Post-Game Talk: Well, Caufield scores two in Habs loss.

[Canadiens98]

I really wanted Drouin to work out, but I'm really looking forward to not seeing him out there next season.

Also, Slafkovsky isn't good enough (currently) to play on our 2nd line, never mind with Suzuki and Caufield yet too good to play in the AHL. He has no support on his line either but his compete has been there the entire year which is very promising.


Positives:
- Caufield's contract ask may not be as high as it looked like it was going to be earlier this season
- Kirby Dach looks a solid player, despite recent struggles and how big a fan I was of Romy, I think the trade will turn out to be a win long term.
- Xhekaj! I don't think he'll be able to maintain this offensive output but I also don't think many realize how difficult it's been for us to find a player we can rely on to protect our star players. We'll be back in the race for a playoff spot within the next 2-3 years, and having Xhekaj is
- We're a lock to finish with a top 7 pick, we just have to find out where exactly we land

 

[Sasha Orlov]

This team sucks ass, they could actually lose every remaining game lmfao

Please god let us draft an actual superstar in Bedard for once

 

[Kennedys]

This team sucks ass, they could actually lose every remaining game lmfao

Please god let us draft an actual superstar in Bedard for once

Once the Bergevin leftover are gone thing will start being worth watching. Dvorak , Hoffman, Anderson ect... This team need a purge.

 

[HabsCowboysOwn]

Happy New Year everyone, here's to a 2023 full of health and happiness for you and your loved ones. This is also the year we'll get to see Bedard in a Habs jersey, can't wait!

 

[Stive Morgan]

Jesus Christ

 

[tazsub3]

Jesus Christ

thats how you tank. mediocre goalies in 2021-22 and roll them back for 2022-23.
Hugo are smart, they knew a hot stream by allen and monte not sustainable and then injuries to the d core took care of the rest and we back on the tank train tracks

 

[Stive Morgan]

thats how you tank. mediocre goalies in 2021-22 and roll them back for 2022-23.
Hugo are smart, they knew a hot stream by allen and monte not sustainable and then injuries to the d core took care of the rest and we back on the tank train tracks

Doesn't mean it's fun to watch though lol

 

[HuGort]

We have a good draft. Slaf takes step ahead next year and we make another Dach type trade. Could be Laf. Those three things will turn help.

 

[Goldenhands]

hopefully msl stops breast feeding the team and actually challenges them. Seems like he doesn’t do that. Nobody ever benched or held accountable. He should be the coach but I don’t see much of a backbone yet

St-Louis is not dumb, he understands the situation and knows its useless to throw some guys under the bus, we have too many washed up vets, he cant bench them all lol, its Hughes's job to do something and free up some roster spots for kids. We can keep crapping on guys like Drouin, Dadonov, Armia, Dvorak, Gallagher all we want, it wont change anything and its not their fault either, they simply suck at hockey.

This team played over their head way longer than I thought to be honest, I thought they would crack much earlier since the bleuline is very young and the offense was driven by 1 line, the kid one. The other 3 lines are total crap, especially without Monahan in the line-up, its like having 3 fourth line, thats how pathetic the team is up front. Teams only have to focuss on the Suzuki line and we are done.

To lose with more dignity, Hughes has to part with some vets like Dadonov, Drouin and call up kids like Ylonen, RHP, play the kids and live with their mistakes, at least those kids will give their all, bring some energy and generate an healthier competition inside our fowards group. It worked with our young defensemen, kids have been making mistakes, but overall did a great job, its going to be the same with our fowards group as soon as we part with some washed up vets and bring in some new blood.

 

[tazsub3]

Doesn't mean it's fun to watch though lol

its horrible to watch, but many of us long term fans have accepted the fact we need this pain instead of the rinse and repeat patch jobs.

We have a good draft. Slaf takes step ahead next year and we make another Dach type trade. Could be Laf. Those three things will turn help.

don't underestimate the experience our 4-5 rookie dmen are getting.
Just give them experience, add a top goalie and this whole team is miles ahead on the backend.
Hopefully the draft will sort out the forward part of the equation.

 

[dinodebino]

This is bad. This is as bad as the last few games that finally got Ducharme fired when we were getting shelled every game.

It isn't the losing. It's the lack of compete, lack of drive, lack of work ethic. And, it's being driven by guys like Drouin, Hoffman, Armia, Anderson, Dvorak & Edmundson.

It's OK to lose, but not like this. This is ugly.

Inevitable.

 

[Galaxydoggystyle]

Glad we are losing to be honest and I bet someone is going to tell me that I am not a true fan or some BS like that. This team needs a legit game breaking forward to get anywhere close to being a cup contender.

 

[dinodebino]

What he did on the ice does not necessarily translate to success behind the bench (see Gretzky). He has no experience at coaching at any significant level and it shows. He might be frustrated by his own lack of ability. The questions will get tougher and it will be interesting to hear his responses.

I don’t think it will be hard. In his PCs, all seemed fine.

I expect them to be competitive Oz, I didn't say I expected the 77 habs did I? They went from fun to watch to unbearable to sit through. I don't need a reality check but I do want to see them compete and not get blown out, that is not good for them either.

They won’t be competitive for at least 18 months.

 

[dinodebino]

So essentially, this means NOTHING to him.

And to me too, as a matter of fact. Marty is here for the tank years. To learn as much as the kids. He has ZERO pressure from upper management. Zero. Ze-a-ro. Those who don’t understand this…I can’t help you.

 

[Harry Kakalovich]

This is the Habs team i expected to see this year: sub-par goaltending, inexperienced defense, and ineffective veterans.

 

[HabsWhiteKnightLOL]

I find it odd that people are comparing MSL to Dumb Dom... this is still the same team. It doesn't have any pieces that MSL has brought it yet - not counting the rookies. So what did people expect would change?

Still the same loser mentality with the same loser players. We have TWO good forwards and ONE with potential. That's it.

People compare to him because they both had terrible teams and were unable to atleast make their team ready for a game.

It's something to be extremely bad but you still can compete and give ur best effort.
Martin St-Louis never knows who to sit , who to punish. His powerplay strategy needs a f***ing change , it's the same strat as last season because he doesn't want to change anything.

He never calls a timeout when it's time.
It's not normal to have someone called a motivator who can't even motivate enough this team to play a good 20min let alone a good straight 10minutes. Everyone was happy when October and November hockey , but when the real season start in early December , everythign went into shit and we barely won against bad teams early this season to begin with.

We are getting pummeled in every aspect with no changes. Like MSL needs to f***ing make those lazy f***s , do some extra drill and start crying behind the bench so the brainless veterans could wakeup perhaps more than 2minutes a game and show the kids how to play in the NHL.

That Colorado season couple of years ago they had like 48 points and still were more useful on the ice than this team.

This team is literally Suzuki and Caufield
Guhle and Jackeye are decent but there is a limit as rookies.

The rest of this roster just doesn't want to play or improve. When I say everyone else , it's everyone else , from Allen to Dach.

A good example today was when Gallagher took that freaking stupid penalty , 5min after he's on the powerplay. Like wtf? What kind of stupid decision is that. He deserved to be benched , the dude is wearing an A on his jersey. ''Warrior my ass''

 

[admiralcadillac]

We knew this stretch would come. If and how they can pull out of it even slightly is the question.

 

[ReHabs]

A good example today was when Gallagher took that freaking stupid penalty , 5min after he's on the powerplay. Like wtf? What kind of stupid decision is that. He deserved to be benched , the dude is wearing an A on his jersey. ''Warrior my ass''

MSL does not believe in punishing players mid-game. I knows he’s benched Slaf a few times in the 3rd but other than that he tends to not be punitive with his deployments.

I know in this particular case, with the bum Gallagher, it seems like a bad policy but in the overall sense of how a hockey club should develop hockey players I think it’s the right call. If Gallagher was meant to play PP minutes, a mistake or bad play earlier shouldn’t change that setup.

 

[Grate n Colorful Oz]

Glad we are losing to be honest and I bet someone is going to tell me that I am not a true fan or some BS like that. This team needs a legit game breaking forward to get anywhere close to being a cup contender.

Yeah, some think that there's some moral code attached to being a fan of a sports team tied to an entertainment corporation. It's the sort of deluded partisanship that makes you wonder if they can have a modicum of objectivity when dealing with more complicated and important subjects.

Not only do they lack objectivity, their ego's needs drive them to want instant gratification, as if the team is a reflection of their own greatness, so don't you dare wanting to lose to get a better product in the future, because to them it's a reflection of your own and their own character. It's completely berserk.

These sorta of fake moral codes don't serve anything else than themselves. Partisanship is an intellectual and social crutch to begin with, it borders on insanity when you're extending this mentality towards trivial things like sports entertainment.

I just wanna have fun watching my favorite team in my favorite sport. The fun we've had, watching them trying desperately to rise from mediocreland, dwindled as the team kept repeating the same patterns of always falling short in competitiveness and never gaining enough talent to make the team truly fun to watch. Not only did this pattern not offer enough, the desperateness of the team's situation at being stuck in no man's land makes them use boring tactics to compensate the lack of sheer talent, like grinding, over-reliance on defensive aspects. This sorta shit becomes so dull when there's been so many wasted kicks to the can.

Oh noes! People want something different with a different path, how dare they!?

They're like the Greta Thunberg of entertainment sports, but without an actual point to make or ground to stand on.

 

[ReHabs]

@Ozymandias on the other hand, treating sports fandom like it’s a stock portfolio (Buy low! Sell high!) is even more unnatural and strange.

I respect those who are sick of the current cycle of mediocrity and want a change. And especially those who are sick of regressive and miserly hockey — I think we’re all sick of low-talent assclowns running and playing for our team. But in a general sense, the tribal aspect of sports is Our Guys vs Their Guys and it’s simply unnatural to want Our Guys to lose against Their Guys.

Last year’s team under MSL was fine with me. They lost but played fast and loose and the development of the kids was encouraging. I think we’re all okay with that.

Hughes and Gorton need to cut out the malignant vets and get us back on the right path.

 

[Grate n Colorful Oz]

@Ozymandias on the other hand, treating sports fandom like it’s a stock portfolio (Buy low! Sell high!) is even more unnatural and strange.

I respect those who are sick of the current cycle of mediocrity and want a change. And especially those who are sick of regressive and miserly hockey — I think we’re all sick of low-talent assclowns running and playing for our team. But in a general sense, the tribal aspect of sports is Our Guys vs Their Guys and it’s simply unnatural to want Our Guys to lose against Their Guys.

I am utterly detached from all forms of ingroupings/outgroupings.

You don't need the tribal mindset to enjoy entertainment sports.

This mindset extends much further than sports and is toxic to our sociality. It's a symptom of a lack of empathy, not inhibiting the ego. The more empathy people have, the less likely they are to ingroup/outgroup and vice versa. That's what behavioral research shows regarding ingrouping/outgrouping. This lack of empathy is what drives abherent behaviors like racism and intolerance.

The whole stock portfolio analogy is a poor one. It's not entertainment. The fact it is a competition among teams recquires management of said teams, which follows fundamental business precepts. It doesn't even follow the same baselines as stocks. If I have a stock, I don't want it to plummet. If I'm buying a stock, it's simply because of it's potential to rise. The relationship is entirely different. People did not chose for the draft to be this way. People did not chose for hockey teams to only be able to acquire superstars by drafting really high. It's the only way to get there, whereas you can buy high priced stock and make tons of money over time.

The stock analogy is a poor and lazy one. I mean, you don't even have to look hard for the proper analogy. It's business management, not stock mamagenent. They manage employees/people, not stock. If an employee is bad, you try to replace it with another one. You try to get talent where it's most present. People didn't chose for players to be tradeable commodities either. It's part of the game and the only place where the analogy makes a bit of sense, but even then, it's as if one can't be shrewd to get better. Rare are people who will simply think in these terms for a hockey team, yet it gets associated with tanking which is just ridiculous. Being shrewd with assets is not the same order of things as losing to get a pick, yet even you tried to equate the two.

Tanking has nothing to do with the stock analogy. Nobody wants their stock to crash, to then get better stock? When a team falters to a point of hitting bottom, a roster turnover is inevitable, it's just the very nature of how the sport was setup.

I haven't seen a single person wanting to trade high every player to turn them into better future assets. It's a lazy reduction used by those who can't accept different opinions and different ways of doing things. It also denies the balancing act most people will go through in analyzing whether to sell or keep a player. It's a reduction that implies always sell high and buy low, which is not what people want to do. It always depends on a ton of factors. Where the team is, what's its prospects for fiture performance. Where is this player at in his career, what can he give, does he serve a purpose, for how long and so forth.

The analogy was born out of a period when some wanted to sell Weber, Petry and Price because it was clear to some, me included, that we were heading towards a massive clusterf***. We were right, but instead of recognizing the path we were on, instead of recognizing the real life reasons to want that in that particular moment in time, it was far more easier to make-up some weak childish analogy as if we always want to sell high/buy low no matter what else. It's a mental crotch to disregard the very real reasons we wanted to part ways with those players.

 

[StCaufield]

St-Louis is not dumb, he understands the situation and knows its useless to throw some guys under the bus, we have too many washed up vets, he cant bench them all lol, its Hughes's job to do something and free up some roster spots for kids. We can keep crapping on guys like Drouin, Dadonov, Armia, Dvorak, Gallagher all we want, it wont change anything and its not their fault either, they simply suck at hockey.

This team played over their head way longer than I thought to be honest, I thought they would crack much earlier since the bleuline is very young and the offense was driven by 1 line, the kid one. The other 3 lines are total crap, especially without Monahan in the line-up, its like having 3 fourth line, thats how pathetic the team is up front. Teams only have to focuss on the Suzuki line and we are done.

To lose with more dignity, Hughes has to part with some vets like Dadonov, Drouin and call up kids like Ylonen, RHP, play the kids and live with their mistakes, at least those kids will give their all, bring some energy and generate an healthier competition inside our fowards group. It worked with our young defensemen, kids have been making mistakes, but overall did a great job, its going to be the same with our fowards group as soon as we part with some washed up vets and bring in some new blood.

Never said he was dumb. I basically said he is coaching like he’s scared to even call a vet out. Instead he keeps asking playing them while bouncing slaf around all over the lineup. He’s not dumb no. Hughes can’t part with anyone though these vets need an exorcism to rid of their demons but that’s not going to happen

 

[OldCraig71]

I don’t think it will be hard. In his PCs, all seemed fine.


They won’t be competitive for at least 18 months.

I didn't mean competitive in terms of winning games and contending but in the sense of what we saw before this crash, what we are seeing now is exactly what we saw from them when Ducharme was behind the bench last season. I realize the importance of getting as much out of this year's draft as possible but it's not good to see them ill-prepared to start games and being blown out as we are seeing now. Even in losses this season the team was having fun and playing hard but that is gone now and it concerns me.

 

[GoodKiwi]

Yesterday I read someone's prediction about Ovechkin breaking Gretzky's goal record in last night's game.

Didn't check the score box, but after glancing at the final score....did he actually do it?

 

[morhilane]

Jesus Christ

The Habs did manage -98 for the 2021-2022 season. Since they are only at -38 this year so far, that means -60 in the first half of 2022.