seemed ... we are just all too high on Huet right now to think clearly.

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I think Gainey needs to tell him to change his pads, his rebounds are ridiculous.

Also, I seriously doubt that Aebischer will be a habs next season. He is RFA, but Huet is clearly the man for this team and Danis will be ready to step into the backup role. As long as Huet doesn't ask for the moon and I don't think he will, Aebi's days are numbered in Montreal. (Especially at 1.9M, Huet won't even get that, neither will Aebischer).

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I remember a lot of people calling for Gainey's head on a platter over the Garth Murray transaction?

Only time will tell if this lynch mob is right or not? Whether he's signed in the off season is certainly questionable if he doesn't adapt from the Avs to the Habs defensive zone system, as well as improving on his recent overall play.

I think Gainey made this move to alter the atmosphere in the locker room as much as anything else.

Leaf fans here(southern Ontario) have been moaning about the Ken Klee deal - word is that he was an issue in the dressing room that needed to be addressed? Theo was a trade that had to be made for a lot of different reasons - one of which was the team environment aspect. Deals like that happen every once in a while. They are also deals that naturally lend themselves to debate as to whether you got enough in return, or if you got absolutely hosed for the talent you basically were forced to peddle elsewhere?

Fans tend to think in terms of the 'what have you done for me lately' whereas, management needs to take far more than the last 3 bad outings into consideration when evaluating a players contributions & performance?

Given Gainey's track record most would agree that he is more often right at assessing his team than wrong.

Edited by beliveau1
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We may not know who the winner of this trade was till next year or maybe even the year after, but there are some things to consider.

1) Aebischer's GAA is 5.00. This is not good at all. This is the exact same team that plays in front of Huet, and his GAA is 2.21 or so and has a 0.928 Save %. It can't be simply blamed on Montreals defence and that they play better for Huet than they would Aebicher. This is a team fighting for a playoff spot. So whats the difference? I think we can all agree that Aebischer gives up way too many bad rebounds and has been consistently out of position. Huet right now is the far better goaltender.

2) With the trade came $3.9 Million dollars in savings, plus roughly $4 Million dollars that Montreal was already under the cap and then Montreal did nothing at the deadline to improve this teams chances of retaining a playoff spot, or advancing in the playoffs. So unless Aebicher miraculously starts playing better, there is no short term gain. So lets look longer term

3) There is absolutley no guarentee that Montreal will go out this offseason and spend money to bring in free agents that will help this club. Infact if you look at Montreal's history, they haven't, other than Kovalev, signed any big free agents to improve this club, and there was no better chance than after the lockout to do so. They could have signed Kariya, Selanne, Forsberg, Neidermayer, Foote, Aucoin. Thats not too say that all of them were good choices, but the fact is Montreal did nothing other than resign Kovalev and that was arguably just to placate us...the fans. They had to do something, and Kovalev liked being here.

4) Montreal has a goaltending problem next year. Its a good one, but a problem none the less. Yann Danis deserves a shot in the NHL. No question. This guy has played the better part of two years in Hamilton and played very well. He also played limited time in the NHL this year and didn't look out of place recording a shutout versus Atlanta. Montreal needs to know if he can play as a backup, and eventually be a #1 goalie.

Right now Huet is the #1 goalie, absolutley no question about it. But can he handle a full season, as he has never played a full season as a number 1? Is this year a fluke? Then you have Aebischer? WHo right now is worth nothing with the way he's played. Can you trade him in the offseason for another part to the puzzle?

So you have 3 goalies for two jobs, and sending Danis back to Hamilton while beign an free agent probably isn't a smart thing to do, cause somebody else will sign him and give him a shot at camp to win a spot...Leafs, Tampa, Phoenix, Vancouver and Edmonton all come to mind.

5) What happend when Theodore comes back to play for Colorado? Maybe he won't be a factor this year, because of the time he missed with his heel, but maybe he makes a playoff run, or maybe next year he leads Colorado to the conference finals or god forbid the Cup finals. Thats a disaster then.

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Good analysis Kaos, but remember - Abeischer has promising career numbers. So what's more relevant, three great seasons as backup, one absolutely outstanding season as a starter, and one up-and-down season, or three bad games? I'm not saying he's the second coming of Patrick Roy, but to dismiss him now seems premature. (Remember how quick everyone was to dismiss Huet after he stunk out the joint early this year and then got hurt?) Let's get through the season, let Abby regroup, and see where we are come Fall. I think he should be resigned - he'll be cheap; let him battle with Danis for backup duties, or Huet for the starter's role. The internal competition can only be good and gives us lots of options at a key position. If, after the dust settles, he still sucks, move him, count your losses on the Theo deal and move on.

As for attracting UFAs, I believe Gainey has concluded that he needs to overpay to successfully overcome all the negatives associated with playing in Montreal at this particular point. This may be why saving the extra dough on Theo's contract was key. If he doesn't take a very serious run at Arnott, and either of Ottawa's stellar UFA D-men, I'll be surprised.

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I feel like everyone is mischaracterising their analysis of this trade.

This trade served two purposes and none was getting talent back.

1. Huet is officially the number 1 guy, Theo did zilch this year.

2. Get Theo's salary off the books.

That's it and both were successful.

Sure there are questions about whehter Huet can handle a full season as a starter, but are you any safer going in with someone who has played full seasons? Look what happened to Theo, Belfour, Brodeur who's been having an up and down season, well below his standard.

The point is you never know.

This trade was a good one, and in my opinion an even better one if we can deal Aebischer RFA for anything in the offseason. He will NOT be back. Huet will command at most 1.5M and Danis is ready to be at least a backup if not a 1B.

The money will be spent in the offseason. YOu forget that you only ahd so much money to spend, With Theo off the books at least his 5.3M will be put into someone else, if not more.

Aebischer is not part of BG's plans. The trde was to open up the starter spot and shed an almost unsheddable salary.

Lastly, Montreal is a very difficult place to play, especially for a goalie and if you look at history, a goalie will either be extremely succesful or will falter greatly, rarely do we have a bit of both. Huet has handled the pressure beautifully and I have full confidence in his abilities to continue.

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Guys all of you calm down.

:P

I didn't say I wasn't calm. I don't think anyone has. I said "concerned," like a politician worth his weight in euphemisms.

5 goals against in 3 games? 15 goals total. Also his 3 games played could be summed up as okay, awful, and kinda bad, respectively.

I'm not slitting my wrists or anything, but so far he hasn't given us anything to applaude.

Yeah, now the Ribeiro, Dagenais & Theodore cliche has been broken. Ribs is now all by himself :D

It was probably the best thing that could have happened to Ribs too.

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I honestly can't see how his play as of now would warrant him being re-signed.

That said, there's still plenty of time. But as of now it looks like Huet, Huet, Huet for the stretch run and beyond.

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Huet is clearly the number one no.

We all know this other wise Aebi would have played one of the two leafs games

Huet makes me feel safe when the other team has a PP or is on an odd man rush I do not get nervous, the Canadiens must feel the same way, which allows them to take risks and create offence.

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ah did anybody watch the olympics? Abby completely carried the swisse.

I think Theo just needed to get out of montreal. Its not a knock on him its just the fact that montreal is in quebec and he is a native son. Example, Roy, left Montreal and continued a great career in Denver. Now, Theo is no Roy but he's not a cup cake either.

No for Abby, lets just hope he doesn't slip on his porch in the morning.

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