Coaching is a serious problem.

[RealityBytes]

We have a ton of quality coming up through the ranks, this year is about growth and transition. Hasn't been pretty, but there's plenty of time to right the ship. Help is on the way in the next couple of years, also I fully expect this management team to address some other needs in the offseason.

Roster as it is now will inevitably struggle at times.

People will say we played better last season with same roster, but the truth is we've only gotten younger, and lost some helpful pieces in Monahan, Harris and Kovacevic.

Hopefully Laine will give this team a boost.

The roster is what the roster is now and what is there won't improve that much. There is a lot of average there. Yes players like Laine, Reinbacher, and Demidov are coming but they have only played a total of two hours on Habs ice. What is the reality of them and not just their hype, a lot of players with a lot of hype don't generally live up to their expectations. We shall see soon but if they don't come across as expected, the Habs would most likely end up just being an average mediocre team as like Detroit, Ottawa, and Buffalo.

 

[JianYang]

OK, you are right. I should maybe say they are not extremely bad, and winning a few games but still bad and fourth from the bottom. Not bad enough to lock in a great pick. If they end up there, and with draft lottery odds playing against them, they could end up only drafting seventh.

The league has definitely changed and there not as much difference between all the teams as there used to be. There is a lot of mid league, and if the Habs are off even a bit, they will end up in bottom third. Some are claiming what is coming with new players will raise them but they are depending a lot on new players hype. I don't think it is enough to propel them into the top third and they will end up being one of those perpetual mediocre teams. It seems that with a new (non existent) perfect coach and the play of new players like Laine, Reinbacher, and Demidov will push the team to great heights, but that is a lot to expect from three players who have played only a total of two hours on the Hab's ice. "Grass is greener", "don't count your chickens before they hatch", and so on. Look at Bedard for example, superstar and stalled this year. It will be a hard, hard battle for the Habs to get out of the bottom third.

I think there are several other players than the ones mentioned above that the Habs are hoping to see some development from and become fundamental peices, but I'll limit this discussion to the guys you mentioned.

Reinbacher is a question mark, and it's never a good sign to have a major injury at a key development point, but demidov seems like a decent bet to become a core peice.

I'm not sure if Laine was acquired to be a long term player though. I suppose he's young enough to take a wait and see approach but he has 2 years left on his deal, and I think it's probable that management sees him as their next revitalizarion project like monhahan where they build him back up for a return before his contract expires.

I'm a little more pessimistic than you are on what they can achieve this year. I predicted a bottom 10 finish before the start of the season, but a bottom 5 finish would not surprise me at this point.

 

[sampollock]

I wish people could give some more specifics in their criticisms and solutions to the supposed poor coaching.

People criticize the system, but the details between hybrid, man on man and zone coverage aren't as simple as people on here indicate, and we don't know what the exact ask is from MSL vs what the players are doing.

When I look at this roster, I see a team full of players likely to make mistakes and fail to execute on any gameplan.

I also see a team whose goaltending has fallen back to earth from last year and isn't able to cover as many mistakes.

None of these are things MSL can control. What can he control? We'll ice time for one, and I've been impressed with the ice time and responsibilities he's given young players that deserved it throughout his short time in Montreal.

Overall, it just seems he's being made the sacrificial lamb. He may need to be canned eventually, but I'm under no impression that some dinosaur coach with 15 years of experience would have this roster whipped into shape.

Timeouts to start with

 

[OnTheRun]

Timeouts to start with

It's not really a thing anymore, I can't remember the last time I've seen a coach taking a random timeout to "settle thing down" like they used in the 90s. The forced TV timeouts (2mins instead of 30s) at the 6, 10, 14 minute marks probably have a lots to do with that.