Coaching is a serious problem.

[WeThreeKings]

I am not suggesting that the sky is falling but I don't see any difference in a group that has spent parts of the last three years together. We get hemmed in our zone 5v5 and sometimes it looks like a PK when it shouldn't. I believe part of it lies in a lack of physical presence. They want to play high-tempo entertaining hockey but we don't have the horses to do so. We have to play a better structure to be in games until some of our young offensive stars are ready to play meaningful roles.

I realize that it is not easy to develop players and ask them to do things they might not be comfortable doing, that's the coaches job. I don't see a checking line, just 4 lines of guys trying to create scoring chances with little in the way of structure without the puck.

I don't see much at the beginning of the year.. nothing looks good, absolutely nothing looks good. That tells me that it might be time to pause on judging anything as fact and wait to see what happens when they show a modicum of cohesion that they've shown in the past.

We do have an issue with no checking line, but part of that is the fact that we are in this weird spot where it's an amalgamation of what Hugo is building and what's left over from Bergevin's sordid empire.

Dvorak in particular has been so bad he's cost us 4 goals against and the things he's supposed to do as a veteran faceoff checking center that he's not doing and it's causing downstream impacts.

The veterans are letting us down and the whole thing looks discombobulated. They have to get it sorted though, that's on Marty to do and he has to do it. But the development of the young kids is still gonna be looked at as the priority over anything else by Hugo, that's the evaluation point more than being 'in the mix'.

Let's see where we are by the end of the month, that's a strong sample size at that point.

 

[Ieatsht4brkfst]

they have a bunch of over caring mothers in charge, they need an asshole to come in and tear them to peices and tell them how horrible they are

 

[BLONG7]

I am not suggesting that the sky is falling but I don't see any difference in a group that has spent parts of the last three years together. We get hemmed in our zone 5v5 and sometimes it looks like a PK when it shouldn't. I believe part of it lies in a lack of physical presence. They want to play high-tempo entertaining hockey but we don't have the horses to do so. We have to play a better structure to be in games until some of our young offensive stars are ready to play meaningful roles.

I realize that it is not easy to develop players and ask them to do things they might not be comfortable doing, that's the coaches job. I don't see a checking line, just 4 lines of guys trying to create scoring chances with little in the way of structure without the puck.

We need an X and O's kind of guys..............no doubt in my mind.

 

[The Gr8 Dane]

The teams been bad for 30 years? Damn sorry I forgot everything is fine, we can be bad for another 30, totally fine.

My point is the teams been actually ass for 30 years maybe we should try rebuilding properly and for a while , just my 2 cents

 

[BLONG7]

I don't see much at the beginning of the year.. nothing looks good, absolutely nothing looks good. That tells me that it might be time to pause on judging anything as fact and wait to see what happens when they show a modicum of cohesion that they've shown in the past.

We do have an issue with no checking line, but part of that is the fact that we are in this weird spot where it's an amalgamation of what Hugo is building and what's left over from Bergevin's sordid empire.

Dvorak in particular has been so bad he's cost us 4 goals against and the things he's supposed to do as a veteran faceoff checking center that he's not doing and it's causing downstream impacts.

The veterans are letting us down and the whole thing looks discombobulated. They have to get it sorted though, that's on Marty to do and he has to do it. But the development of the young kids is still gonna be looked at as the priority over anything else by Hugo, that's the evaluation point more than being 'in the mix'.

Let's see where we are by the end of the month, that's a strong sample size at that point.

Hard to believe, but it seems the vets are our weakest links, not the kids.
More incoming discussion of who signed them............Mr Bergevin.

5 games is still too early a sample size at this point...................let's get 10-12 games in and go from there.

 

[Mrb1p]

My point is the teams been actually ass for 30 years maybe we should try rebuilding properly and for a while , just my 2 cents

My point is that theyre not rebuilding properly

 

[Catanddogguitarrr]

I don’t know if it the lack of a system or the players just not playing it.

Every player has been in a system their entire lives and knows how to play multiple systems. So I don’t think it’s that. Rather it seems like the execution seems way off. I can’t remember the last time I saw so many bad passes. Add a horrible face off percentage and you’re in a situation where not only do you not start with control, but once you get the puck, bad passing prevents you from countering and leaves you with more turnovers and less possession.

That’s what seems like the issues and may be time for Marty to get back to basics in practise and ride them a little harder. Being a player coach is one thing, but the players need to execute the plays and play harder. Personally I’d bag skate them and remind them what hard work is supposed to feel like.

Good post but the problem is deeper than that. The players can do more, a lot more and it will help a bit, but, some serious problems are persistent.

 

[Catanddogguitarrr]

I am not suggesting that the sky is falling but I don't see any difference in a group that has spent parts of the last three years together. We get hemmed in our zone 5v5 and sometimes it looks like a PK when it shouldn't. I believe part of it lies in a lack of physical presence. They want to play high-tempo entertaining hockey but we don't have the horses to do so. We have to play a better structure to be in games until some of our young offensive stars are ready to play meaningful roles.

I realize that it is not easy to develop players and ask them to do things they might not be comfortable doing, that's the coaches job. I don't see a checking line, just 4 lines of guys trying to create scoring chances with little in the way of structure without the puck.

Good post but we are far from having a system that is playable with the roster we have. I can admit Habs don't want to go back to a boring trap system. MSL is trying to establish an offensive system, with so very few players able to execute it. It just doesn't work, not this year. Actually there is zero system of play. 4 lines trying to score goals or trying to get out of their zone, including the first line.

The lack of system have to be fixed some day. By MSL or another coach or assistant coach.

 

[OldCraig71]

I don't see much at the beginning of the year.. nothing looks good, absolutely nothing looks good. That tells me that it might be time to pause on judging anything as fact and wait to see what happens when they show a modicum of cohesion that they've shown in the past.

We do have an issue with no checking line, but part of that is the fact that we are in this weird spot where it's an amalgamation of what Hugo is building and what's left over from Bergevin's sordid empire.

Dvorak in particular has been so bad he's cost us 4 goals against and the things he's supposed to do as a veteran faceoff checking center that he's not doing and it's causing downstream impacts.

The veterans are letting us down and the whole thing looks discombobulated. They have to get it sorted though, that's on Marty to do and he has to do it. But the development of the young kids is still gonna be looked at as the priority over anything else by Hugo, that's the evaluation point more than being 'in the mix'.

Let's see where we are by the end of the month, that's a strong sample size at that point.

We don't know what the vibes are behind closed doors and dealing with veteran players has been the death of many NHL coaches. It's a weird year, plenty of the top teams in the league are struggling and yes there is plenty of time.

This is Marty's toughest test as a head coach and he will have to find a way through this. Coaches have to walk a fine line between being a friend and a boss but these guys are all paid millions of dollars and all of them are considered the best in the world at what they do, it is what got them to the NHL and they know how to play so it shouldn't be as difficult as it looks right now and frankly, it looks awful.

 

[ChikN]

The narrative seems to have shifted since the Laine acquisition (ironic with his injury). I thought playing the young guys and not blocking them with patchwork vets was the proper way to do things. At least until we know what we have.

Patience is already running thin I see.

 

[tazsub3]

Hate to say it but he’s better than MSL. MSL should go back to Pee Wee.

I don’t know if to laugh or cry with such a reply. Yea sure he is better at making the young guys better persons .
Chill give the process time . The only problem this year is some posters expectations .
Thé team is what it is supposed to be .

 

[Habs Halifax]

We don't know what the vibes are behind closed doors and dealing with veteran players has been the death of many NHL coaches. It's a weird year, plenty of the top teams in the league are struggling and yes there is plenty of time.

This is Marty's toughest test as a head coach and he will have to find a way through this. Coaches have to walk a fine line between being a friend and a boss but these guys are all paid millions of dollars and all of them are considered the best in the world at what they do, it is what got them to the NHL and they know how to play so it shouldn't be as difficult as it looks right now and frankly, it looks awful.

Our young forwards are a bit more mature and experienced than our young D men so this is going to create massive growing pains. Our D core looks very good but it's not going to yield the difference we are looking for until they are all 23+

 

[G0bias]

The narrative seems to have shifted since the Laine acquisition (ironic with his injury). I thought playing the young guys and not blocking them with patchwork vets was the proper way to do things. At least until we know what we have.

Patience is already running thin I see.

In theory yes, but who is he blocking? These young guys also need someone to play with, otherwise you end up having to play with Armia and Newhook.

 

[OldCraig71]

Our young forwards are a bit more mature and experienced than our young D men so this is going to create massive growing pains. Our D core looks very good but it's not going to yield the difference we are looking for until they are all 23+

It might have been a mistake to have so many rookies playing D in a full-time role. There is a reason not many teams do it.

 

[WeThreeKings]

Predators at an 0-4 start and they made the huge free agency splashes for a team that was in the playoffs last year.

It's really a weird start around the league.

 

[morhilane]

Hard to believe, but it seems the vets are our weakest links, not the kids.
More incoming discussion of who signed them............Mr Bergevin.

5 games is still too early a sample size at this point...................let's get 10-12 games in and go from there.

Gally/Evans/Anderson are doing their job, they put in efforts and play as an unit most of the time. They have the most success getting out of the dzone as a result.

I don't think anyone had "Evans/Gally/Anderson best Vets" on their season start bingo card.

 

[ReHabs]

The narrative seems to have shifted since the Laine acquisition (ironic with his injury). I thought playing the young guys and not blocking them with patchwork vets was the proper way to do things. At least until we know what we have.

Patience is already running thin I see.

You want to see progress.


This sort of loosey goosey hockey has two problems: 1) it's never going to win anything because we don't have an Ovechkin or a Kucherov to outscore opponents (and likely never will) and 2) we're used to stifling, defensive hockey for years and years... today we have a not-winner that plays an ineffective brand of hockey and it doesn't look to be getting more effective.

Obviously it's early in the season and much can change. There is no 'but' there, much can change and we should see progress. MSL has to coach a tighter game next game though, let's build some momentum.

 

[Habs Halifax]

It might have been a mistake to have so many rookies playing D in a full-time role. There is a reason not many teams do it.

Rebuild growing problems. I'm not worried because we can't be Bergevin. We have to keep our eyes on the long game which is why I like Gorton/Hughes so much.

The thing most of us are pondering is how long will these transition years be. Rebuild is still kind of happening but we are the back end of it. Is our transition years to playoffs 2 years or less or 3 years or more.

 

[HabsAddict]

To judge the coach, you look at the results....Captain Obvious take.

Marty is setting up the PP like he has 5 Marties playing. On paper, yes, but for 100 years the classic set up wss a quarterback and a cannon back there. In FACT, YES FACT...we use to have a top, league wide powerplay when Souray was blasting them or Kovalevs fantastic wrist shot.

We have X with 107mph canon and Guhle/Mailloux with 100mph canons. Have you seen any one of them on the PP? At least Guhle and now Mailman.

So that's Martys first huge failure.

Second...defensive structure. Right now the only instructions are " everybody back" but i can't see any structure on what players should be doing. Which then affects the drfenseman because they don't have parametets on who to take or what to expect. I can give you examples within the game were opposing forwards get behind our defenseman...because our point is open. Points should be covered by FOREWARDS, not split thr differences for defenseman. And then we blame the defenseman (like X) for leaving a guy behind them.

This is exactly what happened on a few plays were my first reaction was to blame the defenseman, then on the replay, the closest forward was 20 ft away and the point was open.

Or clearing the puck where forwards aren't working to make themselves free and available, but we blame the defenseman for getting picked off.

This is beer league stuff that i learned playing RD from guys who went up to juniors. We didn't have a twenty million dollar coaching staf, just a bunch of " when i played junior, this is what we are suppose to do". Yet we don't have the basics covered in a billion dollar NHL team.

Why?

Who is responsible for that?

 

[OldCraig71]

The narrative seems to have shifted since the Laine acquisition (ironic with his injury). I thought playing the young guys and not blocking them with patchwork vets was the proper way to do things. At least until we know what we have.

Patience is already running thin I see.

My patience isn't running thin but it isn't a large expectation on my part to see a team playing NHL caliber defense. That is not anything new to these players. A portion of this group went to a cup final and it should be easier than it looks to tighten things up on the defensive side of the puck.

 

[ReHabs]

My patience isn't running thin but it isn't a large expectation on my part to see a team playing NHL caliber defense. That is not anything new to these players. A portion of this group went to a cup final and it should be easier than it looks to tighten things up on the defensive side of the puck.

Yeah this is precisely where I find myself.

All the patience in the world is granted, but we need to see more serious hockey. I'm not only talking about effort and execution, but also tactics.

 

[OldCraig71]

Rebuild growing problems. I'm not worried because we can't be Bergevin. We have to keep our eyes on the long game which is why I like Gorton/Hughes so much.

The thing most of us are pondering is how long will these transition years be. Rebuild is still kind of happening but we are the back end of it. Is our transition years to playoffs 2 years or less or 3 years or more.

Molson is all about the money and he isn't going to sit back and allow this to take 8 years. Yes, Gorton and Hughes are running things but he is the boss. Most of us just want to see progression on the path to learning how to win.

 

[Habs Halifax]

Molson is all about the money and he isn't going to sit back and allow this to take 8 years. Yes, Gorton and Hughes are running things but he is the boss. Most of us just want to see progression on the path to learning how to win.

Molson is lucky. He's got a roster that is well under the cap (Most of Price's contract is paid by insurance). Rink is still full during our rebuild so I'm sure Molson is very content with his pockets. This is why it was dumb for Bergevin to not rebuild properly in Montreal... Revenue still comes in and fans still support the team. With this latest rebuild, most fans love it

 

[OldCraig71]

Yeah this is precisely where I find myself.

All the patience in the world is granted, but we need to see more serious hockey. I'm not only talking about effort and execution, but also tactics.

Exactly. They came into the season unprepared and that blame goes to those in charge. We can't expect the younger players to lead the team and that is why we are struggling right now. The veteran group has to do more and it should be expected. We can't justify bad play because we are young or we run the risk of becoming Ottawa or Buffalo.

 

[The Last Red]

We still have no idea if MSL can actually coach an NHL team effectively. His bosses didn’t care if he won much the last 3 seasons. That made his job a lot less demanding. His job was to improve players, while losing.