Post-Game Talk: 2016-2017 Postmortem - "It's on me" Edition

[Barilko]

PK for Weber was a bad trade
MB has no idea how to build a contending roster, as evidenced by his inability to address key need areas
Pacioretty is not a leader, nor a player that competes hard when the intensity & physicality of the game rises


These weren't pessimism, they were observations grounded on considerable evidence, which this most recent playoff disappointment highlighted and reinforced.


While it is convenient to dismiss viewpoints that conflict with ones own by labelling them, a dose of humility to acknowledge when ones opinion gets disproven is a much more constructive option.


While the hyperbole and emotions can make all of us a little crazy sometimes, grounded criticism, just like grounded positive reflections are possible without it being all one or the other.

This playoff failure rest solely on MB's shoulders. Period.

The team lost for lack of offense & goal scoring, a weakness that was evident all year yet none of his in-season additions addressed (or had any hope of addressing) those needs.
The core is aging and our best offensive player is a UFA, perhaps the most coveted one in a weak class.
The organizational depth at C position is possibly league worst (especially if Galch is done here).

There are some bright spots...
danault looks like a great 3rd line C
Lekhonen is a gem of a player
Pleks showed he still has ability to contribute and play quality hockey when it matters
Gallagher further cemented his heart & soul leadership
Julien, while far from perfect, is a huge upgrade behind the bench


But overall.... if MB remains in place, this franchise is going nowhere but down (or as far as Price's knees will carry us).

as PaulD stated a must read for all Hab fans

Great post "Miller Time"

 

[hockeyfan2k11]

First off, LShap gets it in his responses. Nice dose of reality.

To your point.

The Rangers aren't a better team than the Habs. For whatever reason, the NHL refs have taken it upon themselves to take sides in the playoffs. The Bruins are getting screwed. So are the Caps. The Wild and the Blue Jackets. And the Habs.

All series long, it was ok for the Rangers to try to literally kill Gallagher. Head first into the boards? No problem. High stick that caused blood? No 4, you get a two. Slashing, interference, hooking? No problem. And I'm ok with "letting them play" if that's what happens. But then you see Benn barely grab a Rangers player and they get the pp that the midget shot the puck through Price.

But that's really an excuse.

What really needs to happen, and will happen, is a cleaning of the house of our associate coaches. Muller has to go. Cycling along the boards without a player in the slot is pointless. No offensive structure. No structure on the PP. No net presence. That's why the Habs lost.

It can and will be fixed. Net presence has always been a hallmark of Julien teams.

As far as personnel on the roster, I'll leave that to the armchair GMs who are always right on the Internet. Surely someone will be able to convince Molson to read their posts here.

Go Habs Go!! On to next season.

You were so confident this year after the cancer was removed. I guess you're doubling down now.

Blaming the officiating. Are you stooping that low?

 

[David Suzuki]

Not pessimism. More like trolling. There's a handful of posters who do not even log in when the team is winning. It's pretty clear who I am talking about.

 

[Phenom]

Patches = Gutless pathetic lazy ass bum. Year after year.
Plekachu = Little European soft girl. Out dated.
Markov = Slow and old. Respect the general but his time is due.
Galchenyuk = Wow this kid. Used to love him but he's brain dead or something.
Core = Needs to change asap.
Me = drank my pain away and woke up still drunk.

 

[mariolemieux66]

In the same breath as you say we need to trade our 30 point Dman. Nate and chuckie will be let go, but not because its the right thing to do, but because the stupid media(thanks RDS) put it into the local populations head that one is a winger and the other is terrible, even while being our 3rd best dman while playing 5-6 D most of the year.

Did you like the D last night? I sure as hell didn't. Markov has one maybe 2 good seasons at best left and he IS our best dman, yep the 38 year old is our best dman. Weber was OK, thats it! We are talking 8 million Dman not Kronwall on detroit. Karlsson vs weber..bahahaha trade them Weber and patches for EK and we would be a better team.

Petry...meh 5.5 million for that with a NMC. LOL woowee. Emelin? Davidson, Nesterov...Seriously that is not a good D squad.
2 #2 Dmen, 2 #4 dmen and 3 #7 dmen.

This team is horrid. The barn that burningbin built.

Yep! This team is really bad amd thats without talking about the quality of the players we have in the AHL and prospect from junior leagues. We got nothing that's coming would will make a big impact on the team for years to come.

 

[The Nightman]

First off, LShap gets it in his responses. Nice dose of reality.

To your point.

The Rangers aren't a better team than the Habs. For whatever reason, the NHL refs have taken it upon themselves to take sides in the playoffs. The Bruins are getting screwed. So are the Caps. The Wild and the Blue Jackets. And the Habs.

All series long, it was ok for the Rangers to try to literally kill Gallagher. Head first into the boards? No problem. High stick that caused blood? No 4, you get a two. Slashing, interference, hooking? No problem. And I'm ok with "letting them play" if that's what happens. But then you see Benn barely grab a Rangers player and they get the pp that the midget shot the puck through Price.

But that's really an excuse.

What really needs to happen, and will happen, is a cleaning of the house of our associate coaches. Muller has to go. Cycling along the boards without a player in the slot is pointless. No offensive structure. No structure on the PP. No net presence. That's why the Habs lost.

It can and will be fixed. Net presence has always been a hallmark of Julien teams.

As far as personnel on the roster, I'll leave that to the armchair GMs who are always right on the Internet. Surely someone will be able to convince Molson to read their posts here.

Go Habs Go!! On to next season.

The refs... Really? PP was garbage either way.

Shouldn't you be banging on your drum to have Weber traded for some offence? Isn't that what you like to do with overpaid defencemen that perform well in the playoffs but don't even get a whiff of the cup?

Weber for a forward, right?

 

[WeThreeKings]

Not pessimism. More like trolling. There's a handful of posters who do not even log in when the team is winning. It's pretty clear who I am talking about.

Well they never win in the playoffs, so it's normal that more people talk during the playoffs and it aligns with them losing.

1.8 goals per game

 

[Hoople]

You were so confident this year after the cancer was removed. I guess you're doubling down now.

Blaming the officiating. Are you stooping that low?

Still will remain optimistic as a fan. The Habs bounced back from being out of the playoffs and back in again.

Julien will assemble a better staff for next season to utilize the forwards better.

I'll answer your question with a question(s). Did Davidson bleed? Did Gallagher get driven head first into the boards?

And yeah, I'm still happy as **** that PK is in Nashville. Cheers.

 

[Hoople]

The refs... Really? PP was garbage either way.

Shouldn't you be banging on your drum to have Weber traded for some offence? Isn't that what you like to do with overpaid defencemen that perform well in the playoffs but don't even get a whiff of the cup?

Weber for a forward, right?

No. I still like Weber. Cheers.

 

[The Nightman]

No. I still like Weber. Cheers.

Interesting and convenient change in perspective, or double standard from you... Especially when the offence is just as bad or even worse than it was with PK. Now it's the assistant coaches' fault. wow. Simple as that.

 

[River Meadow]

I'm so glad I decided to stop watching after game 4. I didn't waste my time, therefore I won!

I hate the feeling of being out of control that you get as a fan. You really have no control over what is going on. All you can do is watch in frustration as incompetent management, coaches, and captains make blunder after blunder.

All I can control is my life, and my destiny. It's better to spend my time focused on what I can control, so that I can win the "Stanley Cup" of success in life.

Cute.

 

[mariolemieux66]

I am so happy this team lost yesterday and are playing golf now.

I lost interest in the team until Subban came to the team, I've now lost my interest again that he's gone. Team has no identity, they play boring hockey and isn't going anywhere for many years.

 

[Sorinth]

And you were wrong. Shaw outscored Eller in less games. Sorry man -- this is the example you chose and you swung and missed.

Well Shaw was brought in for the playoffs more then anything else and he had 0 points in 5 games. So regardless of whether he's better/worse then Eller, it's been a failure in terms of an acquisition so far.


As for the regular season, it looks like the big difference is power play time for Shaw and short handed time for Eller. At ES they produced at similar paces.

Here's the actual breakdown per 60min
Shaw
ESP/60: 1.49 (7 points)
PPP/60: 2.95 (22 points)
SHP/60: 0.00 (0 points)

Eller
ESP/60: 1.47 (23 points)
PPP/60: 4.18 (1 point)
SHP/60: 0.34 (1 point)

Looks like it's pretty much a wash, but cost us better picks and more money/term.

 

[Top Corner2]

Price was outplayed by Lundqvist

Galchenyuk was horrible

Overall the D corps was outplayed by the Rangers D, especially after the top 3.

The series was lost when the Habs let the Rangers back into game #5. Still it was a very close series and we lost to a very good team. I'm mostly concerned about Galchenyuk. He ended a lot of potential scoring chances by losing the puck. He might not be what we hoped he would be.

This team is good, but not great and still needs an offensive catalyst that I think everyone expected was going to be Chucky. The D corps needs to be more solid as a whole.

 

[expy]

I don't know how some are lacing Danault ahead of Pacioretty in terms of performance in the playoffs. Danault is, in my opinion the sole reason the 1st line couldn't get anything done. Danault lost every battle for the puck and seemed lost most of the time. So who's going to get Pacioretty or Radulov the puck in prime scoring areas?

 

[habergeon]

The problem is the Canadiens make ton's of money. **** tons of it, regardless if they win or lose.

We can blame Bergevain, Patches, Claude, whomever you want...

But please remember this **** train starts and ends with Molson.

If you want to effect change, stop drinking the beer, stop going to their sponsored events and avoid any of their products / partners until they approach hockey with the same passion as the fan base and the City.

This whole off season to me will be summed up by Molson's actions. If he doesn't fire Bergevain and put a new regime in place, it will be more of the same ol smoke and mirrors while he prints money with this franchise.

 

[Habsawce]

The refs... Really? PP was garbage either way.

Shouldn't you be banging on your drum to have Weber traded for some offence? Isn't that what you like to do with overpaid defencemen that perform well in the playoffs but don't even get a whiff of the cup?

Weber for a forward, right?

I'd trade Weber for a high end forward. Even a blue chip forward and a couple picks. This team has Carey Price, and if they aren't going to rebuild, they need to put pucks in the net to win games.

Trade Weber for offense and spend some cap on Alzner. Also, get rid of Emelin and sign Markov for less than 5 million. Oh, and get a god damn centre. This is ridiculous.

 

[beowulf]

Are there really Habs fans who want Price traded? What a sad state of affairs...

 

[Hoople]

I am so happy this team lost yesterday and are playing golf now.

.

Was there ever a doubt about this?

 

[Habsawce]

Are there really Habs fans who want Price traded? What a sad state of affairs...

If they want to tear it down, you have to trade Price now while he has a year left and is in his prime. If they want to re-tool, you'd have to be insane to trade him. There's a difference between wanting to trade him because they blame him, or wanting to trade him for the betterment of the franchise in the long run if they're rebuilding.

 

[mariolemieux66]

Was there ever a doubt about this?

How is your cold glass of kool-aid this morning?