Post-Game Talk: Gorton & Hughes End of Season Media Avail 9:30Am EST

[The Real Timo]

I will say, the pp had a lot of good movement down the stretch. But there were years on end when it was static before that.

My perception is that HAbs would be infinitely better if they had an actual systems and not man on man BS they've been doing for the past 3 years. PK is still bad. Play in own zone is still bad. These coaches have done their job. Time to get the next level coaching take over. But here we are. Stuck another 3 years with this crew.

 

[BLONG7]

My perception is that HAbs would be infinitely better if they had an actual systems and not man on man BS they've been doing for the past 3 years. PK is still bad. Play in own zone is still bad. These coaches have done their job. Time to get the next level coaching take over. But here we are. Stuck another 3 years with this crew.

Man on man in our end is beyond awful, we usually have a pick situation that doesn't get called and it's in the back of our net.
We have to be better to get out of our zone, and play WITH the puck. Running around in our zone, and getting outshot 35 - 17 some nights has me stop watching....
The coaches have a ton of growth and learning to do also.....

 

[BLONG7]

I have big faith with Gorton and Hughes. They do a amazing job since day one.

Agreed................this summer and next season there needs to be big steps toward the goal, and maybe even da playoff.................now that said we will get better but playoffs are unlikely.
For me, I gave Bergevin 3 years, and I can give these guys 3 years also, especially cleaning up the former GM's mess.

I really like where this is heading, but we all need to stay tuned, to see if they can make the tough decisions. The one thing I didn't like this past season was the 3 goalie fiasco, it turned out ok but it was beyond stupid while it was going on.

 

[Scintillating10]

it's not happening. I think they should deal him too, but a local kid who just had a 62 pt season? not happening.

Pretty much well, yup. Hard to trade Matheson

 

[BJCOLLINS]

Agreed................this summer and next season there needs to be big steps toward the goal, and maybe even da playoff.................now that said we will get better but playoffs are unlikely.
For me, I gave Bergevin 3 years, and I can give these guys 3 years also, especially cleaning up the former GM's mess.

I really like where this is heading, but we all need to stay tuned, to see if they can make the tough decisions. The one thing I didn't like this past season was the 3 goalie fiasco, it turned out ok but it was beyond stupid while it was going on.

Yeah I was certain the best we could do with Jake Allen was a “future consideration's” type move. So when we got a 3rd* I was shocked. HuGo praised Jake for his positive influence & professionalism with our kids so, the 3rd* plus a top 5 draft spot….I’m happy with the overall outcome.

 

[26Mats]

Yeah I was certain the best we could do with Jake Allen was a “future consideration's” type move. So when we got a 3rd* I was shocked. HuGo praised Jake for his positive influence & professionalism with our kids so, the 3rd* plus a top 5 draft spot….I’m happy with the overall outcome.

We got the 3rd/2nd for retaining 50% of Allen's salary. But yeah, that's still on the higher end of what I would have expected to get even with 50% retention. It will be interesting to see the Devils goaltending situation next year. Allen may hit the game mark that makes the pick a 2nd.

 

[BJCOLLINS]

We got the 3rd/2nd for retaining 50% of Allen's salary. But yeah, that's still on the higher end of what I would have expected to get even with 50% retention. It will be interesting to see the Devils goaltending situation next year. Allen may hit the game mark that makes the pick a 2nd.

Allen has to play in 40 games AND they have to make the playoffs in order for the pick to flip to a second.

 

[Boss Man Hughes]

Allen has to play in 40 games AND they have to make the playoffs in order for the pick to flip to a second.

I believe it's 40 games including playoffs regardless of what team he is on.

 

[jaffy27]

I will say, the pp had a lot of good movement down the stretch. But there were years on end when it was static before that.

Kind of coincides with the influx of talent.

You can’t produce on the PP without the horses.

Our second wave sucks….but I reckon if Dach is healthy, we trade for a top 6, the arrival of Hutson and his vision, we should see our PP rise to another level.

 

[CHwest]

Look at the trend line. We’ve improved. If the team learns to close out games, we would already be closer to the playoffs.

I also think Hughes has a lot to do before he deserves actual praise but the team *has* been trending the right way and endured an obnoxious amount of injuries in the process.

Of course we don’t have sufficient depth to cover a long injury to one of our four or five prime players but I think everybody is aware of this fact.

Funny enough, while I wouldn’t begrudge a top6 forward addition but I think shoring up the bottom6 would do a world of good too. We basically had fifth liners all season. If we bring in better depth, we will achieve much better results.

I like the way the team plays, they work hard, they seem to enjoy each other and they are improving. Defense I think will get a lot better but we need offense, a star would be awesome, maybe this draft.

 

[26Mats]

Kind of coincides with the influx of talent.

You can’t produce on the PP without the horses.

Our second wave sucks….but I reckon if Dach is healthy, we trade for a top 6, the arrival of Hutson and his vision, we should see our PP rise to another level.

Right now:

PP1
Dach
Caufield Suzuki Slaf
Matheson

PP2
Armia/Dvo/Gally/Anderson
Newhook RHP Roy
Hutson

I always liked RHP in the bumper, though I don't know if he can repeat what he did his rookie year.
PP2 could use 1 or 2 more top six forwards.

 

[CHwest]

All you guys are selling the job that Hughes has done very short, you must have short memories.

Our hero MB left us a straight-up last place team that was somehow in cap hell. We didn't have any flexibility and he had managed to sign so many bad contracts it was insane, the ones that are left are just the lasting hangover.

The job Hughes has done to create flexibility and work his way out of that situation and into where we are today is not 'the easy part', it is impressive what he has accomplished so far. It would be hard to point at a single move and say that it was an outright mistake.

In my opinion then new management has done wonders, everything about Monahan trades spells competency. Almost everything the bin man did smells of incompetence. I don't think he could have even imagined the Monahan trades in a wet dream.

 

[habbubba]

Heard the presser, that was predictable wasn't it. As expected, already tempering fans expectations for next season. Just going to let things play out it seems, no surprises there, might as well get that tank thread up and running. They sold the rebuild claptrap and the fanbase bought it, it's all gravy now and no microscope for ownership and management. If you're not doing all you can do to ice the best roster possible, might as well go the tanking route. I was no Bergevin fan but he had the burden of trying to win where as this management group doesn't have that, no scrutiny, no microscope, no fan expectations of winning, the gravy train is a real thing. Molson must be happier than a pig in shit.

 

[Gaylord Q Tinkledink]

Heard the presser, that was predictable wasn't it. As expected, already tempering fans expectations for next season. Just going to let things play out it seems, no surprises there, might as well get that tank thread up and running. They sold the rebuild claptrap and the fanbase bought it, it's all gravy now and no microscope for ownership and management. If you're not doing all you can do to ice the best roster possible, might as well go the tanking route. I was no Bergevin fan but he had the burden of trying to win where as this management group doesn't have that, no scrutiny, no microscope, no fan expectations of winning, the gravy train is a real thing. Molson must be happier than a pig in shit.

This management has that rebuild because there was nothing really going on. The team Bergevin built was so bad that they ended up finishing last. If that wasn't an indicator that this team that was built by Bergevin was ass, I don't know what is.

They talked about playing meaningful games, which means competing for a playoff spot. Yes, they're not saying playoffs, or just, but they're looking for an improvement in the team. How you took that as status quo is beyond me.

They even talked about making deals to get better forwards/forward depth and likely having to trade out D.

 

[Miller Time]

Heard the presser, that was predictable wasn't it. As expected, already tempering fans expectations for next season. Just going to let things play out it seems, no surprises there, might as well get that tank thread up and running. They sold the rebuild claptrap and the fanbase bought it, it's all gravy now and no microscope for ownership and management. If you're not doing all you can do to ice the best roster possible, might as well go the tanking route. I was no Bergevin fan but he had the burden of trying to win where as this management group doesn't have that, no scrutiny, no microscope, no fan expectations of winning, the gravy train is a real thing. Molson must be happier than a pig in shit.

What?

Bargainbin took over the team at a time where expectations were very low, and sold a "build via draft" long term approach that the owner, media and fans all bought into.

he failed miserably in executing that because his actions never matched his stated vision... polar opposite of what we are seeing now.

 

[montreal]

What?

Bargainbin took over the team at a time where expectations were very low, and sold a "build via draft" long term approach that the owner, media and fans all bought into.

he failed miserably in executing that because his actions never matched his stated vision... polar opposite of what we are seeing now.

that's because he flipped flopped between rebuilding and going for it. Remember the letter Molson sent out over the summer about the rebuild and how it could take 7 or 8 years (i forget) and then the next summer he said the rebuild was over.

Leadership starts from the top, clearly Molson was in over his head, he made poor hires, couldn't evaluate them properly to figure out he had problems until it was way, way too late, that's highly troubling when someone makes too many mistakes and then you are still in pace to fix those mistakes. Hopefully once he hired Gorton he's no longer involved in any decisions outside of approving any bigger money moves or issues related to money since it's his money.

 

[Shutdown]

Heard the presser, that was predictable wasn't it. As expected, already tempering fans expectations for next season. Just going to let things play out it seems, no surprises there, might as well get that tank thread up and running. They sold the rebuild claptrap and the fanbase bought it, it's all gravy now and no microscope for ownership and management. If you're not doing all you can do to ice the best roster possible, might as well go the tanking route. I was no Bergevin fan but he had the burden of trying to win where as this management group doesn't have that, no scrutiny, no microscope, no fan expectations of winning, the gravy train is a real thing. Molson must be happier than a pig in shit.

seems to me like you heard what you wanted to hear as opposed to what was actually said

 

[Seb]

Heard the presser, that was predictable wasn't it. As expected, already tempering fans expectations for next season. Just going to let things play out it seems, no surprises there, might as well get that tank thread up and running. They sold the rebuild claptrap and the fanbase bought it, it's all gravy now and no microscope for ownership and management. If you're not doing all you can do to ice the best roster possible, might as well go the tanking route. I was no Bergevin fan but he had the burden of trying to win where as this management group doesn't have that, no scrutiny, no microscope, no fan expectations of winning, the gravy train is a real thing. Molson must be happier than a pig in shit.

I have no idea how you can watch the past two seasons and come away with this conclusion.

Have you not seen Hughes get rid of awful contracts?

Have you not seen Hughes build from the draft?

Have you not seen prospects progressing?

Did you expect the team to be competitive after 1 year of tanking?