Lots of typos, sorry.
LaFleurs Guy, I was going to respond point by point but I think it would be a bit too tedious. My big issue with what you're shovelling (and you ARE shovelling something) is that you're completely ignoring reality. The Habs don't exist in a vacuum, if they did your ideas would have merit but that's not the case at all.
My points have merit because they've been put to action and resulted in cups. We've seen it but we haven't learned from it...
Molson just bought this team; he is not interested in devaluing it and selling off assets.
You don't know this and neither do I. Who the hell knows what the guy wants? He's an owner. He might ACTUALLY want a cup and be willing to do whatever he has to in order to get one.
Also, after selling off good players who eat up minutes competantly we'll have to replace them with scrubs, nobodies, never-beens and generally untalented UFAs or green youngsters. You can't just forfit games, right? So who do you play?
We've played without Markov for three years now. Why can't we play without him now. We've played without Gionta as well...
You probably said the same thing about Koivu. We CAN'T trade him because we'll be in the dark ages for years... then we let him walk for nothing.
Again, what you're saying doesn't make sense.
Your "method" depends on strategic talent reduction for high draft picks when in fact it's nearly impossible to maintain that sort of atmosphere without spinning into an uncontrollable phenomenon.
??????
This is rhetoric, not argument. And it's be debunked by the fact that most cup winning teams have been rebuilds.
Losing sucks and everyone who has made it into the NHL knows this feeling and is fiercely competitive. I don't feel like you understand or acknowledge the reality of this very pertinent fact (or have ever played competitive sports). Just last year, losing close games over and over took it's toll on the team: 4 veteran starters got traded, 1 bought out and 2 entire coaching staffs were fired. Now we both know that the changes weren't necessarily for the bad, especially the coaches, but it stands that losing = turmoil, change, distruption.
Tell that to the Devils, Avs, Wings and Pens... For them it resulted in cups.
I don't need to list off The Blue Jackets, Islanders and the like - do I?
Please do mention the Islanders. As I've pointed out, they traded away a Stanley Cup winning roster of prospects. If they'd just stuck with a rebuild, they'd have been a powerhouse. Mentioning them only proves my point.
Now this is all neglecting my primary argument: hockey is entertainment and if the Habs suck to watch the fans WILL go away. You ignored my point and dismissed it as "no they won't we still log onto HFboards"... Under Jacques Martin the hockey we played was brutally boring and less people watched games on RDS (until the playoffs that is.) we had dead arenas and inflated attendence figures, scalpers actually complained about this. This was for a .500 team. Molson doesn't want to lower his ********* ticket prices to keep selling out the Bell Centre, so he's clearly not going to approve some constipated attempt to lose in order to eventually win... maybe. People wil stop watching and it will hurt merchendise sales and the owner. Maybe irreparably.
Do you know that this is actually what Leaf fans have said? The same fans who have watched their team lose for 40+ years and miss the playoffs for ten. They've said that a rebuild would make the fans go away.
Thanks for the good laugh because I had almost forgotten about that. BTW, sure is strange how many fans are still watching and writing on this forum despite last year's horrible finish.
Please stop with this stupid argument.
I'm assuming you're aware of the term "Public Image" and the super long term affects of bad public image? The Habs STILL have not fully recovered from the early 2000s. They're a product being sold, like a shampoo, you're saying we should keep changing the formula until we find the magic figures that makes it super duper good. Well no, it won't work that way because no one will buy the fn shampoo if their hair will be falling out - or in the case of the TankHabs, if the team has no #1 centre, and keeps getting scored on because all the vets are traded from the D and Budaj is starting half the games and the players don't give a damn and start half-assing it..
Yeah, the Habs haven't recovered...
And what's funnier is that you think the cure for this is... more mediocrity. Right, let's not fix the problem, let's perpetuate it.
It's just such a hair-brained, half-considered scenario and you're so obsessed with this narrative that I can't just ignore you as I typically do. It's just aggressively ignorant to important realities of life, buisness, public relations, hockey, inter-personal skills, etc. that I'm actually worried about you.
Dude, hair brained is continuing the way we have. You talk about the early 2000s, well how the hell do you think we got there in the first place? We didn't rebuild, went for quick fixes and wound up mediocre. And we've been mediocre for a long, long time.
It's a new year, a new management organization, a new coach and a new CBA. We weren't that bad last year as we all know, and we will be getting better and better if we keep doing it. I can't promise a cup, no way, but I know they all want to win and will makes the moves they feel is right to achieve the goal.
You don't know squat about what we're going to do. Nobody does. We've got a new owner and we don't know if he's all about the dollars or if its about the cups.
You are an apologist. You come here after every move and defend, defend, defend... I find it truly ironic that you sit here and talk about how the fans will go away. With guys like you out there, the club is safe no matter what it puts on the ice.
And you know it.
You are the worst kind of poster because your arguments are fundamentally dishonest. You KNOW you're shovelling crap when you say this stuff. You don't want to rebuild because you want to go for 8th all the time, but you know I'll destroy you. So instead, you manifacture some ridiculous excuse... just give it up.
You disagree with me on rebuilding, that's fair enough. But I'm honest in my opinions and can back them up in spades. Sitting there manufacturing reasons why we can't is fundamentally dishonest and you deserved to be ripped for it.
This is not a question of abillity. We CAN do this. This is a question of will. Is ownership willing to do this? It's been shown to work and we have the best scouting in the league. The few rebuilding moves we've made have resulted in our best players and prospects... it does work. We just need an owner who's interested in cups instead of short term profits.
Besides, we're just spectators afterall.
We are fans and this is a place to discuss what the team should do to achieve success. The path has been there a long time. I'm glad we've started to take it (willingly or not) and get the benefits.
It's up to Molson to decide what he's going to do. It's up to him. I can only argue what he SHOULD do.