KoZed

[enter worn-out sport cliché about making your own luck and etc.] Bad luck is part of it, but poor communication can also factor in. Put aside the bad-luck-goals and look at the way Price handles the puck. The Habs D never seem to know what Price will do and Price never seems to know who he's supposed to pass to because the D's are never in position. Now come back to the bad-luck-goals: goalies and d-men needs to talk all game long, all season long to be clear what they need to do in X or Y situation. For example, I remember Roy would kill any teammate who'd screen him on shots from far out, so the players learned that if a shot was coming and they couldnt get to the shooter in time, they had to get out of the way or dive. Every goalie has his own quirks and preferences, and it's up to the d-men to adapt but the need for communication is crucial. Seems like from the beginning of the season Price and the D's have never been on the same page.

I'm getting the feeling the Habs D dont like Price. Every time Price starts, there's always one or two goals that only get in because it deflects off a Habs D or something. Tonight it was Hamrlik.

You got me wrong. Maybe my position is too subtle in this black and white universe of Habs fandom. I dont hate Gorges, I just dont like Gorges. I can't stand him when he's pushed to the top 2 lines, but I can stand him when he's playing within his limits on the 3rd pair with limited minutes, because that's the only time he's effective. Let me put it another way... --------------------------- (10 = Worship as a God) Maurice Richard --------------------------- (9 = History-defining, Shapers of Memories) Mario Lemieux Patrick Roy Raymond Bourque --------------------------- (8 = I'd want him on my team at any cost) Alexander Ovechkin --------------------------- (7 = Love him ) Zach Parise --------------------------- (6 = Like him) Tomas Plekanec Mats Naslund --------------------------- (5 = Utter indifference) Peter Popovic Josh Gorges* --------------------------- (4 = Annoys me) Karl Dykhuis Josh Gorges** --------------------------- (3 = Hate him) Mikhail Grabovski --------------------------- (2 = Makes my blood boil whenever he steps on the ice) Milan Lucic --------------------------- (1 = Would prefer to poke my eyes out than watch him play) Jim Campbell Robert Dirk --------------------------- (0 = Would run him over if I saw him walk down the street... several times) Sean Avery * = as a 5th or 6th D ** = as a top 4 D

Was nice while it lasted Glen, but the 4th line is for cheap hungry kids.

Apparently so.

I'm going to say that a franchise's long-term health is based mostly on it's drafting and player development's quality. Trading comes second, and Gainey's trading overall record is 50-50, at best. Signing UFAs is the least telling element of a GMs work. It's like trying to assert if kid X or Y is a good student based on the shopping he does with daddy's credit card. If the only positive you can list in favor of Gainey is how classy he was and how he got this and that free agent to consider coming here, then you mistakingly assume that a GM's responsibilities boils down to being nothing more than a PR job. Not surprised that some fans have short, selective memories. They quickly forgot how Gainey kept striking out on almost every UFA until a couple of years ago. It's the surprising winning season of 2007-2008 that change Montreal's reputation amongst players, not Gainey. The team started to win, the city light up and the fans showed their enthusiasm. Players around the league took notice. After that players wanted to sign with the Habs; and they mostly say it's because of the ambiance here. It's a big part of the team's reputation turn around. The other part nobody sees is the work done by the real top brass. Gillette poured money in the team, Boivin and the guys in suit did the business/PR work with the sponsors and government and business communities to shine up the Habs corporate brand and etc. To pin it all down to "Gainey has class" is extremely short-sighted and dismissive of every unknown face working in the organization.

Are you referring to the ESPN survey where they polled 50 out of 700 NHL players -- roughly 7% of the league's players?

Game is getting weird now. The Zubrus goal was a mess. Looks like he passed in front of Halak (6-3 vs 5-10) just when the shot was released and Jaro guessed it was high when it ended up at his feet. Then the Plex goal was as lucky as you can get. AK sends it through a bunch of legs and it finds Plex's skate just at the right angle to be deflected in. Entertaining game!

Speaking of Andrei... I feel like he slowed down significantly over the years. I dont know if he'd been told to bulk up and it hampered his speed, but he seems to have an awful lot of trouble accelerating and following Plekanec. Next summer I'd tell him to go through the same speed skating program Lats had 2 summers ago. AK needs to be speedier to get in shooting position.

They're disorganized... As much as I wanted Pouliot on the PP when he was hot, as much as I'd want SKost in his place now. So true brobin about Spacek and Hamrlik. I can like with Spacek because he can move the puck quickly, but Hammer is slow all around and gets caught flat-footed way too often. Again, another case of Martin not making the most of what he has to work with. You've got a smart offensive player like Sergei Kostitsyn who's hot and our PP is cold as ice. Take Hammer out, put SKost in. I wouldnt put SKost at the point, but Plekanec. Cammy on the left, AKost in the slot, SKost on the right. But noooooo. That's way too "avant-garde" for Martin...

"Zed" is for GomeZ CammallEri Darche!

You can't completely make abstraction of the coach either. Sorry, it's just reality. PS: Koivu plays for the Anaheim Ducks now.

My version of Laps this season is alot like what dlbalr said: a guy who shows a bit of everything but dont seem to know what his role is supposed to be. He's got too much offensive potential to play inside a very limited role like Pyatt (check, dump, check, dump) and not enough scoring potential to get lengthy tryouts on top lines like Dago and Pacioretty received on silver plates. But hockey players dont change overnight. Just like I never lost faith in Plekanec last season when everybody was ready to dump him fort a 4th, just like I always had faith in Halak back when he was an obscure 21 yrs old afterthought, just like I kept saying Ribeiro had too much potential to be given up way before he eventually got traded; I still haven't lost an ounce of faith in Lapierre. He's one of the hardest worker in the training room, he was basically the only forward who showed up every night last season, the speed, big mouth and little offensive extra is still there. It just needs to be exploited. The only difference this year is Martin, plain and simple. Martin is the reason Lapierre is regressing, for the right or wrong reasons. Dont get me wrong, I'm from the school that the coach is the boss and that players needs to conform to the system. But I'm also of the school that it's a coach's job to know how to get the maximum out of each and every player. This is where Martin is failing because we all saw last season that, if given responsabilities and ice-time Lapierre can be a sparkplug and a momentum shifter, two things we've sorely lack this year. Its not like Laps looks to have lost all confidence, taking awful shots or just getting rid of the puck as if it was a live-grenade -- signs of a player who dont want any part of the game, like SKost and Dago earlier this season -- but he does plays like he's confused as to what his coach wants to be satisfied. Maybe, as Colin said, there's something off ice... but all I've heard is that Laps is a training room addict and he pushes too much in practice, things that would be good marks on work ethic. So it goes back to Martin not really knowing how to utilize Laps to get the best out of him. The really sad thing is this Habs edition can be so emotionally flat in so many games, Laps could be the exact missing piece to get this team a notch higher.

I know. And Martin is Gauthier's buddy all the way back to the Nords days. I just pray that Boucher can be patient and enjoy the AHL for the 2 years it'll take for Martin to be exposed and lose the players and medias.

Please. Right from the start of the season Laps got the PK taken away from him in favor of Gomez and Gionta. Martin made tons of questionable calls pertaining to his use of such and such player this year. How can anyone explain the 1000 chances D'Agostini got this season despite never showing 1% of an ounce of desire? And Pyatt? Dont make me laugh. Go out in your street, kick down the nearest trashcan you'll see and there'll be a dozen of Pyatts coming out. Guys with zero skill or offensive talent who make it to the NHL because they developed some aptitude at playing anti-hockey and therefore earns the favors of some coach clinging to his antiquated 90's trap system has very little to no respect in my books. I'll take an unpredictable passionate player with upside over a bland run-of-the-mill plumber any day of the week and twice on Sundays. But hey, I'm not the flatlined archaic golem behind the Habs bench, so dont mind me. I'll just be over there counting down days before Guy Boucher finally comes over to give us a modern system and a modern approach to personnel management.

He went from being trusted by his coach, get PK time and playing with Lats and Kosto; to being thrown in the dogout right from the start, getting no PK time at all and playing with, who? Laraque, MAB and all the other castoffs we had to use with all the injuries. I can deal with Martin not liking Lats, Chips and givings all sorts of chances to Pacioretty, Metropolit, D'Agostini; but the way he's handling Laps is one case where Martin's playing favorites just makes no sense. Especially when considering that Tom Pyatt gets every sort of break imaginable despite having all the upside of a hole in the ground. What's Laps supposed to do to earn Martin's trust, that's what I'm wondering. He cut down the indiscipline, bad penalties and defensive blunders, he's more aggressive in the offensive zone, he goes to the net. What else does Martin wants?

Gainey's best move was to leave. Or maybe it's just a coincidence the team finally came together when Gauthier took charge and made the Moore deal...

Thanks for the bday gift!

Mine's today! I never kept record of how the Habs did on my B-day.

No Brodeur?

In Minny he's not asked to come back down so low in his zone, so he he's always a good 7-8 steps closer to the offensive zone. For a guy like him with no acceleration it makes a difference between being one of the first forwards in the crease or on the puck in the offensive zone. That and, oh, his coach likes him.

#5 - Wall-E

#1 Scarface (the car bomb scene)

they've been cleared for days now. I know its the end of the season and the game tempo is high, but we cant be wasting tons of PPs at this time of year either. Just having Bergy for the PP putting the puck on net would be a huge improvement over the limp=wrist so-called power play we have right now.

why wasnt Bery and Cammy dressed when our PP so needed it...