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REV-G

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Everything posted by REV-G

  1. I wonder how much more evidence Molson needs? No 1st or 2nd centre's. One first pairing defenceman, maybe one 2nd pairing and the rest fourth and fifth. Forwards.....some playing out of position.....most underachieving. Near the bottom of the league in standings and in the bottom 3 or 4 in most other categories. They seem uninspired and unmotivated many nights. I have personally heard a number of insiders [Doug Mclean] and others say that this is a poorly constructed team. We need change....hope....a good plan. What will it take??
  2. If we can't get a top -C for Patches then we should add to so it gets done. For me, if we trade Max it has to be to address our #1 need, a #1 centre. Add to it, do whatever is necessary but don't settle for a winger, if we move Max we must get back a #1 Center.
  3. I think you have made some very good points here. Thank you! Finally some good news and hope for the future. If Commandment's reads on these developing players is even close, we're in better shape in the next 3-4 years than I thought!
  4. So maybe this is the new and best way to develop our young players. Allow them to learn with the World Juniors and Olympic programs, avoid time in the AHL with SL, and then have them return to us much better prepared and developed and ready to jump in.
  5. There's something I'm trying to get a handle on concerning Dudley. I always thought he was a top evaluator of talent and I've heard some hockey people say that same thing about Bergevin. So, realistically, how do explain the mess we find ourselves in right now. I'm saying this because of the thought of perhaps using Dudley as a temporary or permanent fill in/ replacement for MB. My guess is that Dudley is in the inner circle and, again a guess, that he and Bergevin must spend a lot of time evaluating their team and potential players they would like to get. So how do end up with Mark Street, Ales Hemskey, Carl Alzner, Joe Morrow and players like Charles Hudon and Lehkonen playing at times, on the first line? Why do we have so many players playing out of their position? Why have we seemed to have digressed in our talent over the past few years? I honestly can't figure out or understand how long term hockey men, supposed experts, like Bergevin and Dudley could get us to this place.
  6. After another game like last night, no fight, no excitement, no skill on display, don't you get the sense that something has to happen, is going to happen?? With fans booing, leaving games early, saying how boring games are, no scoring....honestly, how much longer can Molson sit back and do nothing? The media all seem on the same page. Terrible team, no character, bottom or near the bottom of the league in so many categories. Have to believe that if we go another week or two like this the outcry will be so loud, I'm sure there will be more empty seats, I just don't see how you can keep going like this without doing something. So for the first time, maybe ever, I'm hoping we continue to lose, just so that it will force some changes! Honestly, I never thought we'd be this bad, this demoralized....I really feel bad for the players. It must be tough coming to the rink each day. If we don't make changes I would think it will be very difficult to attract quality free agents this summer.
  7. Those are surprising comments when you look at the evidence of what MB has done and where our team is right now. During his watch we have signed terrible players [Streit and Hemsky to name just two] when he should have know better. He lost players we desperately needed. He signed Carl Alzner and now we know why he was available. He traded two second round picks for Shaw. Under his watch we are currently either the worst or close to it compared to the teams I have watched for over 50 years. He has picked up some good depth players, but has done nothing to improve our top 6 forward or top 2 defence. If we kept the defencemen he has traded away or let go we would be far better on D than we are today. I personally think the players are really finding this hard. It is on Bergevin. He assembled this team. You think these comments are premature?? We are trying to make a noice so they don't do what we're all afraid they will do and damage us even further. At this point I have zero confidence in Bergevin and unless Molson does something to prevent us from falling any further I will lose what confidence I still have in him. We have fallen from the top to just about the bottom. If you want to wait until the ship has totally sunk to say something, it will be too late. We're in big trouble right now!! We need new leadership!! Five to six years is more than an appropriate sample size. I don't need to see any more or endure any more seasons like this. I'll say it again. Molson would never run his beer company like this. People would have been fired a long time ago. It's time for change!!
  8. I agree totally. Let's hope that Geoff Molson doesn't bite on what Bergevin is probably offering these days in order to save his job. Something like, we'll use the money in the bak that we saved on Markov and Radulov and we'll sign [overpay] one or two rentals and we'll get into the playoffs where we all know anything can happen. We have to hope that Molson doesn't agree to do what the Leafs did for so many years and either sneek into the playoffs or just miss getting in and in the process brilliantly moved themselves out of a desired [possibly lottery draft] position. If this were any other business, and entering their 6th year of running the show, and seeing where we have digressed to, I have no doubt that heads would already be rolling, in a properly run business. So it's fair to ask, "Geoff, what are you waiting for? What more evidence do you need? Would you run Molson Breweries this way, with these kind of results? If other beer companies were soaring past you in sales would you put up with it?" No scoring, lousy defence, last or near the bottom of the league in many stats, almost certainly going to miss the playoffs, becoming a laughing stock in the league, terrible moves [two 2nds for Andrew Shaw], still no centre, losing the two Russians for nothing with no replacements, signing Mark Streit and Ales Hemsky....do we not have any scouts who told MB not to sign those two?? We are terrible at developing players. Bergevin has kept coaches at the NHL and AHL level where the results just aren't there. So when Don said that he hopes Molson/Bergevin aren't trying to add a few players for a playoff run....I think we should assume that Bergevin will, so Geoff Molson has to be the one to say...Ok, enough is enough...it's time for change!
  9. Unfortunately, I think you nailed it.
  10. I know we've talked a lot about what the problems are with our team. We have digressed from a few years ago. Instead of taking steps forward, we've slid back, at least into the middle of the pack, and by the end of this year, who knows where we'll be. Will we get it together and look like a good team like we have on our recent 5 game winning streak over the past few weeks or are our secondary players overachieving and will we end up being a team that scores sporadically. We know that most likely Carey will win us games and keep us in games but can we compete with the better teams ahead of us in the standings?? All valid questions. One of the most concerning things has been who we've drafted and how they've turned out. We traded PK because he supposedly didn't play the right way. We're probably going to trade a 3d pick in a draft, Alex Galchenyuk, a former 30 goal scorer, because he isn't the centre we thought he was and has regressed and is now being bounced all over the lineup. I get it that maybe he isn't playing right. Is it him or our system that has turned him into who he is today. Are there personal issues going on here behind the scenes like Mike Rebeiro?? Have we not taken proper care of our players development and futures?? Is this normal? Do all teams have these issues and what are other teams doing in this area? We drafted first rounders Nathan Beaulieu, Jared Tinordi, Louis Leblanc and they're all gone with hardly anything to show for them. We don't have any blue chip prospects, unless Noah Juulsen is considered in that category. We seem to have drafted some good players this year, but based on our track record how will they turn out. I look at our core, and while we have some good young players like Drouin, Gallagher, Paul Byron, maybe Arturi Lehkonen, and as of the past week maybe our new fourth line [but will they be able to sustain that energy and scoring touch?]. I look at even Max P. and I'm wondering is he done in Montreal or is it just a slump. Is he going to be another John Leclair and once he lands somewhere else he'll soar because he'll have better line mates and a different culture? He looks a bit like he's going through the motions and he's lost some desire and energy. For me our whole system right now seems frustrating. Something systemic seems broken. And it doesn't seem to be just one person. I don't know if frustration with our whole system is fair or if that really is the problem. Just a few years ago, with the players we had, incoming players were saying we had a great room. Now?? I know we've said all this before but other than Trevor Timmons I almost feel like we're descended into the former Leaf-like crisis. Do we need to change almost everything from the President right on down to our scouts and our AHL coach. Am I seeing the glass half empty or are we really in that place?? It's hard sometimes to put your finger on just one thing when there appears to be leaks in the ship all over! But in my mind I think the issue is leadership, starting at the top. I think these people are good human beings but I think our problem is primarily in the top levels of leadership. Our system seems broken. This is what I think has to change. Geoff Molson has to step aside and put in a very good hockey man as President , who then needs to replace our current GM with the best GM available, period. Then let him rebuild the front office leadership staff because based on results I'm beginning to think they're ver overrated, pst their shelf life, unfortunately like a lot of things Marc B. has done. Then remake our scouting and coaching staff so our whole system can be reorganized and we can return to being one of the best run organizations. I don't think just constantly changing players is now the answer. What do you think? Is there a solution possible with one or two player moves or do we need to clear the decks of our top level leadership?? If we need to clear the decks, as in from the President on down and come in with a new system and new leaders, I'm personally willing and actually would look forward to it, but to keep going year to year like this, lurching forward a bit and falling back a bit with seemingly not a solid plan in place frustrates everyone. I think this year is the time. Let's hope.
  11. Personally I like Molson as the owner. He just needs to replace himself as President and install a really good hockey man who has had front office experience...I hate to say it....here it comes........like the Leafs have done! Agghhhhhhh!!
  12. Here's two questions. First, can Molson really have faith in Bergevin at this point? What would be the evidence or proof that Molson should have faith that Bergevin can turn this around. He inherited a team with the third pick in the first round of the draft, he had Carey Price, PK, Max P, Markov and some other pieces. And now 5 years later what does he have. No first line centre, no PK, no Markov, a terrible defence and the team is worse now that it has been for some time. So why should Molson have confidence that MB can and should be given the right to fix this mess? Second question. Why wait to make a change? I can see waiting until the new year just to be sure that this team isn't going to turn it around. But by January if we are out of the playoffs and winning at the rate we are now, why wait till April, May or June and have a new guy come in without a lot or prep time to head into the draft and the free agent frenzy. Make the change sooner than later so the new guy has more time to see what he has and get ready for the busy months of June and July. If the right guys aren't available right now, that's understandable. But if Molson makes the decision and lets MB walk say in January, we know it's going to likely take months to get the new guy in place, so let Dudley run the ship for now and find the right guy. Why wait for spring.....do it now [or first thing in the new year]!! What do you think?
  13. I think those are very valid points. With that in mind I wonder how much more scouting Yzerman did in Detroit before coming to Tampa versus what Brisebois is doing now. Being a player and knowing many of the players and learning how good guys were by playing against them certainly would have helped Yzerman a lot and probably would have taught him a lot about how to evaluate talent ...all of which Brisebois may or may not have. We don't know....so is it a risk? I'd like to know how some of the younger successful GM's today started out. Did any of the successful ones come in with JB's background or did they all have either a playing or scouting background? Obviously whenever a new GM is put in place we must get it right. Personally I like what someone suggested yesterday or today, we need a new President. Toronto's first smart move was to bring in a former player who had some front office [NHL] experience and then he went out and built his team. That's probably asking [dreaming] for way too much.
  14. Julien Brisebois's job description from Tampa's web site: BriseBois assists Steve Yzerman “in all aspects of player personnel decisions, analytics, player development, contract preparation and negotiation, as well as salary arbitration for the Lightning and the Syracuse Crunch of the American Hockey League, for whom he also serves as general manager. BriseBois also manages interpretation of the NHL’s collective bargaining agreement and the salary cap for Tampa Bay.”
  15. I agree. I know we discussed possible replacements earlier. I was more bringing up the quotes from Craig Button and Todd....others are clearly seeing and stating outright that our team is seriously flawed....and I guess the emphasis or questions being...do we really have to wait until season end to make a change? The thought of having to go through the rest of the season without any changes for the future is a bit bleak...sports wise anyway. But honestly, in light of life and all the issues so many people face each day, these are really insignificant, unimportant issues! Just sports which hopefully is fun...especially if you're a Leafs fan these day! Yikes.
  16. Interesting comments by TSN insider Craig Button on Sunday after Saturday nights total embarrassment at the hands of the Leafs. He was asked about The Canadiens and he said, "...this team has been built by their GM and it is seriously flawed....they are slow on the back end....they have 5-6 position defensemen playing in the 3-4 slot...they are relying on a 19 year old defenceman.....they are playing people out of position......square pegs in round holes....they have Jonathan Drouin playing centre and he's not a centre, although he's trying very hard". He was then asked what he would do and he said, "You have to start at the top....at the GM position...he built this team, he's responsible for it so he needs to do something. But right now this team is going nowhere fast. Don't expect anything to change with this group that the GM has assembled". Unfortunately I think most of us would agree with every one of those comments. So it comes back to the basic question we've already stated. Do we really want Geoff Molson to wait and let MB make more trades and spend our $8 million and trust him after what we have 5 years into his watch. Do we really have to wait until season's end and endure many more embarrassing nights? Why not start now with the changes?? A number of us [many?] said that we really liked MB's hiring at the beginning and at first he did a good job of tweaking what was already in place. But this is now his team, he's put it together and its a disaster. I'm actually shocked at how far we've fallen. I'm not shocked so much by how bad our defence is, although I honestly expected much more from Petry, Benn and Alzner, but I did expect that to be the weak part of our team, but overall, still no centers, a bad defence [worst in the league??] and many hockey commentators are saying don't expect anything different. What you're seeing is what we are. A total mess, seriously flawed. Interesting that Jack Todd today said the man to replace MB has to be Julian Brisebois. He has been learning behind the scenes for 5 years now under Steve Y in Tampa and they have build arguably the best team in the NHL right now. Todd pointed out that many very successful GM's never played the game starring with Sam Pollock. What do you think? Is it time and is Julian Brisebois a good choice?
  17. Thanks for the reply CC. Always interesting to hear a little about people's backgrounds and interests. I'm not surprised to hear you are a writer. You can pick up a few clues here and there in your posts.
  18. I'm curious....how do you know about Belshazzar's feast and the handwriting on the wall?? Not many would understand your statement! I'm a Pastor so I know it well, but I'm surprised to hear someone here use that quote!
  19. I've been thinking about this for a few days and this morning I read an article by Trege Wilson who said what I've been thinking for the past two weeks or so. Many of us have said how unhappy we are with the body of work that Marc Bergevin has done over the past 18 months....he who famously said "...this years defence is better than last years"!! But we have to admit it's not his fault Max isn't scoring or Carey Price is struggling. But the person who seems to have gotten a free ride so far is Claude Julien. I genuinely like him, I think he's a very good person and he cares. But I wonder if the young man's NHL has passed him and his style and approach, like our former coach, no longer works. I heard one of the color commentators covering this past weeks Toronto, LA game say that one of the reasons LA has only 1 loss so this year is because while they have mostly the same players, changing from former head coach Sutter to Stephens, has made all the difference and that is the main reason for LA's resurgence this year. I've followed hockey for a long time and I don't claim to be an expert but these are some of the things I've observed and heard lately. - players are being put in the wrong position on the power play, where they're not comfortable. eg. Max and Alex. - since we're not scoring anyway, put Alex as our top line centre for more than just 1 period, give him a month, he's still young!! Can things get any worse?? - our top face-off man has been sitting in the press box lately. - before he was hurt Hemsky was getting some top 6 minutes. - could it be that our system is old and not suited to the young guys. Is Claude Julien too much of the same style as MT?? Because we're not scoring goals, because players who normally score, in the past have scored, yet corporately none of them are, it isn't just one player but all of them. So somehow this has to reflect back on the coach when the whole team is failing in the same area. I don't get paid to make the decisions or find the solutions if this is the problem, and I don't expect them to make a coaching change because I'm sure MB isn't even thinking along these lines, but the question is, could this be a key reason for our poor on ice lack of scoring?? What do you think?
  20. I presume no one knows what is wrong with this team otherwise they would have fixed it! So let's take a shot at figuring some things out. We've talked about or are talking about Bergevin so let's not go there for now, except maybe for a few comments. Here are some of the components that I believe are all possible factors as to why we are second last in the entire NHL as of today, in no particular order. Both Negative and Positive signs. Negative: 1. Character: MB said he would build his team on character. There seems to be not even one person who is standing up capable of leading this team in the room or on the ice. 2. Skill: Are we really this bad? With Price and Max P. in a slump is there nothing else available, no one who can begin to pick up the slack and score some goals? Shockingly, it appears there may not be. I think we know what Max and Carrey are but after that have we overvalued many of our players. Are we a lousy team overall?? 3. Defence: MB's statement earlier this season or preseason that he believed this years defence was better than last years. At this point this rivals some of Brian Burke's outrageous statements about who and what the Leafs were going to be during his years running that franchise, and they need up being terrible, laughable. Other than Mete we seem to have slow, not very skilled defencemen. Petry, Alzner, Benn, they all seem lost and constantly getting beat and hung out to dry. 4. Forwards: They can skate and rush the puck and in spurts control parts of games effectively, but it seems no one can put the puck in the net. But at other times they also appear disorganized, fragile [after only 8 regular season games??], and look to me like some are playing just to get paid or to get traded [Alex??]. 5. Goalies: Terrible GA, terrible Save %, easy goals going in, confidence gone? Where is our goalie coach?? 6. Talent Evaluators: At this point you have to ask, you have to wonder...really? Did MB and Rick Dudley, who I've heard and read many times that they have reputations in the NHL as well above average talent evaluators, really choose this group and put this team together?? I wonder if it was more that MB was caught totally by surprise when he lost Markov and Radulov and went out and signed what he could....Streit and Hemsky? If that's true that very poor preparation and asset management. I always wondered, if their concern was they would lose Beaulieu in the draft why then did they trade Beaulieu and then also expose Emelin. I can't say I'm an expert on evaluating defensemen but weren't these guys better than some of what we have now?? Positive: 1. It can't be this bad: Hopefully we will steal a game, outwork a team for 60 minutes and begin to string together some wins and maybe sneak into the playoffs. I know, what's the point of sneaking into the playoffs and getting annihilated in the first round. 2. Max P, Drouin and our top 9 will begin to score and get their confidence back. 3. Carey Price will get back to being his regular self and stop the weak goals and steal a few games for us. 4. MB $8 million dollar reserve will bring in one or two really good quality players to help us get back on track and build for the future. Prediction: I know it's early, but I personally don't see a lot of hope, maybe a little, but not a lot. We do have some good players but a lot that need to be replaced by younger, quicker, more skilled players. The only positive, if we continue like this and miss the playoffs is some good draft picks and with one or two really good free agents and again, our $8 million dollars, we may be able to turn this around within a year. But as previously stated in another thread, I now have lost confidence that MB should be the man to take us into a partial rebuild, if it comes to that. What do you think?
  21. I think you have hit one nail right on the head. This week on Hockey Central at noon Doug McLean [former NHL coach and GM] said that Montreal's key problem as to why they are not scoring is because the backend is not getting the puck out or staring proper breakouts out of their own zone. He said this is key for Montreal and with their current defensive core he doesn't know if that can happen. So CC your comments about PK and Weber are right on. This could be one of the big keys and if it is we are in big trouble because that isn't likely to change quickly unless MB goes and gets top 2 puck moving defensive man. At the beginning of the season or during training camp Bergevin said he thought this defence is better than last years. That's really concerning!
  22. One win....8 forwards out of 12 with only 1 point.....weak defensemen......already one summer signing outright released.....I didn't bother looking up goals for versus goals against......I don't need to list too much...we all know. Is it too early to judge, complain? Maybe, maybe not. If we just judge this season, it's probably too early. But things have been happening for many months. It's also been 5 years for M. Bergevin, so really it's not too early. I read this morning that since January 2016 our record is 23-23-4.....our goals/game is 2.12....PP is 14%.....shooting % is 6.9%. Did Bergevin address the glaring low scoring over the summer. I like Drouin but he's not enough. We needed more. We lost both Markov and Radulov....on his watch. But what really bothers me is what Bergevin did, and didn't do, this summer compared to what was available and what other teams did. Ron Hainsey is on Toronto's top pairing I believe. He'd look good for us right now. Patrick Marleau has scored more than any of our guys. He'd look good in our lineup right now. Bergevin signed Mark Street when he knew Markov wasn't coming back?? Ales Hemsky......Jagr was available. I have a feeling Jagr will score while Ales......fourth line or a healthy scratch? Unless there is a sudden and huge turn around, I think we may be seeing a glimpse of what this season may be. Hopefully we'll be fighting for a playoff spot and not totally out of it by then. If this season goes south and this is Begevin's team, does Molson let him begin a rebuild or make the changes that need to be made. Sadly I have to say, I hope not. At this point, after 5 years, I'm really disappointed in what Bergevin has put together. He's made a few good moves, Byron, Denault, but so many of what I believe are bad choices and bad decisions. I hate to say it because I don't like change, but if things don't improve quickly, I think it's time for change!
  23. So do you not think that this situation is being totally mismanaged? I think we all would agree that Alex is having his own problems with his play. Chris Nilan recently said that Galchenyuk isn't moving his feet, he's making bad passes and he effort level is low and that they need someone to light his rear end on fire. And obviously that's all on Alex. However, is it possible that all of that has happened because of what they have said and done with Alex and how they have treated him. Could any other young player have thrived in the situations he has been put in? Think of the 22 and 23 year olds you know. Could they have soared with confidence and been successful at what they were doing if they were put under the scrutiny of millions of fans and media, and almost all of it negative? So I think we have to ask, what has been the role of the coaches and management in this unfolding tragic scene. I have found myself wondering lately if Bergevin has to have the proverbial "whipping boy". It always seemed like he put up with Subban but that internally, at least between MT and MB, there was this ongoing, quiet [other than the times they publicly threw Suban under the bus], total disapproval of how Suban played and carried himself on and off the ice. He didn't fit their mold, on and off the ice, and most of us probably sensed something could happen. Can you imagine the rhetoric if Suban was less of a player that he actually was. Third or fourth pairing likely?? But he was too good for them to do that to him. I think most of us wish we still had PK on our team, especially this year. Now it seems that they've put Alex in that same position. He's 23, many players haven't even made the NHL at that age, and without being there every day to be firsthand witnesses, it seems to me like they're just leaving him alone to sink or swim. As recently as a year ago at this time, where was Alex in scoring and offensive ability on our team. If not our best, close to it.....and with him playing centre we started the season as one of the top NHL teams and he was close to a point per game. Where has that gone?? Has Alex suddenly lost that ability? My point is that after watching this unfold over the past year my conclusion this week is that we are totally mishandling Alex. By all the public comments they've made about him, they have put the spotlight squarely on him....by all the trade talk over the past 4-5 months they have made him feel unwanted.....by saying so often he is not a centre which is their greatest need [remembering how well he did at centre before his injury last year], they've shattered his confidence and I think the only answer is they have to stop all the negativity which seems to have sunk him to depths he hasn't been to before and may have a lot of trouble recovering in Montreal if nothing changes. My opinion? If they don't stop all the bashing, whipping and negativity with their 23 old very talented player he is going to be another Justin Shultz, who Edmonton dumped and he is now thriving in Pittsburg. They should start a salvage plan with Alex and sit him down and begin to work with him in a positive way. One of the TV commentators said instead of demoting Alex to the fourth line they should put him back on the top line and challenge him to keep up and do everything they can to recapture what is hopefully still there waiting to come out. What do you think?
  24. I wrote a thread in the summer that basically said "Don't Trade Galchenyuk", but even though it's just 4 games in, I'm wondering, in hindsight, if we should have traded him and to be honest I would today jump at getting Matt Duschene for him For me, what concerns me the most about Alex is his attitude. He seems to be going through the motions other than an occasional spurt. If he was working hard and had a great attitude but the puck just wasn't going in, I could wait that out. But to me he seems dark, sulky, a whole different attitude than even 2 years ago. It makes me wonder if there may be too much going on in his private life and maybe he's gotten into things he shouldn't have. I'm just guessing and I'm not around him but from a distance he just seems like he's changed, for the worse. Today it was announced that he was back on the fourth line. To me, that's the coach saying, you're not working, you're not giving your all so you're demoted to the lowest position on the team. I think Julian is a decent guy and I think he's frustrated with Alex and in frustration is kind of setting him aside until Galchenyuk changes his attitude. I'm really disappointed in him because at his age he should bite the bullet and give it everything he has and work like crazy to get back to where he once was. For me, very disappointing. I doubt Sakic would take him in a straight up deal for MD. Too bad.
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