Game Thread | Habs vs. Blue Jackets | 23/02/08

[JCPetit]

Leclaire had an excellent game. It looked easy, but it wasn't.

It's great goaltending IMO. There were no rebounds what so ever. He was fantastic to control the puck and it made it very simple for his defensemen.

Goaltending at its best. Really.

[Fat Tony]

Those game stats were behind last years team, which we all agree was nowhere near this years. He played very well down the stretch and hasn't been given a fair shot yet this year. When he did play what fault did he show? He was perfect against Ny and let one in vs Carolina. Not a bad 2 periods.What do we have to lose but a couple points? What would the gains be if he stole the spot with solid play. We don't need miracles, just no more softies. They deflate the team, which leads to being shutout. How do the guys keep there spirits up when they are always down a couple early by sketchy goaltending? Price is not there yet, Halak is a little older, maybe, just maybe?

I'm not against giving him a shot and if he'd have played that Leaf game last year we probably would have been in the playoffs...my point is blaming a 3-0 game on a goalie is ludicrous...if you don't score even one goal, you don't win...no point in analyzing our goalie when we can't even beat their goalie once. Does that make sense to anyone but me?

[Fat Tony]

It is amazing to me that he can't be counted on for more than 42 games. I was worried about that when they

rode him hard and did not give Halak a game. I hope he can turn it around because this team does not need

Theo type goaltending to win anymore, they just need a guy who makes the saves he is supposed to make.

But if Halak was inconsistent what do they do with Huet next year? They would have no idea if Price would be ready. I don't think it changes anything.

The situation would be the same, unless you believe Price would be fully ready from one season in the AHL. It would still be a risk.

Watch him in another teams uniform? One way or another I seriously doubty Huet will be a Habs next year. He'll want a big raise and unless he does a 180, he's not earning his current salary, why would Gainey give him a big raise?

[Wamsley01]

LOL, Price is the kid. Seriously, if people insist on dumping on a goalie (I don't), dump on the 3 million dollar man who isn't cutting it not the rookie. Why is Huet so bulletproof here? If he wasn't sucking so badly Price would be riding the pines. Don't blame the work in progress, blame our "go to guy" who's clearly gone south.

I criticize Huet when it is warranted. I criticize Price when it is warranted.

This board needs to seperate their love for a player and love for the team.

A criticism of Price does not mean I am not a fan or blame. Same stands for Koivu, Kovalev, Higgins etc.

I love Koivu and Higgins and they have both been terrible at times, should I blindly defend them? Or call them out?

My allegiance is to the logo. Whatever helps the logo to their next Stanley Cup is where my perspective comes from.

When they traded Roy I came to the realization that players come and players go.

The goaltending has been the weak spot therefore it gets most of my criticism. In Roy's day it was complaints about

frontline scoring, in Theo's heyday it was their defensive zone coverage.

I see the big picture, and Price is a huge part of it. But what he laid out there tonight smelled, and it wasn't the scent of flowers.

Edited February 24, 2008 by Wamsley01

[Fat Tony]

Hoo boy. Dumping Koivu onto the 4th line in favour of Grabovsky, that's a real panic statement to this team at this moment. Forget it. Certain players - Koivu and Huet especially - simply have to play better. There's no magic bullet. It's as simple as that.

I was impressed with Leclaire tonight...but I've got to tell you I'm getting really tired of French Canadian goalies coming home to stone the Habs! There should be a law against it

[JCPetit]

Hoo boy. Dumping Koivu onto the 4th line in favour of Grabovsky, that's a real panic statement to this team at this moment. Forget it. Certain players - Koivu and Huet especially - simply have to play better. There's no magic bullet. It's as simple as that.

Who said that Koivu would go on the 4th line?

Grabo would pivot a line while Lapierre could play on the wing. Here are my lines with Grabo in the roster:

A. Kostitsyn - Plekanec - Kovalev

Higgins - Koivu - Lapierre

Latendresse - Grabovsky - S. Kostitsyn

Begin - Smolinsky - Streit (I think he would do very well on the right wing)

Edited February 24, 2008 by JCPetit

[Wamsley01]

I'm not against giving him a shot and if he'd have played that Leaf game last year we probably would have been in the playoffs...my point is blaming a 3-0 game on a goalie is ludicrous...if you don't score even one goal, you don't win...no point in analyzing our goalie when we can't even beat their goalie once. Does that make sense to anyone but me?

Against a team like Columbus the first goal is HUUUGE. Does it mean it is over? No

But you make your job that much harder when you allow them to implement their gameplan.

That approach is to simplistic, you don't score you don't win. Well in the new NHL I have watched a team win

without scoring a goal. It is called the shootout.

The Blue Jackets down by 1 or 2 look a hell of a lot different than the Blue Jackets up by 1 or 2.

Watch a video the Leafs game on Tuesday when they were the frustrated ones around Toskala trying to play catch up.

If you flipped goalies in this particular game who wins? My bet would not be on the Jackets. Therefore my simplistic analysis would

be the goalie was the difference maker.

Edited February 24, 2008 by Wamsley01

[Fat Tony]

I criticize Huet when it is warranted. I criticize Price when it is warranted.

This board needs to seperate their love for a player and love for the team.

A criticism of Price does not mean I am not a fan or blame. Same stands for Koivu, Kovalev, Higgins etc.

I love Koivu and Higgins and they have both been terrible at times, should I blindly defend them? Or call them out?

My allegiance is to the logo. Whatever helps the logo to their next Stanley Cup is where my perspective comes from.

When they traded Roy I came to the realization that players come and players go.

The goaltending has been the weak spot therefore it gets most of my criticism. In Roy's day it was complaints about

frontline scoring, in Theo's heyday it was their defensive zone coverage.

I see the big picture, and Price is a huge part of it. But what he laid out there tonight smelled, and it wasn't the scent of flowers.

I totally disagree. Price is a raw rookie who has actually stolen a couple of games for us and has a winning record. Would a rookie back up goalie have even gotten a chance to play 25 games if there wasn't issues with our starter? Look at the 2 goalies stats..are Huet's stats 2 million per year better than Price's? Nope. Huet has been horribly inconsistent necessitating more starts for his rookie backup. I want both of our goalies to do well, fact is BOTH are brutally inconsistent and I'm going to bet Halak would be too. I still am baffled that anyone can blame a 3-0 loss on a goalie...COME ON PRICE, YOU SHOULD HAVE SCORED A COUPLE

[Fat Tony]

Against a team like Columbus the first goal is HUUUGE. Does it mean it is over? No

But you make your job that much harder when you allow them to implement their gameplan.

That approach is to simplistic, you don't score you don't win. Well in the new NHL I have watched a team win

without scoring a goal. It is called the shootout.

The Blue Jackets down by 1 or 2 look a hell of a lot different than the Blue Jackets up by 1 or 2.

Watch a video the Leafs game on Tuesday when they were the frustrated ones around Toskala trying to play catch up.

If you flipped goalies in this particular game who wins? My bet would not be on the Jackets. Therefore my simplistic analysis would

be the goalie was the difference maker.

Ok, I'll give to that point. Leclaire stepped up, Price didn't. But once again, Price was FAR from alone in the not stepping up department...clearly a team loss.

[JCPetit]

I totally disagree. Price is a raw rookie who has actually stolen a couple of games for us and has a winning record. Would a rookie back up goalie have even gotten a chance to play 25 games if there wasn't issues with our starter? Look at the 2 goalies stats..are Huet's stats 2 million per year better than Price's? Nope. Huet has been horribly inconsistent necessitating more starts for his rookie backup. I want both of our goalies to do well, fact is BOTH are brutally inconsistent and I'm going to bet Halak would be too. I still am baffled that anyone can blame a 3-0 loss on a goalie...COME ON PRICE, YOU SHOULD HAVE SCORED A COUPLE

I have been following the team for more than 40 years. IMO it's absolutely necessary to get excellent goaltending for a team to reach its true potential.

I remember that even when the Habs lost eight and 11 games, in two seasons, there were a lot of games when the team had very poor first periods. Dryden would simply stop everything while the rest of the team got its act together. Without him, the Habs would not have won four cups in a row, that's for sure.

Same thing with Patrick Roy. Some nights he won the game by himself. Many nights in fact. We need this king of goaler to reach the next level. I think that Price has the potential to become a great goalie, but he obviously needs more time to mature. It's just a question of intensity. At 20, he is a little too young I guess.

As for Huet, I think that he may have a hot streak, but IMO technicaly he is not good enough to hold the fort for a long stretch.

Edited February 24, 2008 by JCPetit

[Wamsley01]

I totally disagree. Price is a raw rookie who has actually stolen a couple of games for us and has a winning record. Would a rookie back up goalie have even gotten a chance to play 25 games if there wasn't issues with our starter? Look at the 2 goalies stats..are Huet's stats 2 million per year better than Price's? Nope. Huet has been horribly inconsistent necessitating more starts for his rookie backup. I want both of our goalies to do well, fact is BOTH are brutally inconsistent and I'm going to bet Halak would be too. I still am baffled that anyone can blame a 3-0 loss on a goalie...COME ON PRICE, YOU SHOULD HAVE SCORED A COUPLE

Price has cost us a couple as well. Once again, I do not blame him. I do not blame Huet, because he is what he is.

THe last week the goalies have been weak, the month before it was terrible production from the 2nd line.

Price was weak tonight, I did not blame him for the loss, but what he provided was not good enough.

He put them behind the 8 ball and made their job a lot tougher. Simple as that.

[KoZed]

Call up Halak

[Wamsley01]

Anyways, enough beating a dead horse. I am done with the goalie controversy.

I hope they can pick it up and lead this team to home ice advantage.

[JoeLassister]

Price has cost us a couple as well. Once again, I do not blame him. I do not blame Huet, because he is what he is.

THe last week the goalies have been weak, the month before it was terrible production from the 2nd line.

Price was weak tonight, I did not blame him for the loss, but what he provided was not good enough.

He put them behind the 8 ball and made their job a lot tougher. Simple as that.

yeah, we can win without Saku's line at the top of their game, but we cannot without goalies at the top of their game...

[Fat Tony]

I have been following the team for more than 40 years. IMO it's absolutely necessary to get excellent goaltending for a team to reach its true potential.

I remember that even when the Habs lost eight and 11 games, in two seasons, there were a lot night when the team had very poor first periods. Dryden would simply stop everything while the rest of the team got its act together. Without him, the Habs would not have won four cups in a row, that's for sure.

Same thing with Patrick Roy. Some nights he won the game by himself. Many nights in fact. We need this king of goaler to reach the next level. I think that Price has the potential to become a great goalie, but he obviously needs more time to mature. He's just a question of intensity. At 20, he is a little too young I guess.

As for Huet, I think that he may have a hot streak, but IMO his technic is not good enough to hold for a long stretch.

I'm a 40+ year vet too and I agree without a clutch goalie, forget it. Price has proved at all levels except the NHL he is that clutch goaltender, I'm just hoping he finds it soon in the NHL...he's shown brief flashes of it while Huet has proved to me he is not a clutch goaltender. Huet has been an amazing stop gap guy after the Theo meltdown and the Abby fiasco...a really tough time for the team, but he's not the guy that will ever take us to the Cup in my opinion. To many people confuse stats with good goaltending. The best goalies don't always have the best stats...if you can't win the big games and bring home the hardware, who the hell cares about your save percentage.

Even though I never like Roy's attitude, there's no arguing he was one of the best clutch goalies ever.

Dryden, his best gift was that he was able to lean on his stick for 15 minutes and the make a couple of amazing saves. To me, Dryden's strongest suit was he could face 8 shots in a whole game but be sharp for every one of them...any goalie will tell you that ain't easy,

[Neech]

We outplayed the Blow Jobs (aharharhar) in pretty much every aspect of the game except in goal. Price made a few big stops, but the goals were weak as hell, especially the second one.

The skaters were OK, I think Lapierre was the best forward for most of the game who was not on the Kovalev line, besides his turnover on the third goal. He was skating, checking and shooting well. Kovy and co. created a bunch of chances, and I don't know how Plex missed the open net on that perfect set-up by Markov. Damn, that Marky of ours gets me excited sometimes, he can be a magician.

I liked how our boys were hitting, and we apparently were about 50/50 with them on face-offs as well, and they're a very good face-off team.

Koivu sucked ass tonight. There were the penalties, of course. And it wasn't quite like earlier in the season when he seemed washed up and useless. He was trying things tonight, but they all invariably failed. I'm convinced that if A Kost and Plex were out with Kovy on that 5 on 3 instead of Ryder and Koivu that we would have had a goal there.

All in all it was two points that we should have had, but I didn't and still don't believe that we're going to overtake Ottawa for the division or conference. The best we can hope is that we don't draw the Devils or the Rangers in the first round.

[Fat Tony]

Price has cost us a couple as well. Once again, I do not blame him. I do not blame Huet, because he is what he is.

THe last week the goalies have been weak, the month before it was terrible production from the 2nd line.

Price was weak tonight, I did not blame him for the loss, but what he provided was not good enough.

He put them behind the 8 ball and made their job a lot tougher. Simple as that.

Yes, I'll give to that. Bottom line, I don't think he cost us the game, but he didn't give us a chance to win it. The team is what it is, young and inconsistent. They may still pull it together, over all I'm pleasantly surprised by the team this year...but like any Habs fan, I WANT MORE

[JCPetit]

I'm a 40+ year vet too and I agree without a clutch goalie, forget it. Price has proved at all levels except the NHL he is that clutch goaltender, I'm just hoping he finds it soon in the NHL...he's shown brief flashes of it while Huet has proved to me he is not a clutch goaltender. Huet has been an amazing stop gap guy after the Theo meltdown and the Abby fiasco...a really tough time for the team, but he's not the guy that will ever take us to the Cup in my opinion. To many people confuse stats with good goaltending. The best goalies don't always have the best stats...if you can't win the big games and bring home the hardware, who the hell cares about your save percentage.

Even though I never like Roy's attitude, there's no arguing he was one of the best clutch goalies ever.

Dryden, his best gift was that he was able to lean on his stick for 15 minutes and the make a couple of amazing saves. To me, Dryden's strongest suit was he could face 8 shots in a whole game but be sharp for every one of them...any goalie will tell you that ain't easy,

In complete agreement with you.

Another clutch goalie was Worsley. He did not have a "nice" style, but he got the job done. If he could, he did not hesitate to stop a shot with his face. He was a tough guy.

I believe that Price needs more playing time in the AHL. He just has not learned to focus 60 minutes.

Halak and Huet should be the goalies till the end of the season. We could still recall Price for the playoffs, if we can make them, of course.

[Neech]

Call up Halak

I'd really like to see Jaro get even a few games this year, he's gotten shafted and it's not like anyone has run away with his job.

This is pretty reactionary, but it's becoming clear that Huet isn't number 1 goalie material. So why don't we trade him and see if Halak can take his place?

[Wamsley01]

In complete agreement with you.

Another clutch goalie was Worsley. He did not have a "nice" style, but he got the job done. If he could, he did not hesitate to stop a shot with his face. He was a tough guy.

I believe that Price needs more playing time in the AHL. He just has not learned to focus 60 minutes.

Halak and Huet should be the goalies till the end of the season. We could still recall Price for the playoffs, if we can make them, of course.

I think it is more than just focus. He still has not adjusted to the speed of the NHL. Everybody forgets that last Feb he was

facing 16-19 year olds every night.

[JCPetit]

I'd really like to see Jaro get even a few games this year, he's gotten shafted and it's not like anyone has run away with his job.

This is pretty reactionary, but it's becoming clear that Huet isn't number 1 goalie material. So why don't we trade him and see if Halak can take his place?

I also believe that Huet isn't a number 1, but to trade him would be a big mistake. I think he is an excellent back up. What we need is a numero uno. Obviously, Price is not ready, but he's got great potential. A tandem Halak-Huet is the solution while the rookie learns his trade in the minors. Call Halak up!

[Fat Tony]

In complete agreement with you.

Another clutch goalie was Worsley. He did not have a "nice" style, but he got the job done. If he could, he did not hesitate to stop a shot with his face. He was a tough guy.

I believe that Price needs more playing time in the AHL. He just has not learned to focus 60 minutes.

Halak and Huet should be the goalies till the end of the season. We could still recall Price for the playoffs, if we can make them, of course.

Yes the Gumper was awesome...not much to look at, but clutch and one of the funniest men in the history of the game...gotta love the gumper.

Price has played a couple of amazing full games, I just don't get why he is not consistent game to game. He was so solid last year for the Bulldogs in the playoffs, maybe he does need some more seasoning...I hate to admit it, I keep waiting for him to turn it on, but maybe the Montreal pressure cooker is getting to him.

For me, Halak has proved nothing..but, I will give that he deserves at least a 3 game stint with the Habs based on his efforts last year. I thought he was inconsistent too last year for the Habs, but he does deserve a shot...maybe the trade deadline will provide that one way or the other?

[Wamsley01]

I think it is more than just focus. He still has not adjusted to the speed of the NHL. Everybody forgets that last Feb he was

facing 16-19 year olds every night.

Don't mind me, I just said I was done commenting LOL

[Fat Tony]

I think it is more than just focus. He still has not adjusted to the speed of the NHL. Everybody forgets that last Feb he was

facing 16-19 year olds every night.

It is a big step to the NHL, it's so much faster and the shooters are so much more savvy. The frustrating part is that he's had 4 or 5 games where he's been amazing...he can do it, but why can't he do it consistently? Very frustrating and confusing.

[Neech]

I also believe that Huet isn't a number 1, but to trade him would be a big mistake. I think he is an excellent back up. What we need is a numero uno. Obviously, Price is not ready, but he's got great potential. A tandem Halak-Huet is the solution while the rookie learns his trade in the minors. Call Halak up!

I think they're all pretty near the same level in performance at the moment. Halak could probably come in and do Huet's job, in fact I think he'd play pretty well right now because he'd be so hungry. The difference is Huet is a free agent who will either get a big contract from us or be gone next year, and if he's not number 1 material then we won't be giving him a big contract anyways.