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Tampa vs Montreal, Sept. 29 7:30 pm


kenadian

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Preseason doesn't count for points, but it does indicate how they play. Other teams in preseason can score since there are many defensive mistakes. The habs are not scoring all that much. They get chances, but have you not noticed how most of the other teams goalies look so good, ours not so much.

I see several areas of concern. The front end is small and easily pushed around. We have a lot of streaky scorers. Our back end is not contributing outside of PK (and hopefully Markov when he returns). The fact that we are mucking about with 4 forwards on the PP shows our lack of offensive depth on the back end.

We definitely miss Markov and I am not saying we are doomed, but we don't look that impressive.

Our forwards have not gotten any smaller in the offseason and did not get 'easily pushed around' last season. Players such as Pleks, Cammy, Gio, Cole and Patches can all be expected to ramp up the intensity once they stop playing shinny. You're absolutely right about the back end, though. I really hope I'm wrong, but I've said consistently that we absolutely should not have let Hamrlik walk. I was even one of those few who said we should have at least made a meaningful effort to keep Wiz. People on this board instead argued that Yemelin and Diaz were the answers. I fear they may be on the wrong end of the argument - but like I say, I hope not.

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well we still are shutout, can't even hit wide open nets. I think one problem is that our vets have not played that much as a team until now. I really don't like the exhibition plan that the habs went with. too many games in a row with too many kids. We have one more game and it is clear the team systems, PP, and lineups are not set.

Oh, and Budaj is making Auld look pretty good about now.

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The new stick Cammalleri personally helped design in Mexico appears to need a little fine tuning to help the aim out. That said, he (and his line) has looked good tonight as has Gomez once again which is nice to see. Desharnais is having an off night, especially when he keeps losing his man in the defensive zone. He's been out for a bit though so let's just chalk that up to a bit of rust.

Speaking of rust, it doesn't seem like Campoli has a lot of it, having looked pretty good in 14 minutes of work already. That's good for second on the team behind Subban.

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Our forwards have not gotten any smaller in the offseason and did not get 'easily pushed around' last season. Players such as Pleks, Cammy, Gio, Cole and Patches can all be expected to ramp up the intensity once they stop playing shinny. You're absolutely right about the back end, though. I really hope I'm wrong, but I've said consistently that we absolutely should not have let Hamrlik walk. I was even one of those few who said we should have at least made a meaningful effort to keep Wiz. People on this board instead argued that Yemelin and Diaz were the answers. I fear they may be on the wrong end of the argument - but like I say, I hope not.

All of this nonsense will go away the second the Habs win a regular season game.

This is the lineup that finished Game 7 against the Stanley Cup Champion Bruins.

Cammalleri/Plekanec/Kostitsyn

Gionta/Gomez/Darche

Halpern/Eller/Moen

Pyatt/White/Weber

Subban/Gill

Hamrlik/Spacek

Wisniewski/Sopel

Here is the lineup that will likely start this season

Cammalleri/Plekanec/COLE

Gionta/Gomez/PACIORETTY

Kostitsyn/Desharnais/Darche

Moen/Enqvist/Weber

Subban/Gill

GORGES/Spacek

CAMPOLI/YEMELIN

Add Eller, Markov, White, Diaz at some point during the season and you are telling me that is not a better team?

When did a 37 year old Roman Hamrlik become a make or break player? How does a team that banged with the "rough and tough" Boston Bruins for 7 games all of sudden become less tough with the addition of two power forwards in Pacioretty and Cole? A physical defenseman in Yemelin and the return of the under appreciated Gorges. Kostitsyn/Desharnais/Eller/Darche now get matched up against 3rd line opponents nightly, not the top units.

This team is better than the 2011 edition even with injuries.

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Wamsley, of the D-men you list, there's only one who can remotely run a power-play, as far as I can see. The drop off in the bottom-pairing is considerable and Hammer arguably had better offensive tools than Gorges. I agree that Hammer was not Superman, but we lost BOTH him and Wiz - and it took both of them to paper over the loss of Markov. You can argue that Gorges replaces Hammer (I doubt this is true offensively), but subtract Markov and that blueline still looks shaky to me.

Agree that we've upgraded at forward, though (although the lack of a decent faceoff man is a glaring problem that'll need fixing). I'm not preaching doom and gloom here - we do have the potential to be better than last season - but since I don't rate either Diaz or Yemelin as NHLers because they have not yet demonstrated that they are NHLers, and since Weber has been disarmingly mediocre, I think our D may still prove to be an issue. And Hammer is just the type of solid, reliable, minutes-eater that would assuage that concern. C'est tout.

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The Good News; First game against Toronto

The other Good news: Diaz and Yemelin (They seem better than Spaceman, Meh, I like em)

Have you seen the new Spacek this preseason? Not the same guy than last year. We need veterans like him to stabilize the D.

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Have you seen the new Spacek this preseason? Not the same guy than last year. We need veterans like him to stabilize the D.

Yeah I do like the new Spaceman, just lots of people getting on the new Defenseman, I want to support them, Diaz just played his best game, great first passes and a strong skater, Yemelin, out of place at times, yet he can play physical, just needs time to gel with the new teammates.

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Yeah I do like the new Spaceman, just lots of people getting on the new Defenseman, I want to support them, Diaz just played his best game, great first passes and a strong skater, Yemelin, out of place at times, yet he can play physical, just needs time to gel with the new teammates.

I honestly don't think we'll see Diaz again this year. If this was his best game, it's surely not enough. He was brutal and shaky on many plays. He would defenitely benefit from a 1st year in America with the Bulldogs

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Ah yes... I don't like either of them, but Budaj needs to get way better then he is showing or we will be dreading Price taking a night off.

I've seen too much of Budaj play against Calgary to have any confidence that he is going to be much better of an upgrade over Abiesher. I think he is better then then aby, but not much.

You would think after the Roy trade, the habs would have had enough of ex-Colorado goalies!!!!

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I realize that this is just pre-season games and all, but I have to admit I am starting to worry a little. There's no panick here, it's just that our lack of scoring is kinda glaring. I understand that the lines have changed every night and that the coaching staff is experimenting with the lines during pre-season, but why is it the other teams seem to be ready yet we aren't.

Anyways, I hope that they'll start off the regular season with 5 wins in a row and they'll average 5 goals a game. That should calm everyone down ;)

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And in other news, Mike Ribeiro has 6 pts in a 7-1 drubbing of Florida. He played 14:34.

So? Isnt that like 3-4 years ago we traded him now? Want to whine about trading Roy as well then? Or what about that Chelios trade?

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So? Isnt that like 3-4 years ago we traded him now? Want to whine about trading Roy as well then? Or what about that Chelios trade?

Meh, he was a diver. I do not like divers.

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I realize that this is just pre-season games and all, but I have to admit I am starting to worry a little. There's no panick here, it's just that our lack of scoring is kinda glaring. I understand that the lines have changed every night and that the coaching staff is experimenting with the lines during pre-season, but why is it the other teams seem to be ready yet we aren't.

Anyways, I hope that they'll start off the regular season with 5 wins in a row and they'll average 5 goals a game. That should calm everyone down ;)

What I am struggling to figure out is whether this poor play is the result of the team makeup, or the exhibition schedule plan. I lean towards the later. Last night was the first time most of the regulars played in the same game. They are still rusty from a systems and line combo perspective. Many other teams have put in a few rookies, but converged on the real lineup earlier.

I think exhibition season has two objectives. One is seeing the rookies. Two is tuning up the team for the start of the season. We ended up with too much of the first objective, imo. We have one more game in the preseason and we best hope the team shows significant progress. If we go into Toronto still "tuning up", we are going to be in tough.

As for Budaj, I am very worried. He looks brutal and is not getting better. Price looked brutal at first, but you can see him getting into form with each game he plays.

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OBVIOUSLY we should have kept Ribeiro, but give me a break, a big preseason game is hardly relevant to that argument, and like Dalhabs says, it's ancient history. Let it go.

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What I am struggling to figure out is whether this poor play is the result of the team makeup, or the exhibition schedule plan. I lean towards the later. Last night was the first time most of the regulars played in the same game. They are still rusty from a systems and line combo perspective. Many other teams have put in a few rookies, but converged on the real lineup earlier.

I think exhibition season has two objectives. One is seeing the rookies. Two is tuning up the team for the start of the season. We ended up with too much of the first objective, imo. We have one more game in the preseason and we best hope the team shows significant progress. If we go into Toronto still "tuning up", we are going to be in tough.

As for Budaj, I am very worried. He looks brutal and is not getting better. Price looked brutal at first, but you can see him getting into form with each game he plays.

If there is ground for concern, it shouldn't reside in the preseason performance. We still have a week for the team to keep practicing, the veterans to start actually playing, and systems to gel. Any concern should lie with factors intrinsic to the make-up of the club: e.g., the D Wamsley laid out above is substantially weaker in the bottom-pairing than last season's; we have a number of question marks (Markov's knee, Gorges's knee [will be fine, I say], Pacioretty's development, Eller's health/development; PK's 'sophomore jinx,' the absence of a proven faceoff man, Gomez); and we have made a significant change in the coaching staff that constitutes at least some sort of X-factor. Of all of these, I'm only worried about defensive depth, but I rate that as a significant concern.

Stop fretting about meaningless games and attend instead to what we know these players and coach can and can't be expected to deliver.

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