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The Chipchura Case


KoZed

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People don't mention them as often because Stewart's upside is a slighty improved version of Steve Bégin (he's bigger and he'll defend his teammates every once in a while) while D'Agostini's future in the NHL is doubtful.

D'Agostini could wind definitely wind up a 2nd or 3rd line NHLer and close to being NHL ready.

My point is simply all 3 are the same age, have the same contract status (last year of rookie deal) and all 3 are likely to start in Hamilton this year.

For what it's worth, Gainey said D'Agostini was one of the prospects he liked in particular at a Q & A session in Newfoundland earlier this month.

They are all born in 1986 but D'Agostini is a 2005 draftee instead of 2004 so he's listed alongside Price, Latendresse, Sergei Kostitsyn, Mathieu Aubin, etc.. (I also noticed that Greg Stewart has the same birthday as me)

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I agree with this assesment.

If Chipchura could win 55% of his face-offs no one would question the kid.

He's fine defensively, stick handles well enough, moves the puck well and has shown good leadership qualities over his career...but, he's a little slow and TERRIBLE at face-offs...so much so that it stands out.

If Carboneau could work with him on face-offs he'd have a good teacher at least...

I think if he could get his game to even close to the NHL average in speed and face-offs he's got enough two way skills, and with the right line-mates, he'd become a solid 2nd line C on a mediocre team and a very good 3rd line C on the Habs.

If the Habs are serious about getting his game up to par they need to give him a lot more minutes, with good linemates, in Hamilton. He needs 1st line minutes and PK minutes...put him in the situations he needs to improve in.

I could see Chipchura becoming a very good player...but he's in danger of becoming another Milroy.

I agree with you and AC. Chips seemed to have a very good hockey sense and rarely made a bad decision but on several occasions when he did make a bad decision it lead to goals which makes people even more critical of him. Habs fans seem to love jumping on players when they make 1 mistake even though they make lots of good plays. i.e. Cube, even Souray because of the 3 goals in which we have all seen the replays of thousands of times.

Unfortunately Carbs doesnt really have the time to be a faceoff coach for Chips or any of the other young prospects, especially if they are in the AHL. However I can think of an ex habs who would and the Habs should sign him ASAP before Therien figures it out too. Honestly I still dont know why the Habs got rid of him because Bonk and Smoke werent much of an upgrade over him and cost more money. He is still unsigned and maybe Bob could convince him to hang up the skates and be a full time faceoff coach for the Habs organization at both the NHL and AHL level.

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I think Chips had a great game last night. 60% in the face-off circle. Did really well against Spezza. I've always thought of him as a Brian Skrudland type player so I'm not looking to him for mega points. He will shine as he gets older and probably take on a major leadership role with the team. All you guys seem so down on him but I actually see him taking Laps place fairly quickly. Laps is a good agitator but if it came down to keeping one of them it would be Chips I would keep. He'll find his spot on this team soon enough.

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I think Chips had a great game last night. 60% in the face-off circle. Did really well against Spezza. I've always thought of him as a Brian Skrudland type player so I'm not looking to him for mega points. He will shine as he gets older and probably take on a major leadership role with the team. All you guys seem so down on him but I actually see him taking Laps place fairly quickly. Laps is a good agitator but if it came down to keeping one of them it would be Chips I would keep. He'll find his spot on this team soon enough.

Could very well be. Lapierre, with all his new added muscle, is not doing a damn thing this camp - he looks useless. With Lapierre, we have 3 "pests" - we certainly don't need that many. Having Chipchura on the 4th line would instantly inject a bit of offense and playmaking on that line... of which there is basically none.

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That you Kyle (and I don't mean the storm) - he had a great game and the performance reinforced my earlier post. I too can see him kicking out Lapierre if he continues to show signs of what he did last night. I wasn't overly impressed with Lapierre at the Halifax game. Chips was causing turnovers AGAIN almost like clockwork last night.

:clap:

BTW-if you missed the game last night it's on NHL network right now.

Edited by Athlétique.Canadien
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I agree with you and AC. Chips seemed to have a very good hockey sense and rarely made a bad decision but on several occasions when he did make a bad decision it lead to goals which makes people even more critical of him. Habs fans seem to love jumping on players when they make 1 mistake even though they make lots of good plays. i.e. Cube, even Souray because of the 3 goals in which we have all seen the replays of thousands of times.

Unfortunately Carbs doesnt really have the time to be a faceoff coach for Chips or any of the other young prospects, especially if they are in the AHL. However I can think of an ex habs who would and the Habs should sign him ASAP before Therien figures it out too. Honestly I still dont know why the Habs got rid of him because Bonk and Smoke werent much of an upgrade over him and cost more money. He is still unsigned and maybe Bob could convince him to hang up the skates and be a full time faceoff coach for the Habs organization at both the NHL and AHL level.

Who??

For the record, I thought Chips did a great job last night...

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Who??

For the record, I thought Chips did a great job last night...

I think he meant Yanic Perreault. Great in the faceoff dot, but was never really good enough to establish himself as an offensive or defensive force. I think the last year he played for the Habs, he'd take the faceoff with Ribs and Ryder, and then skate off and Dagenais would take his place. That says a lot.

He'd be a great faceoff coach though, IMO.

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Chips looked good against an A team.

Was he really 60% on faceoffs?

If so, Lapierre job isn't a lock. :rolleyes:

Dont think Lapierre's job will ever be a lock, which is a good thing. He got leaped-frog in camp by Chips last season, but burned the AHL and earned back his spot while Chips' game was slowly falling apart at the NHL level.

Now with Lang in, there's really only 1 spot left at C. Chips has 2 games left to repeat what he did in camp last season and leap ahead of Lapierre again. He's gonna have to push hard though. Perfect scenario would be to have both on the 4th, with Laps on the wing allowing him to use his speed alot more than at C; and Chips' playmaking game more typical for a C.

Problem is that Laps is the better faceoff guys of the twos which is probably the one reason why he's (still) ahead of Chips. Chips was 30% in PK faceoffs last season, which simply doesnt fly. That PK/checking center spot that should be Chipchura's is probably the one spot that requires the best faceoff percentage. Carbo had to overuse Koivu last season to take all those fcritical defensive-zone faceoffs because no other C was safe enough.

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I think he meant Yanic Perreault.

Yep, thats exactly who I am talking aboot. Yanic would be a wicked face off coach and seeing how the Habs draft only Centerman a Defenseman it would probably be a smart idea to get him before Pittsburg figures it out. The Penguins have 3 young centers who arent very good at faceoffs and we dont want them vastly improving that.

I still say the year the Habs came from behind and beat Boston in 7 games was solely because of Perreault. Habs lost every game he missed and won every game he played in. Its hard to loose when you win every faceoff in your own end. They were able to ice the puck at will and would get the puck back after the faceoff every time. The new rule changes that now though.

I highly disagree with him not being good enough though. IMO Yanic is one of the most underated players ever. Had he not been drafted by the Laffs and left to rot in the AHL for an eternity we would all know how good he is. He's in his late 30's and hasnt played that many NHL seasons and it really is a shame. The Habs primarily used him on the 3rd line defensive role and in a role like that players typically wont put of lots of points but its not because they arent capable its because its not their role to be offensive and take chances.

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Dont think Lapierre's job will ever be a lock, which is a good thing. He got leaped-frog in camp by Chips last season, but burned the AHL and earned back his spot while Chips' game was slowly falling apart at the NHL level.

Now with Lang in, there's really only 1 spot left at C. Chips has 2 games left to repeat what he did in camp last season and leap ahead of Lapierre again. He's gonna have to push hard though. Perfect scenario would be to have both on the 4th, with Laps on the wing allowing him to use his speed alot more than at C; and Chips' playmaking game more typical for a C.

Problem is that Laps is the better faceoff guys of the twos which is probably the one reason why he's (still) ahead of Chips. Chips was 30% in PK faceoffs last season, which simply doesnt fly. That PK/checking centre spot that should be Chipchura's is probably the one spot that requires the best faceoff percentage. Carbo had to overuse Koivu last season to take all those fcritical defensive-zone faceoffs because no other C was safe enough.

I love what Lapierre brings to the table, but I've

always felt he'd be a better RW than C. Yet, with

this team I feel he's our best fit at 4th line C.

I'd rather see Chips playing 17+ mins in Hamilton

than 8-10mins on our 4th line here. Let him work

on his faceoffs and skating.

Competition is always a good thing. I find myself

trying not to get to excited about our depth, but

geez, nobody except us seems to have it. Its a

good thing too because we were lucky last year

injury wise. This team is almost 6 lines deep at

forward, thats freakin incredible. :clap:

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Yep, thats exactly who I am talking aboot. Yanic would be a wicked face off coach and seeing how the Habs draft only Centerman a Defenseman it would probably be a smart idea to get him before Pittsburg figures it out. The Penguins have 3 young centers who arent very good at faceoffs and we dont want them vastly improving that.

I still say the year the Habs came from behind and beat Boston in 7 games was solely because of Perreault. Habs lost every game he missed and won every game he played in. Its hard to loose when you win every faceoff in your own end. They were able to ice the puck at will and would get the puck back after the faceoff every time. The new rule changes that now though.

Actually, you're right. It'd be awesome to have him here teaching the kids faceoffs...

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Actually, you're right. It'd be awesome to have him here teaching the kids faceoffs...

If he wants to retire and become a faceoff coach, why not. However as a player, I mostly remember that Julien was afraid to use him to win critical faceoffs in the defensive zone, and that he kept getting benched during the playoffs.

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If he wants to retire and become a faceoff coach, why not. However as a player, I mostly remember that Julien was afraid to use him to win critical faceoffs in the defensive zone, and that he kept getting benched during the playoffs.

yeah and when he did use him he got burned.

Playoffs round 2 against Tampa game 2 Habs up 1 with 30 seconds left Yannic loses the draw or wins it I don't remember but because of how terrible he was defensively the Habs allowed a late goal and eventually lost in OT.

He is for sure a great face-off man but I would rather put Plekanec or Koivu or even Chipchura out for an important face off late in a game.

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I still say the year the Habs came from behind and beat Boston in 7 games was solely because of Perreault. Habs lost every game he missed and won every game he played in. Its hard to loose when you win every faceoff in your own end. They were able to ice the puck at will and would get the puck back after the faceoff every time. The new rule changes that now though.

If you recall, that actually happened. I can't remember if it was the Boston or Tampa series, but the Habs were up a goal late inside the last minute, maybe even last 20 seconds. Everyone is calling for Yanic to take the faceoff, but they send in another guy, Begin, I think. Everyone was all pissed off, then he won the faceoff back towards his left D. Problem was, the guy stood there waiting for the puck, only to have a guy from the other team beat the Habs to the puck and suck. We lost in OT.

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If you recall, that actually happened. I can't remember if it was the Boston or Tampa series, but the Habs were up a goal late inside the last minute, maybe even last 20 seconds. Everyone is calling for Yanic to take the faceoff, but they send in another guy, Begin, I think. Everyone was all pissed off, then he won the faceoff back towards his left D. Problem was, the guy stood there waiting for the puck, only to have a guy from the other team beat the Habs to the puck and suck. We lost in OT.

Must have been the Tampa series. Nothing went our way in that series...not that we had too much chance of beating the eventual Cup champs, but it still made me puke to see all the breaks going their way. :angry:

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If you recall, that actually happened. I can't remember if it was the Boston or Tampa series, but the Habs were up a goal late inside the last minute, maybe even last 20 seconds. Everyone is calling for Yanic to take the faceoff, but they send in another guy, Begin, I think. Everyone was all pissed off, then he won the faceoff back towards his left D. Problem was, the guy stood there waiting for the puck, only to have a guy from the other team beat the Habs to the puck and suck. We lost in OT.

I can't remember who took the faceoff, but I DO remember that it was Vinny scoring with 16.5 seconds left, and Richards scored about a minute into OT when he banked it in off of the back of Theo's leg. Heartbreaker for sure, it effectively killed that series for us.

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Must have been the Tampa series. Nothing went our way in that series...not that we had too much chance of beating the eventual Cup champs, but it still made me puke to see all the breaks going their way. :angry:

Nope that was against Carolina a few years ago. Had we won that game, we would have lead the series 3-1. And yes it was Bégin who took the face-off instead of Perreault, and MIchel Therrien took alot of sh.it because of that mistake!

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Must have been the Tampa series. Nothing went our way in that series...not that we had too much chance of beating the eventual Cup champs, but it still made me puke to see all the breaks going their way. :angry:

Actually if the Ribeiro line had worked its butt off even just a little bit, we could have taken that series. Unfortunately as soon as the playoffs started, Ribeiro, Ryder, and Dagenais just disappeared from the surface of the Earth. All Tampa Bay had to do was to minimize the threat of the Koivu/Kovalev duo.

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Gah! I get nightmares just thinking about that Carolina series... It was going SO well, and then it all just fell apart :puke: :puke:

Oh, well, New season. let's hope this is the year we shake off the playoff demons and make a dent past the second round...

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Nope that was against Carolina a few years ago. Had we won that game, we would have lead the series 3-1. And yes it was Bégin who took the face-off instead of Perreault, and MIchel Therrien took alot of sh.it because of that mistake!

I never understood why, though. Defensively Begin was the better choice and the fact he won the faceoff should have absolved him of that decision. It wasn't Begin's or Therrien's fault that the other team out-hustled the Habs to the puck.

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I never understood why, though. Defensively Begin was the better choice and the fact he won the faceoff should have absolved him of that decision. It wasn't Begin's or Therrien's fault that the other team out-hustled the Habs to the puck.

I'd say it was Therien's fault for having Bill Lindsey on the ice at such a crucial moment in the game

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