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I don't know if we can call it old-school anymore. Or rather, I don't think this is an old school problem. It's a hockey philosophy problem. Julien has always had a defensive minded centre in his top six. In Boston he's had Bergeron always there, with Krejci, Savard, Seguin, Soderberg, et al in tow. In his one season in New Jersey he had Gomez and Zajac. Before that in Montreal he had Koivu with Ribeiro, maybe the last time his centres were less defensive and more offensive. Julien comes to Montreal, doesn't have much time, and wants to go with what he knows. He's got Plekanec and Danault as defensive minded centres and he's got Alex Galchenyuk as a more offensive minded centre who is still learning the position and just got off an injury that derailed his near point per game season at that point. Instead of going with Galchenyuk with his up and downs, he went with Danault and Plekanec, since he could rely on them in the backend. I think he was encouraged by Bergevin to be aggressive in coaching Galchenyuk, hence the fourth line demotion in the playoffs. But when things started getting hairy in the series and Montreal needed offence, we suddenly saw Galchenyuk playing in the top lines. At centre. That tells me that Julien thinks Galchenyuk can play centre and get points for the team, he just doesn't like his overall game. The problem is that Chuck isn't 20 on his ELC. He's 23 needing a new contract and is now publicly saying he wants a one year deal. This isn't the time for tough coaching. This is the time to get the kid comfortable in the position he likes to play in and get him signed long term. Bergevin poisoned the well before Julien showed up, but Claude didn't help things. He should have saw Chuck's previous production, recognized he's just having post-injury slow down, healthy scratched him a few games to get him healthy (and tell people that's the reason so there isn't a big media storm) and then stuck him back in the top six at C. I think the damage is done and both Galchenyuk and Beaulieu are going to be cut losses soon. That's not an old school problem. Julien was fine playing Danault on his top line and playing Lehkonen in the top six. It's a hockey philosophy problem. The idea that you can't compete without two-way players down the middle.

Yes with a contract extension.

If we have a Tavares signes longterm I think it is a good deal. There is allways the chance that Galchenyuk will become almost as good as Tavares but there is a high risk that he is a 50-point forward that coaches dont dare to play at center position. Having Tavares + Price + Weber (I hope he will stay elite for at least 4-5 years) is a fantastic core to build a top contender around and with players like Pacioretty, Lehkonen hopefully Radulov and also Gallagher... It can be a very great 4-5 years to be a habsfan. Losing Chucky and Sergachev is worth this chance in my opinion.

No... first we give him the one year deal Then... he explodes offensively and we give him a long term big money deal. Then after that we trade him for an older player with a more onerous contract. As is tradition.

Yep, no shots for Crosby, Malkin and kessel didn't get one until his breakaway with a minute left and another unit on. Team Canada's brain trust was dead on about subban. He is way too high risk to be trusted in a big game! and another classic subban moment with Crosby at the end of the game. But I bet if he made the listerint comment as a Hab, that probably would have pissed off MB