Coaching is a serious problem.

NotSNFan

Registered User
Nov 18, 2022
37
49
I live in Vancouver, so I don't access much Montreal media. Perhaps the coaches have been asked this in the past and replied. I'd appreciate any info you can give me:
  1. Why is is so common to see the opposition pointperson possess the puck in the Habs' defending zone with the closest Hab more than 15 feet away?
  2. Habs are poor in the defensive zone. No doubt. Much the blame is put on the young D, but there are usually 3 F's on the ice at the same time. Are Habs' F's weak defensively as a group?
  3. Is the HAbs' defensive strategy to 1) Take the puck away from the opposition; or 2)Wait for opposition to give up the puck? I believe it's #2
  4. Why do Habs' forecheck when it is so ineffective? Before you blink an eye, the opposition is entering the HAbs' blueline
All of these things are deliberate moves by the coaching staff
 

teamfirst

Registered User
Oct 28, 2016
3,791
2,494
Fired or step down is good enough for me the guy has no clue, if they want to let him save his reputation by letting him stepping down i'm ok with that as long as he stay away from our young guy's
 

Rapala

Registered User
Mar 29, 2013
42,437
39,509
Montreal
I live in Vancouver, so I don't access much Montreal media. Perhaps the coaches have been asked this in the past and replied. I'd appreciate any info you can give me:
  1. Why is is so common to see the opposition pointperson possess the puck in the Habs' defending zone with the closest Hab more than 15 feet away?
  2. Habs are poor in the defensive zone. No doubt. Much the blame is put on the young D, but there are usually 3 F's on the ice at the same time. Are Habs' F's weak defensively as a group?
  3. Is the HAbs' defensive strategy to 1) Take the puck away from the opposition; or 2)Wait for opposition to give up the puck? I believe it's #2
  4. Why do Habs' forecheck when it is so ineffective? Before you blink an eye, the opposition is entering the HAbs' blueline
All of these things are deliberate moves by the coaching staff
The short answer is yes.
The uncontested ice is killing us.

For me the neutral zone is a huge problem. Teams who control the neutral zone win a lot of hockey games and we are terrible at it.
Good teams will use it to build speed collectively or as a choke point defensively.

It's not hard to understand how much more of an effective forecheck the former will have.
It's also not hard to understand how much easier of a zone exit the latter will have.

I've described our neutral zone as a runway or a highway on plenty of occasions over these past few seasons.
Good hockey starts with contesting/owning ice there and it will make the other issues easier to deal with.

Good defense as well as good offense starts in the neutral zone.
Check out just how many dangerous plays are the result of a turnovers in between or just over the blue lines.

Playing the neutral zone properly will result in having more time to execute on either side of the puck.
Fractions of seconds are huge in the NHL.
 
Last edited:

Team_Spirit

95% Elliotte
Jul 3, 2002
39,523
21,546
I live in Vancouver, so I don't access much Montreal media. Perhaps the coaches have been asked this in the past and replied. I'd appreciate any info you can give me:
  1. Why is is so common to see the opposition pointperson possess the puck in the Habs' defending zone with the closest Hab more than 15 feet away?
  2. Habs are poor in the defensive zone. No doubt. Much the blame is put on the young D, but there are usually 3 F's on the ice at the same time. Are Habs' F's weak defensively as a group?
  3. Is the HAbs' defensive strategy to 1) Take the puck away from the opposition; or 2)Wait for opposition to give up the puck? I believe it's #2
  4. Why do Habs' forecheck when it is so ineffective? Before you blink an eye, the opposition is entering the HAbs' blueline
All of these things are deliberate moves by the coaching staff

We have no idea buddy :dunno: They give up the walls/point and don't forecheck and we don't know why.

 

shenmue16

Registered User
Apr 19, 2023
45
67
I've been hearing a lot of talk about the tending but I still feel like the issue is with the defense. Everything about this system is dysfunctional, rigid, and inflexible. It just feels like the minor adjustments and nuances of the game are going over the coaches heads. For example, when your team is down by multiple goals, why are you continuing to play the defense in an almost position less system. They are slow as f*** and time and time again they're getting beat on the counterattack. They've let in multiple goals already, why would you not adjust them accordingly against a hot offense? That's what turns what should be a small loss into a massive blowout. I don't know why you wouldn't try and focus on sometimes anchoring your defenseman at the line and get them to fix their possession issues, learn how to keep it in the zone and not waste time when it matters most. They don't know how to keep the foot on the gas and finish games. The defense just can't keep it's self together when it matters most, they were out of position again on that fourth goal and got beaten bad. Matheson should be benched after this stretch of losses, without a shadow of a doubt. Even Xhekaj, for all the stupidity, made a solid play near the end of the game. Matheson just holds onto the puck, passes back and forth, never makes a play.

Also, It does really annoy me when analysts like Friedman have to stroke MSL's ego. I listened to 32 thoughts and was pretty ticked off to here him talk about how good their relations are, talking about how good MSL makes the players feel, and how nice of a guy he is, and how determined he is to win. That's all complete boys club bullshit. I really could give a shit less about the dressing room being on the same page and suzuki being on good terms with MSL, that's not going to fix any of the concerns the fans actually have.
 
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Nevins

Registered User
Jul 12, 2014
2,666
2,181
Strange to read that some people defend MSL coaching.MSL coaching record
IMG_6612.png



Last year the team lost very often but the players worked. I don't see the same effort from the players this year. Also, former coaches, players say that MSL's game system is pathetic, that he gets outcoached very often and many of his comments after games are strange (I don't care about winning...)
 
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ryan callahan

Registered User
Jan 25, 2014
2,064
1,827
Québec,Canada
Funny how fans will do anything but blame players. Our so called stars are giving awful efforts and it is falling on the back of MSL. Dach doesn't deserve to be a center or a winger right now. His only playable position is eating hot dogs in the stands. He's terrible.
 

TRG

Registered User
Oct 23, 2008
26,451
2,534
Montréal
Funny how fans will do anything but blame players. Our so called stars are giving awful efforts and it is falling on the back of MSL. Dach doesn't deserve to be a center or a winger right now. His only playable position is eating hot dogs in the stands. He's terrible.

It's his job to motivate, put them in situations to succeed and "discipline" when needed. He's the boss after all.
 

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