TSN: Canadiens leaning a lot, maybe too much, on Price

[Hackett]

I was looking into past teams like Carolina and Tampa. Both actually had pretty good shot totals which surprised me. Tampa was actually near the top of the league in shot differentials.

Boston looks like the weakest one in most recent memory anyway. If Hasek had succeeded that would've been THE miracle win.

Carolina never lost a game to Montreal once the habs lost koivu to Williams careless stick. No penalty either... Not that I'm bitter lol.

Then against buffalo in game 7, the sabres went into the game missing some of their top d-men, and barely lost.

Then Edmonton lost roloson in game 2, who was actually lights out in the playoffs up until that time... So the oilers had to go with Jussi markkanen and they still took Carolina to seven games.

I thought Carolina had a good team, and cam ward got a ton of credit, but the opposing injuries was the biggest factor to their success IMO.

Tampa was just really good. At the time, they probably had the best top 3 offensive weapons, and in typical tortorella fashion, he gave them all the ice time in the world and then some.

Khabbibulin was very good, but there was more to that team.

 

[Talks to Goalposts]

I'd say that the 93 team was quite comparable to ours in terms of how good it was compared to the rest of the league. They weren't the best, but they were up there. Just like our habs.

But for a team like the 93 habs... and the '15 habs... things have to go right and you need some luck and godly goaltending to win. It's a given. If Price sucks, or if he gets injured, or if we're unlucky, or if Subban/patch aren't at their best.. and if support players don't play above their normal levels.. then forget it we ain't winning the cup this season with or without Therrien. But I do believe that Therrien has been really good at getting the other variables to line up for us the right way so far. I have no doubt we will show up and play hard in the playoffs again this season.

The Roy era team was the best defensive team of its era. They were the Devils before the Devils existed, more similar to a team like Boston or LA in modern times that what Montreal is currently.

 

[Cole Caulifield]

The Roy era team was the best defensive team of its era. They were the Devils before the Devils existed, more similar to a team like Boston or LA in modern times that what Montreal is currently.

We did have Carbo, Odelein, JJD, Desjardins, Brisebois, and Schneider.. Having the ultimate money goalie also helped.

Thinking about it again.. I might have been overly enthusiastic about this year's edition...

But I was speaking more in terms of where we sit in the standings. While I agree that we don't have quite the ingredients that that team had... we are still hanging right where the 93 team was relatively to other teams in the standings.

EDIT:

This sent me down nostalgia lane.. and the more I think about it.. the more I think that we're comparable.

Let's compare top players from 92-93 to today.

Gretzky, Lemieux, Hull, Jagr, Robitaille, Yzerman, Sakic, Messier, Fedorov, Mogilny, Lafontaine, Lindros, Forsberg, Francis, Recchi, Oates, Gilmour, Selanne and Bure.

Those are just the forwards. Compare to today... it's sad man. Only Thornton, Crosby, Ovechkin and Malkin can even think of hanging with these guys.

Then if we talk about goalies.. Roy, Hasek and Brodeur... no goalies around today compare to that. Won't even get into dmen.

Perhaps I'm being nostalgic but it seems to me that 92-93 was the golden age... and today there's been a big regression in level of talent since then. So... head to head.. I think the 93 team would have destroyed this team. But it's a different era.. different age..

I don't know.. i'm ranting

 

[Ineverplayedthegame]

I was looking into past teams like Carolina and Tampa. Both actually had pretty good shot totals which surprised me. Tampa was actually near the top of the league in shot differentials.

Boston looks like the weakest one in most recent memory anyway. If Hasek had succeeded that would've been THE miracle win.

I don't think possession metrics work as well as they do now for the 2-3 years after the lockout so it's harder to compare teams. Too much special team time. But I'm pretty sure that the Bruins won the cup with their weakest team since they've been good in recent history(2008-2009 up until now).

Funny thing about the 2005-2006 Hurricanes aside from the freak "injuries to all their opponents" thing.

I don't have the fancy numbers but they were 12th in the NHL in 5v5 goal differential, 17th in PP efficiency and 19th in PK efficiency but... 6th in actual goal differencial. They did that by spending almost 200(!!!) more minutes on the PP than on the PK. Crazy.

 

[Lesglorieux]

We did have Carbo, Odelein, JJD, Desjardins, Brisebois, and Schneider.. Having the ultimate money goalie also helped.

Thinking about it again.. I might have been overly enthusiastic about this year's edition...

But I was speaking more in terms of where we sit in the standings. While I agree that we don't have quite the ingredients that that team had... we are still hanging right where the 93 team was relatively to other teams in the standings.

EDIT:

This sent me down nostalgia lane.. and the more I think about it.. the more I think that we're comparable.

Let's compare top players from 92-93 to today.

Gretzky, Lemieux, Hull, Jagr, Robitaille, Yzerman, Sakic, Messier, Fedorov, Mogilny, Lafontaine, Lindros, Forsberg, Francis, Recchi, Oates, Gilmour, Selanne and Bure.

Those are just the forwards. Compare to today... it's sad man. Only Thornton, Crosby, Ovechkin and Malkin can even think of hanging with these guys.

Then if we talk about goalies.. Roy, Hasek and Brodeur... no goalies around today compare to that. Won't even get into dmen.

Perhaps I'm being nostalgic but it seems to me that 92-93 was the golden age... and today there's been a big regression in level of talent since then. So... head to head.. I think the 93 team would have destroyed this team. But it's a different era.. different age..

I don't know.. i'm ranting

I dunno man its kinda hard to look back on legends and compare them with current players, when you know exactly how all of their careers played out it makes it a little different. But as far as talent goes, we have some pretty damn talented players in the current generation too, Stamkos, Tavares, OV, Crosby, Malkin, Thornton, Giroux, Getzlaf, as well as quite a few others, will probably be looked back on in a similar light as the big boys that you mentioned.

 

[Sined]

Those are just the forwards. Compare to today... it's sad man. Only Thornton, Crosby, Ovechkin and Malkin can even think of hanging with these guys.

Tavares, Stamkos, Giroux, Kopitar, Toews, Kane, etc. ?

 

[MaxDummy]

Price is a member of the team. Do you see arguments weekly about how the Bolts lean too much on Stamkos. TSN can pack their socks and ****.

Well.. They don't.

 

[Lafleurs Guy]

The Roy era team was the best defensive team of its era. They were the Devils before the Devils existed, more similar to a team like Boston or LA in modern times that what Montreal is currently.

Lemaire took the system he developed here (that others inherited) over there. It was the most boring hockey system in the world but you can't say it wasn't effective.

And as good as Patrick Roy was in the cup winning drives (and he was insanely good) he had a lot more defensive support than Price could ever dream of. The mid to late 80s teams were so damn tight defensively. The '93 team not so much defensive-shellish but still very good overall.