Post-Game Talk: Habs shut out by Oilers, first losing streak.

[Belial]

I'm not sure why you don't get the unsustainable part. We are nowhere near as good a skating team as we once were and yet anytime we've been in a must win situation particularly late in the season we've laid ostrich eggs. Sure we had plenty of energy for Pittsburgh in a short series but that didn't hold out against a very beatable Philadelphia team in a regular playoff format with better goaltending. We run into trouble when teams simply match our work rate. This is nothing new and given the urgency in a compacted schedule with 4 point games every night we have to prove we can overcome it. Don't get me wrong I'm happy with some of the changes up front but it's still comes up a few horses short of a stable. We expend an awful lot of energy owning the perimeter and talented teams can expend less and still come out on top. It's a little bit unsettling to see some of these same traits rearing its head. Rolling four lines is nice but if you can't score any energy saving means squat.

Because what you're saying makes no sense!

What's unsustainable? Working hard for 13 minutes a game?

We're 14 games in for god sake!

Your whole theory would make sense if we would be at game 60 or 70.

Don't tell me they're flat out there because they're already tired. Our schedule was not even that tough so far, we keep getting breaks and we have another whole week of rest coming up.

There're forwards out there playing 22 minutes per game and I see them flying up and down the ice with no problem.

So what exactly is unsustainable?

 

[bsl]

Because Juliens cycle game is to get pucks to the net. Just like Therriens. When you hire from the same coaching tree you get the same coaching

Groan. On and on about coaching. Always the same here. A monkey could coach a talented NHL team. NHL Coaches are mostly useless, and often a hindrance. I've been saying this for ten years. This has nothing to do with coaching, it has to do with 3 centers that have 3 goals this year. Coaching. LOL. Eventually a smart GM will wake up and eliminate the head coaching position, and tell the captain of the team to run on ice strategy and line play. See Habs 1986. Because that is what happened.

 

[Gjman2019]

It might be true during a regular 82 games season. Not this year. The GM won't be patient. The coaching staff needs to deliver. And, strategically, because of the compressed calendar, the 'window of opportunity' for a coaching change is next week. There aren't any after that. So if they lose against the Laffs, it could happen. Marc is pissed right now (evident by his non-verbal language caught on TV yesterday). He's not happy.

Claude's system has been the same for years. It is not adapted to the staff he has right now. This is not a fast skating team, like before, when we had midgets who couldn't score, but could skate (i.e. Byron, Weal, Cousins, etc.). This is a team with some more heavy forwards, who need to play a much more puck control system in zone entry. And more puck support down low. This is a team that would thrive with more of a 1-3-1 (I know, gosh, how boring) system, than this pressure-2 that is fine and dandy with speedy players, but tires the heck out of ordinary skaters. We need to clog down the neutral zone. Players like Anderson and Toffoli thrive on the rush, when they jam up the neutral zone. Case and point : Anderson's goal against the Laffs. It was a textbook new Habs'-like goal, manufactured by the clogging of the neutral zone and on one of their most reliable defenders (Muzzin).

This is a different team than what Claude had before.

Toronto has adapted well to this. I love their system right now. And yes, they have more firepower, but we're not too shabby if we think of it. Also, it would allow our bigger, but 'slower' forwards to keep their energy level over 60 minutes. Right now, all I see is some players skating like maniacs for 10 minutes, all over the place, flipping the puck to the Ds at the blue line, who, in turn, shoot randomly at the net like it was Boston -circa 2010. But have no energy left for the rest of the game. Teams have adapted to our rush-style. Need to adapt.

In our zone, the slower Ds have problems because our forwards are way too high most of the time. Same thing here. That is why Toronto is better. Their Ds have better puck support.

Funny to say this, but it's my opinion that Jacques Martin's old system (where the unit of 5 was playing lower) would be better with this squad than Julien's.

Not sure Julien will change his system, though. Only because during this week's practices, he put emphasis on the pressure to the puck carrier in the offensive zone. With bigger bodies on the wings, you need to clog the neutral zone. Not rush them on the puck carrier. But that's just my opinion.

No way he gets fired anytime soon...

You sure do a great job with the x's and o's in your posts though.....Seems like you have a high hockey IQ......

 

[HabsWhiteKnightLOL]

No way he gets fired anytime soon...

You sure do a great job with the x's and o's in your posts though.....Seems like you have a high hockey IQ......

If you are so smart , how about sharing your opinion? I think we have enough evidence that minus the year that Julien took over Therrien , Julien has been heavily overrated.

 

[Runner77]

No way he gets fired anytime soon...

You sure do a great job with the x's and o's in your posts though.....Seems like you have a high hockey IQ......

I believe that in a past life, @dinodebino was a member of the media who covered the Habs. It sure sounds like he spent time talking to coaches and possibly attending practices.

 

[Gjman2019]

If you are so smart , how about sharing your opinion? I think we have enough evidence that minus the year that Julien took over Therrien , Julien has been heavily overrated.

Where did i claim to be smart ? lol

As far as my opinion goes , i'm big on getting to the high percentage areas of the ice to score and i think the metrics did prove that Julien has been an upgrade over Therrien when it comes to that......I don't like his track record when it comes to dealing with young players....So there's the positive and the negative....

The reason i think it's all but impossible for him to be fired is because they're 8-4 sitting in second place ..It's that simple.....The bottom line results are still good enough to justify him staying.....

 

[OldCraig71]

Who said you can't outskate teams all the time? This team was built to do that...

High tempo, pressure the puck carrier, fast transition, roll 4 lines...

When they get outworked they look bad.

It is an unsustainable tactic, hence the losing streaks of the last few years. Teams adapt to that style and that is fine but what is not fine is the fact that our head coach only has one other strategy which leads to very little in the way of offense.

 

[Habssince89]

Can't agree more with the calls to stop trying to outskate the other team every night. That's what therrien did and it sucks. Can we please let the puck do the work? Nothing moves faster than the puck. This team has plenty of players that can run a possession system.

 

[Scriptor]

Groan. On and on about coaching. Always the same here. A monkey could coach a talented NHL team. NHL Coaches are mostly useless, and often a hindrance. I've been saying this for ten years. This has nothing to do with coaching, it has to do with 3 centers that have 3 goals this year. Coaching. LOL. Eventually a smart GM will wake up and eliminate the head coaching position, and tell the captain of the team to run on ice strategy and line play. See Habs 1986. Because that is what happened.

You're right. In 1986, Jean Perron's strength was uniting the team against him. It takes talent to be considered so incompetent that a whole team decides to play like they choose to rather than how you ask them to play. What's more impressive is that they win the highest honours doing as much.

Some have argued that Perron was a master of reverse psychology and that they ended up playing exactly like he wanted them to play -- NOT!

 

[Scriptor]

Because what you're saying makes no sense!

What's unsustainable? Working hard for 13 minutes a game?

We're 14 games in for god sake!

Your whole theory would make sense if we would be at game 60 or 70.

Don't tell me they're flat out there because they're already tired. Our schedule was not even that tough so far, we keep getting breaks and we have another whole week of rest coming up.

There're forwards out there playing 22 minutes per game and I see them flying up and down the ice with no problem.

So what exactly is unsustainable?

I didn't read the other post but, the only unsustainable thing is incredibly high shooting percentages.

 

[Scriptor]

Where did i claim to be smart ? lol

As far as my opinion goes , i'm big on getting to the high percentage areas of the ice to score and i think the metrics did prove that Julien has been an upgrade over Therrien when it comes to that......I don't like his track record when it comes to dealing with young players....So there's the positive and the negative....

The reason i think it's all but impossible for him to be fired is because they're 8-4 sitting in second place ..It's that simple.....The bottom line results are still good enough to justify him staying.....

Wasn't Therrien fired when they were 1st in their division?

 

[Grate n Colorful Oz]

I didn't read the other post but, the only unsustainable thing is incredibly high shooting percentages.

Does a security supervisor job at the Springfield nuclear powerplant interest you? You'd fit right in with their hiring practices.

A strategy that only works on the short term and not in the long term is an UNSUSTAINABLE strategy, genius.

 

[Mike Towers]

Wasn't Therrien fired when they were 1st in their division?

He was fired with a .603 winning percentage then Julien went on to get knocked of the playoffs by the Rangers in the 1st round.

 

[Scriptor]

It is an unsustainable tactic, hence the losing streaks of the last few years. Teams adapt to that style and that is fine but what is not fine is the fact that our head coach only has one other strategy which leads to very little in the way of offense.

Absolutely agree. Julien is a one-trick pony and his mantra is the same as Therrien and Martin before him, "It's not the system that s the problem, it's the players' execution of the system!"

That's a pretty direct way of saying he doesn't have the players for the ONE system he holds onto for dear life.

That was particularly true in past years but, during the offseason, the GM has done back flips to address this issue and supply him with the type of players he has been clamouring about since he got here.

So, what's the problem now? The players don't want to play like he wants them to play? He's losing the room, despite stroking the so-called leadership veterans like a cheap $10 hooker?

Julien is not tweaking his system. He simply has no clue how to tweak his system.

It's less conservative than both Martin (only a one man forecheck and zero pinching from the D) and Therrien (breakouts and zone entry solely along the boards to exploit speed on the wings but, a two man forecheck, some pinching and, for a brief period, swarming with a third forechecker when it looked like we were gaining puck control in the O-zone) it still amounts to the same thing, in the end. Forwards are asked to back check and skate equally hard without the puck as they do with the puck in support of the D.

I have no problem with using the players to work as a 5-man unit and support each other in all three zones. Actually, all coaches ask this of their players.

Something is wrong because the allegedly great communicator that Julien is supposed to be can't get the players on board right now.

If the leadership veteran group he services can't get the gang to follow the game plan, this team isn't going to stay where they are in the standings. The head coach can't do more than he is currently doing because that's all he knows how to do.

 

[Scriptor]

Does a security supervisor job at the Springfield nuclear powerplant interest you? You'd fit right in with their hiring practices.

A strategy that only works on the short term and not in the long term is an UNSUSTAINABLE strategy, genius.

Now, being rude is a talent you obviously possess. Ever think of applying to be a Trump assistant? What would have been nice, on your part, seeing as I said I didn't read the original post he was referring to, would have been to state, "It was about the STRATEGY being unsustainable."

But, no, just be yourself. It's so endearing.

 

[Scriptor]

He was fired with a .603 winning percentage then Julien went on to get knocked of the playoffs by the Rangers in the 1st round.

Yep, then. That's my point. Results, seemingly, aren't always what counts. Thanks for the specifics.

 

[SB164]

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