Post-Game Talk: A Scientific Phenomena-Habs Shutout Again-(3-1 Down in Series)

[CauZuki]

This is a 24th placed team for a reason..

We lack a dynamic offensive talent on the blue-line.. we need a Hughes, Makar, prime Subban type.. we don't have that.
We lack a game breaker on the wing..
We lack talent on the wings..
We lack talent with size..
We lack some punishers on the bottom 6.

That's a lot to address and it won't get done before Price and Weber age out and Gallagher breaks down.

Invest in the KK-Suzuki window.

It's not like we don't have good pieces already (but unfortunately nothing blue chip) , I really like the following prospects:

Forwards :

- Caufield
- Ylonen
- Poehling
- Hillis

Defenseman :

- Romanov
- Brook
- Struble
- Norlinder

Goaltending :

- Primeau

That to me points to having nice depth but I'm not convinced most of these players will hit their real potential as it seems we have no real elite talent (except for KK/Suzuki or even Caufield which (imo) have that ceiling). I certainly see a team that needs to keep adding new talent through the draft and not trying to compete to make Price and Weber's window work , which has been the vision for a while now and is not only counterintuitive but means that at best we are a middling team where everything has to go right to have even the smallest amount of success. We want a top team that competes year after year but it seems we will never get there as for some reason our standards have dropped and we aren't allowed to judge our teams based on their results. It's always some excuse , Price was injured , Weber was injured , we had bad luck , it's the refs , nobody wants to come to Montreal...It's a loser mentality and it has to end.

Invest in the youth and reap the rewards from that model , not picking a direction just leads to middling and high chances of failure. It's really too bad that we got roped into the playoffs this year as we literally have a scenario where we aren't good but aren't getting a rebuilding piece as we would any other year...

 

[salbutera]

I like the D prospects more than forward, at least the one forward prospect is a high end sniper with an elite shot to go with it

 

[26Mats]

I like the D prospects more than forward, at least the one forward prospect is a high end sniper with an elite shot to go with it

That's because 2 of the best forward prospects have graduated - KK and Suzuki. While others from their draft years (Fleury, Brook, Romanov, Harris) aren't yet ready.

 

[salbutera]

That's because 2 of the best forward prospects have graduated - KK and Suzuki. While others from their draft years (Fleury, Brook, Romanov, Harris) aren't yet ready.

There’s just more depth at D and I’ve never been impressed with TTs ability to evaluate offensive skills. Lucky and great for the org that Caufield fell on their lap, but offensive skill evaluation is a black hole with this org for a loooong time now

 

[26Mats]

There’s just more depth at D and I’ve never been impressed with TTs ability to evaluate offensive skills. Lucky and great for the org that Caufield fell on their lap, but offensive skill evaluation is a black hole with this org for a loooong time now

I agree with all that.

I also agree that if you consider KK and Suzuki as graduated, we're better on D. Plus there's Evan's. I think Evans may have a bright future.

So again if you look at our drafting, 100%. I hope TT keeps taking dmen, because that will at least give us the assets to trade for forwards, instead of waiting picks.

But if you look at the state of the young players, say 25 and under, it's a little closer.

Still our biggest need is up front. But I hope TT keeps drafting D to fill the needs up front. So I think we're onnthe same page.

Domi KK Caufield
Poehling Suzuki Drouin
Ylonen Evans Hillis
Ikonen Olofsson Arsen, Harvey-Pinard, Stapley

Romanov Brook
Struble Norlinder
Mete Juulsen
Harris Fleury
Fairbrother

Primeau etc

 

[Doc McKenna]

The colour guys disdain for the Habs is palpable and embarrassing for a Canadian team to have to endure. Freakin turds.

That would be Craig "I plowed my battle of the blades partner, and broke up her marriage" Simpson. His sister Christine is one of the interview people as well.

 

[Hannibal]

It's not like we don't have good pieces already (but unfortunately nothing blue chip) , I really like the following prospects:

Forwards :

- Caufield
- Ylonen
- Poehling
- Hillis

Defenseman :

- Romanov
- Brook
- Struble
- Norlinder

Goaltending :

- Primeau

That to me points to having nice depth but I'm not convinced most of these players will hit their real potential as it seems we have no real elite talent (except for KK/Suzuki or even Caufield which (imo) have that ceiling). I certainly see a team that needs to keep adding new talent through the draft and not trying to compete to make Price and Weber's window work , which has been the vision for a while now and is not only counterintuitive but means that at best we are a middling team where everything has to go right to have even the smallest amount of success. We want a top team that competes year after year but it seems we will never get there as for some reason our standards have dropped and we aren't allowed to judge our teams based on their results. It's always some excuse , Price was injured , Weber was injured , we had bad luck , it's the refs , nobody wants to come to Montreal...It's a loser mentality and it has to end.

Invest in the youth and reap the rewards from that model , not picking a direction just leads to middling and high chances of failure. It's really too bad that we got roped into the playoffs this year as we literally have a scenario where we aren't good but aren't getting a rebuilding piece as we would any other year...

Thats average at best.

We lost a shot at Laff or the 9th pick for this. Lolz

But dat precious experiences!

 

[LaP]

Looking forward to finding out which Bell Centre concession fast food is getting an upgrade.

I think the bathrooms will be getting an update this year.

 

[LaP]

Thats average at best.

We lost a shot at Laff or the 9th pick for this. Lolz

But dat precious experiences!

I would not say it's average. It's good. But it's not top. Also people underestimate the fact our best players are getting old. Price (33), Weber (35) and Petry (33 next december) will all slow down in the next 5 years. Those are big pieces to replace. They will still be here but they wont bring the same level of performance as right now.

Just replacing those players production would already a significant accomplishment from our prospect pool. But the thing is they need to eventually replace those players production and also significantly improve the team. Personally i don't see it. We had to sell at the deadline. I might be wrong but i strongly believe we had to sell.

 

[angusyoung]

I make the effort to watch that putrid product, you'd think at least the players could do is have some pride and semblance of effort. Thankfully no one had to pay and go see that crap,I'd be livid had I payed.

 

[ahmedou]

 

[Tyson]

That's my point. Just like ALLLLLLLLLLLL the trades wins Bergevin is so great at. None of them matters. At all. Insane. How can you win so much....and still not win?

There is no way Suzuki passes to Gallagher in the near future. 'Cause JK will have to pass to Caufield. There is no way that we won't have injuries with a small lineup throughout a season. And in the playoffs. So there's no way Domi is still with us. No way should Drouin still be with us. Armia is the biggest guy yet so disspaointing. People love Byron little feet..but he ain't doing much. Tatar dissapears in playoffs.

And people keep saying how future looks great? This is funny as hell. Future always looks awesome. Josh Brook looked insane. Collberg looked like the next great winger. Galchy looked like our next No1 C. Lindgren looked like the next one. The only reason why future looks so great right now is because future is a big question mark. Every prospect in juniors always looks great. Not that long ago, McShane and Fonstad were proving to be huge assets and huge depth for this team. Where are they now?

We can safely say that NOT in the Habs lineup today, the guy that WILL help next year is Romanov. So he plays alongside Weber. And frankly, that will be a very good pairing. Making Chiarot and Petry another pair, a very good pairing. A really fine top 4. Depth D is still to be determined. But up front...there's still NOTHING. Poehling if not traded might fit in the 4th. Evans too. Will that change the offensive of this team? Of course not. After 8 years ago, it's still going to back to the drawing board.

And note to people....Bergevin's contract ends in 2022.....won't be fired. And will probably be renewed.

Agreed on EVERYTHING you said

 

[Istvan]

No pandemic, no profoundly undeserved playoff spot for the Habs. Management is consistently mediocre eg. Bergevin's extension after proving that he was a poor GM. The team can only espouse it's glory days for so long without addressing the present. There has been no clear/consistent plan for years. The "invaluable" experience of playoffs would likely benefit Poehling, Fleury, Juulsen etc. moreso than Weise, Belzile and Ouellet. " .....With no direction home.....Like a rolling stone".

 

[Rapala]

i just had my f***ing heart ripped out watching that game....

nightmares of 2010 coming to life

how does Drouin not hit the net? How could Philly take no interference/hooking calls? So many questions.

We'll win game 5 only to lose game 6 1-0.

I f***ing hate the flyers, anyone who gushes over them needs to take a seat. They have been awful in the series and we've just been worse.

Nothing like 2010 other than we will lose the series. In 2010 we out played the Flyers except in one aspect which was net front. In this series we are having a hard time establishing any zone time whatsoever PP or otherwise. Getting beyond the red line is a small victory.

 

[Rapala]

Just remember..

we over-reacted to losing to the Bruins by trading up for Jared Tinordi. It didn't help.
We over-reacted to losing to the Ottawa Senators by selecting Michael McCarron. It didn't help.

We felt we were too small going into the play-offs against the Rangers, so instead of adding scoring, we added Ott, King, and Martinsen. We scored 1.8 goals per game and were out in 6 games.

It's just such an easy complaint "oh we're too small", but if swapped out Byron, Lehkonen and Tatar with some bigger guys around the league.. do you think that suddenly Domi, Drouin and Armia are going to transform into game breaking talents?

The size and talent quotient has to add up. The guys who have both are top picks for the most part and of course we get almost none of them. The other way is to find a sleeper who develops late we've always tended to draft the smaller players who show some skill but never the bigger guys who can skate and shoot. I'm of the impression the skills may develop at a much much higher ratio than growth at that point. You absolutely need a good balance of both in today's NHL.

 

[Kriss E]

I thought we would never see how Drouin and Domi would do in the playoffs for us yet we somehow find a way to make it to the playoffs. Expected them to lead our offense and boy did they shat the bed big time. We had two f***ing teenagers leading our offense group instead.

I usually rather blame the management but man, these twos are having a gutless performance.

Can't wait to get rid of them.

To be fair to Domi, he gambled his life giving his medical condition to come play with the team and they thank him by.....making him the 4th line center....
Sure, he got finally moved up last couple of games but still, that would have annoyed me big time.

So I'm more willing to give Domi a pass here, but Drouin...he's just not that good and needs to GTFO.

Anyways, have said this for quite some time, I absolutely despise how our team is built. It's such a dull and boring hockey club, so much so that people are getting super excited that a young kid is finally skating around and actually delivering checks...
Never thought I'd say this but it makes me miss the Lapierre-Begin-Kostopoulos days..These guys weren't super talented but they'd skate hard, check, annoy the piss out of the opponents and drop the mitts to spark something...
How does this team go scoreless for two games and nobody drops the gloves to express their anger/frustration.

Would be great to see our alleged King of Leaders ragdoll someone trying to send a message to his troops.
Do something f***. What a sad ass team we have.

 

[Kriss E]

Just remember..

we over-reacted to losing to the Bruins by trading up for Jared Tinordi. It didn't help.
We over-reacted to losing to the Ottawa Senators by selecting Michael McCarron. It didn't help.

We felt we were too small going into the play-offs against the Rangers, so instead of adding scoring, we added Ott, King, and Martinsen. We scored 1.8 goals per game and were out in 6 games.

It's just such an easy complaint "oh we're too small", but if swapped out Byron, Lehkonen and Tatar with some bigger guys around the league.. do you think that suddenly Domi, Drouin and Armia are going to transform into game breaking talents?

Forget talent, just give me Begin-Lapierre-Kostopoulos, at least I'd be more entertained from Lapierre trolling everyone, Begin skating as hard as he can to go hit someone and Kostopoulos dropping the gloves versus anybody even if he lost 99% of his fights.

 

[Rapala]

If this is what it takes for "repercussions" to happen, then the playoffs gifted via the current format may have had an ultimate benefit. Not that they needed this to know as most fans were already aware. Sometimes it takes longer for the message to reach the top.

Repercussions from who? HFHabs?
What a joke.

 

[Hannibal]

When was the last time one of our forward made a big hit on the forcheck lol?

Cant even remember what it feels like.

Une gang de pouceux de puck.

 

[Rapala]

This team is in shamble and requires a total rebuild, not a retool or a reset or whatever term Bergevin uses. This team needs to change its core and identity. They need to infuse young offensive talent; on offense and defense. Petry, as good as he is, was the best "available" d-man out there at the deadline. A 6'3 mobile, good puck handler right handed d-man with one year left on his contract....Bergevin should have jumped on that. Teams would have paid a premium for Petry. As for Byron, he should have been traded when he had those back-to-back 20 goal seasons and his contract was up. Should have been traded at the deadline. Wouldn't have surprised me if someone ponied up a late 1st for him back then.

Once MB loses his job. He is going into the investment business. How would you like to have him handle your asset and wealth management?

 

[NotProkofievian]

If this is what it takes for "repercussions" to happen, then the playoffs gifted via the current format may have had an ultimate benefit. Not that they needed this to know as most fans were already aware. Sometimes it takes longer for the message to reach the top.

Arpon is such a f***ing shill.

 

[Kriss E]

It's not like we don't have good pieces already (but unfortunately nothing blue chip) , I really like the following prospects:

Forwards :

- Caufield
- Ylonen
- Poehling
- Hillis

Defenseman :

- Romanov
- Brook
- Struble
- Norlinder

Goaltending :

- Primeau

That to me points to having nice depth but I'm not convinced most of these players will hit their real potential as it seems we have no real elite talent (except for KK/Suzuki or even Caufield which (imo) have that ceiling). I certainly see a team that needs to keep adding new talent through the draft and not trying to compete to make Price and Weber's window work , which has been the vision for a while now and is not only counterintuitive but means that at best we are a middling team where everything has to go right to have even the smallest amount of success. We want a top team that competes year after year but it seems we will never get there as for some reason our standards have dropped and we aren't allowed to judge our teams based on their results. It's always some excuse , Price was injured , Weber was injured , we had bad luck , it's the refs , nobody wants to come to Montreal...It's a loser mentality and it has to end.

Invest in the youth and reap the rewards from that model , not picking a direction just leads to middling and high chances of failure. It's really too bad that we got roped into the playoffs this year as we literally have a scenario where we aren't good but aren't getting a rebuilding piece as we would any other year...

The problem is it's too late for this dumb ass management to invest in the youngsters now. The kids are not ready or good enough, but we won't trade veterans for other young talents to tank and have to do another 2-4 years of a rebuild. No way Bergevin can do this now after being supposed to miss the POs 4/5 years.
This guy needs to start producing results. Having interesting prospects is not enough and likely leads to nowhere anyways.

 

[Rapala]

Thats average at best.

We lost a shot at Laff or the 9th pick for this. Lolz

But dat precious experiences!

Yeah it's pretty hilarious. The playoff experience we probably aren't going to need for another couple of seasons at least and maybe more since we totally messed up our draft darts.

 

[Rapala]

When was the last time one of our forward made a big hit on the forcheck lol?

Cant even remember what it feels like.

Une gang de pouceux de puck.

I Danault...
Chad Kilger?

 

[abo9]

I would not say it's average. It's good. But it's not top. Also people underestimate the fact our best players are getting old. Price (33), Weber (35) and Petry (33 next december) will all slow down in the next 5 years. Those are big pieces to replace. They will still be here but they wont bring the same level of performance as right now.

Just replacing those players production would already a significant accomplishment from our prospect pool. But the thing is they need to eventually replace those players production and also significantly improve the team. Personally i don't see it. We had to sell at the deadline. I might be wrong but i strongly believe we had to sell.

That's the thing that bothers me the most. Everyone saying future looks great, but our current core is bottom 5 in the league and if your prospects are not clearly a step above them, where are we heading? Our offense is at least pretty young, but like you said, with Petry and Weber getting older, who do we have on the right side coming? Can they become top pairing D's ?