Hitting is back

[Team_Spirit]

Blues and Sharks have more GP so the Habs are top 10.

What happened? Who are these guys?

And finally, where's my montage on the "let the bodies hit the floor" tune??? Danke.

Click to read more...

 

[Kennerback]

Blues and Sharks have more GP so the Habs are top 10.

What happened? Who are these guys?

And finally, where's my montage on the "let the bodies hit the floor" tune??? Danke.

View attachment 960055

I persist in comparing this team as the early blueprint of the Islanders of the early eighties: high skill with a physical edge.

 

[Hannibal]

Jesus, i don’t know what happenned, but we are suddenly a tough team. I f***ing love that and i hope they continue like that. We are winning since we play with a mentality of « tough to play against ».

Yesterday, i had a smile on my face all game.

 

[bopeep]

Jesus, i don’t know what happenned, but we are suddenly a tough team. I f***ing love that and i hope they continue like that. We are winning since we play with a mentality of « tough to play against ».

Yesterday, i had a smile on my face all game.

Last night I had to do a double take when I was checking out the stats during the third period; Habs were outhitting the Stars something like 30-8.

 

[Naslundforever]

Blues and Sharks have more GP so the Habs are top 10.

What happened? Who are these guys?

And finally, where's my montage on the "let the bodies hit the floor" tune??? Danke.

View attachment 960055

It looks so much more like real hockey lately.

Jesus, i don’t know what happenned, but we are suddenly a tough team. I f***ing love that and i hope they continue like that. We are winning since we play with a mentality of « tough to play against ».

Yesterday, i had a smile on my face all game.

Suzuki standing where fools are going to try and skate and making waffles with them is so beautiful. Great example for others.

Slaf with Suzuki’s anticipation would be illegal.

 

[Naslundforever]

Last night I had to do a double take when I was checking out the stats during the third period; Habs were outhitting the Stars something like 30-8.

Make them pay for having the puck all the time lol

 

[sheed36]

Seeing a somewhat angry looking Laine just absolutely steamroll Oskar Bäck last night (I think that's who it was), who is 6'4" and 200+lbs, quite surprised me. MSL must be feeding these guys raw steak.

 

[Leto]

We've seen players drawing the team into the fight with a big hit. I think about Xhekaj on Hyman, Guhle on Lekkerimaki,etc. You could see players like Anderson, Struble following the lead with big hits. It's quite pleasant to witness.

 

[ChesterNimitz]

Last night I had to do a double take when I was checking out the stats during the third period; Habs were outhitting the Stars something like 30-8.

Not all hits are created equal. A number of the hits delivered by the Canadiens (Anderson, Laine and Xhekaj) last night were registerable on the Richter Scale. Each one of those hits were worth at least three of the usual love taps that you see being passed off as 'hits' in hockey today.

Probably the most impressive part of the game last night was the level of physicality that the Canadiens showed against a legitimate Stanley Cup contender. A lot of those Dallas boys are peeing blood this morning.

That game sent a message to the bullies across the league: the Canadiens are here to play.

 

[Habs]

Jesus, i don’t know what happenned, but we are suddenly a tough team. I f***ing love that and i hope they continue like that. We are winning since we play with a mentality of « tough to play against ».

Yesterday, i had a smile on my face all game.

i mean we bitched about it so long it's like the little creampuff of a coach started listening to us?

 

[morhilane]

i mean we bitched about it so long it's like the little creampuff of a coach started listening to us?

More like the players finally listened to the coach telling them to increase the physicality since MSL has mentioned a few times that even if you ask them to do it, they won't necessarily do it (if it's not in their DNA).

Heineman, Xhekaj and Anderson are top 50 in the league in hits. Slaf is at 55th (and only 3 behind Anderson now)...then it's a big drop, the next Habs player has almost 30 less hits than Slaf.

 

[Habs]

More like the players finally listened to the coach telling them to increase the physicality since MSL has mentioned a few times that even if you ask them to do it, they won't necessarily do it (if it's not in their DNA).

Heineman, Xhekaj and Anderson are top 50 in the league in hits. Slaf is at 55th (and only 3 behind Anderson now)...then it's a big drop, the next Habs player has almost 30 less hits than Slaf.

Now they have to continue the trend and keep bringing along the size

 

[Habs13]

I've been commenting on this for a few weeks now. They're hitting more and more now, and it's a beautiful thing.

Would be a good time to trade for Mathieu Olivier now!

 

[Gaylord Q Tinkledink]

This team wants to be harder to play against, so if Olivier makes it to the market, he would fit like a glove..

The best way to get players to be physical is to know there are other players who have their back.

I really think Anderson showing he will mix it up because he wants to and not doing it because he has to, like Nelson when he and Martin form team discovery channel.

Also, you guys notice no one is trying to take liberties, or pushing players and standing there like they're king ?

Notice how Hutson can do what he does and no one is there after the whistle giving him shots.

 

[ChesterNimitz]

i mean we bitched about it so long it's like the little creampuff of a coach started listening to us?

The way you measure a team is the way they play against the best competition. The Canadiens were a Caufield goal post away from beating easily one of the top three teams in the league and many here saying it was Montreal’s best game of the year. Regardless of the score, in this writer’s opinion, it was their best game of the year.

It’s the type of game you build on going forward. For the first time in decades we have a team we can be proud of. And the best is yet to come.

 

[Habs]

The way you measure a team is the way they play against the best competition. The Canadiens were a Caufield goal post away from beating easily one of the top three teams in the league and many here saying it was Montreal’s best game of the year. Regardless of the score, in this writer’s opinion, it was their best game of the year.

It’s the type of game you build on going forward. For the first time in decades we have a team we can be proud of. And the best is yet to come.

It took 35 games to change their style and mentality, that's really what I bitched about the most. They were so easy to play against, then in one game.. they started standing up for each other and playing the body. Guhle laying out a hit, Arbs standing up as usual, Anderson laying the fists .. they all of a sudden starting going to war for each other. You do that, the wins were going to come, we have the talent to win a few games for sure.

Now we have Demidov coming, Beck.. Davidson.. all play a nice game that will adapt up here. I do not care for Roy. Oh and I still love 'Thorpedo'

 

[ahmedou]

30 hits per game with our physical players! It helps us to win games!

3 hits per game with our non-physical players ( ex smurfs)... It didn't helped us to win games...

 

[Farmboy Patty]

Jesus, i don’t know what happenned, but we are suddenly a tough team. I f***ing love that and i hope they continue like that. We are winning since we play with a mentality of « tough to play against ».

Yesterday, i had a smile on my face all game.

Same here. I had a grin on my face the entire game. Hockey is fun again!

 

[Farmboy Patty]

Not all hits are created equal. A number of the hits delivered by the Canadiens (Anderson, Laine and Xhekaj) last night were registerable on the Richter Scale. Each one of those hits were worth at least three of the usual love taps that you see being passed off as 'hits' in hockey today.

Probably the most impressive part of the game last night was the level of physicality that the Canadiens showed against a legitimate Stanley Cup contender. A lot of those Dallas boys are peeing blood this morning.

That game sent a message to the bullies across the league: the Canadiens are here to play.

All the käy players are pretty young as well, so the are here to stay as well. Beware, NHL!

I've been commenting on this for a few weeks now. They're hitting more and more now, and it's a beautiful thing.

Would be a good time to trade for Mathieu Olivier now!

Prying him from the CLB for next season would be sweet. He’d be a perfect fit to our bottom six.

 

[Hacketts]

MSL decided he would let them hit again, he told them they were allowed.

 

[CharleyHorse]

The way you measure a team is the way they play against the best competition. The Canadiens were a Caufield goal post away from beating easily one of the top three teams in the league and many here saying it was Montreal’s best game of the year. Regardless of the score, in this writer’s opinion, it was their best game of the year.

It’s the type of game you build on going forward. For the first time in decades we have a team we can be proud of. And the best is yet to come.

All this, plus the fact that they’d played the night before, arrived in MTL at 2 a.m., and were now facing a well-rested Dallas team with their #1 goalie in net.

f*** off, Dallas!

 

[Sorinth]

The physicality has been there the whole season, looking at hits per 60min to avoid games played biases.

Over the course of the season we are at 23.67 hits per 60min and ranked 9th in the league, the monthly breakdown is:
October 23.82, ranked 12th in the league
November 25.39, ranked 7th in the league
December 21.37, ranked 15th in the league
January 25.57, ranked 7th in the league

But keep in mind hits like blocked shots are those type of things that are both good and bad, it's nice to see them being done consistently but it also means you didn't have the puck.

To me the most impressive thing about our hitting is that outside of Pezzetta who hasn't gotten many games we don't have a lot of forecheckers who go out of their way to finish their checks, which usually ends up meaning a hit thrown 3s after the D has already passed the puck and generally irrelevant except to inflate the stats.