brobin

Ribs is looking great tonight. He is finishing checks, knocking players down, and being defensively responsible. I think playing him with Kost is a great way to go. Kost is fast and talented, Ribs is a playmaker, and Ryder has the shot. I think between Ribs spending some time on the 4th line and the energy Kost is bringing to the line, Ribs is coming around. Lets see if he can keep it going for a few games.

Ribs Ryder and Kost look like a pretty good line.

Hey, at least we weren't shut out. LOL.....

LOL, the goals were so fast, the NHL site could not update the official score sheet fast enough. Koivu went from -3 to even now. ribs went from -1 to even. They keep changing who was on when. They occasionally change a goal, but changing the defending players every 5 minutes. LOL

Theo is not saving them, but really, most of those goals are not his fault. This team is not skating, not playing at all.. there goes goal number 6, can't blame Theo for this one.

Thank you Bob for the timeout. Something CJ should have done in most games. And we laughed at the leafs.

they are not ready. Another guy splits the defense. When are these guys going to realize tht you have to show up for NHL games when it starts.

What on earth was Rivet doing... standing around watching... blah

As bad as the Habs have been during stretches of this season, they have never been so utterly dominated by a team as the Leafs have been by the Sens. Its like the leafs give up as soon as the puck drops. It sure is sweet to see. Now if the Habs can win tonight I can go to work with that big stupid grin on my face and just smile at my leaf buddies....

Okay, the points changed a bit after the last game and 80 percent was an exaggeration. However... Ribs has 31 points with 19 on the PP. Ryder has 30 points with 17 on the PP. Kovalev has 31 points with 15 on the PP. These are hardly dramatically different. In fact, Ribs is only getting points on the PP now because that is the only time he has quality players right now. Since Bob took over, Ribs has 4 PP points. Take those away and he was 27 points, 15 on the PP. In other words, the same ratio as the others. I never mentioned Koivu since he is the only one who is dramatically the other way. That is not really a good thing. Koivu has been very dissapointing on the PP. He gets the most PP time and has little to show for it, even playing with the top PP line. I just don't buy this nonsense about Ribs just being a PP specialist. He is great on the PP, but half his points were 5-5 and this in a year he is "struggling". He is 3rd on the team in points and has a better PPG average then Ryder. Seriously, for all the complaining about Ribs, there are plenty of players costing more and doing less. Now I personally think Plus minus is a bogus stat (I have seen lots of minus that had to do with the crappy play by the D, nothing to do with the forwards, but that said, the only players that have a plus that play much are Koivu, Markov, and Begin. So that leaves the rest of the team in various degrees of suckage, including Ribs. By the way, another thing I notice is that the Koivu line always plays with the best D line. Ribs typically had some combination of Komi/Striet/Boullion. I never understood that logic. If the coach is so worried about the poor defensive play of the second line, why not give them a decent defense pairing to help balance the line? (no offense to Boullion, I like him but he had a horrible couple of weeks during the team slump). Puzzling but now solved as Ribs is on the 4th line.

Well, Bonk has been a flop so far, based on his salary. Him and Zednik are suppose to be two of our top players and are paid accordingly. Bonk is coming around and I believe he will ultimately prove to be a valuablel addition to the team. I would not dump Bonk, I am just disappointed in his performance SO FAR, given how much we have invested in him. My point was that for the amount of complaining about Ribs on various boards, he is a fairly cheap player and has produced, just not to his potential. He is actually one of the top "points per dollar" guys on the team. Zednik in contrast is suppose to be a winger on our number one line and has sucked.

If we replaced Zednik with a true number 1 RW and got a decent 2nd line LW to work with Ribs and Ryder, this would be a completely different team. Last season and half of this season Ribs has had either Dags or insert temporary rookie winger here, to work with. Imagine if he had a real tough, hard hitting winger with a shot (Dags only has the shot). I think Ribs would be doing far better.

80 percent of Kovalev, Ryder, and Markov's points come on the PP too. Ribs has definitely struggled this year, but he has been on a sucky line most of the season and he is still in the top 4 for points and PPG. He was also healthy during that horrible 6 weeks when everyone on the team was a minus most nights. Koivu and Kovalev missed most of those games. Koivu is the only plus on the team I think. I still think ribs can turn his game around and be a decent 2nd center. That said, if we can get Koivu at a price that makes him our number 2 center, ribs is expendable. The problem of course is finding that top center who can average 1.25 PPG and be a game maker. From what I have seen, the biggest flop this season is Zednik, followed by Bonk. Ribs is fairly cheap and is producing much more then those two. Zednik is really sucking giving he was a first line player most of the season. He needs to be replaced soon and we also need a decent 2nd line LW.

Something is wrong with Koivu. That last minute and a half wasted in our zone was the direct result of his horrible giveaway pass up the middle to start the rush. Koivu has not been the same since coming back from injury. He is playing average at best and right now we need him to step up!

Ribs playing with Koivu.... thats new.

Nice goal. Kovalev looked very determined and ticked off on that shot. And Bonk almosts ties it on some nice moves. Might be hope yet.

Anyone else notice that the reffs put the whistle away. hmmm.

Apparently the attempt to injure was for fighting with a brace on his wrist. So basically, he can't fight at all since he has to wear the brace.

The claim is that Souray did an eye gouge, but the replay clearly showed he didn't, he had his hand up to block. By the way, this is Pollock reffing. Remember him from the Toronto game earlier this season (with bogus call giving the Leafs the win) and the Ottawa game (Markov suspension). Guess he wants to compete with Fraser for best "screw the habs" award.

That reffing is crap. Intent to injure was bogus and that was a pretty dive for the 5-3. Sure hope the Habs come back and smoke Calgary. Down Souray and Markov is going to make this a very tough game.

I hope they sign him, but at a price that allows him to become our number 2 center. As he declines (which he will, even his PPG this year is nothing great), it would be nice to bring in a big number one center and move Koivu down to number 2. This way we get to keep his leadership while improving up the middle.

There is no question that the style of defensive play changed. The guys were blocking shots and making it very difficult to get to the net. That is how you protect a struggling goalie as well, which should help Theo get his confidence back. I was pretty annoyed with the team during the dark months. Sure Theo was struggling, but rather then help him (block shots, clear rebounds, clear the net, etc) they hung him out to dry. Hence, he got worse and worse. I firmly believe that Gainey has made it very clear to the team that Theo is the guy and that they are responsible for helping him get out of his slump. The entire team must be dedicated to defense in their own end, just as they must be dedicated to offense in the other end. By the way, Brodeur has recently improved his play and the commentary I have heard is that it started with better defense by the guys in front of him! Let's hope for the same. PS. My wife only gets sex on game night if we win. It has been a long couple of months.

It is possible that Theo likes the pads, or perhaps, is more afraid of changing equipement right in the middle of the season. While his rebound control has been week, it is more on the high shots that he is not getting his hands on, rather then ones bouncing off his pads. Since he is usually on his knees, the puck rarely hits his pads anyway. I also agree that he is struggling with high shots and his glove hand more then anything. I highly doubt that Gainey would trade him for not changing gear. I suspect Gainey is simply going to tell Theo to play better, regardless of the equipment, and they will be buddies again.

I have no issue with playing defensively with a 3 goal lead. The problem with CJ was that he would do that in the first period with a one goal lead. I think another issue is our lineup. Despite Ribs play in the last month, he does setup a lot of chances. With his limited ice time (and current linemates), that probably cuts down on the offense a fair bit (5 on 5).