C-Love

Is Mike Commodore's career over? I am kind of shocked that he never got a call up in the last few weeks. He's a big vetern that can hit. I'm surprised he hasn't gotten a nod. Is he even in Hamilton still?

As the person who started this thread, I would like to take the opportunity to come on here and state that I was wrong and jumped all over MT without giving him a chance and simply basing my opinion of the hiring on his history. We are only 4 games into the season, and I very clearly see that this team is moving in the right direction, I believe if we were 1-3 rather than 3-1 I would be saying the same thing as it's his direction and leadership that has changed the mentality in the dressing room/on ice performance that is most notable. This is a team that looks completely different from last years squad even though in actualilty it is very similiar. I was wrong and now applaud the hiring of Therrien and for the first time in a long time I am very optimistic about this club and believe we have a chance to win every night.

Take this for what its worth, but I play in a rec league on PEI, I did not play last night, but apparently a couple of my teammates told me that after last nights game they were talking to Adam McQuaid who is buddies with Benoit Pouliot and he said that Pouliot told him Subban was not liked in the dressing room in Montreal, and the reason that Bergevin low balled him was that he was hoping that someone would give him an offer sheet. I know that PK is very vocal and outspoken, but now I'm wondering if he is disliked as well. This story was coming from a couple of douchebag leaf fans, but they did sound serious,

Gomez does not have a no-movement/no-trade clause in his contract. If that deal was going to happen, he'd have no say in the decision.

I think Mueller would be a good risk to take if the price was right, and I'd still love to see Arnott in the Habs lineup despite his age.

Wait to you see Patrick Holland this season. That trade is one of the better moves PG actually made. Simply because we acquired Holland, he's going to be a stud.

I'm from PEI (where Gallant is from) and have followed his career. I have heard quite a bit about him as a coach in junior. Apparently he is a real hard ass coach, no nonsense type of guy, and is not the best communicator. I don't know how well that would go with Therrien. Two psycho's may not be the right thing for this team. In an ideal situation I would like Gallant as an assistant coach, I just don't think with our current head coach it would be a smart move.

Where???

Again, I agree with you as well, however, fans/media (especially in Montreal) demand a move to be made, and they are left with little choice. Combine that with the fact that these guys don't really give a shit, and most likely can tank a whole season, as long as they get paid, and management kind of has to make a move. This board was crazy last year with people demanding Martin's head, and that was 3 months before he was actually fired. I believe you have to treat players these days with kidgloves or else they will just give up on you, because there is no vested interest in the team.

Prima donnas. haha,

I agree with you in theory, but it seems today's NHL'ers are pre-madonnas, who just completely give up on a coach they don't like and wait for him to get fired. It seems that now coachs need to earn the respect of the room rather than demand it like the good ol' days. I wish it wasn't that way, but I think that had a lot to do with our issues last year. I suspect the team hated Martin's approach and just said, "F#$K it". When that didn't work, Cammy spoke out and got his wish out of the city. I also think we (as fans) care a whole lot more about the Habs than the players, Montreal is simply a destination for most guys here, it's all business, and if it doesn't work out, they simply move on. When Robinson was playing, those guys were invested in the city, fans, team etc. I don't think there is a way to get that back either, due to inflated salaries and so much movement among players.

For instance, do not trade your top defensive prospect (and McDonagh was our top prospect, I knew it at the time so Gainey should of as well) for Scott Gomez. Do not acquire Tomas Kaberle at any point in your reign, and do not trade arguably your top scorer for an underachiving winger that takes stupid penaties and does not contribue offensively. Those are a few things at the top. When every one of those moves were made I knew they were going to be terrible moves. As long as Bergevin does not make moves that everyone is unanimous are terrible moves we will get better. I guess what I was saying was when a GM makes moves like I mentioned above, we all knew we were going to be worse, if he does not repeat those mistakes we WILL get better. Even questionable moves (hiring Therrien) may be the right move. Time will tell. We didn't need time to tell with the above made moves. We knew right away, so he needs to avoid doing that.

I realize that he needs time, but what I'm saying is he has to make the right moves. He needs to move the team in the right direction right away. If we are going to improve, we need to make good moves and right away, and if he does we will be get better.

I think you just lack passion. This team hasn't won a CUp since 1993, and our fans are turning into Leafs fans. Give them 4 more years??? That's what Leafs fans do. I have heard that when Gainey took over, the famous 5 year plan, then when Gauthier took over it was, give him 3 years, now I'm hearing 4 years for Bergevin. This losing and accepting of a losing team is unacceptable. We are not Leafs fans and we don't chear for the Leafs, please stop blindly accepting mediocrity and adding years to this "rebuilding process".

He's gonna have a mediocre team for his second run as well. You are not giving coaches enough credit. Paul McLean is a perfect example of a mediocre team playing well with exceptional coaching. Noone predicted Ottawa to make the playoffs this year, and on paper, they were not much.

Okay, I am beginning to calm down a bit, and now I want to take a step back and try to think positively. I really don't want to go through another season like last year, and I don't want to have a terrible attitude going into this one. Maybe Michel went into this interview and said he has learnt a lot from previous jobs and realized his approach needs to change. Maybe sitting on his hands for 3 years has given him some perspective and will effect his style. People said on here earlier that they are going to give Bergevin the benefit of the doubt, and maybe he does deserve that. We have no idea with Michel said in his many interviews, maybe he is the best guy. At the end of the day, I am very skeptical about this hire, but I don't want to lose faith in Bergevin yet, and I WANT to be optimistic, so I am going to force myself to let this play out. I was thrilled with the Bergevin signing, so I will try and assume he did a good job. Let's see what happens with the number 3 pick.

A FEW YEARS????? Noone could say "I told you so after a few years". He won't last the season.

His only success was when he had arguably one of the greatest players of all time in his lineup (Crosby), one of the greatest players in the current NHL at the time (Malkin) and one of the top goalies in the NHL (Fleury), and essentially at the end of the day he won nothing, but as soon as he was fired the team had the greatest finish to a season in memory and went on to win the Cup. Yeah, he's a proven winner in the NHL allright. You get what you pay for, and we'll be getting ours this year. I'm sick about this signing. You can be optimistic all you want, but there is no secrets anymore in this league, and there is a reason why he hasn't gotten a job since being fired by the Pens, and don't kid yourself, the only reason he got this job is because he's French. It's not even about being Bergevins buddy, if he was English, he wouldn't of even been considered.

Might as well get this started now, so we'll have a place to go to November. This guy is not capable of coaching a team successfully in the NHL. He has a fairly good track record in the QMJHL, because he's style can be effective with kids. It doesn't hold true with men though. His record speaks for itself, and if he was capable he wouldn't have been without a job since 2009. I am surprised and disappointed that Bergevin did not go after the best candidate for the job but rather picked the best (in his opinion) francophone for the job. I was very optimistic about the upcoming season and this can only be seen as a serious setback, and will most likely give us more of the same from last year. I know people will complain about this going on here this early, but we'll just see what those same people will be saying in November.

I honestly don't believe our D is that bad going forward (this is assuming Markov is back next year) and he looked really good practicing this week. If Markov IS back, then we have he and either Emelin or Gorges eating up a lot of the big PK minutes and #1 pairing mintues and PK can focus more on his offensive side in a game that he is more comfortable with. I realize we do need a top 4 d man but I think that's it. Our guys are young and getting better, I do think this year was an anomally and we will get right back on track next year. If we have the chance to pick Nail or Mikail and pass on either of them for a defenseman than that will go down as the biggest blunder for a draft since picking Wickenheiser over Savard.

I think our D will be much improved next year, I am banking on Markov being back and Emelin, Diaz and Subban all taking another step forward. Our biggest defensive problems all stem from when Kaberle and Campoli are on the ice. I don't know how much help we'll need back there with our young guys getting better every year. The reason I think Moen is dispensible is because of White. Every team needs a number 1 centre, we are sorely lacking that. The reason I have Eller as a 4th line centre is because of Pleks, Desharnais and our need for a big centre.

I have been watching highlights of both Yakapov and Grigorenko and we would be more than happy with either player coming to Montreal next year. My hope is that we beat the leafs on Saturday and then go on a 5 game losing streak again. There is no point in winning games from here on out, but I really don't see this team being that bad next year, we have a bit of work to do in the off-season, but not a whole lot. Once we replace the GM/Coach* (*unfortunately, but that is the reality) we will be stable and begin to move forward, with the way Desharnais, Patches, Emelin, Eller, White and Diaz have been approving this year we are looking really good going forward. This team is not that bad, we just have some real dead weight that we have to get rid of. I can't see a situation where we lose Kaberle which is really unfortunate because if we could we only have a few holes for next year. This is what I see: Cole (4,500,000) Need a #1 Centre Pacioretty (1,625,000) Gionta (5,000,000) Desharnais (850,000) Need a #2 winger Bourque (3,333,333) Plekanec (5,000,000) Geoffrion (1,500,000**) White (1,000,000 **) Eller (2,000,000**) Staubitz (450,000**) Markov (5,750,000) Emelin (1,250,000**) Subban (2,000,000**) Need a top 4 d Man Diaz (1,250,000**) Gorges (3,900,000) Price (5,500,000**) Need a back up ** - My assessment as to prospective salaries for next year. Gone: Gomez, Moen, Darche, Blunden, Nokelainen, Campoli, Kaberle, Budaj Minors to start year: Weber, Leblanc I know it's a long shot to get rid of Kaberle, but if we could find a way to unload him along with Gomez we have some serious money to fill the few holes we have. I don't think there is any doubt that we will buy Gomez out, if he can't be shopped, we just can't afford him going towards the cap with Price's raise and the expectation to have Markov off the LTR. I also realize that Desharnais will probably stay with Patches and Cole, what I am referring to there is that we really need a big #1 Centre, not saying they won't play together, but Desharnais is not a #1. I honestly believe we will be right back in the hunt next year, this is not a team that will be going through a long rebuild. We have the talent, it was just a crazy season, with I suspect a lot of crap in the dressing room and distractions everywhere. I like our core, and with the right moves in the off season, I believe we will be fine.

I disagree totally, I think it is evident that the team is not playing for their coach when they seem utterly disinterested in making passes, or getting shots on net. I think many of these guys are putting in half an effort only because of the backlashing that comes from the media, it is very evident that they are not playing a tight system, or have any kind of desire to push the play, last night, their powerplay looked horrendous. If I didn't know better, I would think they were an AHL team playing against a top notch NHL team, not the Canadiens playing the "statistically" worst team in the NHL. This coming from a team that only a couple of years ago had the number 1 powerplay in the NHL with essentially the same lineup, and I'm sure we can all agree that Wisniewski is not that good of a point man that he could come back in here and we'd have the number one powerplay again. This is a real sign of the team not wanting to play for their coach, but not wanting to embarress themselves either. I think it's a shame that we don't go after the best possible GM/Coach that is available as at the end of the day we all want to see a winning club, who gives a shit what language he speaks.

I think all players get better with experience, however they are not improving the team, we are playing much worse than last year, so if players are improving and the team is losing more, what does that say? I would suggest that there is something wrong with the system....and in turn the person who directs that system. I believe that much of our success last year was because of Kirk Muller, he is now gone and the team, which on paper is better than last year is playing worse. This is to me is confirmation that the team needs a change.

I have now changed my focus. I truly believe this team is underperforming because their coach has lost the room. This team is not all that different from last years squad, if anything they should be better as their young "up and comers" have another year under their belts. There should be no reason in the world why they were dominated by the worst team in the NHL. That was embarrassing to watch, 8 minutes into the second period and we had one shot on net and who was the other teams goalie? Our BACKUP IN HAMILTON LAST YEAR!!!! Are you kidding me, we couldn't put 4, 5, or 8 goals past Curtis Sanford????? Do to Pierre Gauthier's incompetence and lack of awareness regarding Martin's inability to lead this team he needs to go. I still don't know who his replacement should be, but it should be someone,