The Morning after the NIGHT before?

[HabsWEST]

After posting on the game thread and providing my point of view and opinion on my observations on the Habs run,

I woke up this morning feeling abit should have, could have , would have? Can you imagine what the team is feeling this morning, ?? This may prove to be a valuable experience in driving toward next year, and up to GAINEY to add to the puzzle, and also CARBONNEAU to continue his learning curve as a coach..

So what happened,??

---I have lived and died a HABS fan since I was 5 years old,

---I remember as a little guy, Montreal Trailing game 7 vs BOSTON 3 to 1 heading to 3rd period, I was soo disappointed I locked myself in my bedroom until my father called me in when it was 3 to 2, and the 3 to 3 tie, and win in OT, and rest is history..

---The following year lose to the North Stars, and an end of an era for the HABS

---Living in Edmonton, the sweep by upstart Oilers in 1981 and a young goalie named Moog, remember our goalie in series ( eerie similiarity to this series), Habs outchanced Oilers, well I was so ticked, and living in Edmonton, I refused to cheer for the Oilers ever after that series and for years refused to join in the celebrations of Cup wins!

---1986 win was a surprise, ROY, LEMIEUX and his heroics, timely goals by Skrudland, and scoring from all areas

---1993, and players that came up Big...

---Through the years the ups and downs, but one thing in common to go deep in playoffs:

1--- TIMELY GOALS

2--- PLAYER COMES OUT OF NOWHERE ( AKA UMBERGER) and lights up the net

3--- SCORING FROM ALL THOSE YOU EXPECT

4--- DEFENCE , and LIMITING OTHER TEAM CHANCES

5--- GOALTENDING and TIMELY SAVES

6--- KILLER INSTINCT

7--- CONSISTENCY

8--- SPECIALITY TEAMS

9--- MINIMIZING errors

10-- GRIT

( and if 11: COACHING)

INSTEAD of just blaming PRICE , lets all ask ourselves, of the 10 points above, through the 12 games, how many games did the HABS have the 10 points covered?

LAST night:

--- FIRST goal, BRISBOIS mistake

( DEFENCE pairing, with HAMRLIK)

--- SECOND GOAL, ( yes unfortunate break for PHILLY), but why is RICHARDS left alone in front of net?? ( look at the flyers, how many times did their defence allow one of the HABS to sit alone by the net for more than a moment??), WHO WAS ON DEFENCE: GORGES and BOUILLON

--- THIRD GOAL, yes PRICE should have had it, but why was PHILLY ALLOWED TO SKATE IN FRONT of net for the chance:

( did flyers allow our players to do this) OR BETTER YET, HOW COME HABS DIDNT CONSISTENTLY CRASH THE NET???

DEFENCE: GORGES and HAMRLIK

--- FOURTH GOAL, PRICE simply should of saved, but off post and in, , GAME OF INCHES...IF LATS scored late when 4 to 4, if off post and in, we would be cheering on today!!

( KOMI and HAMRLIK)

--- FIFTH GOAL, why is UPSHALL OPEN??? refer comments on SECOND GOAL, and GIVEAWAY BY BOUILLON...left alone to deflect shot, PHILLY defense were nailin our fwds the whole series in that situation??

(DEFENCE: GORGES and BOUILLON) again!!

ABOVE IS just a sample opinion and observation of game 5, and can be repeated in similiar pattern in the other games in this series and going back to the BOSTON series, SIMPLY:

--- Too many defence breakdowns, not enough GRIT and crashing net, too many little battles on ice lost, and timely giveaways, and not enough timely goals, and PP went south, and goaltending after the breakdowns didnt CONSISTENTLY come up ( PRICE makes timely save on 3rd period breakaway, but not followed by TIMELY GOAL on PP) with the big save, THE DAMAGE WAS DONE BY TIME game 5 started....

GAME 5 was a good representation of the MONTREAL playoff run, GREAT at TIMES, below average at others, and simply lost the little battles, and inconsistent goaltending and poor giveaways on defence!!

ALL EQUALS ELIMINATION.

FORWARDS,

BEGIN and KOSTOPOLOUS where -2 and -3 respectively..

FOR NEXT year:

--- Shore up our defence with O'BYRNE stepping in, ( replace Brisbois)

--- The 3rd and fourth line needs to be improved ( Smolinski, Dandenault, Ryder, Streit, Kosto, Begin...) who stays, who goes? which of young players steps up ? ( Chipchura, Grabs...??)

--- Strong C ( who in system, or FA signing???)

--- Remember, werent we the worst team last year on even strength, this year we were middle of pack, but the PP made the difference, well that PP was worst in playoffs, HABS NEED TO IMPROVE THEIR 5 on 5 play

--- CARBONNEAU as a coach needs to learn as well, PP was totally disorganized, DID the coach adapt well to playoffs and align appropriate strategy changes?? ( in his PA how would he rate??)

At end of day, Philly was bigger, cleared their net, and crashed the net and were opportunistic..Habs need to be in position to go deeper in playoffs and simply didnt have the depth to advance this year...

But all experience and continued development of the young players, the team is on right course and needs to continue its course under GAINEY's guidance...

BUT could have should have, What if the PP scored? What if some of those posts went in? What if Price made some more big saves, What if above mistakes werent made? well you get the picture...

Simply not good enough to go 2 wins and 6 losses in last 8 playoff games??? and 5 wins and 7 losses for the series, SEASON OVER...

Cheers!! but still hoped there was a game tonight!!....What if??

Edited May 4, 2008 by HabsWEST

[Pierre the Great]

one thing your missing that makes the rest of the league in the east tremble a bit. Habs are the youngest team in the NHL and the Habs already have goalie they've been missing since Roy left town.

[HabsWEST]

one thing your missing that makes the rest of the league in the east tremble a bit. Habs are the youngest team in the NHL and the Habs already have goalie they've been missing since Roy left town.

Yes, on my game thread post I did comment on this, Habs youngest team in playoffs, and mentioned continued development of players ...and others coming up..

Gainey and scouts, as mentioned in game thread, have identified some areas of concern:

---DEFENCE, why soo many drafted in recent years, MCDONAUGH, FISCHER, Weber, SUBBAN, CARLE.....O'Byrne

( SIZE, and good skaters and mobility) not all will make it, but some will, a numbers game

--- STRONG FWDS: PACIORETTY, speed and skill, and defence: FORTIER ( more defence sound), CHIPCHURA ( does need to improve skating..

I believe this year, they maybe focussing and big, strong fast CENTRE???

---And maybe why Gainey is seriously looking at Brunnstrom...

Does Gainey go after SUNDIN for a year, hmm doubt it, ?? Hossa? would he really help??? FA defence signing??? hmm will be interesting to see...

But yes the improvement is there, and realistically who really thaught, HABS would win the CUP this year???

but in next year or 2 look out...

[Canajun]

I blame Carbonneau... that's what happened. I didn't like him last season and I didn't like him this season. It boggles my mind how he could be nominated for Coach of the Year. He screwed up in the playoffs in 3 big ways:

(1) He didn't ice our optimal lineup - the one that we were using down the stretch when we were busy running up to the top of the Eastern Conference and becoming the top scoring team in the league - remember those days? Just look back on some boxscores from March:

http://www2.sportsnet.ca/hockey/nhl/scores/20080320/Mon@Bos

We were icing 3 offensive lines and opposing teams couldn't cover us. So why the hell did Carbo abandon that during the playoffs?? Oh I know, half of you are going to say "that lineup was too soft/small for the playoffs". OK, so how much better did we fare with the revamped BIG MUSCULAR lineup that we used instead? What did that get us? I don't want to hear that excuse ... the Red Wings aren't much bigger nor tougher than we are... how come they're thriving? Who's more soft and small than Jiri Hudler? But he's in there playing and producing. Besides their one grind line of Draper, Maltby and McCarty... who are all the gritty/tough muckers on the Red Wings?

(2) We didn't play to our strengths - skating, puck possession, skill and speed. Carbonneau got caught up in the Don Cherry mentality of the playoffs being nothing but hitting and banging and crashing - that's not us. Carbonneau let us get dragged into a Roller Derby match against the Bruins - and that's not our style. It wasn't quite so Roller Derby against the Flyers, but he still stuck with 2 offensive lines and 2 lines of grinders, and as such, we couldn't maintain any constant offensive flow to our game.

(3) Carbonneau chose to go with old grizzled veterans like Smolinski, Dandenault and Brisebois in the playoffs ...instead of the players who helped propel us to the top of the East- like Grabovski. Yes, Brisebois did play okay during the playoffs, but Dandenault was useless, and Smolinski ran out of gas after the Bruins series.

Blame Carbonneau.

[Fat Tony]

Or, and this is just a plain crazy thought, blame nobody. Understand that it was a great learning experience for a very young (for the most part) team and hope they learned lessons that can be applied next year and years beyond. Thanks for a great season boys! Did I want more? You bet I did, but I'm grateful for a very enjoyable season and appreciate a gutsy effort last night. Deal with it how you want...this is the way I choose to deal with it

[rafikz]

Or, and this is just a plain crazy thought, blame nobody. Understand that it was a great learning experience for a very young (for the most part) team and hope they learned lessons that can be applied next year and years beyond. Thanks for a great season boys! Did I want more? You bet I did, but I'm grateful for a very enjoyable season and appreciate a gutsy effort last night. Deal with it how you want...this is the way I choose to deal with it

[BTH]

I blame Carbonneau... that's what happened. I didn't like him last season and I didn't like him this season. It boggles my mind how he could be nominated for Coach of the Year. He screwed up in the playoffs in 3 big ways:

(1) He didn't ice our optimal lineup - the one that we were using down the stretch when we were busy running up to the top of the Eastern Conference and becoming the top scoring team in the league - remember those days? Just look back on some boxscores from March:

http://www2.sportsnet.ca/hockey/nhl/scores/20080320/Mon@Bos

We were icing 3 offensive lines and opposing teams couldn't cover us. So why the hell did Carbo abandon that during the playoffs?? Oh I know, half of you are going to say "that lineup was too soft/small for the playoffs". OK, so how much better did we fare with the revamped BIG MUSCULAR lineup that we used instead? What did that get us? I don't want to hear that excuse ... the Red Wings aren't much bigger nor tougher than we are... how come they're thriving? Who's more soft and small than Jiri Hudler? But he's in there playing and producing. Besides their one grind line of Draper, Maltby and McCarty... who are all the gritty/tough muckers on the Red Wings?

(2) We didn't play to our strengths - skating, puck possession, skill and speed. Carbonneau got caught up in the Don Cherry mentality of the playoffs being nothing but hitting and banging and crashing - that's not us. Carbonneau let us get dragged into a Roller Derby match against the Bruins - and that's not our style. It wasn't quite so Roller Derby against the Flyers, but he still stuck with 2 offensive lines and 2 lines of grinders, and as such, we couldn't maintain any constant offensive flow to our game.

(3) Carbonneau chose to go with old grizzled veterans like Smolinski, Dandenault and Brisebois in the playoffs ...instead of the players who helped propel us to the top of the East- like Grabovski. Yes, Brisebois did play okay during the playoffs, but Dandenault was useless, and Smolinski ran out of gas after the Bruins series.

Blame Carbonneau.

I understand where you're coming from with the rest of the post (I don't blame Carbonneau at all though) but.... Grabovski? You believe he propelled us to the top of the East? His regular season contribution was no greater than Brisebois'.

[Canajun]

Grabovski of course wasn't the one who "propelled" us to the top, but it was his inclusion in the lineup that allowed us to ice 3 offensive lines. This coincided with our ascent to the top of the East. Opposing teams couldn't match us. During this time, Higgins was moved to this 3rd scoring line which was a move I really liked. Let him find his scoring touch (or lack of) down there without the pressure of being a top-2 line guy. That is really the perfect spot for him and where he's most effective. In the future if he pulls a Brian Rolston and develops a more consistent scoring touch, then he becomes a legit top-6 guy.

I don't know why Carbonneau chose to muck that all up.

[BTH]

Because he's a guy that likes to put all the pressure on his veterans and cover the kiddies' eyes. Experienced players tend to step up in the playoffs while young players are question marks. That right there is a good enough reason to take out Gui and form a Begin-Smolinski-Kostopoulos line (probably our best line throughout the playoffs) and also to replace O'Byrne with Brisebois (who was also good).

Initially he had to break up the top two lines because Koivu was injured. Once he returned, he went back to our original top 6 but we lost. The following game was Game 7 - it was a must-win situation so he formed a power line of Higgins-Koivu-Kovalev. We played our best game of the series.

Carbo doesn't like to change his lines after a win, especially not after such a great performance, so he kept his lines the same until we were facing elimination yet again (I think it's important to note that we dominated the game in each of our losses), and then he went back to his old top 6.

I think he made solid decisions, though I would have switched back to Andrei-Plekanec-Kovalev, Higgins-Koivu-Sergei after the Boston series. Then when we ran into trouble we could have "upgraded" into our super line instead of starting with it and then having to "downgrade" it in desperation.

[The Chicoutimi Cucumber]

>>Carbonneau chose to go with old grizzled veterans like Smolinski, Dandenault and Brisebois in the playoffs

You appear not to have noticed that Brisebois and Smoke were among our better players during the postseason - ?

[MMPL]

You appear not to have noticed that Brisebois and Smoke were among our better players during the postseason?

Smoke I'd agree, but he was the worst in the grinder line IMO because he never hit much.

Breeze was not great in the Playoffs. He was very poor defensively but good offensively.

[MAK]

we played like we did during the regular season.That's what happened.

The guys came in confident that it would be easy since they were the best in the east with the best pp in the league. they just forgot to elevate their game, thats all.

-Too many players not willing to go in front of the net.

-nobody crashed the goalie.

-shy response when price or halak were rattled by richards downie...

-Price was bad in too many games.

-PP was terrible.

To sum it up: Young team with growing pains. It's be how they react next year that'll be interesting.

[JoeLassister]

we played like we did during the regular season.That's what happened.

The guys came in confident that it would be easy since they were the best in the east with the best pp in the league. they just forgot to elevate their game, thats all.

-Too many players not willing to go in front of the net.

-nobody crashed the goalie.

-shy response when price or halak were rattled by richards downie...

-Price was bad in too many games.

-PP was terrible.

To sum it up: Young team with growing pains. It's be how they react next year that'll be interesting.

you nailed it. Price and PP were supposed to be our main weapons, both sucked. Good golf.

[Zowpeb]

It is easy to APPEAR to be dominating the games that were losses...largely because the Habs were actually losing by 2 goals early in the games.

It isn't hard to appear to dominate when the other team adopts a defensive, dump and chase game since they have a 2 goal lead and a hot goalie.

I was very disappointed with the following:

1) line combinations were not changed actively enough mid-game to compensate and changed too much from what made this team a top offensive team regular season.

2) WHY CAN'T SUCH A FAST SKILLED TEAM PUT A PASS ON THE TAPE? Re-watch the games guys, most passes were easy to make but passed in a way that forced the receiving player to waste time moving pucks from backhands to forehands or reach for the pass...thus wasting time and allowing the goalie and defence to adjust. It made it BRUTAL to watch them fly and buzz around the flyers and dump stupid passes.

3) The Flyers were collapsing to the net allowing the Habs to move around easier, they were also getting tired as the series went, but the Habs continued to try the SAME move of passing the puck out to the hash marks while cycling...lots of regular season PP goals were scored this way...in a 7 game series where you watch loads of video on a team beforehand...it's too predictable. Philly had guys literally standing there waiting to intercept that pass all series and the Habs didn't adjust.

4) Price was rattled a couple times but I really don't blame him. I really only saw 1 bad game and after that about 2-3 goals he should have stopped...but nothing too egregious. There were times his D left him high and dry. Why wouldn't Carbo simply call a time-out after a couple of them? Give the kid a moment to calm down and the team to support him and shake it off. There were plenty of times a time-out should have been called in both series.

5) Kovalev spent half the time floating uselessly...I attribute at least a few goals DIRECTLY to his laziness when he doesn't have the puck. The rest of his time was either 25% pure magic or 25% trying to do it alone. I'd deal him after a good year where they can steal some real value with him.

Largely, I think if the coaches would have adjusted lines better, made adjustments to the PP and called a few timely time-outs...may have changed 1 or 2 games alone.

[Wamsley01]

It is easy to APPEAR to be dominating the games that were losses...largely because the Habs were actually losing by 2 goals early in the games.

It isn't hard to appear to dominate when the other team adopts a defensive, dump and chase game since they have a 2 goal lead and a hot goalie.

I was very disappointed with the following:

Game 3 and 4 the Habs dominated the first period both times when it was scoreless. I don't think that is a fair assesment.

Especially in Game 4 when they hit 3 posts in the first and Koivu was stopped on a breakaway.

That game turned the series around. The breaks were with Philly most of the series even into the final game.

Saturday night the Habs were controlling the play up 1-0 and they hit the post and Philly comes down the ice a minute later and it is 1-1.

After the first period the scoring chances were 9-2 and the game was 2-1. The Flyers were opportunistic throughout the whole series.

They finally get a couple of softies to put them up 3-1 and Richards tries to catch a puck and it deflects in and then in a tie game

with less than 5 to go Lats makes a great move and hits the post and Philly comes back and scores the winner.

If Price plays lights out like he did at the end of the season this series looks a hell of a lot different right now and people are not

pointing out this break and this mistake etc etc. Everybody is glossing over Philly's glaring errors because 1. Biron got them off the hook

a ton of times 2. The Habs missed a lot of very easy tip in, tap in opportunities and 3. The Flyers seemed to convert 50% of their chances.

The goaltending was the biggest difference. End of story.

[Dalhabs]

5 close games against Philly and bad bounces and bad luck made them win 4 of the 5. Everything can happen in the playoffs and it did, unfortunately against us.

[Habsfan]

5 close games against Philly and bad bounces and bad luck made them win 4 of the 5. Everything can happen in the playoffs and it did, unfortunately against us.

Shit Happens! The boys will just have to roll up their sleeves, and try harder next year!