Coaching is a serious problem.

[Tyson]

Marty was good coach to start rebuild. But third year in, its time for more experienced coach to take over.

He clearly is in way over his head and I would argue that Hughes is as well. Nothing Hughes is doing is working.

 

[morhilane]

He clearly is in way over his head and I would argue that Hughes is as well. Nothing Hughes is doing is working.

Is Hughes even trying to do anything right now? He did some gambles to try to accelerate the rebuilds and some of those seems to have failed, but since the discombobulation is team generalized, they might not be the real problem right now.

I think HuGo real failure is failling to find the rotten apple spoiling the rest of the tree and dealing with it. The level of mental instability among the younger players is way too high and the last time I've seen that was with Laval when Bouchard was coach and they ended up shipping out vets because it turned out they were being spiteful toward the prospects and demoralizing them.

 

[WeThreeKings]

Is Hughes even trying to do anything right now? He did some gambles to try to accelerate the rebuilds and some of those seems to have failed, but since the discombobulation is team generalized, they might not be the real problem right now.

I think HuGo real failure is failling to find the rotten apple spoiling the rest of the tree and dealing with it. The level of mental instability among the younger players is way too high and the last time I've seen that was with Laval when Bouchard was coach and they ended up shipping out vets because it turned out they were being spiteful toward the prospects and demoralizing them.

No, they aren't going to spend a bunch of assets to get mid range players in an effort to squeak out an extra few points in a year they've shown that they haven't taken a big enough step toward being competitive.

They have always targeted this off-season and beyond to be where they change from asset accumulation to using their picks and prospect base to make impactful trades that move things forward.

The rest of this season will be dedicated toward trying to get the most out of the players they've identified as potential parts of the core going forward. How the season plays out in that regard will clarify which areas they really need to attack and which areas do have that internal solution.

 

[Lafleurs Guy]

Is Hughes even trying to do anything right now? He did some gambles to try to accelerate the rebuilds and some of those seems to have failed, but since the discombobulation is team generalized, they might not be the real problem right now.

I think HuGo real failure is failling to find the rotten apple spoiling the rest of the tree and dealing with it. The level of mental instability among the younger players is way too high and the last time I've seen that was with Laval when Bouchard was coach and they ended up shipping out vets because it turned out they were being spiteful toward the prospects and demoralizing them.

Injuries have been far beyond what you’d normally expect. Dach’s a tragic case.

This was a transition year where the team would evaluate its talent. In some cases - Mailloux and Roy - they aren’t ready to step forward. In others - Hutson, Heineken - they are.

RD and 2nd line center are the big holes right now. We’ve got players coming up but they’re not ready yet.

My guess is that Hugo are looking for longer term assets than band-aids.

 

[WeThreeKings]

Injuries have been far beyond what you’d normally expect. Dach’s a tragic case.

This was a transition year where the team would evaluate its talent. In some cases - Mailloux and Roy - they aren’t ready to step forward. In others - Hutson, Heineken - they are.

RD and 2nd line center are the big holes right now. We’ve got players coming up but they’re not ready yet.

My guess is that Hugo are looking for longer term assets than band-aids.

If this board was the GM, we would have emptied the cupboards for Trevor Zegras who sucks, a bunch of middling players on long term bloated contracts and waived every young player who hasn't performed up to expectations so far this season.

 

[Andy]

It's good to have a player's coach, but there are systems issues that are plain evident:

1. The team has such a hard time on the cycle. I don't think this is a personnel issue, but an approach to the game. We have one forechecker who is fairly passive. That forechecker is rarely supported. If they lose the battle, the opposing team 9/10 has zero pressure transitioning that win out of the zone. Reminds me of the Jacques Martin dump and no chase era.
2. The players are too spread out on the break out. If the pass is blocked in the neutral zone, the play 9/10 gets back into the habs zone. We rely so much on stretching out the play, but don't do it effectively at all. I'd much rather a structured breakout of 2-3 passes to get out of the defensive zone and into the neutral zone.
3. The habs rarely, like literally rarely, have a numbers advantage on a breakout. That's a big red flag. We rarely out number the opposition in the neutral zone on the breakout, while the habs are constantly outnumbered when defending.
4. We literally never employ the pick. Almost every team does this except the habs. The result is the opposing team's forechecking is successful 9/10.
5. Defenders aren't getting shots from the point through. This is a structural problem because they did not have this issue with the same d-core last year.

 

[Habby4Life]

Yeah it does…

And I’m telling you it doesn’t matter what you expect. Rebuilds go at their own schedule. Sometimes it goes quicker than you think and sometimes not. Sometimes teams try for quick fixes and they backfire.

This is going to take a while. Especially on the backend.

If the roster ‘sucks bad’ then why are you screaming at the coach?

He has a roster of guys who don’t play on the right side D except for Savard who’s a journeyman 3rd pairing guy. He’s got Matheson who doesn’t know how to play D on his left side, let alone his right… And he’s got a broken second line.

Yeah, the roster’s weak. It was going to be weak even with a healthy Dach. So why is this surprising given how Dach has sucked? Why would that be the coach’s fault?

Every coach has a shelf life. MSL might be there soon. Even when it isn’t the coach’s fault that’s how it goes.

But it’s insane to hear how you think the roster ‘sucks’ and then blast the coach for not ‘being prepared.’

On Dach? Yep. I was wrong. And I’ll be wrong again. When you’re forward looking that’s how it goes.

But when you’re backward looking (like our debates on CC for example) then your batting average isn’t as good as you may remember.

None of us can know if this rebuild will be successful. I won’t sit here and say we’re on the road to a cup. But if we judge it by today, we’ve got a really well regarded, deep prospect pool. That’s just a fact. Does that mean it’ll pan out? We can’t know this.

This is like the 4th time you’ve said you’re walking away…

4th time, lol, I end it with saying I said my piece, agree to disagree and you always come back with some long winded reply.

For the last time, I stand by what I said, that’s how I feel and I’m not going around and around again, I’ve been through this song and dance with you before. We see things differently.

If you feel the need to reply go ahead, I’ll try to politely ignore it.

 

[Lafleurs Guy]

4th time, lol, I end it with saying I said my piece, agree to disagree and you always come back with some long winded reply.

Yes. It’s called a rebuttal. That’s how message boards work.

If you wish to walk away from a debate, cool. Do so. But don’t think you can say a bunch of stuff, declare it’s over and walk away with the last word. It doesn’t work that way.

 

[Habby4Life]

Yes. It’s called a rebuttal. That’s how message boards work.

If you wish to walk away from a debate, cool. Do so. But don’t think you can say a bunch of stuff, declare it’s over and walk away with the last word. It doesn’t work that way.

Many debates end on agree to disagree that is called adulting.

I’ll try again, we don’t see eye to eye. No point continuing.

 

[Rapala]

I’m willing to see how he develops with this team when we have more pieces. We don’t have a #1 defenseman (heck, we don’t even have a proper #2 dman) we have two forwards who are performing to expectations (Suzuki and CC) and our goaltending is average at best. What do you expect the coach to do when he is working with spare parts?

If I was in the front office watching this product there are a number of things we shouldn't be waiting for.
I've mentioned team passing numerous times over the past three seasons as being bad to terrible.

How come it persists these are NHL caliber players who should be able to hit team mates who are in motion with tape to tape passes.
I watch other teams executing the same plays like it's second nature we continually break our own momentum with bad passing or pass reception.

I'll say it again maybe we should start all over with some of the basics do we need a "Bag Passing" drill.
Maybe we'd have more double digits in the assists column if we could execute simple plays?

 

[Lafleurs Guy]

Many debates end on agree to disagree that is called adulting.

I’ll try again, we don’t see eye to eye. No point continuing.

And yet, you keep coming back… this is your 5th or sixth time.

 

[teamfirst]

And yet, you keep coming back… this is your 5th or sixth time.

You're hilarious man

Bet you have a little scrapbook noting all your debate where you had the last word saying

i won this one

 

[Habby4Life]

If I was in the front office watching this product there are a number of things we shouldn't be waiting for.
I've mentioned team passing numerous times over the past three seasons as being bad to terrible.

How come it persists these are NHL caliber players who should be able to hit team mates who are in motion with tape to tape passes.
I watch other teams executing the same plays like it's second nature we continually break our own momentum with bad passing or pass reception.

I'll say it again maybe we should start all over with some of the basics do we need a "Bag Passing" drill.
Maybe we'd have more double digits in the assists column if we could execute simple plays?

Probably could use all of that but I bet the lack of talent is a significant factor. Too many plugs on the roster.

 

[Lafleurs Guy]

You're hilarious man

Bet you have a little scrapbook noting all your debate where you had the last word saying

i won this one

Win/loss… whatever. All good.

But if you declare you’re walking away from a debate, then do it. Or engage in debate.

One or the other. Don’t keep coming back saying you’re disengaging.

 

[Rapala]

It's good to have a player's coach, but there are systems issues that are plain evident:

1. The team has such a hard time on the cycle. I don't think this is a personnel issue, but an approach to the game. We have one forechecker who is fairly passive. That forechecker is rarely supported. If they lose the battle, the opposing team 9/10 has zero pressure transitioning that win out of the zone. Reminds me of the Jacques Martin dump and no chase era.
2. The players are too spread out on the break out. If the pass is blocked in the neutral zone, the play 9/10 gets back into the habs zone. We rely so much on stretching out the play, but don't do it effectively at all. I'd much rather a structured breakout of 2-3 passes to get out of the defensive zone and into the neutral zone.
3. The habs rarely, like literally rarely, have a numbers advantage on a breakout. That's a big red flag. We rarely out number the opposition in the neutral zone on the breakout, while the habs are constantly outnumbered when defending.
4. We literally never employ the pick. Almost every team does this except the habs. The result is the opposing team's forechecking is successful 9/10.
5. Defenders aren't getting shots from the point through. This is a structural problem because they did not have this issue with the same d-core last year.

Thank You Andy!

It is impossible to look at how we are playing and get any sense of satisfaction.
I find myself holding out for the odd individual play and that is not how I want to continue watching these games.

A very healthy portion of our fan base were never looking at the standings as a measuring stick and still aren't.
We do have talent in the pipeline but I fear unless we come up with a better team structure we'll see more of the same.

At what point is someone in the front office going to admit this just isn't working?

 

[Rapala]

Probably could use all of that but I bet the lack of talent is a significant factor. Too many plugs on the roster.

I disagree.
These guys all made it to the NHL with some level of talent.
While I don't expect Suzuki or Hutson like vision from the slugs I do expect the simple plays executed at an NHL level.
Get better put in the reps.

 

[Habs Icing]

If I was in the front office watching this product there are a number of things we shouldn't be waiting for.
I've mentioned team passing numerous times over the past three seasons as being bad to terrible.

How come it persists these are NHL caliber players who should be able to hit team mates who are in motion with tape to tape passes.
I watch other teams executing the same plays like it's second nature we continually break our own momentum with bad passing or pass reception.

I'll say it again maybe we should start all over with some of the basics do we need a "Bag Passing" drill.
Maybe we'd have more double digits in the assists column if we could execute simple plays?

I agree with you. The passing is terrible. What puzzles me is we are paying a skills coach. What is he doing?

 

[Le Barron de HF]

I agree with you. The passing is terrible. What puzzles me is we are paying a skills coach. What is he doing?

I think he's looking at more specific details. I mean passing is as basic as it comes. He's also working with prospects a lot.

 

[Naslundforever]

So how they are losing, they have mailed in games. 3rd period (Pit) some guys quit, that is a problem. Even Evans stated afterwards maybe some guys quit. Getting bombed 1/4 of the schedule is a problem.

His acquisitions, it’s fair to say they are bad. Are people supposed to ignore that? All four guys he acquired via trade look horrible. He is there to make good trades and properly evaluate talent and when he gets it wrong it fair game to criticize him.

Finally, yes it’s totally reasonable to expect the coach and staff of the Canadiens to be qualified from day 1 and not learning on the job years later.

Hugo has had a pass for three years with no expectations or pressure. They are the ones who tossed out “in the mix” and they were out of it by the first week of November.

I don’t think anyone is expecting them to be a playoff team. I expect them to work hard most nights, see progression in the players that matter, and some semblance the team has an idea of to play the game. So far I’m not seeing that this year.

If they crap the bed again next year, are we all to use it’s a rebuild? Sooner or later the love in has to end and we need to see progression. Progression doesn’t necessarily mean winning early on in a rebuild.

Growing old for me too.

“We want to be in the mix” before the season starts sells cable subscriptions and tickets I figure.

“Maybe skip next year and find another hobby”. would have been honest but not a great sales pitch.

Next year maybe they just don’t play and have “OOO” auto-reply on. It’ll be December by the time anyone even notices anyway.

Hab marketing has been working harder than some of those kids for sure.

 

[morhilane]

I agree with you. The passing is terrible. What puzzles me is we are paying a skills coach. What is he doing?

Most of the passing issues are focus related during games.

It's super weird to see the players act surprised once they get the puck, or the puck comes near them. A few too many Habs players aren't paying attention.

 

[Habby4Life]

I disagree.
These guys all made it to the NHL with some level of talent.
While I don't expect Suzuki or Hutson like vision from the slugs I do expect the simple plays executed at an NHL level.
Get better put in the reps.

Good point. Fair enough.

I often see guys like NS or Lane have no one to pass to, their vision is so much better than most of the team.

imo they have all the signs of a poorly coached team. Preparedness, execution, and compete.

 

[Habby4Life]

Growing old for me too.

“We want to be in the mix” before the season starts sells cable subscriptions and tickets I figure.

“Maybe skip next year and find another hobby”. would have been honest but not a great sales pitch.

Next year maybe they just don’t play and have “OOO” auto-reply on. It’ll be December by the time anyone even notices anyway.

Hab marketing has been working harder than some of those kids for sure.

Haha, don’t get me started on “in the mix” clearly that was about selling tickets.

Yeah, I used to be a die hard never missed a game. Now I watch live (tv) on average 1/2, they other half on demand so I can FF thru the shitshow.

Losing for 30 years will do that to fans!! I know a lot talk about them being a stories franchise but that is long gone, they are just another franchise,