BrenDittero

They are teetering on the verge disaster. If Buffalo wins tonight and 2 points is all that separate the Rangers, Sabres and Habs, it'll make for an intense last 4 games.

Here's hoping the next 20 are better than the first. Nice goal for Cammy. ughhh....just when things start looking good...down 2 again.

Skinner strikes again...down 2

Overtime win for the Habs: Habs 2 Canes 1 AK46 / Gionta

Good 2 points to keep NYR off our backs for a couple days.

And opening up Hal Gill's face isn't a penalty....right.

Sorry, what did Subban get a penalty for? Edit. Diving? whaaaaa?

The drought is over!!!! Hammer!!! Holy F...now Darche...when it rains it pours.

I'll go with: First period. AK or Desharnais. It would be awesome if Cammy scored the first one after a 3 game drought.

The difference here is there is no controversy, no rift, no story. and of course: GO HABS GO!!!!!!!

Moen / Halpern / Darche played on different lines last game.

Good to see the lines have switched up. We need to get a win tonight. First goal in the opening 20 mins would be a nice start.

There's been a lot of talk about bad coaching decisions this year. Now it's your chance to turn that around. Pierre Gauthier has read several of you're posts and decided to turf Jacques Martin and hire you based on your forward thinking approach to coaching. Outline your plan to get the Canadiens as far into the playoffs as possible, maybe even win the Stanley Cup. Please enlighten the class. Feel free to modify your plan as the season / post season goes on.

Agreed, even though I just posted in it. There are many more games to go and things to wax poetic about.

Of course you can voice your opinion, that's what forums are for. Don't think anyone has a problem with differing thoughts on the Habs and the coaching staff. All I am saying is that JM as done a fair job. If the organization decides to replace him, that's fine with me, but what happens if his successor is no better or is actually worse? It's a " grass is always greener " way of thinking that might leave some saying careful what you wish for. Maybe the next coach will be the best thing that ever happened to the club, but it's a 50/50 shot. You need to remember that we were without Markov and Georges for a lot of the season. Now add Patches to that. Those are key defensive / offensive guys and JM's style of coaching (good or bad) cannot make up for hits to the roster like that. If we didn't take those injuries and the Canadiens were in 3rd place and won the division, far fewer people would be calling for his resignation. I think that's where the problem with throwing the book at JM starts for me. The same arguments were made in the Price / Halak debate and look how that ended. The worthless goalie of last year this this years MVP. That's the interesting part of debating over hockey, no one is right or wrong until the season and post season play out.

I don't think the Patches hit has anything to do with the current state of the Habs. Seems like a plain and simple slump. As stated above, injuries are probably the biggest factor. It could also be that once the team realized that they would make the playoffs some of them might have checked out and gone on a mental vacation. It must have been a long and tiring year and I think it's fair to say they look like they're coasting right now compared to the last several months where they looked pretty good. If the current play really is being effected by the hit and losing a key player then the Habs really need to draw inspiration from the Pens. 96 points and a solid hold on fourth place missing Crosby and Malkin..... that's a success story. I think they'll pull in the reins and get it together for, at least some of, next weeks games.

In the spirit of this thread, I think we can use the last 7 games as a good baseline moving forward. Wins: Tampa Bay and Minnesota Losses: Washington x 2, New York, Buffalo and Boston. Taking Minnesota out of the equation, we have beat one team that we could face in the playoffs and lost to four. Now is a good time for the Habs to take stock and really take a hard look at where the problems are. I think the worst thing the Habs could do is try to forget about those games, they should study them and get caught up on why those games went bust. Every night was similar, bad passes, sloppy neutral zone play, not enough bodies in front of the net, sloppy defence on the PP, too many penalties etc etc. We have the Coles Notes of what went wrong, now let's try to make it right.

I think JM has done a fair job this year with the Habs. Ultimately it's up to the players to win or lose games. He is an old school coach and has made mistakes like anyone, but his defensive style of coaching + talented players have gotten us to the point of making the playoffs. I have to appreciate that. On a semi related note, the "JM and Gomez need to be fired / demoted comments" are getting a little played out. The playoffs are where it counts and that hasn't happened yet...just gear down trucker. Let's see where we are in round one.

Your breakdown of face offs between Pleks and Halpy was great. Defiantly one part of this "why can't the Habs get it together " puzzle that is easily overlooked. Thanks for bringing that up.

So Tampa, Buffalo and New York all got points today. Not good news for the Habs.

I though Kosty looked pretty good in the 2nd. Not sure it's worth a star but at least there were flashes of something.

C'mon, the season isn't over yet and the playoffs are weeks away. We can throw in the towel when the time comes. The Habs are a good team. Though you wouldn't know it from the last three games.

Can't believe it's been 3 shutouts in a row. What happened to the Habs this week?

We must have used up all of our goals in Minnesota.

If only he was more like Hextall.