Post-Game Talk: kings are bigger. habs almost win

[HockeyF3ind]

I feel bad for laughing so much.

 

[Le Barron de HF]

Sorry but you're just ridiculous. Nobody comments on White, Weiss, or Moen because we don't expect or need offensive production from them...so bringing them up is silly. I specifically said Bourque in my post as well. Briere was the best player on that 3rd line by far, and that's saying something, because they were far and away the worst line on the ice tonight...a legitimate black hole.

It wasn't a BS penalty, he ran right into the goalie after the whistle blew and poked him with his stick, if it would've happened against Price everyone would mention it.

Your reasoning about Eller having better wingers is stupid too, because he doesn't deserve them to be honest. You watch him on the ice, and regardless of who he is playing with, he puts his head down and tries to do everything himself. Just like Melnyk said in his blog after Saturday's game, Eller performed his "classic" play by going from the neutral zone, and rather than passing, skates around the Toronto net, only to waste time and turn the puck over. He has no offensive vision or instincts...simply dekes first and looks for passes later.

He is being used the right way as a checking center on the 3rd line, and imo should be traded asap while he is still worth something.

Well geez, I wonder why I brought up those names... YOU SAID WORST FORWARD AND I'M SORRY BUT NO MATTER WHAT THEIR ROLE IS, THOSE GUYS ARE PART OF OUR GROUP OF FORWARDS!

Explain to me how Briere was the best player on that line 'by far'. Was it by doing terrible passes (like that one shift in the third where he missed his pass 2 times in a row and then made a terrible pass to a Emelin playing on the right side which lead to that Carter semi-breakaway). And by worst line, I'm sorry but White's line takes the cake here. No intensity, constantly stuck in their own end and bad decisions all night with the puck.

Yes it was BS penalty. We see that **** every single game. We even saw it last game against LA when Clifford did the same thing on a goal and not only was there no penalty on the play but the goal counted.

He doesn't deserve them? Oh because Desharnais deserved Gallagher and Pacioretty as his linemates when he had 1 pt in 19 GP? That's complete BS and you know it. He was centering our best line at the start of the season and Therrien prefers to use Cunneyworthless tactics rather than have a full offense. Therrien has been utilizing him like a goof since the start. He was scratched unfairly in the first game of last season, he's been put on the wing while DD stays at center. He gets practically no PP time and ever since the EGG line has been seperated, Therrien has giving him grinders or struggling players like Briere or Bourque. No instincts? What a joke.







Oh wait, he can't pick up secondary assists like Desharnais, my bad.

 

[MsChanandlerBong]

Well geez, I wonder why I brought up those names... YOU SAID WORST FORWARD AND I'M SORRY BUT NO MATTER WHAT THEIR ROLE IS, THOSE GUYS ARE PART OF OUR GROUP OF FORWARDS!

Explain to me how Briere was the best player on that line 'by far'. Was it by doing terrible passes (like that one shift in the third where he missed his pass 2 times in a row and then made a terrible pass to a Emelin playing on the right side which lead to that Carter semi-breakaway). And by worst line, I'm sorry but White's line takes the cake here. No intensity, constantly stuck in their own end and bad decisions all night with the puck.

Yes it was BS penalty. We see that **** every single game. We even saw it last game against LA when Clifford did the same thing on a goal and not only was there no penalty on the play but the goal counted.

He doesn't deserve them? Oh because Desharnais deserved Gallagher and Pacioretty as his linemates when he had 1 pt in 19 GP? That's complete BS and you know it. He was centering our best line at the start of the season and Therrien prefers to use Cunneyworthless tactics rather than have a full offense. Therrien has been utilizing him like a goof since the start. He was scratched unfairly in the first game of last season, he's been put on the wing while DD stays at center. He gets practically no PP time and ever since the EGG line has been seperated, Therrien has giving him grinders or struggling players like Briere or Bourque. No instincts? What a joke.

Oh wait, he can't pick up secondary assists like Desharnais, my bad.

I admit you made a good point here that I agree with, but DD works with Patches because all he does is pass to him, and that is what Patches needs. The videos were just unnecessary...anyone can go and get clips for any player in the NHL. You're an Eller supporter, which is fine, but don't be blinded by his weak season...what with 2 or 3 points in his last 30 something games.

 

[Tucker316*]

Good :
- Plekanec's line
- Desharnais' line (especially Gallagher, dude is flying since the Olympic break)
- Markov

Bad :
- White (stupid ass penalty from a useless player)
- Subban (playing his worst hockey of his career)
- Eller
- Bourque

Ugly :
- The powerplay

They competed but it wasn't pretty. The transition is awful. Let's hope they get at least 2 points out of this trip.

We need Whitey. Anything but useless. Funny how most of you pick on him after his first unnecessary penalty in a while. Most of those penalties are committed by guys like DD and Eller.

 

[nhlfan9191]

how about budaj buys desert for letting that stinker in

overlords

I was at the game. Budaj made one great breakaway save and aside from that, the kings hit two posts and a crossbar. The Canadiens should buy the posts a steak dinner. Not to mention that awful first goal.

 

[HABS win CUPS*]

Don't forget the Budaj dangle that was sweet

 

[Whitesnake]

Beaten by a better team and ended up not being blowout by them. Actually....it's impressive. I mean, we do now our team's limitations and still able to be behind by only 1 with Budaj in net, again, really good effort. We need more talent though. But I guess you can't fix that overnight.

 

[hockeyfan2k11]

I'm not blaming DD but it frustrates the hell out of me seeing MT put DD out to start every damn PP for the Habs for the past 3 months. The Habs PP has sucked most nights since then and yet MT doesn't change a thing.

DD is our franchise player. Get used to it.

 

[Lshap]

Beaten by a better team and ended up not being blowout by them. Actually....it's impressive. I mean, we do now our team's limitations and still able to be behind by only 1 with Budaj in net, again, really good effort. We need more talent though. But I guess you can't fix that overnight.

Yup - this is exactly right. This game was a perfect prep-exam for what the Habs need to do to contend. We're not bad, we did adapt to their style and play respectably. But the Kings are our team's Kryptonite. They play fast and big; we need to find a way to answer this.

Luckily, only two or three teams in the league neutralize the Habs so well. All are in the west.

 

[Dagistitsyn]

We need offense, period.

I'd try

Galchenyuk-Pleks-Gallagher
Pacioretty-DD-Briere (Small, but Briere is perfect for this exploitation line)
Bourque-Eller-Gionta
Moen-White-Weise

Look at what Ottawa is offering for Stewart and see if it's not too costly to pick him up.

 

[Stan]

I only caught the last half of the game but there were some positives. The Habs were physical and used there speed. They needed to support the puck a little more in order to have success. We need to get bigger without losing speed. Our smaller forwards were overpowered down low and couldn't generate offense.

I'm not a Desharnais basher...I've been neutral, but his balance on his skates has to improve. He was terrible last night.

 

[Guiness time]

For those who watched the game....how was Pearson and Toffoli?

 

[dcyhabs]

Eller is a puck retrieval player. He needs players to give the puck to once he retrieves it.

Subban is being asked to play bad hockey. He's having difficulty doing that. It is not in his nature.

Dump and chase can keep the game close but it's not going to get wins for the habs against good teams that want to play.

The PK looked horrible tonight. Tinordi must be losing hope, out there with Murray and the 4th line... At least it forces him to learn to carry the puck.

The game was not as close as it looked but for a late game against a good team it could have been worse.

Murray is not very good at hockey. The habs may need him for his physical impact but he does not play well at all.

I thought Therrien was brought in to tank the team and get some draft picks. If MB wanted to win immediately he would have taken anyone else as head coach and put Robinson in a strong non-head coach position. Unless MT succeeds in winning a playoff round or two he's doing the worst job possible. Dragging down good players, winning enough to get bad picks, losing in the playoffs, putting in a system that works best against bad teams...

 

[Agalloch]

I liked Emelin's game yesterday. He's starting to return to form.

 

[Habskrieg]

For those who watched the game....how was Pearson and Toffoli?

Pearson was ok. I didn't notice him much, so maybe he played better or worse...

Toffoli on the other hand, was really good. He caused us plenty of trouble. No wonder Kings fans don't want to trade him.

 

[Guiness time]

Pearson was ok. I didn't notice him much, so maybe he played better or worse...

Toffoli on the other hand, was really good. He caused us plenty of trouble. No wonder Kings fans don't want to trade him.

Thank you!

 

[HTTP 400]

(...)
He doesn't deserve them? Oh because Desharnais deserved Gallagher and Pacioretty as his linemates when he had 1 pt in 19 GP? That's complete BS and you know it. He was centering our best line at the start of the season and Therrien prefers to use Cunneyworthless tactics rather than have a full offense. Therrien has been utilizing him like a goof since the start. He was scratched unfairly in the first game of last season, he's been put on the wing while DD stays at center. He gets practically no PP time and ever since the EGG line has been seperated, Therrien has giving him grinders or struggling players like Briere or Bourque. No instincts? What a joke.

Oh, the myth of the productive EGG line. They really only produced during the first 3 games of the season. From game 4 to game 19, Eller got only 2 goals and 4 assists in 16 games.

So it's not like Therrien broke a productive line to please Desharnais. He needed offense and managed to create almost a PPG trio by putting Gallagher and Pacioretty on Desharnais wing.

 

[zzoo]

LAK were a better team, especially the first 10 minutes, but we weren't bad at all. The game was really fast-paced.

Once again, it seems there's only one line generating offence. The DD line had a lot of scoring chance.
Nothing against my favorite player (Eller) .... but DD seems to play much better (I didn't like DD). DD, while not perfect, created a lot of chances for his linemates.

 

[Habs Icing]

Wow.

How many minutes did subban play ???

Can we just have a coach who doesn't sabotage our best players? I know hab fans love to complain but man Therrien makes so many poor decisions and they're usually the easiest ones he has to make. Poor Subban.

You guys are funny. You see a stat and you soil yourselves and ***** about MT.

Let me ask you how many minutes did Subban play on the PP and how many minutes did he play on the PK? Maybe the answers to those two questions had a small role in boosting the "attempted" shots when PK was on or off the ice.

 

[dutchy29]

Yeah, difficulty getting on the ice in the last minute. We need a goal, put out your best goalscorers. You don't play to lose by just one. My god...Gionta, Plekanec, Briere...

I want to see Eller, Galchenyuk, Pacioretty, Desharnais, PK, Markov.

The decisions sometimes. So many wtf's.

you want to see Eller on the ice in the dying minutes? Over Briere who has as many goals and 1/2 the ice time. and has proven his whole career he can score.

 

[sandysan]

I only caught the last half of the game but there were some positives. The Habs were physical and used there speed. They needed to support the puck a little more in order to have success. We need to get bigger without losing speed. Our smaller forwards were overpowered down low and couldn't generate offense.

I'm not a Desharnais basher...I've been neutral, but his balance on his skates has to improve. He was terrible last night.

I'm not sure where, but I think I might have heard this somewhere else, but I cant rememeber when. Oh that's right every freaking day for the last decade.

The trade deadline will bring us more drewiske's and when we get seremoniously dumped in the first round, people will go back as say " remember of march 3rd when we almost beat the kings ?" then whoever the depth player is will get waived and unclaimed and end up in hamilton.

rinse, lather, repeat.

I feel like bill Murray in Groundhog day

 

[dutchy29]

Well geez, I wonder why I brought up those names... YOU SAID WORST FORWARD AND I'M SORRY BUT NO MATTER WHAT THEIR ROLE IS, THOSE GUYS ARE PART OF OUR GROUP OF FORWARDS!

Explain to me how Briere was the best player on that line 'by far'. Was it by doing terrible passes (like that one shift in the third where he missed his pass 2 times in a row and then made a terrible pass to a Emelin playing on the right side which lead to that Carter semi-breakaway). And by worst line, I'm sorry but White's line takes the cake here. No intensity, constantly stuck in their own end and bad decisions all night with the puck.

Yes it was BS penalty. We see that **** every single game. We even saw it last game against LA when Clifford did the same thing on a goal and not only was there no penalty on the play but the goal counted.

He doesn't deserve them? Oh because Desharnais deserved Gallagher and Pacioretty as his linemates when he had 1 pt in 19 GP? That's complete BS and you know it. He was centering our best line at the start of the season and Therrien prefers to use Cunneyworthless tactics rather than have a full offense. Therrien has been utilizing him like a goof since the start. He was scratched unfairly in the first game of last season, he's been put on the wing while DD stays at center. He gets practically no PP time and ever since the EGG line has been seperated, Therrien has giving him grinders or struggling players like Briere or Bourque. No instincts? What a joke.







Oh wait, he can't pick up secondary assists like Desharnais, my bad.

sorry I wish Eller was our man on the first line, and I wish he was producing, he has all the skills and size that this team wants in a center. I believe he should have been given the opportunity over DD to center that line, because we need a center of his size if we will have any chance of competing with the great teams. however
he does seem to lack heart, consistency, and if he was a talented as we all were hoping for he would produce despite his line-mates.
I highly doubt we will ever win a cup with DD as a first line center, but to be honest, hes as good as anyone else that we have to replace him.
I mean the fact you had to go into archives to find nice plays Eller made in 2011 says it all. There is an argument to be made that MT has mismanaged Eller, but the reality
more and more looks like Eller is a third line center with a bit of offensive upside and not much more.

 

[dutchy29]

I'm not sure where, but I think I might have heard this somewhere else, but I cant rememeber when. Oh that's right every freaking day for the last decade.

The trade deadline will bring us more drewiske's and when we get seremoniously dumped in the first round, people will go back as say " remember of march 3rd when we almost beat the kings ?" then whoever the depth player is will get waived and unclaimed and end up in hamilton.

rinse, lather, repeat.

I feel like bill Murray in Groundhog day

Totally agree. good analogy. Reality is in this big business of NHL hockey when you make a mistake it takes years to overcome it. Signing a Briere when everyone in the world knew we needed size and when everyone in the world saw what was the disaster of signing three small overpaid forwards under the Gainey administration.
I feel this could have been a great team but because of terrible decisions in coaching and management we are mediocre, and being mediocre and making the playoffs seems to have become the goal in Montreal instead of the former.
What is really frustrating as you mentioned its not just a mistake made by our management its the same mistakes. Gomez for Mcdonagh is just repeating Chelios for Savard. Briere signing was similar to the Camilari signing, hiring coaches who have failed in previous endeavours MT in Pittsburgh, J.Martin in Ottawa. these coaches both had Stanley cup winners and found a way to not take them to the next step.
Ground hog day indeed.

 

[Maverik]

I feel bad for laughing so much.

I don't. It was meant to be funny, lol

 

[WeThreeKings]

Eller is a 3rd line center. He's capable of producing more than he is offensively but that is due to linemates and a snakebitten stretch rather than a lack of ability offensively.

I don't think Eller should be on the PP. I don't think he should be given a **** load of offensive starts. I think we should just realistically assess what he is. If we can give him two players that play a power game along the boards, we will see his production increase.

Eller likes to bring the puck over the line, play it to the boards and grind it out with possession along the boards. He likes to generate his offense off the cycle. Bourque does not compliment this because if he can't break away through the defense, he doesn't do anything. Briere doesn't compliment this because he's not a strong board player. Briere MIGHT be okay in an exploitation role with Eller IF Bourque was replaced with an adept puck possession/board play forward.