Lightning strikes, Habs finally win

417

BBQ Chicken Alert!
Feb 20, 2003
51,255
27,464
Ottawa
I agree. Bouillon looked totally lost on that second goal. The first thing that came to mind about Bouillon when I saw the reply was "What do I do? What do I do?" He was looking for something to do on the play and never engaged anyone until the puck was already in the back of the net. The collapsing style right now looks pretty bad. 5 red shirts in one cluster **** in front of the net. Puck squirts lose to an open player with an empty net... That one wasn't going to be a post.

Thing is...when you're playing with Markov, you have to be ready for his pinches. Markov often likes to anticipate the play, when it works it's great, he's usually able to create something

But when it doesn't...the team has gotten bit a lot lately.
 

le_sean

Registered User
Oct 21, 2006
39,547
38,951
Thing is...when you're playing with Markov, you have to be ready for his pinches. Markov often likes to anticipate the play, when it works it's great, he's usually able to create something

But when it doesn't...the team has gotten bit a lot lately.

It's not that he likes to, it's that he has to now because he knows he will get beat easily on the outside by a forward. His best bet to defend is to prevent a rush from happening in the first place. Unfortunately sometimes he gets caught.
 

Ghetto Sangria

Registered User
Apr 14, 2009
5,496
1,339
It's not that he likes to, it's that he has to now because he knows he will get beat easily on the outside by a forward. His best bet to defend is to prevent a rush from happening in the first place. Unfortunately sometimes he gets caught.

The problem is that he is costing the habs at least 1 goal a game with his recent pinches. He has been a minus player in 7 of his last night games, some of them -2, and the majority of those minuses come from him failing a pinch, or getting beat on the backcheck.

He's too slow now to be playing so much even strength time. Problem is that the habs don't have anyone better to play top 4 5 on 5 minutes. Next season it won't be too bad though

Gorges Subban
Emelin Diaz can take the majority of 5 on 5 time leaving Markov Bouillon/rookie/UFA to play less even strength minutes.
 

habtastic

Registered User
Aug 17, 2007
10,529
116
Montrealer in Boston
I agree. Bouillon looked totally lost on that second goal. The first thing that came to mind about Bouillon when I saw the reply was "What do I do? What do I do?" He was looking for something to do on the play and never engaged anyone until the puck was already in the back of the net. The collapsing style right now looks pretty bad. 5 red shirts in one cluster **** in front of the net. Puck squirts lose to an open player with an empty net... That one wasn't going to be a post.

Yeah I notice so much more collapster****ing these days. When we were rolling, we just had a way of taking the puck away by giving no space and really being a puck possession team. Now you can buy our blue line for less than a BC steamy and it's just reactionary + quite a drop off in blocked shots/sticks in the way

There's swarming, then there's what we're doing lately and like mentioned on AC, other teams have adjusted to our swarm.

Boullion will be fine when Diaz is back, but I don't know how to rejuvenate the general. If Emelin were still here, I would even suggest giving him 2-3 games off (though I would have expected us to have at least 2 more wins so we could afford it). Markov missed a pretty wide open chance himself earlier in the game when he was doing one of his vintage pinches. Not the one when he had quite some time with the puck on his stick after getting a great cross ice pass, but when he just whiffed on a pretty easy puck coming across with a câge béante. It's all fatigue-related.

The collapsing is also a big reason Price has had struggles since he is getting screened by our own guys, the right guy isn't being picked up and we're tipping so many pucks into our net.
 

habtastic

Registered User
Aug 17, 2007
10,529
116
Montrealer in Boston
The problem is that he is costing the habs at least 1 goal a game with his recent pinches. He has been a minus player in 7 of his last night games, some of them -2, and the majority of those minuses come from him failing a pinch, or getting beat on the backcheck.

He's too slow now to be playing so much even strength time. Problem is that the habs don't have anyone better to play top 4 5 on 5 minutes. Next season it won't be too bad though

Gorges Subban
Emelin Diaz can take the majority of 5 on 5 time leaving Markov Bouillon/rookie/UFA
to play less even strength minutes.

So, exactly like this year (in terms of available players), just supposing that we have no injuries.

I think when Diaz gets back, we are all going to be resting our hopes on him more than we ever expected. I hope his concussion hasn't turned him to **** like it did Bourque.
 

Hemlor

Registered User
Jan 27, 2007
759
0
So, exactly like this year (in terms of available players), just supposing that we have no injuries.

I think when Diaz gets back, we are all going to be resting our hopes on him more than we ever expected. I hope his concussion hasn't turned him to **** like it did Bourque.

I hope people don't expect too much of him, but his return does mean the rest of the D can slot into more natural positions. He will be 2nd PP, so no Boullion, and the minutes will get spread around better. I think its great that he gets 4 games to get back into game shape before the playoffs
 

Strik_IX

No excuses!
Jun 11, 2007
3,338
2
Montréal
The thing i disliked most about yesterday is MT's post-game comments... He was throwing the entire excuse book at the media. Tired, not enough time, etc... WTF happened to your balls Mike?
 

Strik_IX

No excuses!
Jun 11, 2007
3,338
2
Montréal
Well they did pull out the win.

They did, but I thought it was a terrible interview. He's been preaching the "No excuses" motto all year and everything that came out of his mouth yesterday was just that: big, fat...excuses.

I'm not the type to whine after a win, I just thought that his comments were unsettling considering what he's been selling to his players.
 

le_sean

Registered User
Oct 21, 2006
39,547
38,951
The problem is that he is costing the habs at least 1 goal a game with his recent pinches. He has been a minus player in 7 of his last night games, some of them -2, and the majority of those minuses come from him failing a pinch, or getting beat on the backcheck.

He's too slow now to be playing so much even strength time. Problem is that the habs don't have anyone better to play top 4 5 on 5 minutes. Next season it won't be too bad though

Gorges Subban
Emelin Diaz can take the majority of 5 on 5 time leaving Markov Bouillon/rookie/UFA to play less even strength minutes.

I agree with you about his 5 on 5 play. If the puck is on his stick, fine. But as soon as he's chasing, he's done. Personally I think it's time to move on in the summer if Diaz can prove he is healthy and just as good as before.
 

Alexdaman

Wolfman
Mar 12, 2012
8,289
120
Hell/Heaven
They did, but I thought it was a terrible interview. He's been preaching the "No excuses" motto all year and everything that came out of his mouth yesterday was just that: big, fat...excuses.

I'm not the type to whine after a win, I just thought that his comments were unsettling considering what he's been selling to his players.

Well it's a fact that 4 games in 6 days doesn't leave a lot of time to practice, I know about the no excuses philosophy, but I don't think it's necessarily that bad if he cuts the players a little loose considering the schedule.

We did pull out a win, so I think it would a lot worse if he did pull out these comments if we had lost the game.
 

Ghetto Sangria

Registered User
Apr 14, 2009
5,496
1,339
I agree with you about his 5 on 5 play. If the puck is on his stick, fine. But as soon as he's chasing, he's done. Personally I think it's time to move on in the summer if Diaz can prove he is healthy and just as good as before.

He still has value on the pp and pk. He still has his hockey sense, just doesn't have the wheels (or reach to make up for it like gill).
 

Uber Coca

Registered User
Apr 23, 2003
6,243
656
Montreal
I like how Therrien's handling his team.

But... he should give Eller's line more powerplay minutes. He's blessed enough to have 3 scoring lines. Plekanec was out there against Stamkos all game-long - and it's good to do so - but Galchenyuk and Eller should be on the ice whenever there's a powerplay. Not only you are resting Plekanec, but these two players are way more creative than Gionta, Desharnais or even Pacioretty as of late.
 

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