Best Habs team- 2007-08 or 2013-14

[Le Barron de HF]

Better bottom 6, better first line, more experience, better goaltending. Defense is pretty close. Komisarek in his prime was superior to Emelin. Bouillon was a solid bottom pairing guy back then, Gorges was emerging as a shutdown defender back then. Markov was a top 10 D like Subban currently is, Hamrlik was a stud and Brisebois was decent.

 

[TravisF]

I really miss Saku Koivu as the Captain of the Canadiens. Gionta can't compare to Koivu. But otherwise this team is better.

 

[Gally11]

I had more confidence in 07-08 team heading into playoffs and look how that ended up this teams D is worrying me right now

 

[Tinordi Ruxpin]

I would have to go with 07-08.

I think if Vanek stuck around that I think the 14-15 team could be a fantastic one.

 

[Bob b smith]

With our trade deadline acquisitions, this team is the best since the Patrick Roy trade and the start of the Houle era.

 

[Wats]

07/08 was literally based around the dominant PP. Both teams were below average 5 on 5 but with Vanek, 13/14 definitely better.

07/08: http://www.nhl.com/ice/playerstats....ASALL&sort=evenStrengthPoints&viewName=points
13/14: http://www.nhl.com/ice/playerstats....ASALL&sort=evenStrengthPoints&viewName=points


Kinda funny though, Carbo won a lot as coach but no one has issues suggesting he's not a good coach. Suggest Therrien could do much better with the talent he has and all you get is 'well he won last game so who cares how team played'. The team has the talent to actually play like the better team in games IMO. Getting doubled in shots and struggling to score shouldn't be the case.

This is perhaps the best Habs lineup top to bottom in decades yet MT apologists will still suggest it's not good if Habs gets embarrassed in playoffs.

With Vanek all year, this team would have been clearly better than 2008. Hence, the post-deadline 2014 team is better, IMO, than 2008.

The 2008 team had everything going, no injuries, relied on the PP a lot etc. But the 2014 team seems much more rounded, more resilient.

This team has everything going for them too including immense luck on the injury front...for now.

 

[callmek2]

I'd take the current roster over 2007-08. But I think the 07-08 team was better.
The 07-08 team had a degree of confidence that I haven't seen in the past 20+ years, at least in the regular season. They never seemed to get down, even when they were losing. That's a precious commodity. The current team, seems like it has to battle tooth and nail for every victory. Its a good character builder, so that's a plus.

I think coaching played a big role in the demise of the 07-08 in the subsequent seasons. Once the confidence started dwindling, they seem to start struggling. The Lucic-Komi fight just set the tone for the rest of that season. I was expecting Carbo to be a great coach based on his playing career. Smart player with good leadership skills. I was wrong. Watching him coach, it seemed like he had no communication/motivational skills.

I don't know if the 13-14 team is better coached. I would assume the tactical part of the game is, since Therrien has more experience. My issue with MT is the choice of personnel at times and his "character building".

If PK, Eller & a couple of the other guys get their confidence back, I'd pick 13-14. Otherwise I'd say 07-08.

Just my 2 cents.

 

[ThaDevilGirl]

The 2008-09 team was better than the 2007-08 one except everything went wrong in the second half of the year.

 

[JAVO16]

Had the Hossa trade gone through, the 07-08 team would've been crazy.

 

[LeHab]

In 07-08 I felt like Habs overachieved. This year we deserve to be where we are.

Just feeling like our top guys are better than what we had back then.

 

[habs03]

That 07 was nice, but too young, 20 year old Carey Price and no vet back up, big mistake by Gainey.

Didn't like the bottom 6 either, wasn't made for the playoffs, it had Striet as a wing on that line.

I liked the defense, but I thought we were missing 1 more guy top 4 RD Dmen

I believe they had Breezy/OB playing with Hamrlik on the 2nd pair.

This team is more ready IMO. Decent top 4, like the bottom 6 as well.

Only question I have with this team is why are you going to play vs other teams top lines.

Galchenyuk-Plek-Gallagher, I don't think the 2 kids can handle that. Eller-Briere-Gionta might, but not sure about that. I think a Bourque-Eller-Gionta line can. But what do you do with Briere who is a playoff beast, do you put him on Plekanec but what do you do with the other Gally?

 

[Lafleurs Guy]

Current roster has some obvious holes but its better than any roster we've had since the Roy years. If we can hang onto Vanek and stop ****ing around with Beaulieu and Tinordi, we should be in good shape over the next few years.

 

[pine*]

Vanek is what Hossa could have been back in 2007-08

 

[Alexdaman]

2014 AINEC. 2008 was solely revolving around a fading star and aging veterans with no upside, the 2014 habs have not even reached half its potential.

The only thing that came out of that year are Plekanec, Markov and Price. Everyone else of that team is either not in the NHL anymore, struggling about to retire.

 

[DenverHabsFan]

07-08 was the most satisfying team to watch as a fan in the last couple of decades. Let's give that team credit for bringing new fans to the game.

On paper, the current edition has more potential but there are many players who have yet to prove they can elevate their game in the playoffs. Patches, DD, Pleks, Markov, Price have been quite disappointing in the past. I'm not worried about Subban, Gio, Gally. Vanek is a question mark as far as playoffs goes.

But man, the current team lacks cohesion at times and can be boring as hell. Our D is not even settled this late in the season and looks atrocious.

It'll be interesting to come back to this thread after hopefully long playoffs.

Plus, I miss Lappy. Never understood why we let him go. He was a big body who would drive the other team nuts and had enough skill to score huge goals.

If the team wins a couple of rounds and Patches and Vanek maintain their god-like play then yeah, it's this team hands down.

 

[Price is Wright]

The 5 on 5 difference between the teams is 0.07 and that's it. That 24% powerplay in 07-08 was why they scored 3.13 goals per game. The 07-08 team won a lot of games when outshot. The 13-14 team wins a lot of games when outshooting. 13-14 is a better defensive team.

 

[Lafleurs Guy]

Vanek is what Hossa could have been back in 2007-08

That's a good comparison.

Price, PK, Patch all in their prime too. I think we're better than we were for sure.

 

[Laps40]

we'll talk about it in June

 

[greyboy67]

In 07-08 I felt like Habs overachieved. This year we deserve to be where we are.

Just feeling like our top guys are better than what we had back then.

I don't think the 07-08 Canadiens overachieved. They were a good team that underachieved in the playoffs. They were the #1 seed in the Eastern Conference and a mediocre Bruins team took them to 7 games in the First round. The Habs then succumbed to #6-seeded Flyers in the Second round.

It was a team that had a clear path to the finals and fell on its face.

Contrast that to 2010 playoffs when as the #8 seed, Montreal upset #1 Washington and #4 Pittsburgh before running out of gas against Philadelphia in the Conference finals.

You can't predict what will happen, but Montreal has a good chance against Tampa Bay in the First round. If they get past the Bolts, it's almost certain they will meet Boston in the Second round and we all know that anything can happen in a Bruins-Canadiens series.

If they can overcome Boston, I like their chances against the Rangers, Pens, or Wings. Anyone but the Flyers.

But it will all come down to Price's performance. He's got to play as well as he has in the regular season—and perhaps even better—for the Habs to go deep this time around.

 

[Hackett]

The 07-08 team was faster, entertaining, and very talented. Goaltending fell apart when it counted, though.

This time, the team has a more seasoned goalie. Although I like 07-08 team in more areas, this team may have upgraded in the position that counts the most.

 

[MTL-rules]

It's pretty close IMHO, however I lean towards this year's team mainly because Price is significantly better now and more prepared for the playoffs than he was back then.. also with Subban and Emelin compared to Hamrlik and Komisarek our top 4 D are a lot better.

This

Price 13-14 >>>>>> Price 07-08

 

[donghabs98]

The 07-08 team was faster, entertaining, and very talented. Goaltending fell apart when it counted, though.

This time, the team has a more seasoned goalie. Although I like 07-08 team in more areas, this team may have upgraded in the position that counts the most.

It sounds like you're describing the pens

 

[Agnostic]

Another close poll.

 

[Maffew]

I'm not sure about which squad had better defence. Our current defence is a better offensive defence, but the defensive part I'm going to have to give the '08 squad the nod on that one. Also, Price is 10 times the goalie he was back then, so the defense in general comes off roughly even, or the '14 team will possibly be better on the backend.

The offensive to me favours the '14 team by a small margin, so I guess for me this year's team is the better one. The one thing I can't shake though is that I was rarely nervous about holding leads and defensive breakdowns in '08 compared to this season. More often than not, in '08, we lost when we were supposed to and won handily a lot of the time. It's the exact opposite this season. We've given up a ton of leads, and eked out wins when we really shouldn't have. What will translate to better playoff success? We'll find out in a few short weeks!

EDIT: I clicked the wrong team and submitted before I realised it, haha. But it's okay, this year's team clearly is winning this poll.

 

[WhiskeySeven*]

07/08 was literally based around the dominant PP. Both teams were below average 5 on 5 but with Vanek, 13/14 definitely better.

07/08: http://www.nhl.com/ice/playerstats....ASALL&sort=evenStrengthPoints&viewName=points
13/14: http://www.nhl.com/ice/playerstats....ASALL&sort=evenStrengthPoints&viewName=points


Kinda funny though, Carbo won a lot as coach but no one has issues suggesting he's not a good coach. Suggest Therrien could do much better with the talent he has and all you get is 'well he won last game so who cares how team played'. The team has the talent to actually play like the better team in games IMO. Getting doubled in shots and struggling to score shouldn't be the case.

This is perhaps the best Habs lineup top to bottom in decades yet MT apologists will still suggest it's not good if Habs gets embarrassed in playoffs.



This team has everything going for them too including immense luck on the injury front...for now.

Amen.

Carbo, for his faults, had maybe half the overall talent Therrien has to work with.

If we lose in the first round his ass better be on a stick over Notre-Dame street.