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Tank Hard for Bedard (as heard on TSN690)


alfredoh2009

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  • 2 weeks later...
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10 hours ago, alfredoh2009 said:

 

Fun piece. 

 

I think the conventional wisdom for a long time among Canadian teams was that fans wouldn’t tolerate a tank. (This was compounded by owners who wanted playoff revenue, of course). What we’ve seen in the internet age is that fans are muuuuch more savvy than they used to be. Fans get the idea of tanking and (more plausibly, IMHO) rebuilding; what we now demand more than anything else is a clear and credible sense of direction from an organization. You still have to sell hope - but that’s no longer the same thing as pretending you’re striving to win every season. 

 

It’s ironic that the internet has played an educative role for sports fans - spreading the gospel of advanced stats, team-building strategies, knowledge of prospects, etc. - while it’s had exactly the opposite effect on political life. But that’s a whole other story 😉

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10 minutes ago, The Chicoutimi Cucumber said:

Fans get the idea of tanking and (more plausibly, IMHO) rebuilding; what we now demand more than anything else is a clear and credible sense of direction from an organization. You still have to sell hope - but that’s no longer the same thing as pretending you’re striving to win every season. I

 

Agreed, you need to have hope. And hope comes from having a management team you have confidence in that has a realistic plan.  I have a lot of confidence in the current management team given what I have seen so far. I think/hope/believe that the future looks bright. 

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8 minutes ago, Habs Fan in Edmonton said:

 

Agreed, you need to have hope. And hope comes from having a management team you have confidence in that has a realistic plan.  I have a lot of confidence in the current management team given what I have seen so far. I think/hope/believe that the future looks bright. 

 

I like HuGo and, although I’m more skeptical about him than some, think St Louis is the right man for the right moment. As for the future, I think we’ll have a good team eventually, but I make no claim whatsoever to any notion of whether or not that team will become a Grade-A contender. Too soon to tell.

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32 minutes ago, tomh009 said:

A grade-A- or B+ contender would already be something. Then, at that point you could arguably say that "in playoffs anything can happen",

 

PLEASE ... may we NEVER hear that ode to mediocrity again.

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57 minutes ago, tomh009 said:

A grade-A- or B+ contender would already be something. Then, at that point you could arguably say that "in playoffs anything can happen",

MB took a middle of the pack team and built a couple of  contending teams on Price's back.

 

I will not be happy if Hugh-Gort only gets to B-level. They promised A-level and have talked that talk since taking over. I want to be convinced by their results.

 

I will re-state  that I will only start evaluating their work after the 2023-2024 season. It would be unfair to expect much next season.

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HuGo is here to build a genuine, sustained contender. Not a bubble team. I don’t want a reprieve of the Gainey years. (God love Gainey, but non merci).

 

I can see an outcome where the finished product resembles the team we had in 2014 and 2015 - i.e., a team that finishes high in the standings and goes deep in the playoffs, but isn’t universally accepted as a first-rank contender because we lack heavy-duty superstars.

 

For my part, I think the 2014 & 15 teams *were* actual contenders; the real problem was that we weren’t able to sustain it. It’s not just that Price got hurt; we had no plan B for when Plekanec aged out, because, true to form, MB had some kind of religious belief that his darlings would never age out. 🙄 It also took him about a billion years to acquire a decent backup to tide us over Price’s injuries.

 

In short, I’ll accept a team that is less that a Tampa-style powerhouse provided it’s a top-10 club with a realistic chance at going deep over a number of seasons. That, to me, is all we can reasonably ask for, really.

 

 

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1 hour ago, The Chicoutimi Cucumber said:

In short, I’ll accept a team that is less that a Tampa-style powerhouse provided it’s a top-10 club with a realistic chance at going deep over a number of seasons. That, to me, is all we can reasonably ask for, really.

Right. That's essentially what I was looking to describe with my A-/B+ grade.

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IMHO, anything less than a grade-A, Tampa Bay like, team post Hugh-Gort's rebuild will be a failure.

 

I am probably wrong and alone in believing this, but at this point that is where I stand.

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9 hours ago, The Chicoutimi Cucumber said:

Fun piece.

 

That's a good way to describe it.  When Allan pitched it to me a little while back, I had no idea where he was going with the title (usually, when a writer pitches something, I can figure out a rough idea of how it's going to look) but I think he was on the mark.

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7 minutes ago, alfredoh2009 said:

Draft order now, with 7 games to go before the trade deadline (March 3rd):

 

image.png

 

Basically a three-horse race for last place, with a second tier (SJ, Van, and Arizona) bubbling away as long shots. 7th overall does seem a surprisingly generous outcome for this team, though, which feels like it's been crappier than that. 

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22 minutes ago, alfredoh2009 said:

Draft order now, with 7 games to go before the trade deadline (March 3rd):

 

image.png

Doesn’t look good when it looks like St Louis, Arizona, Vancouver, Philly, and SJS, are all going to be moving out better pieces than us.

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2 minutes ago, hab29RETIRED said:

Doesn’t look good when it looks like St Louis, Arizona, Vancouver, Philly, and SJS, are all going to be moving out better pieces than us.

 

Yup. I don't see us moving much from 6th or 7th from the bottom.  It's really too bad Monahan and Edmundson aren't healthy. 

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1 minute ago, tomh009 said:

It's really very, very close. Arizona and Vancouver are behind the Habs only because of our three-game winning streak, and that can easily swing back in the other direction.

 

image.png

 

I believe that once the Habs trade away any expiring UFAs, they will dive down the standings. I would not be surprised they shut down some players like Gallagher or Guhle if they are not 100% healthy

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