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Season Opener: Oct. 7, Habs vs Leafs, 7 PM


dlbalr

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I think people are forgetting that Price made some real Grade-A stops on golden opportunities by the Leafs. Puck possession isn't the whole story and the Habs were certainly more opportunistic than TO, but I'm pretty sure that overall quality scoring chances favoured the bad guys. We need to play better - especially when it comes to moving the puck out of our zone. Beaulieu and Gilbert, I'm looking at YOU.

I think people are so used to Price making the big stops that they have become jaded. He kept us in the game last night and maybe trawwna do not have the firepower but deflections like the one they did get DO happen. So the answer my friends is to keep the damn puck in their end not ours. Our d last night did not have their finest hours but it is early and I am sure they will get their mojo back. It was interesting that the blender got put away last night. I wonder how long that will last. Maybe Le Genius has not unpacked it yet. We won a game we should win. Now let's go get ready for the next test. Bawston will be a tougher test although I see them not making the playoffs again (happy days are here again).

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I think people are so used to Price making the big stops that they have become jaded. He kept us in the game last night and maybe trawwna do not have the firepower but deflections like the one they did get DO happen. So the answer my friends is to keep the damn puck in their end not ours. Our d last night did not have their finest hours but it is early and I am sure they will get their mojo back. It was interesting that the blender got put away last night. I wonder how long that will last. Maybe Le Genius has not unpacked it yet. We won a game we should win. Now let's go get ready for the next test. Bawston will be a tougher test although I see them not making the playoffs again (happy days are here again).

Yeah, I didn't think we had a great game and tend to resist these claims that we 'really' outplayed the Leafs despite appearances. When people point to posts and near-misses by our guys, it brings to mind nothing so much as that Tampa series. At a certain point, blowing scoring chances stops being an aberration and becomes a pattern. That worries me a bit.

I'm not panicking, though, by any means. There's still lots of time to get in a good groove. And yes, the sublime talent of the 3 'Ps' will win us a lot of games regardless.

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Guest Stogey24

Yeah, I didn't think we had a great game and tend to resist these claims that we 'really' outplayed the Leafs despite appearances. When people point to posts and near-misses by our guys, it brings to mind nothing so much as that Tampa series. At a certain point, blowing scoring chances stops being an aberration and becomes a pattern. That worries me a bit.

I'm not panicking, though, by any means. There's still lots of time to get in a good groove. And yes, the sublime talent of the 3 'Ps' will win us a lot of games regardless.

Semin and Kassian are big x factors. If either can hit the 20 goal mark, while the usual players on this team do their thing; I think we're looking pretty good
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Semin and Kassian are big x factors. If either can hit the 20 goal mark, while the usual players on this team do their thing; I think we're looking pretty good

Mr Kassian may never play a game. Just depends on how rehab goes. Stage 2 they take pretty seriously. Also has to recover from his injuries.

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Like i said before they dropped the puck. Leafs cant match Price,PK, and Pax. Those three were the difference , earned the two points. Next stop Beantown.

This is the second time you've ignored my request to review your PM's. And again, you've seen both of them considering you've posted messages in this very thread where the requests were made and did so after they were made. So, once again, please check your PM's.

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always nice to see the boys beat up on the laughs. Carey, P.K. and Max were amazing last night! Our leaders showed up and we won!

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Mr Kassian may never play a game. Just depends on how rehab goes. Stage 2 they take pretty seriously. Also has to recover from his injuries.

Kassian will contribute nothing. Even if he manages to come back, and is sober and committed - which he has never ONCE been in his entire NHL career - he'll be way behind everyone else in terms of conditioning, timing, and 'game shape.' He'll be sucking wind, a step behind, and then will start taking bad penalties (which he has a history of doing), leading to benching, etc., etc.. We can forget about any help from that quarter IMHO.

It's too bad, because even though my rational mind told me not to pin any hopes on Kassian (as I argued on this board when we acquired him), I'll admit that some small part of me did harbour the hope that we'd picked him up just at the stage where young guys mature, etc.. But whereas before this incident, I thought there was about a 20% of Kassian working out with us, I'd now put that possibility at about 1%.

Semin is a mystery. Based on Game One, I think that he is trying to find himself as a player. Could go either way; getting in a groove early would help a ton.

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Kassian will contribute nothing. Even if he manages to come back, and is sober and committed - which he has never ONCE been in his entire NHL career - he'll be way behind everyone else in terms of conditioning, timing, and 'game shape.' He'll be sucking wind, a step behind, and then will start taking bad penalties (which he has a history of doing), leading to benching, etc., etc.. We can forget about any help from that quarter IMHO.

It's too bad, because even though my rational mind told me not to pin any hopes on Kassian (as I argued on this board when we acquired him), I'll admit that some small part of me did harbour the hope that we'd picked him up just at the stage where young guys mature, etc.. But whereas before this incident, I thought there was about a 20% of Kassian working out with us, I'd now put that possibility at about 1%.

Semin is a mystery. Based on Game One, I think that he is trying to find himself as a player. Could go either way; getting in a groove early would help a ton.

I fear you are correct C/C, the idea that Kassian can come back this year is unlikely. The idea that he can come back and contribute? Extremely unlikely. Ya can't win em all. He has a illness and has to deal with that, before it kills him, the rest is comparative fluff.

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I fear you are correct C/C, the idea that Kassian can come back this year is unlikely. The idea that he can come back and contribute? Extremely unlikely. Ya can't win em all. He has a illness and has to deal with that, before it kills him, the rest is comparative fluff.

Yes. It's really to bad for us, because the team really needs the player that Kassian had the potential to become. Oh well.

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Yes. It's really to bad for us, because the team really needs the player that Kassian had the potential to become. Oh well.

I'd have to think that if Bergevin thinks the way you do, Kassian will be given another shot. Yes, I understand that he'll be a step behind and all that but so would any player who has ever gotten injured, outside of Wolverine. Despite his lack of "character", Bergevin acquired a type of player we didn't have and needed. This does give Kassian some leverage in the situation.

It doesn't seem to me like Kassian's stye is of the type that would be as affected as a purely skilled player would be with such a layoff so I remain optimistic that there's a chance he can do something for us. There's no doubt the extent to which I believe he will help us this season has significantly diminished but I still think he can be part of a contending lineup come playoffs.

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I'd have to think that if Bergevin thinks the way you do, Kassian will be given another shot. Yes, I understand that he'll be a step behind and all that but so would any player who has ever gotten injured, outside of Wolverine. Despite his lack of "character", Bergevin acquired a type of player we didn't have and needed. This does give Kassian some leverage in the situation.

It doesn't seem to me like Kassian's stye is of the type that would be as affected as a purely skilled player would be with such a layoff so I remain optimistic that there's a chance he can do something for us. There's no doubt the extent to which I believe he will help us this season has significantly diminished but I still think he can be part of a contending lineup come playoffs.

Hope does spring eternal.

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It's good to mention that Rob Ramage works for the Habs, brought in by Marc Bergevin. Ramage was intoxicated and killed someone driving. He got one of the worst drunk driving punishments in the history of the country for it. For Bergevin to see Kassian make a real commitment in rehab and then say, "Not my Montreal Canadiens" it'd be very hypocritical.

I think he's been so angry about it because Kassian already said he'd make a commitment to stay clean and then comes the truck crash at 6:30AM with him intoxicated in the back. He couldn't even make it out of training without falling off the wagon. You're of course going to show more anger than sympathy at that point.

It's all up to Kassian. He can go into rehab, make a big commitment, maybe do some voluntary community service and I bet you the team will give him another shot. If he skips out of rehab or quits the team, that'll be another story. I remember when the league simply thought Theo Fleury was a silly drunk and he was the butt of jokes. Then we found out why.

I'm not gonna analyze him (I met him once in a bar, I don't know enough) but things like this I'd prefer to be patient on.

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The bigger question is whether this team has the guns up front to contend. A functional Kassian would have offered at least a faint hope for that to occur. Now that we know with certainty that any help from Kassian must be considered a wildly unlikely gift from heaven, we're down to Semin as the single 'improvement' to an attack that clearly fell short last spring. What bugged me about Game One Leafs game was how it reproduced exactly the inadequate pattern of last season, where apart from PK and Patches, no one added any kind of consistent offensive impact. Two years ago, fresh off Eller and Bourque raising Cain in the playoffs, I'd have said that we can roll three highly effective lines for a balanced attack that might be Cup-worthy. This hope is long gone, and the Leafs game reminded me too clearly that we don't really have anything in its place.The only remaining hope, indeed, is Galchenyuk taking a step forward and becoming the 'other' FW (besides Patches) that other teams have to worry about. The kid may well have it in him, but I'm a bit worried about us spinning our wheels organizationally - perpetual second-tier, 'outside chance' contenders rather than the real thing.

(Of course, wags will say I'm making too much out of a season-opener, and fair enough; the point is that that game picked right up where last year left off. There is a deeper pattern here which that particular game exemplified).

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The bigger question is whether this team has the guns up front to contend. A functional Kassian would have offered at least a faint hope for that to occur. Now that we know with certainty that any help from Kassian must be considered a wildly unlikely gift from heaven, we're down to Semin as the single 'improvement' to an attack that clearly fell short last spring. What bugged me about Game One Leafs game was how it reproduced exactly the inadequate pattern of last season, where apart from PK and Patches, no one added any kind of consistent offensive impact. Two years ago, fresh off Eller and Bourque raising Cain in the playoffs, I'd have said that we can roll three highly effective lines for a balanced attack that might be Cup-worthy. This hope is long gone, and the Leafs game reminded me too clearly that we don't really have anything in its place.The only remaining hope, indeed, is Galchenyuk taking a step forward and becoming the 'other' FW (besides Patches) that other teams have to worry about. The kid may well have it in him, but I'm a bit worried about us spinning our wheels organizationally - perpetual second-tier, 'outside chance' contenders rather than the real thing.

Bang on, Cukes. This roster just doesn't have the top forwards to stack up with the top contenders, and we don't have an answer in the system either (which makes the Sekac trade the more baffling as time goes on - he at least SEEMED like a top-6 prospect). We're in the prime years of our core, and this year we're going to find out what we really have with youngsters Galchenyuk and Beaulieu. But either this year or the next - or the year after that at the very latest - we're going to have to go all in and bet on the present and somehow make a top-tier addition to our forward group, which pretty clearly in my view is inferior to that of any other contender.

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Bang on, Cukes. This roster just doesn't have the top forwards to stack up with the top contenders, and we don't have an answer in the system either (which makes the Sekac trade the more baffling as time goes on - he at least SEEMED like a top-6 prospect). We're in the prime years of our core, and this year we're going to find out what we really have with youngsters Galchenyuk and Beaulieu. But either this year or the next - or the year after that at the very latest - we're going to have to go all in and bet on the present and somehow make a top-tier addition to our forward group, which pretty clearly in my view is inferior to that of any other contender.

I agree. The window is open right now. Price and Patches are in their primes. If the team as a whole fails to show that it can reliably generate more offence, Bergy may as well go 'all in' this season, trading top picks/prospect(s) for legitimate help up front. I hate to do that, but the GM's repeated patch-up attempts (Parenteau, Kassian, Semin) - while well-conceived - have fallen short. Anyway, we still have a few months before push comes to shove. But I don't want us going into this year's playoffs with a roster that has exactly the same issues as last season's.

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I agree. The window is open right now. Price and Patches are in their primes. If the team as a whole fails to show that it can reliably generate more offence, Bergy may as well go 'all in' this season, trading top picks/prospect(s) for legitimate help up front. I hate to do that, but the GM's repeated patch-up attempts (Parenteau, Kassian, Semin) - while well-conceived - have fallen short. Anyway, we still have a few months before push comes to shove. But I don't want us going into this year's playoffs with a roster that has exactly the same issues as last season's.

I know we have only played 1 game but as I posted before. There was no difference to last year. Got the crap kicked out of us in the first, power play looked like crap. We woke up in the 3rd and squeaked out a win over a club who shouldn't have known what hit them. Ahh well it must all be a part of the plan. :scared:

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I know we have only played 1 game but as I posted before. There was no difference to last year. Got the crap kicked out of us in the first, power play looked like crap.

They only had the one chance with the man advantage. It's hard to make any conclusions based on one attempt.

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Really? I thought we had more than that.

They were going to have one from the Komarov hit but Smith-Pelly's roughing call undid that. They got the next (first) man advantage after that and then it was only the Leafs that got them the rest of the way (three or four in total).

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I think one game is a bit early to call Semin a failure.

I agree. The window is open right now. Price and Patches are in their primes. If the team as a whole fails to show that it can reliably generate more offence, Bergy may as well go 'all in' this season, trading top picks/prospect(s) for legitimate help up front. I hate to do that, but the GM's repeated patch-up attempts (Parenteau, Kassian, Semin) - while well-conceived - have fallen short. Anyway, we still have a few months before push comes to shove. But I don't want us going into this year's playoffs with a roster that has exactly the same issues as last season's.

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They were going to have one from the Komarov hit but Smith-Pelly's roughing call undid that. They got the next (first) man advantage after that and then it was only the Leafs that got them the rest of the way (three or four in total).

Hmm well they still looked like crap on their 1 only p/p. I'm kidding.

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Bang on, Cukes. This roster just doesn't have the top forwards to stack up with the top contenders, and we don't have an answer in the system either (which makes the Sekac trade the more baffling as time goes on - he at least SEEMED like a top-6 prospect). We're in the prime years of our core, and this year we're going to find out what we really have with youngsters Galchenyuk and Beaulieu. But either this year or the next - or the year after that at the very latest - we're going to have to go all in and bet on the present and somehow make a top-tier addition to our forward group, which pretty clearly in my view is inferior to that of any other contender.

Gonna have to disagree with both of you here, i'll explain my view on this, let me know what you think. I personally believe our Offensive struggle was purely Powerplay related, not personel related, if we even clicked around the top 12 PPs in the league as we should have on paper, we would not be hearing about this endless notion that our players are not top 6 material compared to the contenders. lets explore that shall we? because I looked into this and this is what I found, if we go just based on the consensus top 4 contenders from last season, 2 from each conference, Anaheim, Chicago, Tampa, and NYR.

in Anaheim the top 4 scorers of the top 6 were Getzlaf(70 pts) Perry(55 pts) Kesler(47 pts) Silfverberg(39 pts)

in New York the top 4 scorers of the top 6 were Nash(69 pts) Brassard(60 pts) Stepan (55 pts) St.Louis(52 pts)

In Tampa bay the top 4 scorers of the top 6 were Stamkos(72 pts) Johnson(72 pts) Kucherov(64 pts) Palat(63 pts)

in Chicago the top 4 scorers of the top 6 were Toews(66 pts) Kane(64 pts) Hossa(61 pts) Saad(52 pts)

Now in Montreal our top 4 scorers in the top 6 were Pacioretty(67 pts) Plekanec(60 pts) Desharnais(48 pts) Gallagher(47 pts)

Aside from Tampa, who's scoring trumps everyone talked about easily, the other contenders can be seen with close top 4 performances to our own. When you look at it like this I really see that were not as far off as some may think or as some adamantly suggest, we have less scoring yes, but are we really that far off these contenders when you consider between the top 4 players we are bested by a total of 10 - 15 points. My view on this matter has always been internal, we get the PP rolling in the top 12 again, and this talk of scoring issues gets put to bed. Also from an Internal stand point I can see Pacioretty and Plekanec scoring around the same again, but could easily see Galchenyuk and Gallagher crack the 50 point mark this season, which would put us even that much closer to the elite crop. Were simply never going to be an offensive juggernaut because our big pieces are mostly elsewhere, we have a top 3 d-man and the best goalie, are we really thinking were going to have enough resources to ice a tampa-like offence too? all teams are built different, that doesn't mean were going to miss our window because were not built like someone else. For the Dozen points were missing out on compared to those other teams, we also have the best goalie on the planet staring down the opposition on every shot, can they say the same? Do you think anyone on their forums thinks they are not true contenders because they don't have a Price-like goalie?

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Gonna have to disagree with both of you here, i'll explain my view on this, let me know what you think. I personally believe our Offensive struggle was purely Powerplay related, not personel related, if we even clicked around the top 12 PPs in the league as we should have on paper, we would not be hearing about this endless notion that our players are not top 6 material compared to the contenders. lets explore that shall we? because I looked into this and this is what I found, if we go just based on the consensus top 4 contenders from last season, 2 from each conference, Anaheim, Chicago, Tampa, and NYR.

in Anaheim the top 4 scorers of the top 6 were Getzlaf(70 pts) Perry(55 pts) Kesler(47 pts) Silfverberg(39 pts)

in New York the top 4 scorers of the top 6 were Nash(69 pts) Brassard(60 pts) Stepan (55 pts) St.Louis(52 pts)

In Tampa bay the top 4 scorers of the top 6 were Stamkos(72 pts) Johnson(72 pts) Kucherov(64 pts) Palat(63 pts)

in Chicago the top 4 scorers of the top 6 were Toews(66 pts) Kane(64 pts) Hossa(61 pts) Saad(52 pts)

Now in Montreal our top 4 scorers in the top 6 were Pacioretty(67 pts) Plekanec(60 pts) Desharnais(48 pts) Gallagher(47 pts)

This is an interesting analysis, but each team has at least one forward better than our best. Some have two or three. And comparable point totals don't tell the whole story, especially in the playoffs. Pacioretty is at best the 7th best forward listed here. I see the same gain coming from Galchenyuk and Gallagher that you do, but unless Galchenyuk realizes his potential as a guy who can change a game in a shift like a few of the guys listed here, we're still short on dangerous offensive players.

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