jackp

Well, I guess we'll just have to disagree on Bulis. I did say that he was skating hard *when there was lots of open ice* (like on that penalty kill), but I can't tell you how many times I saw him aimlessly throw the puck away when a Calgary defender was bearing down on him. On a more positive note... how about Souray? Cleaned McCarty's clock and I thought it was going to inspire the team. Too bad those homer refs gave him the extra five and game. Put us down a defenceman, took away our best banger, and seriously impacted on our chances to win. RDS announcers said it was because of the wrist support he was wearing. Well, that may be so, but I've seen Souray fight before and that was the first time any ref interpreted the rule that way. Seemed like a homer decision to me. I just don't think it would have been called that way had the game been in Montreal. Kinda like that Pittsburgh interception that wasn't in that NFL playoff game last Sunday. Good for Souray though. He's starting to step up... - Jack

You simply can't win consistently when you have as many soft players who don't want to compete as the Habs do. Tonight was a good test against a hard hitting team and it was somewhat embarassing. The hall of shame: Sundstrom, Bulis, Zednick - These guys didn't want to compete at all. They were passing off the puck the moment a Calgary player got close to them and it didn't matter if there wasn't anyone to pass to. They simply didn't want the puck. They made half-hearted efforts to chase the puck in the Calgary zone. The only skating and puck-handling they did was when there was lots of open ice. Good thing Bonk was on the Bulis line; he single-handedly made them look half decent. Bonk surprised me; he competed. Hall of shame (part 2 - not quite so bad): Ribeiro (who competed a little more in the 3rd period), Streit, and Komisarek. In Komi's case, he just wasn't as big a presence as he should have been after Souray got turfed. He plays soft for a guy this big. I mean he's not scared or anything but he doesn't punish people and when your other skills are not great, this is something you have to do. I was embarassed tonight by what I saw. Even when Kovalev scored that 2nd goal, no way did I think we would tie. Not enough players willing to pay the price. I hope Gainey was taking notes because there are definitely guys he has to move if we're ever to become serious Cup challengers again. Hope we compete better against Vancouver on Saturday... - Jack

Very good point. You might be right here... - Jack

Do you really think it's okay to be outshot 17-2 and spend almost the entire period in our own zone? I can even buy not going for more goals, but how about the lack of intensity that was shown *by some* (admittedly, not by all)? Did you not find that we were lucky not to have been tied? I mean there was a shot that hit the back of (Souray?)'s leg, a goal post, and a few that skimmed just wide. Personally, I think that style of play is flirting with fire. Now, there's no argument on the San Jose game. We *were* outshot but our intensity remained good and SJ actually had few scoring chances, despite their shot total... - Jack

How many of you were upset with what you saw from the Habs in the 3rd period against Dallas last night? This style of play (playing a prevent defence) is one of the "holdovers" from the Julien era, and one that I hope Gainey gets rid of. Not only did we abandon our offensive game (stupid strategy), but *we completely lost intensity.* We played soft the entire period. Lucky for us that Theodore brought his "A" game to that period or we surely would have lost. These guys make lots of money. Is it too much to ask that they play a full 60 minutes, instead of just 40? (And hopefully BG realizes that it's good *defensive strategy* to spend at least half the period in the other team's zone, rather than spending most of the period in your own zone.) - Jack

Some observations from last night's game: THE GOOD There definitely was an active effort at using team speed. Someone must have said *something* because you could see that they often were trying to headman the puck as quickly as they were able. Our defencemen were jumping into the rush (which directly resulted in Markov's shorthanded goal.) After the 1st period, our players definitely were more relaxed. They weren't making as many "nervous" mistakes. THE BAD Poor passing persists. It's very frustrating to see a great opportunity wasted because the pass is in the guy's skates, or completely beyond him. You're never going to completely eliminate bad passes, but we do it much too frequently. They need to work on this. Markov's soft play. I hate to criticize this guy as he's obviously an enormous talent (and had a great game last night). But he has this habit of allowing the opposition to get to the puck first when he originally had the inside angle on the puck when the puck is heading to the boards in our defensive zone (a al Brisebois). This results in a 50-50 chance of gaining possession of the puck when we could have 1st possession. This is a needlessly soft play and the coaches have to stop it. He needs to accept that he could be banged into the boards, but hey, this is the NHL and he gets paid big bucks for playing in it. Bulis has to be fined everytime he tries a braindead pass or an extra feint, when he's directly in the slot. (I call this "European player disease" and I think it comes from playing soccer, where they often try to pass instead of shooting.) When he's in the slot, he needs to shoot. He takes himself out of scoring opportunities more often than opposing defencemen! - Jack

And so do I --> I *fervently* hope! However, too many people here are expecting too much too soon. I don't believe the new coaching team has even had a single practice with the team! We need to be patient and see how the team is playing *next month,* not tonight. Tonight is just unrealistic... - Jack

I don't believe it's a question of players getting better; I think (and have always thought) that the team needs some kind of *offensive* organization and strategy, something Julien never provided. I haven't liked Julien from day 1 and that's because I remembered how his world Juniors team did. They finished 3rd and they looked offensively disorganized the entire tournament (just like our Habs did under him). Julien thought it was okay to blame a player for 1 mistake and try to win games 1-0. It's so much easier to put a few more pucks in the net and then the odd mistake (like Bonk made the other night) is no big deal. It was just killing me that he kept complaining about our defense when we were near the bottom of the league in *offense.* It now remains to be seen what the new coaches do with our offense. This is our main problem: offense. We need to put more pucks in the net. They need to *practice* offense. They need to work on actually setting up plays in the offensive zone, instead of taking low percentage shots or trying to jam the puck in off a wrap-around. Just watch the good teams play; they *make plays* in the offensive zone. For example, I've seen many teams having their defenceman jump in, while a forward hangs back to cover. This often confuses the other team's defence as they usually pick up the winger on a rush and not the d. We rarely did this in an organized fashion. They also need to work on their shooting. If I were the coach, this team would stay on the ice an extra hour every practice for awhile, working on hitting the corners. (Coaches could actually make this fun, with competitions and prizes.) Ray Bourque was not only deadly on point shots because of talent; he must have worked on his shooting *a lot.* Finally, their passing needs work. Too many plays ruined or busted because of bad passes to their feet. This is something that simply shouldn't happen on a pro team. Montreal has been too focused on defense over the last decade or so. It's not pure luck that players who leave our team suddenly find a scoring touch. It's usually because they move onto an organization that has some kind of sensible offensive strategy. Sure you need defense, and probably it should be stressed over offense, but you simply can't ignore offense completely and hope that "natural talent" will provide all the offense you need. Hopefully, the new coaching regime will strike some kind of sensible balance between offense and defense. - Jack

And this is exactly Julien's problem. He keeps yelling defense when the Habs have one of the worst offensive stats in the league. Our team (under him) doesn't know how to play offense. (Just look at some of the other teams in our zone and compare them to how we play in their zone.) Julien insists on trying to play a brain dead defensive system that was only mildly successful in the old NHL. His system needs holding and hooking to work. Our boys are getting killed trying to play his system in the new NHL. Contrast this to Pat Quinn, who made the necessary adjustments (admittedly after a few weeks of some intense crying). Our players *are* trying, they *are* working hard. (Ribs was quoted in today's Gazette as saying he was working very hard.) The system doesn't work, pure and simple. We have the talent necessary to compete. We have the rules in place that should allow this team to do quite well. All we need is a coach who can properly use this talent (and not Jarvis!!!) (We also need Theodore to re-discover his game.) - Jack PS I would *love* Brent Sutter as a coach. Not going to happen - can't speak French.

I guess we'll have the opportunity to see now, won't we? Pittsburgh's record when he took over was: Won - 8 Lost - 17 OT - 6 for 22 points - Jack

First of all, to those of you who were translating my "bring back Therrien" post literally, you need to expand the depth of your thinking. This was not a serious suggestion; it was a lead-in to my rant about lack of offense. (Most of you did realize this, I believe.) To put it even more bluntly... I am very well aware that we will never have this excellent coach again {sigh}. As to those who believe that Julien is a good coach, yada, yada, yada... There's no point arguing this here. Let's wait and see. We'll talk again next April. I just hope that you don't forget this thread we had here back in mid December. I'll say one thing though... Therrien has accomplished as much as Julien has in the minors and more. Besides this, after the 1st round upset of Boston, we were up 2 games in the next series against the Canes before we had that meltdown. Our team then looked like we could beat anyone! Whereas, Julien (like Vigneault), won 1 series, and then was swept 4 straight where we didn't even look like we belonged. And don't forget, talent-wise, Julien has a better team than Therrien had. The following year, Therrien was quoted as saying that his goal was the Stanley Cup and nothing less. Have you ever heard Julien or Vigneault say this? God forbid. We wouldn't want to have unreal expectations now, would we... - Jack [Edited on 2005/12/14 by jackp]

Think of what you're saying. *One* bench minor and you think the coach should be fired (especially a great coach like Therrien). Besides, I suppose that you don't know that the NHL apologized to the Habs that summer for that penalty. They said it shouldn't have been assessed. It was more a case of Kerri Fraser having a Kerri Fraser moment, than anything else. I can remember reading about Koivu saying right after the game that he didn't know why the penalty had been given; that nothing more untoward than what most coaches do under the same situation had occured. - Jack [Edited on 2005/12/13 by jackp]

Reminds me of a team I once played on in a pretty good industrial league. We finished 2nd during league play, yet got bounced in the 1st round of playoffs. For some unknown reason, our team got "scared" and started to play way too defensive. I can remember pleading with the guys in the dressing room (especially the defencemen) not to give up the offensive zone so quickly. To no avail. You know how it is in those leagues - no coach - so who to hell was going to listen to me?!! I'm not saying that you abandon defense for offense, but you need to balance the two, and that's not happening on the Habs right now. Besides, as a pesky fan near me used to bellow when I had seasons in the Forum: "Le meilleur defense c'est l'offense." (Pardon my bad French grammar). - Jack

I'm not panicking. I've never liked Julien. To me, he's Alain Vigneault all over again. And mark my words, the team will not win under him, especially if they keep calling the rules the way they do now in the "new" NHL. Actually "despair" would be a better term to how I'm feeling right now. Once they get rid of Julien, we end up with Jarvis, who's basically the same. My only hope (and it's a slim one) is that Julien is flexible enough in his thinking to realize that he has to change and adapt to the new NHL. That he has to start practicing *offense* in his practices. (It was no surprise to me that we got blasted in our first game back after a week of Julien practices. Guess what they were saying they would have to bone up on during the week of practices? Defense!!! And this after stats show that we have one of the worst offenses in the division. And I don't believe it's all down to the loss of Kovalev and Koivu (though that certainly hasn't helped). Our current offensive malaise started a couple of games *before* Kovalev made his startling announcement. - Jack

Yeah, that's really important, being more popular with the team... Therrien didn't have the quality of players that Julien has. More importantly, the team knew how to play offense under him. Remember our good start this year? We were "running and gunning" but, as a result, we were giving up 3 on 2's and 2 on 1's. I was afraid that this would make Julien emphasize a brain-dead defensive system that doesn't allow as many odd man rushes. Well guess what? We hardly give up any 3 on 2's or 2 on 1's anymore because our guys are always back. Unfortunately, this means that we can't score more than 3 goals a game (tops), and because we don't exert offensive pressure, we spend about 2/3 of the game in our own zone. This defensive nonsense worked (barely) in the old NHL. It doesn't work at all now because it depended on clutching and grabbing, and interference in front of your own net. These tactics are no longer allowed (as you all know). The old system might have worked when 2 or 3 goals was all you needed to win a game. So you could stress defense and hope for garbage goals to see you through. Not anymore. Balance has returned to the game, and if you don't coach (and play) offense, you don't win. Pure and simple. It pisses me off to see our team trying to make a system work that is flawed from the onset. It pisses me off to hear people condemning our players, saying that they aren't trying or aren't intense, when they're trying just as hard as the other team. The problem is that most of the hard work is taking place in our own defensive zone, where, after awhile, cracks have to appear. We're playing what's essentially a "prevent defense" and as far as I'm concerned, (as the cliche goes) the only thing a prevent defense prevents... is victory. - Jack

Never should have been fired... Best coach we've had since Demers... Just look at his record with the AHL team he's with now. The guy is a winner and, most importantly, his teams know how to play offense... - Jack

This game was lost for a number of reasons: 1. Julien insists on sitting on 2 goal leads. How many times do teams have to come back on us before he realizes the error of his ways. (They're only sending 1 guy in when they get 2 up.) 2. The tying goal was a bad one. No one should score from that angle. Just like 2 years ago, Theodore lets us down late in games. (I don't blame him for the winning goal however.) 3. As I've stated before, we don't have a clue in the offensive zone. On RDS, the announcer said that we haven't scored a goal all year *when we've had a 2 man advantage!* If that doesn't tell you what a sad excuse for a coach we have, nothing will. He doesn't realize that there are *2* dimensions in hockey: *offense* as well as defense. He only knows defense. You can't spend 2/3 of a game in your own zone and expect to win. 4. We have speed and we're not using it. Nothing like negating your best asset. - Jack PS If Julien goes, we get Jarvis: same type of coach but not as good. Really doesn't look good for us in the forseeable future.

I, for one, have no faith in the coach or his system. He reminds me of Vigneault, and we all know how much we achieved under him. Another thing is the number of injuries we're suffering under Julien, just like with Vigneault. Is is possible that this defensive system makes players work so hard, that they get ground down and prone to injury? I realize that this is a stretch, but I just cannot ignore the similarities between this regime and Vigneault's. To further this point, Dandenault was quoted as saying that they have to abandon the "run and gun" and play more defensive. I personally think this is the diametric opposite of what we should be doing, which is going back to the "run and gun." In the beginning of the year, when we were "running and gunning," we were competitive with Ottawa (2 close games). Now that we've become defensive? 4-0 and Julien saying he's happy with the effort! I live in Mississauga and am cursed with living in Leafs land. But one thing I have to say about Quinn's Leafs: they know how to play offense. They make nice plays in the offensive zone. It doesn't surprise me that they win despite usually being outshot *because they don't shoot many low-percentage shots.* That team can get away with playing 2 lazy periods and still win the game because they know what to do with the puck (like in their last game against us.) (I watch Leaf games when there's nothing better to do because I want them to lose, so it makes it interesting.) If you want to see what I mean, just watch a Leaf game and observe how they play offense. Then watch us play in the offensive zone. We look lost and disorganized compared to them... - Jack

Thanks... have been a member of the Habs mailing list for over 12 years, but have lately moved on to this group and the usenet group: alt.sports.hockey.nhl.mtl-canadiens. There certainly is more activity in these groups than the mailing list (which used to be busy 5 or 6 years ago). As far as the potential trade is concerned... it would be a steal for us, but "it ain't gonna happen." - Jack

Rumours, rumours, rumours... while it's fun to speculate, I don't put too much stock in these exercises in wishful thinking... - Jack