The Chicoutimi Cucumber
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Posts posted by The Chicoutimi Cucumber
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We're 1-4-1. (Note that, because although the SO loss makes it *feel* like we're 1-5, we're not). That is hardly an insurmountable deficit - yet. All we need to do is win 3 games and we're at .500.
What has happened, though, is that the rope is running out. You can't just sit around and watch the team go 1-6-1 or 2-8-1, something like that. As Jonathan Rebelo points out in his insightful write-up on the main page, that leaves the team with zero room for any mid-season slump. Not a tenable position.
History shows us that this is a very dangerous place. In 1996, we started 0-5 after missing the playoffs in the previous, strike-truncated season. Two points to note. One is that Serge Savard pulled the trigger on the cataclysmic Leclair deal in an attempt to upgrade the offence and make the playoffs in 1995. The other, much more dramatic lesson is what happened after the 0-5 start. It was the beginning of the fire-bombing of the franchise as those jabbering bonobos Reggie Haircut and Mario Blueberry were brought in and destroyed the very solid foundation Savard had in place.
Be careful what you wish for.
That being said, if it goes on something will have to give...if it's JM, I think that's too bad, but so be it. Replacements? Well, it's a wild idea, but I think if we went and pulled Muller back in we might get a pass from the media on the language thing at least for a while. And Muller knows the players and the systems so his own adjustment would not be massive in those terms. You'd better surround him with accomplished (francophone) assistants, though.
There's other oddball options out there, besides Hartley or whoever. For instance, I always loathed Therrien, but surely he has learned a great deal from his days in Pittsburgh and Montreal? Are there any French Canadian assistant coaches out there we could poach? André Savard?
Carbo???? Just spitballing. 
EDIT: BTW, the PP is abysmal for one reason - it doesn't have Wisniewski. And anyone who derided Wiz as one-dimensional or 'not a top-4 defenceman' and not someone we should have tried to re-sign, ought to think about that.
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I haven't been able to watch this one, unfortunately. To that extent I speak from ignorance.
Obviously things can't go on like this, though. A couple more losses and you are hitting crisis time.
The primary blame for these early results rests on a GM who brought in Wisniewski last season precisely because he was manifestly necessary to drive our PP, then allowed him to walk without (apparently) even making an offer, while doing nothing to replace that gaping hole in a specialty team that has been criticial to our success for years now. He then compounded his folly by allowing Hammer to walk despite his stated desire to stay here and his quite reasonable contract demands. The result is an impotent power play that is making the difference between winning and losing.
Maybe Campoli would have helped the PP. Maybe not. He is certainly no Wiz.
JM is not the problem, but if you end up 1-6 or 1-7 to start the season, I agree that you have to do something. That's 12-14 points you've pissed down the drain. PG had better be working the phones like crazy (unotuchables? Subban, Price, Patches. The end). And just how wedded is Molson to Gauthier anyway? A few more losses and we just might find out.
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Well, I for one thought Grabs was a good player, and have not been at all surprised at his success in TO. That was a stupid trade - especially for a team in dire need of talent down the middle. It's time for Habs fans to come out of their denial on that one. We threw away a serviceably productive and exciting 2nd-line NHL centre for no other reason than that he was immature.
Andrei: a good #6 forward. His defenders overlook the 50 games or so a season where he goes around in an offensive stupor, his critics overlook his fairly consistent physical game and that he does produce pretty convincingly for the other 30 games.
Sergei: another perfectly adequate 2nd-line forward. Analogous to Grabovski in that, rather than patiently work with immature young players, the Habs unfortunately chose to throw them away. I regret the loss of Sergei less, because MaxPac is a clear upgrade. Nonetheless, the Habs' problem has not been in drafting these guys but in their willingness to dispose of assets that don't display the right old-school attitude. (Ribeiro, anyone?)
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If memory serves, Cammy has a poor track record when returning from injury, so I wouldn't hope for too much from that quarter. At the same time, that the opposition is likely to key on him (along with Pleks and Subban) should open up new opportunities for our secondary scorers, so he'll still help...just don't expect a big night from him. Heck, in the past its taken him a long time to get untracked in these circumstances.
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I haven't seen any gigantic improvement from Gomez myself, but I think fans are a bit confused. This guy never has been and never will be a goal scorer; when he says he wants to shoot more, that is not mainly about scoring goals, but about making his game less predictable. If he can succeed in doing that, then he will become more successful as a playmaker, which is what he's all about.
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Yeah, blaming the other goalie gets a bit lame. First of all, OUR goalie is supposed to be the one who steals games, not the other way around. Secondly, most teams have a good goalie. You can use that excuse all season long. I'm sorry, but Varlamov and Reiner are not exactly the second coming of Tretiak. We're the problem a lot more than the opposition is.
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We do seem to have an inordinate number of plays every game where we either hit posts or the players just miss on key scoring chances. I don't know if this is symptomatic of a team that's holding its sticks too tightly, or if we just have a lot of low percentage shooters.
Rarely did I find myself believing that the Habs were gonna score. Don't know why that is, but there seems to be something lacking.
What I'll say is that slumping teams often string together 2-3 strong games before finally breaking through with a win, at which point they often get hot. Could be that that's what going here. Could be.
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From the Twitterverse:
Morris Dallacosta:
Knights Jarred Tinordi is going to reassed at this weekend. Eye injury he obtained during a fight may keep him out a couple of weeks #OHL
I guess he fell down pretty hard if he needs a new ass
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For all my bitching about the D, I have to admit that individually (not as a unit) the new defencemen have all played pretty well. Emelin impressed me with his savvy first pass yesterday,and if Diaz keeps playing this way he will have a long career as a secondary offensive defenceman in this league. Cohesion rather than talent really does seem to be the problem, and presumably time and dedication will fix that. The question is whether we will be out of contention for the playoffs by the time we do fix it - keeping in mind that 8-10 points thrown away waiting the team to gel (and for Markov to return) can easily be the difference between finishing solidly in the playoffs and way out of them.
At this stage the odds seem to favour a poor first half followed by a strong second half as the injured bodies return and the team gels. I suspect we will, yet again, be a 'bubble team' in disguise: much better, when healthy and playing as a team, than out points totals will indicate.
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Hamrlik: sure, I'd have taken him on a two-year deal at 3.5 mil. For God's sake, we're carrying Spacek this season and nobody is freaking out about the cap hit - in fact, he's been defended in this thread. I just don't see what the big deal is about a moderately-priced contract possibly being a problem for one season, considering the risks involved in going into this season with a kiddie corps and no Markov for 2 months - especially when we had the cap space. I've said it before and I'll say it again: sign the player you want/need, worry about the cap later. They were right to do it with Cole and they'd have been right to do it with Hammer.
All that being said, if Campoli doesn't go down I might not be saying this. Without having seen more of him it's hard to know about that (although Campoli wouldn't have helped with the whole 'cohesion' issue that, I increasingly think, is the biggest problem right now).
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This team we are icing atm hasn't played with each other, Emelin and Diaz are new to the nhl, Weber hasn't played a full season on d, Patches, DD, Subban and Lars Eller are all sophomores (plus patches and Eller coming off injuries), Georges is coming off injury as well, plus we have Engqvist and Palushaj rookie/ahl call ups.
It's not a surprise what so ever that it's shaky at the moment as a whole unit. Even when Markov, Spacek, Cammalleri and Campoli come back... remember Markov hasn't really played with any off the sophomores and Campoli has played a single game as a hab. There is still work before we are a full cohesive unit, even when the injured are back.
Very sound analysis. I'll refrain from mentioning that cohesion was one more reason to have re-signed Hamrlik
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Further thought: in fairness, you add three basically new players onto the D (Weber, Diaz, Emelin), even if they play well as individuals, there are stil going to be problems of cohesion - just as there were when Gainey first pasted this forward unit together in one dramatic summer. Goalie doesn't know the D, D don't know the forwards, forwards don't know the D, etc.. Really, early season flailing is only to be expected.
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Price doesn't look at all like the monster who stoned Winnipeg. Partly it's just bad luck, but he seems shaky. Definitely go with Budaj next time...although I suspect he too will get shelled because of the D in front of him.
I know the forwards have to come back, but look. To me the fact that we're rolling two rookies, one guy with a half-season's experience (Weber), and an erratic sophomore on the blueline is a ridiculous and unsustainable ratio of experience to inexperience for a team not in a rebuilding year. To make matters worse, the nearest cavalry is Spacek, which is a bit like replacing a drooling, bumbling toddler with a dribbling, senile old geezer. As for the forwards, yeah they need to tighten up. They may be uncertain, though, as to which play to expect from the rookies, or they may be pressing to go on the attack because they're always coming from behind, or they may be frustrated because of communications breakdowns; but I cannot believe that if we had seasoned vets in their prime back there we'd be coughing up 4-5 goals a night.
All that being said, much of the problem over the last two games comes back to Subban specifically. He our #1 D-man, under these circumstances, and he CANNOT be coughing up the puck on catastrophic giveaways night after night. And while he is eating up minutes, he is not generating compensatory plays (spectacular rushes, lethal shots from the point, etc) that would at least mitigate the worst effects of his blunders. Note that I am not blaming him. We should have had a better plan than relying on a sophomore to replace Markov for the first two months of the season. He should not have been put in this position.
The good news is that we did some nice things on offence tonight and the team showed sustained flashes of offensive cohesion. Cole seems to be warming up to his teammates and Patches is picking up where he left off. What this team needs now is confidence in its defensive game. There's nothing for it but to keep working, hope for improvements from game to game, and maybe get a few nights where the goalie bails 'em out.
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Oops. Screwed up. Anyway, nice GDT.
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First thing I look at on a roster is D. And unless I'm missing something, the Avs D blows chunks. If that's right, then this is a good matchup for us, as we do best against teams with questionable defence. Couple that with this team's habit of bouncing back strong, and we good be in for an enjoyable night, provided we contain Duchene/Stastny.
Eller on the first line as a winger. Interesting. I'd much prefer his rangy strength down the middle and DD moved to the wing, but whatever.
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WELL..... this is great news
I returned from a reconstructed acl, lcl and quad tendon after 13 months with a semi tendinousis procedure (hamstring) and ive never looked back..
clearly markov rushed back from his first procedure (less then 6 months) but im not to worried about his 2nd procedure because his first was with a cadavor (corpse's achilles tendon) so the rehab was far less, but the failure rate higher! they say ligamentization occurs after six months (the body breaks down the tendon and rebuilds it as a ligament) he was back prior!
this 2nd time round they used his patella tendon (tendon that holds the knee cap in place).. so outside of a 2nd clean up of the actual joint to remove debris, bone chips and the ligamant/ tendon its essentially his first procedure! the rehab is much more because the knee cap has to restabilize but the knee itself should be just fine the trama of the operation is much less.
lets hope he where's his brace early on and remember he's not even 1 year post op! so he's on schedule..
gorges was back earlier because he used a cadavor and its holding up...
Cripes, man, that's better information than anyone in the media has bothered to provide over the last 12 months. Thanks. It helps to explain why Markov's knee blew out so quickly upon his return and why we may not have to fret too much about another blow-out this time. That's very reassuring, since, with the stupid decision to let Hammer walk, this team needs Markov more than last year's. Let's just hope we can stay afloat until he gets back.
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I spent a little over 2 months there working this summer and my dad lived there for 9 years
Ha ha, no, I didn't mean you personally - I meant that people in general have never really needed to speak French in order to make a life for themselves in Montreal. With an English-speaking community numbering between 600 000 to 1 million depending on how it's defined, there was always the option of living in a mostly English bubble. I was making a historical point about my former hometown. Sorry, didn't mean to offend.
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You do not really need to know french to live in Montreal anymore... kinda sad, but true.
You never did, though.
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We got to semi finals DESPITE having Martin as coach, not because of him.
We also got there thanks to; likely because of Muller's help with players, and Cammalleri had a remakable likely not to be repeated scoring barrage (till Philly), Gill (PK play) and Halak (stoning everyone) and last year we backed into into playoffs as the lowest scoring team in a very very weak Eastern Conferance. So i do not give him as much credit as you do (am i right or wrong, i dont know, but i am just giving my opinion).I think if Kirk Muller, or say the coach from Buffalo or Nashville had this team it would do better, dont you?.
Oh, it's a tired argument we don't need to have again. But I'll say this, your logic is based on a priori reasoning: Martin sucks, therefore good results must be attributable to something else, while bad results must be attributable to him.
In point of fact, you are describing a situation where the Habs have gotten the most out of the players they have. In any normal world the coach gets some credit when that happens. What are you saying, that with Muller as coach Cammy would score more goals in the playoffs? Gill would have been better on the PK?
As for whether Trotts or Muller would get superior results, meh. Trotts is another coach on a team where the team seems to get maximum overall results given the talent at hand; if he gets credit for that, then so should Martin. As for Muller, this is just pie-in-the-sky. Maybe Muller will make a great head coach some day, maybe not. Claiming that he's better than Martin is based on absolutely nothing.
People hate Martin for three reasons. One, they obssess over relatively minor questions like who should be on the third line at the start of a game in October. Two, they see his boring persona and hanker for a flashier personality. Three, they have a fantasy about some Coach Saviour (Muller, Boucher, etc.) who will come and work miracles - i.e., get better results than a semi-finals appearance and driving the Cup champs to Game 7 OT. All I care about is results and JM has delivered.
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Again, i seem to disagree with you on JM and Plekanec on the point is just one of many moves (Moan on top six) which i just dont understand. Is he the worst coach, of course not, but would the team be better off without him, i have to say yes (but just my opinion).
So, in your opinion, given the roster we had, we would definitely have gone to the Finals in 2010 and gotten to the second round last season, if only we'd had a different coach?
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The only question that matters with JM is: have his teams maxed out their potential? Looking at the overall results from the last two years, the answer seems to me a resounding YES. You can quibble over this or that decision (e.g., I agree Pleks on the point is a debacle) but in terms of the big picture - overall results - he has been impeccable.
Dryden's book is the bomb. It's so deftly organized. Very impressive.
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how simple can this be though..... i might be "just" an armchair GM but...we have a fully intact 4th line.. put them together
moen enquivst darche
put the americans together watch them play with a chip
cole gomez gionta
give palushaj a two week stint until cammo comes back to show what he's got with our best center
AK plex palushaj
finally a strong 3rd line that could even end up being a 1AB by end of season... deharnais and pac have already shown they can play together and eller is taking massive strides... just look at his play yesterday in his first game post OP..
pacioretty eller deharnais
MY LINES
1)kosty -- plex -- camo (palushaj)
2)deharnais -- eller-- pacioretty
3)gionta -- gomez -- cole
4)moen -- enquivst -- darche
(white)
play the top 3 lines pretty equally but ride the hottest line that night!and watch the kid line push the vet line
Those lines represent a decent configuration given the materials to hand, but geez. The loss of Cammy and a passable #4 centreman really weakens this team, and these lines show that. People are ripping JM for using Moen/Drache on scoring lines, but the alternative is Palushaj. I mean, yuck.
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Haven't been able to see much, although funnily enough I had a bad feeling about this game going in. Don't know why, but it could be the pattern of opening-night losses/blown 'high profile' games.
On Cole: that's always been the book on him, he suffers lapses in intensity. He's also looked like a dynamo on some shifts with Plekanec. Take the bad with the good.
But am I wrong to think that we can expect numerous evenings like this as long as we are throwing two rookies, a gifted but still-learning sophomore, Weber, and (when healthy) the immortal Jaroslav Spacek out on the blueline? Just asking.
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The haunting thing about Markov was the way he blew out his knee the second time: on a nothing play that looked basically harmless, like the sort of impact players absorb all the time. Now I may be wrong about that; it may have been just a freak, one-in-a-million thing. Not trying to be alarmist - I'm not a medical doctor - but that was a pretty weird injury and it's hard to know what it tells us about #79's durability going forward.
Things that have crippled our team over the years
in Habs & Hockey Talk
Posted
The worst disaster to befall this team (other than the Roy deal) over the last 15 years is this:
SAKU KOIVU'S KNEE.
He was leading the NHL in scoring, an emerging superstar with blazing speed and deft moves, before he blew it out in 1996. He was never even close to the same player thereafter.
I actually rate Audette's arm quite highly on that list. But yeah. with a healthy Markov who knows what could have been last season. And his knee could end up costing Martin his job - or even Gauthier, the way things are going.