HF Habs: 82 games of MSL - The Recap

[xX SEYF Xx]

Felt like forever but MSL finally hit a full season worth of games as head coach with the Canadiens.

Ups and downs, full tanking team, would be unfair to judge the guy based on these results.

The biggest flaw is obviously that power play, players usage has also been questioned a lot.

He on the other hand gave the rookie Ds bigger and bigger responsibilities and they answered well, Caufield is blossoming since his take over, Slaf at 18, slowly being handed more minutes at better lines, too slowly some will argue. Dach 2.0 took the next step...

Mr motivation speechs and great PC quotes also made rookie mistakes at times and gave the deadwood too many chances that can be related to organizational needs management requests and not team performance

When this team will start emerging from this phase is when he will be judged fairly. For now he IMO is the best kind of coach we needed for this transition/rebuild.

Click to read more...

 

[Habs13]

Again... and I'm really getting tired of typing this sort of thing; you can't judge a coach on a tank that is rebuilding and trying to unload unmovable contracts. Judge St. Louis when the team is ready to play proper MSL brand hockey.

 

[xX SEYF Xx]

Cole Caufield

A gem, if anyone was doubting he going to be a 40 goals scorer… there, you fixed.

Would he score 50 in some seasons? Definitely.

please the Suzuki contract soon..

A lock in our top6



Nick Suzuki

Captaincy didn’t derail him after all, lol

Going to be PPG+ player once this team starts playing for more than .500

Never misses a game, smart, slick, calm, cocky at times, 200’ game

A lock in our top6

 

[Miller Time]

Excellent hire.
Has done really great work in a very tough situation.

The mindset, attitude & progress of our young players, despite the losing, speaks highly to the culture he's instilling.

As HuGo keep unpacking the mess MB left behind, we will see progress in the win column. Book it.

Patience & enjoy the ride.

 

[Andy]

The talent the habs have in the lineup is young AF: Suzuki, Caufield, Dach, Slaf, Harris, Guhle, Barron, Xhekaj.

Other than Monahan, all the remaining vets at forward are middle six players (Anderson, Dvorak) or spare parts barely hanging on to their nhl careers.

You simply will not win consistently with 3-4 rookies on D every single night. Matheson, Savard, and Edmundson are good vets, but none are #1 d-men and none of the remaining rookies are as well.

You can have a coaching staff of Bowman, Cooper, and Burns....you will not win consistently with this type of lineup.

What MSL should be judged on is the development on rookies: Suzuki, Caufield, Dach, Guhle, Harris, Xhekaj are on most occasions the best players from game to game. For that he is excelling as a coach. Barron and Slaf are still learning the game, but are trending in a positive direction. In fact, everyone under 24 is trending in the right direction.

People need to stop trying to find peripheral reasons about a tank level roster tanking. The roster is performing to its level. Its not the coaches.

 

[Seb]

I trust him with the development of Slafkovsky, no matter how unpopular it is around here these days.

 

[the]

Amazing coach, he's been doing a great job for the most part.

 

[xX SEYF Xx]

Rookie Ds with decent average TOI

Kaiden Guhle

Arber Xhekaj

Jordan Harris

Johnathan Kovacevic

Justin Barron

 

[Vachon23]

Shows really good qualities for a HC and he does have a really good potential but he will need an experience assistant coach with him next year that will help him in certain situations.

 

[BLONG7]

It's early...........but we have to think that MSL has been doing a good job.
The PP and PK are miserable, so there is a ton of work there to do...........
As others have mentioned, and asst or associate coach would be great to add to his bench.............Burrows can go back to Laval.

 

[Zilo44]

I don't think many coaches would have taken the tanking job needed.

Props to MSL for accepting that challenge. Good 1st year so far considering the lineup he has.

 

[WeThreeKings]

Turf Burrows and add some experience to the staff.

That's really the issue right now.

I mean Letowski can go too. but Burrows sucks.

 

[Leon Lucius Black]

The hiring of Robidas has also been underrated AF. For most of the year, he's been able to make a D core with 3-4 rookies at a time look very respectable.

Hopefully MSL can bring in his own guy to replace Burrows next.

 

[AlexGretzchenvid]

Personally, not matter how good Slaf has played some shifts he never should be lifted off the 4th line. That’s where he should be learning with easy minutes and with guys like peseta and Evans who can shoot and pass and cycle that’s where his home should have been this season. Not with trade bait.

 

[AlexGretzchenvid]

The talent the habs have in the lineup is young AF: Suzuki, Caufield, Dach, Slaf, Harris, Guhle, Barron, Xhekaj.

Other than Monahan, all the remaining vets at forward are middle six players (Anderson, Dvorak) or spare parts barely hanging on to their nhl careers.

You simply will not win consistently with 3-4 rookies on D every single night. Matheson, Savard, and Edmundson are good vets, but none are #1 d-men and none of the remaining rookies are as well.

You can have a coaching staff of Bowman, Cooper, and Burns....you will not win consistently with this type of lineup.

What MSL should be judged on is the development on rookies: Suzuki, Caufield, Dach, Guhle, Harris, Xhekaj are on most occasions the best players from game to game. For that he is excelling as a coach. Barron and Slaf are still learning the game, but are trending in a positive direction. In fact, everyone under 24 is trending in the right direction.

People need to stop trying to find peripheral reasons about a tank level roster tanking. The roster is performing to its level. Its not the coaches.

It’s funny… of all those young promising players only 2 are a product of Hughes.. Dach and Barron.

Slaf was a product of Price Weber and etc going down to injury..

 

[Vachon23]

Burrows and Letowski out

Todd Richards and Marc Savard in

 

[Andy]

It’s funny… of all those young promising players only 2 are a product of Hughes.. Dach and Barron.

Slaf was a product of Price Weber and etc going down to injury..

Okay?

 

[AlexGretzchenvid]

Okay?

It’s just bergevins parting gifts lol

 

[MonkeyBusiness]

He doesn't have much to work with, and he gives our prospects the best chance to flourish, in comparison with all of our previous coaches. I'm a fan of his. You could probably make a case that we're overachieving this season and a large part of that is thanks to him.