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May 6 Game#3 Montreal at Tampa Bay


DON

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Heartbreaking loss, obviously. But I don't know when I've ever felt so bad for the players after a loss. (Usually I'm busy feeling sorry for myself!). These guys gave every last drop they had. Gallagher in particular was unbelievable, but really, the whole squad put in a Saku Koivu-like effort of will and blood and sweat and tears on this night. An incredible character effort. I understand that everyone thinks Therrien is the devil. And yet what I saw out there was a team that was ready to play, gave 110%, and did almost everything right.

Lost in all the bitterness and recrimination is that - yet again - Montreal was actually the better team in terms of controlling the play and dominating in terms of chances. That's 2 1/2 of 3 games in which they do that, and yet here we are 0-3.

Tampa is not, I would say, a 'better team' except when it comes to finishing their chances. Of course when your power play is at 3%, that difference becomes absolutely gigantic. Tampa capitalized on its few opportunities. We didn't capitalize on our more numerous opportunities. Again.

I think that rather than spew venom and virtriol, we should be proud of the team's gutsy, passionate effort. This is some of the worst 'puck luck' I have ever seen in a Habs series. Just not meant to be.

(None of this is to say the team needn't improve. Obviously, it must. If Markov is healthy, then he is done as a major defenceman because he was atrocious all playoff. Hopefully Beaulieu can supplant him next season. DD gave a great effort tonight, but he is not effective enough against the level of interference that kicks in in the playoffs. We need an upgrade there for sure; and we need another scoring winger, obviously. Most of all, we need a new PP coach. These are, by and large, not easy problems to fix, but they are fixable in principle. The sky is not falling).

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People forget all those series we beat teams who outplayed the Habs but couldn't score, whether it was Price, theo, or Halak.

Bishop is in the zone and in the players heads. 10 straight wins against us.

It happens.

Yes, we all know this team needs more top end scoring talent. It is hard to blame a coach for playing a defensive system when his best assets are the goalie and a few D. If they opened up they would get marginally more goals but way more against. If we had a staamkos and chuck was scoring like Johnson we would be praising the wins.

MT can't do much with the roster. He doesn't have the horses to play offensively. If a few guys like Pacs and Chucky were scoring we win. They are not and like the PP, they are not going to turn it around over night. The team has no confidence on the PP and it shows.

Maybe next year we can land some offense.

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People forget all those series we beat teams who outplayed the Habs but couldn't score, whether it was Price, theo, or Halak.

Bishop is in the zone and in the players heads. 10 straight wins against us.

It happens.

Yes, we all know this team needs more top end scoring talent. It is hard to blame a coach for playing a defensive system when his best assets are the goalie and a few D. If they opened up they would get marginally more goals but way more against. If we had a staamkos and chuck was scoring like Johnson we would be praising the wins.

MT can't do much with the roster. He doesn't have the horses to play offensively. If a few guys like Pacs and Chucky were scoring we win. They are not and like the PP, they are not going to turn it around over night. The team has no confidence on the PP and it shows.

Maybe next year we can land some offense.

I agree 100%. Great post.

It's so true that if we had even ONE more player doing something in the O-zone, it would have made such a difference. The three that come to mind are Pleks, Eller, and Galy. Those three have the talent to score - if only one of them could have gotten hot. Alas.

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Heartbreaking loss, obviously. But I don't know when I've ever felt so bad for the players after a loss. (Usually I'm busy feeling sorry for myself!). These guys gave every last drop they had. Gallagher in particular was unbelievable, but really, the whole squad put in a Saku Koivu-like effort of will and blood and sweat and tears on this night. An incredible character effort. I understand that everyone thinks Therrien is the devil. And yet what I saw out there was a team that was ready to play, gave 110%, and did almost everything right.

Lost in all the bitterness and recrimination is that - yet again - Montreal was actually the better team in terms of controlling the play and dominating in terms of chances. That's 2 1/2 of 3 games in which they do that, and yet here we are 0-3.

Tampa is not, I would say, a 'better team' except when it comes to finishing their chances. Of course when your power play is at 3%, that difference becomes absolutely gigantic. Tampa capitalized on its few opportunities. We didn't capitalize on our more numerous opportunities. Again.

I think that rather than spew venom and virtriol, we should be proud of the team's gutsy, passionate effort. This is some of the worst 'puck luck' I have ever seen in a Habs series. Just not meant to be.

(None of this is to say the team needn't improve. Obviously, it must. If Markov is healthy, then he is done as a major defenceman because he was atrocious all playoff. Hopefully Beaulieu can supplant him next season. DD gave a great effort tonight, but he is not effective enough against the level of interference that kicks in in the playoffs. We need an upgrade there for sure; and we need another scoring winger, obviously. Most of all, we need a new PP coach. These are, by and large, not easy problems to fix, but they are fixable in principle. The sky is not falling).

I agree with you 100% again. :) We need better coaching, at least on the PP, that is just obvious, and I think it goes 1 higher coach than that. We need improvements on the top 6 forwards, we need size and skill. Don't have to be huge but gotta be bigger that 5 ft 6 . I love Gallagher and we must keep him, DD is one of the hardest working guys on the team but we can only have 1 smurf and that spot is taken. So him gotta go. Markov as I have been saying for 2 years is at the end. This playoffs merely made it real obvious to everyone. Let him finish this contract and retire. He was a great Hab and deserves big kudos and respect for his time here. My biggest problem is if we don't make the necassary changes real soon, we are going to waste Price's best years. We cannot allow that to happen. We need a Cup within 2 years. Otherwise it is retooling time. We have to solidify a core that will carry us for 4- 5 years. MB has more work to do than I thought but with Galchenyuk not developing and Markov slowing to a crawl. I am not sure he could beat Gonchar in a race. And a whole lotta bottom 4 guys that need to be upgraded. He better get his work boots on. Just my ramblings after a tough night.

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People forget all those series we beat teams who outplayed the Habs but couldn't score, whether it was Price, theo, or Halak.

Bishop is in the zone and in the players heads. 10 straight wins against us.

It happens.

Yes, we all know this team needs more top end scoring talent. It is hard to blame a coach for playing a defensive system when his best assets are the goalie and a few D. If they opened up they would get marginally more goals but way more against. If we had a staamkos and chuck was scoring like Johnson we would be praising the wins.

MT can't do much with the roster. He doesn't have the horses to play offensively. If a few guys like Pacs and Chucky were scoring we win. They are not and like the PP, they are not going to turn it around over night. The team has no confidence on the PP and it shows.

Maybe next year we can land some offense.

Great post. When 11 out of 12 forwards are 2nd liners at best you cant really blame MT for them not scoring.

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MT is doing a great job as a defensive coordinator. No doubt about that. It is clear however, that offense gets insufficient attention under this regime. The players themselves have admitted to rarely practicing offense. It shows.

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In terms of time-outs, MT probably figured the game was heading for OT and that he might need it then. Considering that we came within what, 1.6 seconds of OT, and that the line on the ice that gave up the goal was fresh, not exhausted, that was a completely reasonable decision.

As for the fourth line thing, I thought that was weird too, but let's remember, that was NOT the line that was scored on; and we had complete possession of the puck a mere five seconds before the GWG.

Dictionary.com defines 'scapegoat' as 'a person or group made to bear the blame for others or to suffer in their place.' This obsessive backseat driving and condemnation of every single decision MT makes has little to do with rational analysis and everything to do with that.

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In terms of time-outs, MT probably figured the game was heading for OT and that he might need it then. Considering that we came within what, 1.6 seconds of OT, and that the line on the ice that gave up the goal was fresh, not exhausted, that was a completely reasonable decision.

As for the fourth line thing, I thought that was weird too, but let's remember, that was NOT the line that was scored on; and we had complete possession of the puck a mere five seconds before the GWG.

Dictionary.com defines 'scapegoat' as 'a person or group made to bear the blame for others or to suffer in their place.' This obsessive backseat driving and condemnation of every single decision MT makes has little to do with rational analysis and everything to do with that.

Actually it is just cause we lost, if we had won he would be le Genius with bells on. Very common on this site if we win he's great, if we lose he is an idiot. I think and have always thought that he is hung upon the defensive side of things and is good at that. Offence he can't teach so he leaves that to the players. Defence is actually much easier to institute than offence. So mediocre coaches jump on the defensive band wagon. It makes for boring hockey but decreases your odds of losing. We really need an associate coach who can teach offensive systems to these mutts. Yes there are offensive systems, the same as defensive systems. We only teach one of them. Let me quote a football guy who really exemplifys what I mean. Marv Levy reputed to be a great coach, said and has been quoted a lot " when you throw the ball 3 things can happen 2 of them are bad" While that is true, my thought was always so you just give up on throwing the ball? That is just stupid, practice throwing the ball till you get it right. We have the same situation, offence is hard so let's play defence. And as the players have said, they don't practice on offence very much. I wonder why this team can't score? :habslogo:

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Heartbreaking loss, obviously. But I don't know when I've ever felt so bad for the players after a loss. (Usually I'm busy feeling sorry for myself!). These guys gave every last drop they had. Gallagher in particular was unbelievable, but really, the whole squad put in a Saku Koivu-like effort of will and blood and sweat and tears on this night. An incredible character effort. I understand that everyone thinks Therrien is the devil. And yet what I saw out there was a team that was ready to play, gave 110%, and did almost everything right.

Lost in all the bitterness and recrimination is that - yet again - Montreal was actually the better team in terms of controlling the play and dominating in terms of chances. That's 2 1/2 of 3 games in which they do that, and yet here we are 0-3.

Tampa is not, I would say, a 'better team' except when it comes to finishing their chances. Of course when your power play is at 3%, that difference becomes absolutely gigantic. Tampa capitalized on its few opportunities. We didn't capitalize on our more numerous opportunities. Again.

I think that rather than spew venom and virtriol, we should be proud of the team's gutsy, passionate effort. This is some of the worst 'puck luck' I have ever seen in a Habs series. Just not meant to be.

(None of this is to say the team needn't improve. Obviously, it must. If Markov is healthy, then he is done as a major defenceman because he was atrocious all playoff. Hopefully Beaulieu can supplant him next season. DD gave a great effort tonight, but he is not effective enough against the level of interference that kicks in in the playoffs. We need an upgrade there for sure; and we need another scoring winger, obviously. Most of all, we need a new PP coach. These are, by and large, not easy problems to fix, but they are fixable in principle. The sky is not falling).

Another habsworthy post and with excellent finish. My sentiments exactly in my saner moments

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and none of them gave the puck to a lightning player with 6 second lefts to lose the game for the habs....that was tomas plekanic

Plekanec made four mistakes in the same period.

First he passed the puck in the skates to De LaRose on a two on one during a PK. Miserable!

Two, he forgot to cover Boyle in front on the net, who inherited the puck and shot on Price. Fantastic!

Three and four: in the last seconds of this crucial game, he made a fantastic pass in the back of Max Pax. The puck rebounded backward on the stick of a Tampa Bay Lightning player, the turn-over resulted in the winning goal with less than two seconds to play. Johnson scored, but again (second mistake on the same play) Plekanec forgot to cover his man.

Great series player that no. 14. Really!

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Plekanec made four mistakes in the same period.

First he passed the puck in the skates to De LaRose on a two on one during a PK. Miserable!

Two, he forgot to cover Boyle in front on the net, who inherited the puck and shot on Price. Fantastic!

Three and four: in the last seconds of this crucial game, he made a fantastic pass in the back of Max Pax. The puck rebounded backward on the stick of a Tampa Bay Lightning player, the turn-over resulted in the winning goal with less than two seconds to play. Johnson scored, but again (second mistake on the same play) Plekanec forgot to cover his man.

Great series player that no. 14. Really!

id add that he was the last player back after causing the turnover ...

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Can somebody please explain to me what slowass Markov was doing on the ice in the last minute? And what the hell is MT saving his fn timeouts for, Christmas?! God-damn dummy

here i am thinking markov going to ground was a little awkward but he was left pretty much on a low 2 on 1 because PK had left his lane. decided to go to ground to take the passing lane away but instead of laying and sliding he belly flopped... that goal in my eyes was on plex who should of ensured the puck got deep and PK for chasing players instead of protecting the goal...

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Pleks for suuuuure. A simple dump-in would've got us to O.T. But, in my opinion, Markov should not be on the ice at the end of any pd. He's run down from the season and is surely exhausted by pds end.

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Not really, Subban f'ed up at blueline and left Markov with 2 on 1 and didn't get back in time to cover man in front of Price, Subban owns that one.

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Pleks dump in, Pleks and Max lackluster backcheck, Markov's immobility..lotsa other factors besides Subban, who was fitted for the horns as well

How does Markov's immobility (who was the only guy back in correct position to defend 2-on-1) stop Subban from getting to open man in front of price (How could he get open with seconds left in game, dumb dumb oversight?)? Maybe if Subban was better defensively or quicker skater might of been different out come , also why wasnt Subban strictly defending with 10seconds left in game? How could he be caught up ice, out of position at that stage of game?

Not lots of other factors, simply was one d-man losing his focus and not being that great defensively.

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The goat horns belong to pleks. a simple shoot the puck and the game is over. He took the whole arena by surprise with that bone headed play. Subban should not have had to do anything 10 secs on the clock a dump in to their end? I can see where he lost focus. I can see where every guy on the ice lost focus. Except for T-BAy of course.

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Who did Subban cover on that goal? No one

Whose man was wide open and had easy tap-in for goal? Subban's

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Who did Subban cover on that goal? No one

Whose man was wide open and had easy tap-in for goal? Subban's

Who had an easy dump in to tbay's end? Plekanic's. We could do this all day. That puck should not have been in Montreal's end period.

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And season is on the line, with PP. live or die!! hmmm

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And season is on the line, with PP. live or die!! hmmm

How many times do we have to tell everyone here, the PP is NOT, repeat NOT important!!!

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