Price and PK and the Elephant

[JLP]

Maybe this gets closed, maybe it gets a chance and we stay civil, we'll see.

For your consideration: Habs now have locked up (a) a superstar starting goalie and (b) a superstar top-pairing defenceman. Both are arguably top-5 in the league.

For me the elephant in the room is that our top-line centre is one of the weakest in the league. An "offensive specialist" who finished 45th among C in P/60; in three playoff runs has yet to score an ES goal, is tiny and easily pushed off the puck, can't shoot, grind, etc.

Question: Can the Habs reasonably contend over the next season or two with a relatively weak top-line centre? Does he drag the rest of the team down or does the rest of the team compensate for his shortcomings?

Click to read more...

 

[CP31]

Enter Galchenyuk.

 

[Cole Caulifield]

Another disguised DD hate thread. We clearly needed that.

 

[Edgy]

You expect another DD thread to stay civil?

 

[Halifaxhab*]

DD fills in fine, until Galchenyuk can step up.

/thread

 

[Ghetto Sangria]

Isn't Pleks the habs #1 center in terms of ice time? I don't think it's fair to claim DD is the number 1... when really it's pleks.

That's like saying Mikael Granlund is Minnesota's #1 center, not Mikko Koivu.

DD is just an offensive exploitation centerman... hardly the one that's relied on the most.

But yes, the only hope for the habs to have that start centerman would be if Chuckie matured incredibly both offensively and defensively this season

 

[Smokey Thompson]

As demonstrated this year, we can contend in the East with Carey, Pk, and our depth.

However, Having DD as our top line "offensive center" who is so easily neutralized in the playoffs is a drag and handicap for the team.

 

[Sorinth]

Maybe this gets closed, maybe it gets a chance and we stay civil, we'll see.

For your consideration: Habs now have locked up (a) a superstar starting goalie and (b) a superstar top-pairing defenceman. Both are arguably top-5 in the league.

For me the elephant in the room is that our top-line centre is one of the weakest in the league. An "offensive specialist" who finished 45th among C in P/60; in three playoff runs has yet to score an ES goal, is tiny and easily pushed off the puck, can't shoot, grind, etc.

Question: Can the Habs reasonably contend over the next season or two with a relatively weak top-line centre? Does he drag the rest of the team down or does the rest of the team compensate for his shortcomings?

People should really stop looking at we need X-kind of player for position-Y. It really doesn't matter, there's no recipe for winning. Excluding luck, you need high end offence and defence. It doesn't matter if the offence comes from your #1C or your #1 winger, or your amazing depth scoring.

We can and should move DD off the 1st line because his production to role ratio is not very good. But the whole we can't win with this or that player is BS. If we had the same D that Team Canada had at the Olympics and Price in nets we would be contenders.

 

[HamiltonNHL]

Here's where the Money is spent.

I'll take DD for Clarkson and I'll swallow 1.5mil of Clarkson's contract.

 

[Halifaxhab*]

Here's where the Money is spent.

I'll take DD for Clarkson and I'll swallow 1.5mil of Clarkson's contract.

Not even for 50% of his contract, no thanks.

 

[Price is Wright]

The real elephant is the triple low five.

 

[Mario Lemieux fan 66]

Desharnais was the best player on his line with a good two-way game in the playoff. You won't score a ton of goals when you play against Bergeron line like Krejci was invisible against Plekanec.

Pacioretty and Vanek were bigger problems than Desharnais. These elite snipers should have find a way to score goals. Their compete level was simply not good enough.

 

[LyricalLyricist]

I really did not expect this to be a DD thread at all. Don't get the relevance really.

Habs have Gallagher as top RW. Elephant in the room, can habs really continue without a legit #1 RW? Can the team compensate?

In all seriousness we have Subban, Price as stars and Pacioretty as a borderline star. Most teams don't have this so yes we can compensate. I'd never reject other stars though, the more the better. Galchenyuk is still too raw to be a star but we're hoping he makes it in next few years.

 

[overlords]

Here's where the Money is spent.

I'll take DD for Clarkson and I'll swallow 1.5mil of Clarkson's contract.

No thanks.

 

[LyricalLyricist]

No thanks.

C'mon man, remove DD is 'addition by subtraction'.

 

[Lebowski]

Who knows. We were "contenders" last season with DD as our 1st C... If anything, Pacioretty was a whole lot less effective than DD for what it means.

Regardless of that, I think we all know our only possible fix to that problem is for Galchenyuk to develop into the player we expect him to be. For that to happen, I'd like to think he needs to be moved to center sooner than later. This is going to be his third pro year. We need to make the move at some point.

 

[Ezpz]

Another disguised DD hate thread. We clearly needed that.

It's not really disguised. OP/reality clearly states DD is the weakness holding us back from being a real contender. Our bottom 6 is fine. Our D is fine. Our goalie is fine. Our second line is fine. First line center/RW? Lacking.

 

[M.C.G. 31]

Alex Galchenyuk will be our #1 center sooner rather than later.

 

[LyricalLyricist]

It's not really disguised. OP/reality clearly states DD is the weakness holding us back from being a real contender. Our bottom 6 is fine. Our D is fine. Our goalie is fine. Our second line is fine. First line center/RW? Lacking.

Our top RW in Gallagher player better in playoffs than our top LW which is in area we don't lack in. Team game but best players need to be the best. It's okay if our guys like max, DD and cake had a tough series, maybe 2. The problem is the didn't break out in 3 rounds. That's the problem.

 

[Whitesnake]

Another disguised DD hate thread. We clearly needed that.

And strangely enough, nobody whines about people being always negatives and such. When it's DD, it's no holds barred and everything is welcome.

Should probably play a game.....let's create 10 threads that has a title as far away from DD as possible, and before post 5, somebody will surely find a way to make it about him....Wonder who can turn "who is the #2 goalie" thread into a DD hate thread.

 

[habsfanatics*]

I was hoping to read something interesting when opening this thread, but nope. Same old, same old.

 

[overlords]

And strangely enough, nobody whines about people being always negatives and such. When it's DD, it's no holds barred and everything is welcome.

Should probably play a game.....let's create 10 threads that has a title as far away from DD as possible, and before post 5, somebody will surely find a way to make it about him....

There's always the same group bashing, and always the same group defending. Your post just adds to that.

 

[Cole Caulifield]

People should really stop looking at we need X-kind of player for position-Y. It really doesn't matter, there's no recipe for winning. Excluding luck, you need high end offence and defence. It doesn't matter if the offence comes from your #1C or your #1 winger, or your amazing depth scoring.

No matter what people think of DD, that's something I wish more people understood or agreed with.

 

[Kriss E]

Desharnais was the best player on his line with a good two-way game in the playoff. You won't score a ton of goals when you play against Bergeron line like Krejci was invisible against Plekanec.

Pacioretty and Vanek were bigger problems than Desharnais. These elite snipers should have find a way to score goals. Their compete level was simply not good enough.

Well that's pretty much it. You need your top guys to produce. Can't have all three not score. DD was as much of a problem. He battled hard, so if you want to give away points for Effort, then great but that doesn't mean much.

 

[Whitesnake]

There's always the same group bashing, and always the same group defending. Your post just adds to that.

Yep. My post is just my opinion that I'M just as entitled to give as them. Just that at one point, you or whoever decided that we should have a full DD hate thread totally dedicated to that and for whoever wanted to write on it could (as I did) and whoever wanted to ignore it could (as I also did). That was the purpose of THAT thread. But now...seems that I guess I misunderstood that purpose. Fine. I'll stay away from it. Yet, it's freakin tough to stay away from almost every thread that eventually all come back to DD.....