HF Habs: Anyone else completely losing interest in the Team?

[Wats]

What sucks as well is when you look around at the other teams in our division, it's not getting any easier going forward.
So many teams are in much better shape then us.

That's why you should do what a few people do and complete ignore the rest of the NHL. That way, everything looks better.

 

[Habs100]

As usual. Meaningless name dropping that actually compares poorly to most other NHL groups.

Our roster is terrible but the prospect/youth pool might be even worse.

Our group as whole is one of the worst in the league. But we'd be in the playoffs and contenders imo if you take the current roster add back Radulov and Markov, and especially if you swap Weber and Subban, i.e. basically add Markov, Subban, and Radulov to our roster. Plus the emergence of Scherbak and Juulsen will help. If we brought in a good GM, he might be able to undo all the damage Bergevin has done. And as for our prospect pool, we just graduated in the last two years Scherbak, Juulsen, Mete, Sergachev (who became Drouin), Hudon, De la Rose, Andrighetto and Lindrren. Mete and Sergachev graduated early. When you have so many prospects graduating, 8 in 2 years, you're not going to have as many in the minors. Poehling, Ikonen, and the 4 dmen we drafted last year are the next wave.

We're now 1 impact center man and 1 top ft d away

 

[sharks9]

What sucks as well is when you look around at the other teams in our division, it's not getting any easier going forward.
So many teams are in much better shape then us.

Some of them will drop though/run into cap issues. Like Tampa Bay is stacked for the next couple of years, but then they'll have to dismantle parts of their team like Chicago to deal with cap issues.

 

[417]

If that's what it is, then it isn't "inexplicably". What about Deslauriers? I only heard that they were out of the lineup on 690, didn't see the rationale behind it. They just signed Deslauriers, he's sitting quite a bit. I know he's a bottom line player but he's being counted upon to be on next year's roster. Why not play him?

Oh I don't disagree with what you said earlier - was just providing clarity as it relates to Hudon specifically.

 

[Tabarouette]

This season is a blessing in disguise and the pressure to win has been decreased while we get another top 10 pick people! This is a big deal for our team!

I know you're an hopeless optimist about this team, I guess we need those, but good lord that's so sad to read. Lowering the the bar isn't a blessing

The pressure to win can only be lowered temporarly IF the management give us a clear plan of what they're going to do and give us hope

I don't know what press conference you've been watching, but right now other than us having a couple of picks in hand nothing really indicates that we're building something. The messaging is still the same: we'll patch holes how we can, we're working hard to make the team better, trades are hard, 1C are impossible to find and "it's just a lack of confidence we score at practice"

That's the plan. "Retooling" by the guy who just "retooled" our defense, and "retooled" our top 6 with Drouin

 

[junyab]

A top 10 pick is good, but doesn't change much when our rebuild competitors are getting higher picks and already have stronger prospects and farms.

 

[PaulD]

As usual. Meaningless name dropping that actually compares poorly to most other NHL groups.

Our roster is terrible but the prospect/youth pool might be even worse.

Agree 100 per cent.

 

[voyageur]

Our group as whole is one of the worst in the league. But we'd be in the playoffs and contenders imo if you take the current roster add back Radulov and Markov, and especially if you swap Weber and Subban, i.e. basically add Markov, Subban, and Radulov to our roster. Plus the emergence of Scherbak and Juulsen will help. If we brought in a good GM, he might be able to undo all the damage Bergevin has done. And as for our prospect pool, we just graduated in the last two years Scherbak, Juulsen, Mete, Sergachev (who became Drouin), Hudon, De la Rose, Andrighetto and Lindrren. Mete and Sergachev graduated early. When you have so many prospects graduating, 8 in 2 years, you're not going to have as many in the minors. Poehling, Ikonen, and the 4 dmen we drafted last year are the next wave.

We're now 1 impact center man and 1 top ft d away

You could argue that this team would be more effective with Eller too. Or McDonaugh. Hindsight is always 20/20. If you want to get younger and faster Markov's not your ticket. Should have played 1000 games as a Hab though, somewhat of a shame. I could see Bergevin's schizophrenic solution being bringing in Kovalchuk and Markov.

Promoting prospects doesn't necessarily mean emptying the cupboards. Winnipeg, Tampa, Chicago always have some coming up, and somebody in the pipeline, from amassing picks. Boston has been going that route too.

It's making the picks count that makes a difference.

I agree on the needs though.

 

[justafan22]

Getting rid of exciting players like subban and radulov don't help.

Weber's fine but he's not an exciting player. The former 2 I mentioned I would buy tickets to see, habs don't have those types of players though dahlin could be one.

 

[PaulD]

A top 10 pick is good, but doesn't change much when our rebuild competitors are getting higher picks and already have stronger prospects and farms.

Yep. The big plan in Montreal is to be better than the 018 team. Foget about the contenders and other clubs on their way up.

The habs have their own bar.........and it is set lower than expansions teams.

I already have a bet that Seattle finishes ahead of them in year one. Money in the bank.

 

[FlatIron]

A fan who stops watching/giving interest during dark times, don't deserve to be subjected to the good times.

That's BS, it's our right to criticize stupid moves. Why should we pay so much money to watch a game and drink $15 beers for a sub par product? You don't go to a fine dining establishment expecting to pay $100/head and be served a Big Mac.

 

[Roke]

This "true fan stuff" is nonsense. At the end of the day sports are a business and you're cheering for a corporate entity.

It's not irrational to cheer for a sports business - the emotional investment in a team heightens the entertainment and enjoyment of choosing this particular form of entertainment and that makes it different than watching a movie, reading a book, playing most video games, or really loving a TV series; but at the end of the day it's about the bottom line for the teams and they unanimously proved it with the 2004-05 season.

If you aren't getting any joy out of an entertainment product continuing to consume it is irrational.

 

[Bryson]

What sucks as well is when you look around at the other teams in our division, it's not getting any easier going forward.
So many teams are in much better shape then us.

And many of us said how the east was wide open for many years while Bergevin sat on his ass and did nothing with a Vezina goalie and Norris Dman on his team. Not any more. Just making the playoffs will be an uphill battle from now on.

 

[Seb]

People from all fan bases have been slowly losing interest in the past years, it's not only a Habs thing.

The NHL is in a terrible state, the games are boring and the tickets are too expensive.

 

[Beer and Chips]

We've tried 'just making the playoffs' for years now that's why we're in this situation, poor asset management and no plan B . Couldn't name a captain for a year? The history of this franchise lives only through its fans now, management is a joke of the league. The owner doesn't seem to care, the general manager tells the customers my job is hard, too hard apparently. Can't understand why fans are tuning out.

 

[Dannyhab]

I haven't watched a game in months. I haven't watched a full game since the fall. It's not conceivable for me to cheer for another team however. I also remain excited and hopeful for the summer.

 

[sharks9]

A top 10 pick is good, but doesn't change much when our rebuild competitors are getting higher picks and already have stronger prospects and farms.

Teams that aren't rebuilding though will gradually get worse as their players get older and they trade away their picks.

 

[Ozmodiar]

And we used to own two of them.

But, would be exciting to know if there are new people in place with a new vision, as soon as the season ends, no matter what Bergevin said at his PC.

Right! How could I forget about Desharnais?!


yes, you could definitely add Rads to the list

 

[Kant Think]

I don't even check where we are in the standings anymore.

I used to watch every games.

 

[MXD]

We're also a bit... say.... saturated.

 

[No More Subban]

Getting rid of exciting players like subban and radulov don't help.

Weber's fine but he's not an exciting player. The former 2 I mentioned I would buy tickets to see, habs don't have those types of players though dahlin could be one.

This is exactly what I don't understand about Bergevin. It's like this team has no room for exciting players. Like we don't need them.

Not sure how a GM would not take advantage of fan favorites. Is pleasing your fanbase really a bad idea?

 

[Habs100]

You could argue that this team would be more effective with Eller too. Or McDonaugh. Hindsight is always 20/20. If you want to get younger and faster Markov's not your ticket. Should have played 1000 games as a Hab though, somewhat of a shame. I could see Bergevin's schizophrenic solution being bringing in Kovalchuk and Markov.

Promoting prospects doesn't necessarily mean emptying the cupboards. Winnipeg, Tampa, Chicago always have some coming up, and somebody in the pipeline, from amassing picks. Boston has been going that route too.

It's making the picks count that makes a difference.

I agree on the needs though.

I'm pointing out how costly Bergevin's blunders have been when I say this team would be good with Markov, Subban, and Radulov in the lineup, more than dreaming of shoulda coulda woulda scenarios.

Our 2008 - 2001 drafts were not good. But those aren't where the propects would be coming from now. the 20012 - present drafts have been good. And we've gotten good prospects:

2012: Galchenyuk, Hudon
2013: Lehkonen, Andrighetto, De la Rose
2014: Scherbak, no 2nd round pick, Lernout, Jake Evans
2015: Juulsen, no 2nd round pick, Addison
2016: Sergachev (Drouin), Mete
2017: too early

Our prospects still in the cupboard, which has been pludered are:

Poehling, Ikonen, the 2017 4 dmen, Valiev, Rychel, Addison, Lernout, McNiven.

 

[Habs Halifax]

You're optimist about the team. I'd say that's a good thing.

But I'm not.

Cause, see, I thought that 2012 was a blessing in disguise, too.

And I also thought that 2016 was one...

Now, I'm really happy about the next draft, we have tons of possibly meaningful picks, and I also like those last 2 drafts.

But the problem is, the 'assets' are not the problem, it's the way those assets are badly mismanaged.

Bergevin ate major crows this season. And while some may argue that he's not responsible for every bad steps that happened in this organization this season (or the last few), he's responsible for maintaining some majorly incompetent staff in place for whatever reasons. And, he said it himself anyway...

Can he learn from his mistakes ? Well, I believe everyone can learn, at any time, to fix his own mistakes.

But one needs 'character' to look himself in the mirror to be able to do that.

And I'm not sure Bergevin has the 'character' to do that.

I'm optimistic because we are not trading our future away and we have 6 top 70 picks. In truth, we don't need to do to much this summer other than have a very good draft.

As far as Bergevin... I am a bit concerned with "patch" type work and more Alzner contracts. My remaining thin support for him will be gone if he does this. Big Fish or no Fish at all please. Keep the Cap space and use it for more important assets when they want to come to Montreal.

 

[WeThreeKings]

People from all fan bases have been slowly losing interest in the past years, it's not only a Habs thing.

The NHL is in a terrible state, the games are boring and the tickets are too expensive.

The games have been great around the league. Stop watching the Habs and you'll see it.

 

[Seb]

The games have been great around the league. Stop watching the Habs and you'll see it.

There are exceptions, but the games are mostly boring everywhere. There have been dozen of threads on the main about it.