Post-Game Talk: Habs loooooose in Nashville

[Whitesnake]

So if I'm to understand from this thread:

- Embrace the tank
- Be competitive
- MSL is out to lunch
- Embrace the tank

You can't both embrace the tank AND be competitive. Like seriously... It really doesn't matter how the games are lost, so long as they are. Some of you are very confused, methinks.

What do you mean? To tank you always have to lose 9-2?

You can still tank and make it interesting. I don't remember when I've watched a complete game lately....Geez my wife want to watch the Crown instead and I'm letting her...

 

[Grate n Colorful Oz]

What do you mean? To tank you always have to lose 9-2?

It was 6-3 last night, let's not exagerate

 

[salbutera]

What do you mean? To tank you always have to lose 9-2?

You can still tank and make it interesting. I don't remember when I've watched a complete game lately....Geez my wife want to watch the Crown instead and I'm letting her...

No team that tanks is “competitive” and loses by 1-2 goals - the entire concept of tanking is based on being an awful team with gaping holes at key positions

 

[Whitesnake]

It's early I know...he's only 21....I know but to be consequent from my draft day opinion, Justin Barron will not be a significant NHL'er. We got screwed there. Add Smilanic and thank god for the 1st rounder I guess that's a great complement to a guy that won't play in the NHL. Heineman remains to be seen. But not impressed by the pro work of our crew. Though, to be honest...it's the same pro crew that we had under Bergevin so it might explain a lot...

Please Carrière and Crawford out next summer.

 

[Whitesnake]

No team that tanks is “competitive” and loses by 1-2 goals - the entire concept of tanking is based on being an awful team with gaping holes at key positions

SAn Jose and Arizona are tanking and yet their differential are around the 20's. We are mid 40's. And I'm not saying that there shouldn't be a blowout here and there especially against top end teams. I'm saying that the spectacle has to be there at one point. AND there are PLENTY of times when top end teams are beaten by weaker teams because they didn't take that weak team seriously.......Can't wait to see that happen....

 

[Naslundforever]

Everyone complaining that the Habs look like **** are the same ones who would be crying incessantly if we picked in the 11-16th range.

What is it that you want? This is the way for tanking

Happy with the tank. Was on board for all 2022 about playing these semi-retired brain-farting mostly broken vets that all tuned out in 2021.

However unless any one of them turns around a Petry half-season of “here let me help you get rid of me” I am more than ready to watch the rookies tank by themselves.

From a development point of view alone, thank goodness only Slafkovsky is stuck “learning everything” from these guys as a forward.

 

[Grate n Colorful Oz]

No team that tanks is “competitive” and loses by 1-2 goals - the entire concept of tanking is based on being an awful team with gaping holes at key positions

The kind of team that should have been obvious they wouldn't sustain a +2/,500 past thanksgiving.. ahem

It's early I know...he's only 21....I know but to be consequent from my draft day opinion, Justin Barron will not be a significant NHL'er.

As someone who follows prospects, you should know better than doing grand sweeping statements about 21 years old.

 

[Dharvey08]

I mean at this point what do we have to lose in trying Primeau or Poulin ?

Joke red light Allen and Samuel Montanbut aren’t cutting it.

 

[Whitesnake]

As someone who follows prospects, you should know better than doing grand sweeping statements about 21 years old.

I know. As someone who follows prospects, I usually don't. Thing is, I followed Barron A LOT in juniors. Live and TV and Web. Right now, I see the same player I saw in his draft year. From 17 to 21. Lacks the dynamic instinct that, in my opinion, could have made him a top 4. Could he end up a No6? Maybe. Pretty sure that at one point, it's not what you expect from a 1st rounder.

But I was underwhelmed from him right now from 17 to 21. Could it be my expectations? Maybe. Yet, again, I will always believe that a 1st rounder should be expected to play a key role for a team. And in a trade, if you go Barron and 1st, well the idea is that the 1st compensate for the risk you are taking for a Barron. By adding a 2nd, it makes Barron the key component of the trade. Hence, I think, we got screwed. In comparison, Smilanic and a 1st, while Smilanic might never even be a good AHL'er, you still have to thnk that the 1st is the key component of the trade. Same thing for the Heineman trade even if we could have made a mistake there. Though for me, Heineman is the one with the best pedigree. But probably more as a 3rd/4th liner.

 

[Twisted Sinister]

It’s not so easy to determine what’s an incorrect roster and what is a bad culture. Ryan O’Rielly outright said that playing in Buffalo made him stop loving hockey.

Winning breeds good morale. Losing breeds bad morale. It’s certainly a fact that a strong roster is going to have higher morale but they feed each other — every single player in the NHL is talented enough to play good shifts and produce points.

The edge between a winning team and a mediocre one has more to do with morale than we care to admit. See how St Louis and Los Angeles won cups down from being in the pits earlier, or how the Habs got all the way to the Cup Finals riding one player (Price) and a high morale.

See how the Leafs cannot win in the first round. Lack of self-belief, lack of edge, that’s definitely part of it. The talent margins between teams is too thin for morale not to factor in.

On the other hand, when a team is as bad as the Habs or Ducks there is no way they can win or play consistently against NHL-tier opposition. That’s really the case with us. We get some erratic Ws but in general we’re so underpowered that it’s unlikely we can play consistently against NHL level opposition.

I mean sure, it's Buffalo. Buffalo might be the most mismanaged team ever. They didn't suck because ROR was sad. They sucked because they sucked.

An incorrect roster is pretty easy to determine. look at the Leafs or Oilers in their last few years. Too top-heavy, lacking in the sandpaper required for playoff success, not surrounding their talent with good defense and goaltending. But you need the talent first. We don't have it. We need to address that before we start looking at vague notions of "morale."

 

[Kennerback]

I’ll bite.

What is he supposed to say? « I coach a bunch of gutless pukes? Our veterans are shit, the last GM overpaid them, and we have no goalies. » !?

There’s nothing he can say except try to find at least one positive.

MSL is expressing how the Habs are locked and loaded on this Tank. The big issues he felt need to be fixed won’t even slow the Tank down if fully fixed. It’s a question of perspective if what MSL said is a problem or not.

 

[Jaaanosik]

Bud. you really believe this garbage? He'll learn to play better by not playing much?

I got a story to tell you about a Nigerian prince...

Hmmm, I am going to load my Prince of Persia game.

 

[Nedved]

The habs have arguably the worst goalies in the nhl, the worst 6 dman in the nhl, the worst special teams, the worst depth, and people expect more? Monahan is out. When he's back and games start to look better it'll be because he is playing and adding some depth.

I thought I've heard it all, but not losing the right way has to be the most hilarious thing I've ever heard in sports. I hope Monahan doesn't see the ice all month. I'm loving the losses. When he's back and we start to squeak out wins people will complaining that we're outside the top 10.

 

[Jaaanosik]

I mean at this point what do we have to lose in trying Primeau or Poulin ?

Joke red light Allen and Samuel Montanbut aren’t cutting it.

Draft Gajan, Halak 2.0

 

[The Real Timo]

Habs lost 6-3... that's progress.

 

[BLONG7]

Everyone complaining that the Habs look like **** are the same ones who would be crying incessantly if we picked in the 11-16th range.

What is it that you want? This is the way for tanking

Losing games is ok with most...................losing 7-2 and 9-2 and 6-3 well, is not...............
A few of the kids, are currently watching vets pile up more dog$hit night after night.....................
Put a couple of waivers, and let a couple of kids come up with Richard from Laval, and at least be entertaining....

 

[Nedved]

MSL knows what he has in front of him and he needs to use it accordingly. Defensive hockey isn't as hard to execute as trying to turn Jake Evans into Cole Caufield, it's just basic stuff and there are at least 300 grinder types in the NHL that play that way as a means to stay employed. Marty and his staff don't seem to have a grasp of defensive "concepts" from my pov. I want a shot at Bedard but I want to see some good habits being implemented as well.

I wonder what Jacques Martin is doing these days. Maybe he can bring back 2-1 and 3-1 losses for us. This team is worse than last year: Petry, Chariot, Romanov all gone on D. Both goalies are below 900. The injury to Monahan that seemed to bring a star quality is out and Suzuki hasn't been the same without him. The team knows there will a bunch of trades and why risk injury if your time in Montreal is finished.

Until we have a #1 dman we're going to be a bad team. I'm curious if someone ranked dman in the nhl would we have any inside the top 50? At best, it would be probably debatable and the guy would be Guhle. Most teams have a better dman than Guhle and a guy like Guhle.

It blows me away that people don't see how bad this team is right now. We're worse than last year.

 

[BLONG7]

I know. As someone who follows prospects, I usually don't. Thing is, I followed Barron A LOT in juniors. Live and TV and Web. Right now, I see the same player I saw in his draft year. From 17 to 21. Lacks the dynamic instinct that, in my opinion, could have made him a top 4. Could he end up a No6? Maybe. Pretty sure that at one point, it's not what you expect from a 1st rounder.

But I was underwhelmed from him right now from 17 to 21. Could it be my expectations? Maybe. Yet, again, I will always believe that a 1st rounder should be expected to play a key role for a team. And in a trade, if you go Barron and 1st, well the idea is that the 1st compensate for the risk you are taking for a Barron. By adding a 2nd, it makes Barron the key component of the trade. Hence, I think, we got screwed. In comparison, Smilanic and a 1st, while Smilanic might never even be a good AHL'er, you still have to thnk that the 1st is the key component of the trade. Same thing for the Heineman trade even if we could have made a mistake there. Though for me, Heineman is the one with the best pedigree. But probably more as a 3rd/4th liner.

Barron was our best prospect in Laval at the time of his call up......................if I remember, 12 pts in 16 games.
He should be on our PP...............................
I am going to be more patient, I think we do have a good young D here.......

 

[mbz]

Why wasn’t Slaf sent to the world juniors? Surely would of been better than getting blown out multiple times with limited ice time.

 

[MarkovsKnee]

This! I watch plenty of teams and more recently the world juniors and it's rare to see a team that gives up as much space as we do. I watch some NHL games and it looks like there are twenty players on the ice because there is so little in the way of open area but not us lol. We often look short-handed because there is so much room out there, so much so that it appears that teams dominating us with 5-6-7 goals aren't really forcing the issue that much. All of this is a coaching flaw as you said and shouldn't be happening. Every player can't be Cole Caufield when it comes to talent but most of them can be better with man-on-man coverage, it's not as hard as we are making it look. A good coach can make a mediocre team look good with attention to detail but it's nonexistent on this team.

Yup, Arizona is not a talented team, but they are well coached. They can lose big occasionally, but it isn't a nightly thing, and they've had some big upsets against Bruins & Canes. They work hard, forecheck hard, and compete.

If Nashville can walk in and put 6 on the board against us, teams like Bruins & Canes are going double digits.

The defensive system is complete trash.

 

[Habby4Life]

I think we turn the corner next season. Should have good draft and some of these dead weight contracts are removed.

For the most part I agree, I think we have a couple of tough seasons left before this turns. Bad contracts will fall off the next couple of years. Really only bad one remaining will be Gally.

Yup, Arizona is not a talented team, but they are well coached. They can lose big occasionally, but it isn't a nightly thing, and they've had some big upsets against Bruins & Canes. They work hard, forecheck hard, and compete.

If Nashville can walk in and put 6 on the board against us, teams like Bruins & Canes are going double digits.

The defensive system is complete trash.

There is no system, none.

 

[morhilane]

I mean at this point what do we have to lose in trying Primeau or Poulin ?

Joke red light Allen and Samuel Montanbut aren’t cutting it.

Primeau was injured, they sent Vbertic back to the Lions yesterday so he's only just coming back from a puck to the face (he received it while sitting on the bench during a game). Poulin would have to be signed to an NHL contract, he's on an AHL one.

 

[Catanddogguitarrr]

Moms have taste : they couldn't resist the natural charism of Ovy.
Scientificly it's called Ovylation.

 

[The Real Timo]

Why wasn’t Slaf sent to the world juniors? Surely would of been better than getting blown out multiple times with limited ice time.

To teach him good habits... isn't it obvious?

Sigh... He would have had a ton of fun at WJC and likely would have helped beat Canada... But instead he was getting 10 minutes per game on a dreadful team on a dreadful line.

 

[Habs]

I fail to see the problem.


I believe someone made an excellent post about "the perennially wrong." I like it. Think I'll steal that whenever I see something like this.


*pushes button on tape recorder* There is not even the slightest bit of evidence that such a thing as a "losing culture" exists. Rebuilds have worked more than they haven't.

When they haven't worked, it's because the team was built incorrectly. *click*


Trade for Ryan Reaves and the Looch! Let's go boys!

you are probably the type of guy that believes cups are won with finesse and the other team will respect a player because he's a 'nice guy' on and off the ice. When Cole or Nick are obliviated on the ice, the crying from the 'woke hockey fan' will be fun to watch as the wonder how this could have possibly happened.

You don't need 5 fighters, but you need 5-7 players that can at least finish a check and make life miserable out there. I would take 5 Pezettas over 5 Drouins, Armias and Hoffmans. And whatever team lands Bedard, you can bet they insulate him with size and an ounce of forecheck, because that's what a winning franchise would do.

But hey lets follow the same formula that ha made this franchise so successful since 93. Soft , small teams that can skate, but that's about it.