jackp

LOL Let's bring this even further... (1939) "He's the Fuerher. He knows how to run a country better than we do." LOL And Lassiter, excuse my "negativity" but we did not play nearly as well against Slovakia as we did against Russia, and one of the reasons is that we did not have a big, dominating line causing all kinds of havoc in the opposition zone. I'm sorry, you can argue all you want, but breaking up your best line is never smart. Or maybe you're right, and Bowman should have broken up Lemaire-Shutt-Lafleur or Irvin should have changed Blake-Richard-Lach. As for my "75% negativity"... Have you been watching the same Habs team as I'm watching? Being 75% negative is kind. I am not a Maple Leafs fan. I do not accept year after miserable year of mediocrity. I do not call a GM who had 6 years to assemble a good team and has left us in a worst state than he inherited, a great GM like some of you with rose-coloured glasses have. Give me a reason to be positive, and I'll be positive. You might think struggling to hold off Slovakia was a good game, but I don't. Demolishing Russia was a great game. Why change what helped make it possible? Why go back to what didn't work before? I'll repeat: "If it ain't broke, don't fix it!" And I'll add, "If you do try to change what ain't broke, that's called over-coaching, aka Whitey Herzog disease." (BTW Despite my "lack of hockey acumen," I can guess why Babcock has broken up that line. He wants to add more balance to the team. Fine. He tried it. It didn't work. Now go back to what did work.)

So you guys think it's smart to split up our most dominant line? The line that scored 4 goals out of our 7 against the Russians? The same line, by the way, that other NHL coaches at the Worlds kept together for the whole tournament? Or are you of the mentality: "He's the Prime Minister, he knows how to run the country better than you do." "He's President Bush, he knows how to deal with foreign affairs better than you do." "He's my boss, he knows how to run this department better than I do." (Nagano 1998) "They're the coaches and if they don't want to use Gretzky in the shootout, they know better than we do." I'm sure that in most hockey areas, Babcock does indeed know way more than me. But that doesn't make him god. That doesn't mean he can't make mistakes. And splitting up our most effective line is not smart. Rather, it's inexplicable. And the lack of scoring against Slovakia seems to bear this out. Even more glaring, was the lack of effectiveness on the part of both Getzlaf and Nash in this game. I'd be very surprised if they're not back together in the next game. Lassiter and Ghost, try to keep your personal animosity towards me from clouding your thinking...

Some observations... What the hell was Babcock doing, splitting up our best line against the Russians? He'd better have Nash and Getzlaf back together for the final. I hate when coaches pull a Whitey Herzog and over-coach. "If it ain't broken, don't fix it!!!!!" Goaltending remains our achilles heel. That was just a brutal goal Luongo gave up for the 1st Slovakian one. It put them back in the game and made for that dicey ending. Babcock better be ready with the quick hook if he starts to falter in the final. So far I've seen Luongo twice in big finals, once at the Worlds and once in game 7 last year. Both times, he absolutely stunk. I'm not feeling confident about the final and it's because of our goaltending. Give me the Brodeur from 8 years ago and I'd be feeling very confident. If we are to have any chance at all, we have to return to the intensity displayed against the Russians... and Babcock needs to put Getzlaf back with Nash!

Just saw an interview with some of the Team Canada players. They are not taking Slovakia lightly (thank god)! Slovakia has the best PP and PK in the tourney, apparently. All the players mentioned Halak and Chara as players of concern. This team beat Russia, then they beat Sweden. We'd be completely brain-dead to take them lightly.

We agree on something else Bar... we both want the Habs and Team Canada to do well. We just disagree on what it's gonna take for that to happen.

Here's where you and I disagree, Brobin. As much as I like Halak for the Habs, I want him to have a terrible game tomorrow. I would be happy with a 10-0 result.

Scared to death of Halak. Just hope he has one of his off games. We need to be in his face all game long. We need to be particularly alert to his rebounds. Slovakia was outshot against Sweden 29-14.

You're wrong here. I've seen many NHLers saying that the gold medal equal to winning the Cup and a few have said that winning Gold was the highlight of their careers. They could've had 2 weeks off but they all wanted to be on this team.

Yeah Colin... I thought this was pretty unfair... and totally surprising coming from you. How do you know how the boys feel about playing in this tournament? Despite all the money they get, they all wanted to be on this team and it's pretty obvious that they're trying as hard as they can. (If anything, they're a little too tight = difficulty scoring.) As far as Joannie was concerned, I don't mind saying that her performance brought tears to my eyes. It was pretty obvious that she was skating for her mom. She wasn't even paying attention to the score when they first brought it up. Having been there a few times before, I have some appreciation of just how difficult it was for her (when you have that "rock" in your stomach, that just won't go away).

You can bet had the score been closer, he would've shot.

How about that goal that went through the net?!! Old-timers here will remember Beliveau scoring one like that in overtime in a playoffs against the Rangers. No video replay available to the officials, so it was a good thing that we scored again later on in the overtime.

One choice they made I'll never understand: Joe Thornton. Career choker - what were they thinking?!!! The braintrust should have read the fable about the scorpion and the frog.

Yeah, I was waiting for it too... but not now - I would have much preferred next Sunday.

Surely you recognize the disadvantage of having to play on consecutive nights?

The problem, ForumGhost, is that we then have to play Russia the very next day - a well-rested Russia, I might add. Our odds of winning gold are not very good at this moment.

One has to wonder about Getzlaf. Is he still hurt? Did he pull a selfish move just to get into the Olympics? Unlike last time, I was okay with the lineup this year. But boy, does it ever look like I was wrong! This team seems to be more suited for the pre-lockout NHL. There are no nice plays being generated. Everything is geared towards jamming the net. Other teams know this and both the USA and Switzerland have had a gadzillion guys back in front of their net. As a result, our point shots are not getting through, and we're not getting many rebounds. This is totally frustrating. We have the talent out there, but a lot of it is at home watching the games on TV.

Our plays have really been much too slow developing. Opposing goalies have had plenty of time to react. They need to re-discover the quick play-making that they showed in the last 2 periods against Norway. (The 1st period in the Norway game looked exactly as they've looked the last 2 games.)

Some of you complain about the constant Price/Halak quotes and yet look who's bringing it up in a thread that has absolutely nothing to do with the Habs. Makes you wonder, doesn't it? They've been riding the "best defense is an offense" strategy for a long, long while. But if some of you want to bother (and why would you), go back to the beginning of the year, and re-read the posts to see just who has been lighting the fires. You might be surprised at what you find...

Wish I could laugh, but that game last night still has me ticked. I told everyone in the Habs thread that our goaltending was surprisingly weak and last night it came back to bite us in the ......

Yeah, they were saying the same bullshit about the Swiss goalie. WE ARE NOT GETTING QUALITY CHANCES, well not many, anyway. They DO have the capability - note the ton of good chances against Norway but, as I said before, attempted wrap-arounds and shots from impossible angles (all of which count as shots on goal BTW) are not gonna get the job done.

100% Kozed, 100%. Unbelievable. This team can't score, just like last time. I thought the Swiss game was just an aberration, but this game clinches it. You can count all the shots you want but the quality scoring chances are few and far between. I daresay that our last 2 World championship teams, made up of players who didn't make the playoffs, has looked better. They were at least able to put a few plays together, instead of blindly shooting at the net, hoping for a rebound. Or trying to pass to a guy who's completely covered. Hail Mary shots and Hail Mary passes. And Brodeur is done. Can't blame him - he's 37. Even though he tends to choke, they need to ride Luongo the rest of the way.

Where was the goalie interference call on that last American goal. Did the refs think Brodeur fell on his own?!!

Ummm, Bar, for career stats, those are substantial numbers. And completely defeats your "he's playing over his head" argument as his overall stats are superior. If you've ever taken a statistics course, you'd realize this.

No it isn't. Name a good Canadian goalie (after Brodeur and Luongo). We're surprisingly weak in this area. Probably the only time I've ever agreed with Don Cherry in my life was last week on the radio, when he said he was concerned about our goaltending. It's gotten to the point where we have to depend on a 37-year-old who's past his prime. I think there's 4 or 5 teams in the Olympic tournament who have better goaltending than us. And that NEVER used to happen. (Well maybe once before when Grant Fuhr was our Team Canada goalie. Thank god we had both Gretzky and Lemieux in their primes at that tournament.)

Even if you were kidding, I have to address your first comment. I have never backed Halak without giving reasons and stats. You may recall that my "opposition" went to great lengths awhile back to denigrate the importance of stats in response to my use of them. I disagree with your analysis of why Price is slow. While he may have had a poor work ethic previously, all accounts say he is working hard this year. I think he is just plain slow. In junior his size and positioning were enough to achieve success as was the case when he first played in the NHL, until the shooters found his weakness. Now the truth is out and I don't think he will ever completely overcome this weakness. Please note that though I disagree with you, it doesn't mean you can't be right. You stated your opinion, I stated mine. The future will determine who was right. (Just out of curiosity, what level of play did you achieve? I made it to juvenile [18 year olds] until my acquiring of a driver's licence and increased discovery of girls, put an end to my hockey career. My older brother DID play for the Junior Canadiens. He was the better athlete of the family.)