Coaching is a serious problem.

[Rapala]

Not to single you out, but we're 3-1-1 in the last 5 despite all the negativity. The reality isn't as bleak as the perception.

There's a ton of work to do but the sky isn't falling.

As always, (much to the chagrin of this thread) patience remains the key. Rebuilds aren't for the squeamish, panicking is the last thing we should be doing.

Yeah those -1-1 games were mostly horrific but we did play well against Edmonton.
This team desperately needs to put a winning streak together before the end of December.

 

[teamfirst]

Habs killed their offense to get their team defense working. I'm not sure why people around here are surprised about that.

They seems to be slowly ramping up offensive 5v5 adjustements to get offense going without destroying their team defense.

What is surprising is that the same people who where saying that MSL was good for the rebuild beceause he would never do that are now using that to defend him.......but is it really surprising.

Slowly being the key word here, dont forget that just 2 days ago they manage to get only 13 shots on net against Utha powerhouse.

 

[Lafleurs Guy]

Habs killed their offense to get their team defense working. I'm not sure why people around here are surprised about that.

They seems to be slowly ramping up offensive 5v5 adjustements to get offense going without destroying their team defense.

Yeah but the offense has been missing in action even before that. I don't know what's wrong with this team but nobody is as good as they were. CC's pacing for 48 but his underlying numbers aren't anywhere near what they were. I can't see him maintaining that if he keeps playing like that.

 

[Lafleurs Guy]

Yeah those -1-1 games were mostly horrific but we did play well against Edmonton.
This team desperately needs to put a winning streak together before the end of December.

It's been a weird year. Terrible start and almost immediately went on a six game losing skid. Then we turn it around, play some good hockey. We have our most complete game of the year and follow it up with two clunkers....

I said we'd be consistently inconsistent this year and that's coming to fruition. But I expected much better scoring. I'd rather that get on track than the defense.

 

[morhilane]

What is surprising is that the same people who where saying that MSL was good for the rebuild beceause he would never do that are now using that to defend him.......but is it really surprising.

Slowly being the key word here, dont forget that just 2 days ago they manage to get only 13 shots on net against Utha powerhouse.

Killing the offense? That's what happened because MSL works in stage, he doesn't try to fix everything at the same time.

MSL said it early in the season, they worked on special units first (in pre-season). Then the 5v5 defense was way too awful, so they focused on that during practices. The last practice before the Vegas game last Saturday was the first time they worked on 5v5 offense since the season started.

 

[Lafleurs Guy]

Killing the offense? That's what happened because MSL works in stage, he doesn't try to fix everything at the same time.

MSL said it early in the season, they worked on special units first (in pre-season). Then the 5v5 defense was way too awful, so they focused on that during practices. The last practice before the Vegas game last Saturday was the first time they worked on 5v5 offense since the season started.

The offense was pretty dead all year though. Well before we made those defensive corrections.

 

[morhilane]

The offense was pretty dead all year though. Well before we made those defensive corrections.

Since November started, Habs had 2 games above 25 shots in November. In October, there was 6 games. And the team went from 22nd (oct) to 31st (nov) in shot attempts between the two months. So there was technically a reduction.

But the reduction in shot attempts didn't really lead to a lot less goals. Both 11 games:
October: 32 GF, 46 GF
November: 30 GF, 36 GF

The Habs defensive focus make them take less perimeter shots (unless it's Matheson love for shin pads!) so it reduced their totals a bit, but high danger chances were barely affected.

And since they barely worked on 5v5 offense structure/transition, that should improve from now on without negatively impacting the D too much. They are getting better at settling into the ozone and taking more shot attemps...they just can't aim at the net much yet.

 

[Kimota]

Think Hughes will be able to put pride and friendship aside and fire MSL?

 

[WeThreeKings]

Think Hughes will be able to put pride and friendship aside and fire MSL?

Not this year. He's going to get leash well into next year when they actually have expectations.