End of season press conference - April 9, 4:30pm

[Habby4Life]

Not the point. You’re distorting my post to turn it into something else. It was only meant within the very limited scope of the point raised by Redux. That’s “so what”.

It’s not IF, he did say it. That’s it and nothing more.

Ok - stand corrected. My error

 

[Runner77]

Ok - stand corrected. My error

Np, thanks for your reply.

 

[Habby4Life]

So many players with career highs this season. How much of that will come back in 19-20?

That’s a valid question I think its safe to say some may regress. However, it can mitigated by adding talent to the lineup. I’d like to see him get a legit 1/2 c, scoring winger, and of course LD.

Adding more skill can make a big impact on this team and hopefully restore faith that they are going in the right direction.

I believe MB and team know they need to improve thru addition, it will come done to execution this summer. IMO, if they miss the playoffs next year he will be gone.

 

[Perrah]

If you can land an elite asset for free, then just convert whoever has become redundant, for value. When you have as poor a track record as the Habs do in attracting elite UFAs, you can’t get too picky about the position they play.

So tie up 30 mill approximately in 2 RHD and a goalie? From what I remember Petry wasnt a good LHD. I dont think it matters anyways Karlsson probably doesnt come here.

 

[417]

We’re also doing a great job of negating any advantage we have in net by surrounding Price with a brutal D

Habs don't have the best group of 6-7Dmen...but calling it brutal is a bit extreme IMO.

They've got some "no name" players like Kulak/Benn/Folin/Reilly who are better suited to be bottom pairing dmen.

But brutal?

There are far worse units of 6-7 throughout the league IMO.

 

[le_sean]

Habs don't have the best group of 6-7Dmen...but calling it brutal is a bit extreme IMO.

They've got some "no name" players like Kulak/Benn/Folin/Reilly who are better suited to be bottom pairing dmen.

But brutal?

There are far worse units of 6-7 throughout the league IMO.

It’s brutal when you add the fact that Mete is on the top pairing and Kulak in the Top 4. If they had a legit Top 4, then you can live with someone like Benn on the bottom pairing. But Folin should not be a regular NHLer.

 

[Habs Halifax]

So many players with career highs this season. How much of that will come back in 19-20?

It's true. I like our youth movement and players trending in the right direction but it's anybodies guess how much better than can be. They way we are build and if we can't add a impact player with our cap space, the focus should be in a few years. Next year? Maybe we go back a bit or forward a bit. It's hard to predict

 

[417]

It’s brutal when you add the fact that Mete is on the top pairing and Kulak in the Top 4. If they had a legit Top 4, then you can live with someone like Benn on the bottom pairing. But Folin should not be a regular NHLer.

Mete's young and still developing, no he shouldn't be on the top pair...but is it any worse than say, the Vegas Knights who have Brayden Mcnabb or Deryk Engelland playing in their top 4?

Also, Kulak was pretty good for the Habs this year.

Yes, I agree, they're both playing above their ideal positions, but they're also playing with 2 pretty good RD's in Weber/Petry

There are other examples out there - the Pittsburgh Penguins have Jack freakin' Johnson in their top 4.

You'll find guys playing in bigger roles than they should on every team, so it's not any different for Mete/Kulak...but to their credit, they showed some real growth this year, hopefully, that sets the table for them next year and moving forward.

 

[hvac412]

This season expectations were at all time low, all things considered they had a good season ( hate to call it a good season when a team misses the playoff) but most people were happy to just see a hard working /competitive team on most nights +the thrill of the playoff race till the end

Do you think that if they dont make the playoffs after the next season both Bergevin and Julien would get fired. How many coach/gm keep their job after missing the playoffs 3 years in row

In a real world yes but in Molson Magoo's parallel universe,uh no.

 

[hvac412]

"My window is growing smaller and I really want to win … more than ever," Carey Price says after missing playoffs for second straight year.

Translation: wake the f*** up jackass(Bergeven)

 

[Lafleurs Guy]

Habs don't have the best group of 6-7Dmen...but calling it brutal is a bit extreme IMO.

They've got some "no name" players like Kulak/Benn/Folin/Reilly who are better suited to be bottom pairing dmen.

But brutal?

There are far worse units of 6-7 throughout the league IMO.

Far worse is not the bar we should set. We have poor D and no elite forward. It’s all basically on Price.

And that group is paper thin. If Weber or Petry go down we wind up with guys like Benn logging heavy minutes and get killed. Mete should’ve been in the minors this year and he was on our first pairing. It’s a shitty group.

 

[Rosso Scuderia]

Habs don't have the best group of 6-7Dmen...but calling it brutal is a bit extreme IMO.

They've got some "no name" players like Kulak/Benn/Folin/Reilly who are better suited to be bottom pairing dmen.

But brutal?

There are far worse units of 6-7 throughout the league IMO.

Our D does look terrible on paper but they actually did a pretty good job on the ice.

Weber is Weber despite his 10-15 games that he struggled a bit.
Mete was much better after going down to the AHL
Petry was solid most of the time
Kulak was a pleasant surprise. Not that he was great or anything but he did more good things than bad.
Benn had a very good year IMO.
Folin was alright for a 6th D.
Reilly looked great in the beginning but came back to earth fast.

So overall, yeah I thought our D this season did a pretty decent job.

 

[Habs Halifax]

So tie up 30 mill approximately in 2 RHD and a goalie? From what I remember Petry wasnt a good LHD. I dont think it matters anyways Karlsson probably doesnt come here.

Who cares where the money is spent if we are able to sign a player like Karlsson. What do you prefer? To keep the cap space and sign two more Alzner types?

Remember when we thought $7M+ was too much for Radulov? Cap is growing man.

 

[Habs Halifax]

Our D does look terrible on paper but they actually did a pretty good job on the ice.

Weber is Weber despite his 10-15 games that he struggled a bit.
Mete was much better after going down to the AHL
Petry was solid most of the time
Kulak was a pleasant surprise. Not that he was great or anything but he did more good things than bad.
Benn had a very good year IMO.
Folin was alright for a 6th D.
Reilly looked great in the beginning but came back to earth fast.

So overall, yeah I thought our D this season did a pretty decent job.

The D in the 2nd half of the season was much better than the 1st half... no matter how good Price was.

 

[Lshap]

So many players with career highs this season. How much of that will come back in 19-20?

Production spiked across the entire league. Players on almost every team had career years. Nothing suggests the Habs will regress relative to everyone else.

 

[Rapala]

Oddly enough, I think this is the single biggest factor why players don't sign with us. Build a good ****ing team for once and they will start signing in droves.

Many of us though we were there after the ECF.
We didn't sign squat we didn't trade for squat we didn't even replace Vanek. We simply rode MT and DD on that roller-coaster called transition. The beginning of the end for MB and no doubt.

 

[Redux91]

So many players with career highs this season. How much of that will come back in 19-20?

People keep saying this but

Career highs CAN be duplicated, and surpassed...every year.. just because its MTL doesnt mean we have to assume the worst EVERYtime

Its not a career high of 128 points here...its a career high of 50 something points in most cases... 50+ points is not THAT hard to replicate

I know were still all zonked and live in this world where we think our offense sucks, its the worst in the NHL, we cant have nice things, and players never surpass 50 points in MTL... but thats just a feeling

Things are on the up and up, and to think everybody peaked all at once and that THAT was the height of all their powers, they can NEVER get better than that ... well, ill choose to use the glass half full approach instead and continue thinking that all these offensive feats we reached this year CAN even get better

95% of our players who had "career highs" are JUST starting their careers too.. theyve already peaked?

But i want to stress, i understand why you're concerned tho, next year it could turn into 2018 where we were DYING for one person to even reach 50 points... its all possible. Im just saying in this regard i dont think our offense crashes and burns next year, and certainly not just "because its montreal"

 

[Lafleurs Guy]

Far more concerned about our D than our scoring right now

 

[Perrah]

Far more concerned about our D than our scoring right now

Well there is nothing out there for LHD and if they signed Karlsson at 11 mill, which Ill state again for the record I dont see happening. They are at the 83 mill cap without pushing the bonuses. Of course they will push the bonuses and it leaves them with 4.5 mill. Those numbers are from cap friendly, with filling the roster out with league minimums from the farm system. Then you are really f***ed in 2020, 2021 when you have a lot of rfa's to resign. If things are still looking up you have to figure out how to lock guys up. Worse case they dont look up and you have a cap team that you are stuck in the middle with, all while Price and Weber get a few years older.

Signing Gardiner is not an option for me but to each their own. There isnt much out there UFA wise to be a solution for the problems the Habs have on LHD.

 

[Lafleurs Guy]

Well there is nothing out there for LHD and if they signed Karlsson at 11 mill, which Ill state again for the record I dont see happening. They are at the 83 mill cap without pushing the bonuses. Of course they will push the bonuses and it leaves them with 4.5 mill. Those numbers are from cap friendly, with filling the roster out with league minimums from the farm system. Then you are really ****ed in 2020, 2021 when you have a lot of rfa's to resign. If things are still looking up you have to figure out how to lock guys up. Worse case they dont look up and you have a cap team that you are stuck in the middle with, all while Price and Weber get a few years older.

Signing Gardiner is not an option for me but to each their own. There isnt much out there UFA wise to be a solution for the problems the Habs have on LHD.

If you sign Karlsson you trade Weber.

I’d sign Gardiner

 

[FF de Mars]

The players said: "We're just getting started". Bergevin! You've been here for 8 years. Sometimes sports people are so naive.

 

[JSR 56]

Well there is nothing out there for LHD and if they signed Karlsson at 11 mill, which Ill state again for the record I dont see happening. They are at the 83 mill cap without pushing the bonuses. Of course they will push the bonuses and it leaves them with 4.5 mill. Those numbers are from cap friendly, with filling the roster out with league minimums from the farm system. Then you are really ****ed in 2020, 2021 when you have a lot of rfa's to resign. If things are still looking up you have to figure out how to lock guys up. Worse case they dont look up and you have a cap team that you are stuck in the middle with, all while Price and Weber get a few years older.

Signing Gardiner is not an option for me but to each their own. There isnt much out there UFA wise to be a solution for the problems the Habs have on LHD.

you sign karlsson and figure out the rest. theres no one in the system close to his level. armia, weal, ... are all expendable. hell, half our roster is expendable.

 

[Andy]

People keep saying this but

Career highs CAN be duplicated, and surpassed...every year.. just because its MTL doesnt mean we have to assume the worst EVERYtime

Its not a career high of 128 points here...its a career high of 50 something points in most cases... 50+ points is not THAT hard to replicate

I know were still all zonked and live in this world where we think our offense sucks, its the worst in the NHL, we cant have nice things, and players never surpass 50 points in MTL... but thats just a feeling

Things are on the up and up, and to think everybody peaked all at once and that THAT was the height of all their powers, they can NEVER get better than that ... well, ill choose to use the glass half full approach instead and continue thinking that all these offensive feats we reached this year CAN even get better

95% of our players who had "career highs" are JUST starting their careers too.. theyve already peaked?

But i want to stress, i understand why you're concerned tho, next year it could turn into 2018 where we were DYING for one person to even reach 50 points... its all possible. Im just saying in this regard i dont think our offense crashes and burns next year, and certainly not just "because its montreal"

I think it's more unrealistic to expect everyone to have career years at the same time or to continue matching their best outputs all at the same time. It's definitely possible, but as a manager, I really wouldn't bank on it happening again, or depend on it occurring again. Nothing is a given in the nhl. Hell, William Karlsson went from a 40 goal almost PPG player to average top 6 output the following season.

I remember when the offense was incredibly successful in 2007-2008 and we all anticipated that Higgins, Kostitsyn, Plekanec and others would continue this high output or get even better, but it didn't. Several players had career years and regressed hard the next season and these were also players who were just starting the prime of their careers.

There are no guarantees that this will or will not be repeated. That being said, it's a legitimate point. And it doesn't mean that everyone needs to regress for this to be a problem, sometimes just a couple of players regressing can be a huge impact, especially for a team that doesn't rely on elite talent to win, but on the sum of its parts.

 

[jaffy27]

I don't think Jaffy hates Poile. Jaffy started hating Poile because some were starting to say that Poile was doing a better job. Hence, Jaffy rants about Poile. It's more an attack on posters than on Poile....or so I believe.

I’m playing HF poster......let’s call it the way it is.....Poile has GM’d for 30 some years and has won zero cups, it’s a fact......seems like a nice man, has put together some decent teams in 30yrs but has won nothing....it’s that easy man.

If I want to attack a poster, believe me, I have no problem getting in someone’s grill, I voice my opinion here and certainly don’t let it get influenced by the narrative.

I respect most of the posters here, I can argue with Kriss E or WTK with ease but will like many of their posts in the same breath if I believe in what they post.

You want to fire Bergevin.....I don’t....deal with it

Some believe Toronto has done suuuuch a great job executing the Shanaplan......I don’t and they are on their way to losing out 3yrs in a row in the first round.....it’s my opinion man, you do t have to like it or even respect it, I frankly don’t care

 

[angusyoung]

The players said: "We're just getting started". Bergevin! You've been here for 8 years. Sometimes sports people are so naive.

So by this type of analogy,all teams should win a cup within 5 years?how is this possible?

Dynamics change yearly and guessing whats parts are needed and fulfill the expectations are difficult to predict.