Boullion Injury Just A Bruise

[Athlétique.Canadien]

Nice post beliveau1

Montreal should hang on to Streit. He's cheap and worst case scenario, he's a depth D. That is unless Bob get a UFA D. But still, as a depth D he's alright. I don't see any phenoms in our system. Pray Emelin breaks out.

It's obvious we have to address the blueline in the draft.

[The Saint]

Aaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhh...that is the sound of relief for having read one of the best posts on these boards in ages.

I love it when I learn something when I come here.

Well done beliveau1!

Go Habs, we need this win tonight!

[kaos]

I don't care. I don't lik him (Streit), he cost us Hainsey who looks like he's rounding into form in Columbus and that bums me out. Exactly what this team needs right now, a guy who can make a good first pass out of the zone, or, as eveidence if you've seen the highlights of the last few Columbus games, a guy who can carry the puck through the neutral zone into the offensive zone while generating shots on net is exactly what this team needs.

Exactly what this team doesn't need is another defenceman who, because he isn't noticed, because he didn't screw up, while not generating anything offensively from the back end. What a waste. I really hope he turns it on and plays well, and maybe turns into something next year, but I thinkhe's headed back to Switzerland and Hainsey will be another player who left Montreal and had better days elsewhere, and sadly we got nothing in return. Yep, that bums me out.

[Peter Puck]

I don't care. I don't lik him (Streit), he cost us Hainsey who looks like he's rounding into form in Columbus and that bums me out. Exactly what this team needs right now, a guy who can make a good first pass out of the zone, or, as eveidence if you've seen the highlights of the last few Columbus games, a guy who can carry the puck through the neutral zone into the offensive zone while generating shots on net is exactly what this team needs.

Exactly what this team doesn't need is another defenceman who, because he isn't noticed, because he didn't screw up, while not generating anything offensively from the back end. What a waste. I really hope he turns it on and plays well, and maybe turns into something next year, but I thinkhe's headed back to Switzerland and Hainsey will be another player who left Montreal and had better days elsewhere, and sadly we got nothing in return. Yep, that bums me out.

Too many people evaluate Streit by considering Hainsey. This was the corect way to evaluate him during training camp when we had to decide which of them to put on the roster. But that decision was made and now Hainsey is no longer a habs. Possibly this was a mistake, possibly not, but now we need to evaluate Streit's play without regard to Hainsey.

I think Streit has really improved over the the past 6 weeks although we haven't seen much of him. He did look good in the Olympics. He is a reasonable depth defenceman with some offensive potential. This is something we need right now. If we sign a top 4 Dman over the summer I don't expect to see much of Streit in Montreal next year, although he may blossom. If we don't sign another Dman then we should defnitely keep him as a 6th - 8th defenceman.

Edited March 21, 2006 by Peter Puck

[kaos]

No thats the perfect way to evaluate him. What we had versus what we now have. Its just avoiding saying we made a mistake by not comparing them. Hainsey was the better player, with more upside and should have got the chance over Streit, especially considering he was a 1st round pick. But because he wasn't one of Bob's boys, he got the short end of the stick, and likely will go on to have a good career in Columbus. Maybe he won'tbe a great #1 defenceman. But you can gurarentee that he'll develop into a strong top four offensive defencmen for the next 8 to 10 years, while Streit is back in Switzerland dreaming of the days he beat Team Canada at the Olympics, and accomplished nothing mroe in his career...other than fleecing the Habs for about $750,000 in '05/06

[Peter Puck]

No thats the perfect way to evaluate him. What we had versus what we now have. Its just avoiding saying we made a mistake by not comparing them. Hainsey was the better player, with more upside and should have got the chance over Streit, especially considering he was a 1st round pick. But because he wasn't one of Bob's boys, he got the short end of the stick, and likely will go on to have a good career in Columbus. Maybe he won'tbe a great #1 defenceman. But you can gurarentee that he'll develop into a strong top four offensive defencmen for the next 8 to 10 years, while Streit is back in Switzerland dreaming of the days he beat Team Canada at the Olympics, and accomplished nothing mroe in his career...other than fleecing the Habs for about $750,000 in '05/06

The only reason to evaluate Streit vs Hainsey now is to try to decide whether it was a mistake to send Hainsey down to Hamilton and keep Streit on the roster. The only point in doing this is to evaluate Gainey & Julien and there's very little point in evaluating Julien now. Also if you want to do this you have to compare Streit versus the performance Hainsey would have given if he remained a habs.

It is a mistake to evaluate Streit versus Hainsey now. The question that needs to be answered is whether we should keep Streit and if so on the roster or in Hamilton. This has nothing to do with Hainsey. Maybe Streit has the talent develop into our 5th defenceman. (I'm not claiming he does). Should we dump him because Hainsey is a top 4 Dman in Columbus.

Deciding what to do with Streit based on Hainsey's performance is a bit like evaluating all our defencemen versus Chelios or versus Desjardins. That is also what we had versus what we have now. I don't think we should dump, say Komisarek, because he will never be as good as Chelios.

[beliveau1]

'JMNR" "Athletique.Canadien" & "the Saint" - thanks guys for your comments(much appreciated)

I'm a regular visitor to this site and love it - living in southern Ontarioin the heart of 'LAFFland' this is my daily habs fix. While I don't post very often, I felt the urge to make a couple yesterday. And I don't expect every one to agree with me.....

However the fixation with the Hainsey move and the perspective on Streit was enough to get me going yesterday.

As far as "Kaos' - no problem, your entitled to your opininions, and while I disagree I respect the fact you have that right.

However from a coach/managers position, the judgment of Streit vs Hainsey based on 'what if' is not a sound method of operation as far as managing teams go.

My late father used to say " If my aunt had balls she'd have been my uncle..... but she ain't"

It may have been a crude analogy, but it is one that applies to forming sports teams.

I've been involved with cutting and drafting/picking players for years now and there are a lot of different factors that go into this process - and one of them is definitely not 'what if?" In fact talent alone is not the major contributing factor. Character and compatability are a big component of this process. And the process becomes even more difficult as the depth chart goes beyond the first few selections.

There is an element of rolling the dice - I believe it was Bill Torrey(the legendary NY Islander's Manager) who referred to the NHL draft as a 'crap shoot' several years ago. That definitely applies to making any late roster additions when forming any team. It's one of the toughest jobs in coaching and there are times you regret the choices you may have made as the season progresses. On average the first 3-5 choices are usually very obvious at training camp. The next 7-10 usually require a great deal more consideration, while the last two, three or four choices are extremely tough calls. They are usually role players, extra forwards, the final defensman or just depth.

As far as Hainsey vs Streit goes - there must have been some unknown factors involved in managements decision that went just beyond potential talent. Neither is a first string top three defender. Both have talent and both have flaws in their game. Hainsey had had several chances to make the move to hte big league but never seemed to be able to translate that. At some point you have to 'fish or cut bait' or as some would say 'put up or shutup' if you want to make it. Hainsey never quite moved up for some unknown reason - unfortunately his performance never matched his potential.

For management to remain tied to his potential was not sound judgment. Sooner or later you need to move on, and as far as he was concerned that time had arrived in Montreal. As well part of running any such organization is dictated by the future, the depth chart and the budget. And everyone needs to understand that trading minor prospects is part of playing the field as far as managing goes - keeping the wheel greased for any future deals and favours in return.

I'm not saying Streit has been a golden boy, nor did I say he was the absolute best choice, but he has improved with ice time(the only way any player ever will) and paitence has paid off somewhat. Whereas Hainsey may have been a lack of paitence prior to Gainey - who really knows? Regardless of that the fact is despite opininions to the contrary, Hainsey probably would never have cracked the top four in Montreal. And he may not anywhere else.?

What if.... well my dad would have said unfortunately Hainsey ain't gonna be my Montreal uncle.....

p.s. by the way - if Sam Pollock & Scotty Bowman had thought that way about guys like Nyrop & Engblom during the 70's the Habs wouldn't have won four cups in a row - the quiet men of that defense were as important as the 'Big 3' were. Most fans failed to recognize the contribution, wheras guys like Bob Gainey saw that factor.

Being seen isn't always necessarily a good thing, and creating offense is not the true measure for a defenseman.

Another long post - sorry......