Silver lining in the injuries?

[JHabs]

The Montreal Canadiens haven’t had much luck with injuries to start the 2013-14 NHL season. Seven regulars find themselves on the sidelines heading into Tuesday night’s game against the Edmonton Oilers. Their combined salary cap hit is over $16 million dollars, which makes filling the holes difficult for GM Marc Bergevin, who is already working with little cap space.

The injury woes started during the preseason when defensemen Douglas Murray (upper-body) and Davis Drewiske (shoulder) were sidelined. They joined Alexei Emelin, who was already out with a knee injury suffered at the end of last season.

In the first game of the season, heavyweight George Parros was the knocked out of the lineup with a concussion. His injury was sustained during a fight with the Toronto Maple Leafs’ Colton Orr as Parros was pulled down to the ice as mid-swing.

When Max Pacioretty was helped off the ice by his teammates in a game against the Winnipeg Jets, many feared the worst. Exaggerated guesses pegged the 24-year-old out for the season. So when the team announced that he’d only miss three weeks, fans in the Greater Montreal area let out a sigh of relief.

The infirmary welcomed two new additions in the midst of a 2-1 loss to the Nashville Predators last Saturday night. Daniel Briere suffered his third concussion in as many seasons when Gabriel Bourque collided with him. Then late in the game, versatile forward Brandon Prust hurt his right shoulder when he fell heavily into the boards.

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[Habsawce]

The injuries just expose the team for the lack of depth they have in all positions, especially defense. Bergevin signed 10,000 #6 defensemen instead of getting some quality (whether he could or not is another question).

 

[MasterDecoy]

while it is cool to see younger players get cup of coffees, or in the case of the bournival an entire pot of coffee, i wouldn't call that 'silver linings'. more "making the best out of an entirely ****** situation"

 

[Tuggy]

I don't see any silver lining when they are losing games.

 

[Stoneburg]

Over 9% of the leagues injured players, play for us, no team can deal with that many injuries. It is almost 1/3 the roster. It is NOT a lack of depth.

Although it is nice to see the kids.

 

[idk]

Over 9% of the leagues injured players, play for us, no team can deal with that many injuries. It is almost 1/3 the roster. It is NOT a lack of depth.

Although it is nice to see the kids.

This - in fact we ought to be happy that we have as much depth as we have. Despite being seven players down we're only playing two or three "non-NHL" players (depending on your definition - I know many of us would argue that Desharnais and Boullion are not NHL quality players, but I'm thinking more along the lines of Blunden (who is an AHL journeyman), Holland (who needs more time in the AHL) and Beaulieu/Tinordi/Pateryn (who are close but, like Holland, need more time in Hamilton)). I was sceptical when MB went out and signed Murray with the numbers of NHL d-men we had under contract already but I'm happy we have the bodies now.

 

[JPGoHabsGo]

This could be worse. We could have traded for Kaberle in an effort to save the season

 

[FrontierPsyCHiatrist*]

Over 9% of the leagues injured players, play for us, no team can deal with that many injuries. It is almost 1/3 the roster. It is NOT a lack of depth.

Although it is nice to see the kids.

I'm disgusted by this stat. I ain't even sure if we will be able to see our full time roster this season. Sigh.

 

[Pierre Dagenais]

The injuries just expose the team for the lack of depth they have in all positions, especially defense. Bergevin signed 10,000 #6 defensemen instead of getting some quality (whether he could or not is another question).

Which teams have enough depth to cover all these injuries?

 

[Habsawce]

Which teams have enough depth to cover all these injuries?

The defensemen that are injured were injured before the season started, so no excuses for not finding adequate replacement. Although I think it's more to the fact that they aren't using the available resources and overplaying Gorges, Diaz and Bouillon. If we are going to give up chances it might as well be a learning curve for our young d-men, instead of veterans giving a bad impression to the young kids.

 

[WeThreeKings]

We have an excuse for why we suck instead of facing the facts that this team isn't very good.

 

[Habsawce]

We have an excuse for why we suck instead of facing the facts that this team isn't very good.

It was obvious before the season that the team wasn't very good and success was riding on a couple of players playing very well. Which they have IMO (Subban, Price) but the injuries have just become too much. Subban doesn't get enough ice time for one (especially with all the injuries) and he also gets treated like a 7 game rookie by our coach and refs.

Price has been stellar, but as seen 2 years ago, it can only get you so far and if the team isn't going to play harder on the defensive side of the puck it will be a long season and could be over by the time we get all our players back.

That being said, the team is still skilled enough to battle for a playoff spot if they alter their style to grind out games. It's necessary with the injuries.

 

[izzy75]

We have an excuse for why we suck instead of facing the facts that this team isn't very good.

People would rather focus on Eller's comments than own up to the fact that most hockey analysts had us pegged as a very average team.

Given the injuries, we'll be playing golf soon enough.

 

[yoyo999]

The silver lining is Sam Reihart

 

[Et le But]

People would rather focus on Eller's comments than own up to the fact that most hockey analysts had us pegged as a very average team.

Given the injuries, we'll be playing golf soon enough.

We are good enough to make the playoffs if every other person on the team isn't injured.

We will get bounced in the first round, sure, but at least you finally acknowledge we are average and not the worst team in NHL history.

The silver lining is Sam Reihart

Do people really believe we stand a chance finishing with that bad a record?

Have you seen the Sabres? Devils? Rangers? Flyers? The Oilers stringing together 2 wins in a row doesn't take away from the fact that teams can score at will on them. Our defense is bad, but Subban alone elevates it to another league from Edmonton and Florida. And Price has already stolen games for us.

Face it, this team isn't tanking. Finishing with an average record might be disappointing, but we aren't going to out-tank the dregs of the league, so you might as well enjoy the ride.

 

[Bourdon101]

The injuries just expose the team for the lack of depth they have in all positions, especially defense. Bergevin signed 10,000 #6 defensemen instead of getting some quality (whether he could or not is another question).

He must have counted on some of our d-mans to step up and be good top 4, like Diaz. Foolish mistake.

 

[Halifaxhab*]

The injuries just expose the team for the lack of depth they have in all positions, especially defense. Bergevin signed 10,000 #6 defensemen instead of getting some quality (whether he could or not is another question).

lack of depth? it's 7 players out. And the team is still able to win. Still pretty good. How many teams have this many injuries?

 

[WakeUpNHL]

silver lining is that with some of the regulars out of the lineup we can see exactly how useless Desharnais is.

 

[Et le But]

lack of depth? it's 7 players out. And the team is still able to win. Still pretty good. How many teams have this many injuries?

To be fair, Briere and Murray being injured shouldn't be a surprise to anyone considering their ages and recent track records, and we knew Emelin was out for the first half of the season. We've still had bad luck, but some of this was foreseeable.

 

[SirClintonPortis]

Bournival getting ice time on the Pleks line.

 

[Number 57]

The injuries just expose the team for the lack of depth they have in all positions, especially defense. Bergevin signed 10,000 #6 defensemen instead of getting some quality (whether he could or not is another question).

No team can recover from having basically 1/3 of the lineup injured. You can't just stack a bunch quality players in the AHL in case we're hit by injuries. It's just kids and tweeners like Blunden. Sorry man but the Habs have solid depth, as good as any team in the league, especially on defense. If healthy, we basically have 12 guys that can play an NHL shift on D.

Up front, I agree it's a little more bleak, but it's not all that bad. If Leblanc had a good camp he'd be a quality callup. Thomas is still injured which sucks, but guys like Blunden, St-Pierre, Andrighetto and Holland will make fine callups.

 

[Runner77]

The silver lining is casting a shadow on the individuals and/or process leading to the medical assessments that are relied upon, before a player is considered for a contract and having all of it reconsidered, since it's leading to boneheaded results.

I don't get how Drewiske ends up with a season-ending injury after signing but without having played post-signing, how Murray had a lower body injury during the pre-season which mysteriously transformed itself into an upper-body injury requiring a prolonged absence and how they could grant a 2-year deal to a Brière who now has experienced his 3rd concussion in his last 20 months and who had only played 34 games in 2012-13 and in 8 games last season.

 

[Brainiac]

16M at the infirmary. We're a cap floor team...

 

[Brainiac]

....

 

[WeThreeKings]

We are good enough to make the playoffs if every other person on the team isn't injured.

We will get bounced in the first round, sure, but at least you finally acknowledge we are average and not the worst team in NHL history.



Do people really believe we stand a chance finishing with that bad a record?

Have you seen the Sabres? Devils? Rangers? Flyers? The Oilers stringing together 2 wins in a row doesn't take away from the fact that teams can score at will on them. Our defense is bad, but Subban alone elevates it to another league from Edmonton and Florida. And Price has already stolen games for us.

Face it, this team isn't tanking. Finishing with an average record might be disappointing, but we aren't going to out-tank the dregs of the league, so you might as well enjoy the ride.

Yeah, those teams suck.. but it's not unreasonable to think we can't finish in the top 10 of this years draft. This D is seriously that bad.