So close to the top despite the injuries we've had

[LesHabsRock]

If you look at the big picture the Habs were playing fantastic before all of their injuries mounted so far this year. Despite all that's happened and their goalscoring woes they're still only 5 points from first in the East. Now that most of our players have returned I'm hoping they'll find their game again. To lose 6 or 7 players for several games and then have them return all at once in short period of time isn't easy when trying to establish consistency in the line-up. It's funny how Toronto is considered to be doing great this year with only 2 more wins and 3 more points than the Habs. How is it they're considered so great/good and yet our Habs are considered to be struggling or not so good? Any kind of winstreak at the moment would catapult the Habs into a first place standing or close to it. To come out of the injuries and a team goal scoring slump with a 11-9-2 record is impressive. I'm curious to see how the Habs respond to a 6-2 thrashing of the Wild ( a very good team) when they play the Caps tomorrow. Go Habs. Time for the Habs to catch fire

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[Hackett]

I suppose the positive is that our goaltending has been phenomenal. It's the type of goaltending that gives you a chance to win any game.

What I' don't like is the amount of time we spend in our own zone, and the lack of sustained pressure in the opposing zone. This team is built for chances off the transition, and the pp, both of which become decreasingly available down the stretch and into the playoffs

 

[hockeyfan2k11]

At the end of the day, does it really matter since we all know how this season will end? Crash and burn in the playoffs.

I hate to be that guy, but this is not a good team. The more people realize that, there will be less shock and outrage when we get dominated by a better team in the POs.

I'd rather a year or 2 of tanking so we can draft some elite talent.

 

[LesHabsRock]

I suppose the positive is that our goaltending has been phenomenal. It's the type of goaltending that gives you a chance to win any game.

What I' don't like is the amount of time we spend in our own zone, and the lack of sustained pressure in the opposing zone. This team is built for chances off the transition, and the pp, both of which become decreasingly available down the stretch and into the playoffs

I'm hoping MB realizes the weaknesses of this team and is active at the deadline. Surely he can't be content with this lineup. You're right about the goaltending. Both goalies have been incredible. One more big scoring forward would be great. To start the season the Habs scored almost 4 goals per game until they started dropping like flies in the injury department. I'm hoping Max Pac has finally found his game. Plekanec needs to be better in 5 on 5 scoring.

 

[LesHabsRock]

At the end of the day, does it really matter since we all know how this season will end? Crash and burn in the playoffs.

I hate to be that guy, but this is not a good team. The more people realize that, there will be less shock and outrage when we get dominated by a better team in the POs.

I'd rather a year or 2 of tanking so we can draft some elite talent.

Habs already did that 2 years ago. They finished 2nd last in the East. The following year (last year) the Habs benefitted from it finishing 2nd place and inserted Gallagher and Galchenyuk into the lineup. Habs should be better and they will be.

 

[Iskandm004]

you forget all the other teams around who had injuries and suspensions all year to that are doing the same or better:

Boston lost Eriksson

Det had lost Kronwall

Leafs lost alll their top 3 C at one point and 2 long term

Tampa just lost Stamkos

among other injuries that i have prob missed but as you can see no one has been at their best at the start of the year anyway. All those teams are ahead of the habs as well

 

[LePoche69]

5 point from the top, and 5 points from the 13th position. I guess it's a matter of having a glass of water half-something.

 

[Le Barron de HF]

At the end of the day, does it really matter since we all know how this season will end? Crash and burn in the playoffs.

I hate to be that guy, but this is not a good team. The more people realize that, there will be less shock and outrage when we get dominated by a better team in the POs.

I'd rather a year or 2 of tanking so we can draft some elite talent.

You keep saying that we got dominated by a better team in the playoffs and it baffles me. There are many factors that can be brought up as to why we lost that series but there's no reason to not look forward as a fanbase. Last year, even though the way it ended left a sour taste in our mouths, was some valuable experience for the Gallys, Eller, Subban, etc. We are a young team and I'd rather have some early exits than be irrelevant like the Oilers have been since 2006.

Point is, if Price keeps playing like this, we have a chance to go far. And this can apply to any team with a good goaltender.

 

[LesHabsRock]

5 point from the top, and 5 points from the 13th position. I guess it's a matter of having a glass of water half-something.

very fine line between winning and losing I guess. We can easily point out a few games in which the habs should've won and let it slip away. Most of their losses have been by one goal (As a matter of fact just about all of them).

 

[Pricef*]

you forget all the other teams around who had injuries and suspensions all year to that are doing the same or better:

Boston lost Eriksson

Det had lost Kronwall

Leafs lost alll their top 3 C at one point and 2 long term

Tampa just lost Stamkos

among other injuries that i have prob missed but as you can see no one has been at their best at the start of the year anyway. All those teams are ahead of the habs as well

But none of them have had the sheer volume of injuries that the Habs have had.

 

[LesHabsRock]

But none of them have had the sheer volume of injuries that the Habs have had.

Precisely.

 

[Uber Coca]

Despite some rough games, the big picture is still positive for the Canadiens. I think this team is playing below its potential right now : the transition from defense to offense is bad compared to last year. It also helps to see Ottawa struggling like this and Toronto slowly getting back to earth.

 

[tinyzombies]

I wouldn't care if we were in first. This is not a playoff team still.

 

[gusfring]

Every team has had injuries.

 

[hockeyfan2k11]

You keep saying that we got dominated by a better team in the playoffs and it baffles me. There are many factors that can be brought up as to why we lost that series but there's no reason to not look forward as a fanbase. Last year, even though the way it ended left a sour taste in our mouths, was some valuable experience for the Gallys, Eller, Subban, etc. We are a young team and I'd rather have some early exits than be irrelevant like the Oilers have been since 2006.

Point is, if Price keeps playing like this, we have a chance to go far. And this can apply to any team with a good goaltender.

Why use the Oilers? Why not Pittsburgh, Chicago, LA, St.Louis?

You think Colorado is upset about picking up McKinnon?

Imagine having another Gally going into the season? Just saying....last year especially in a short year did nothing for us. I would have rather finished at the bottom and picked up a Jones or McKinnon.

 

[NewHabsEra*]

If you look at the big picture the Habs were playing fantastic before all of their injuries mounted so far this year. Despite all that's happened and their goalscoring woes they're still only 5 points from first in the East. Now that most of our players have returned I'm hoping they'll find their game again. To lose 6 or 7 players for several games and then have them return all at once in short period of time isn't easy when trying to establish consistency in the line-up. It's funny how Toronto is considered to be doing great this year with only 2 more wins and 3 more points than the Habs. How is it they're considered so great/good and yet our Habs are considered to be struggling or not so good? Any kind of winstreak at the moment would catapult the Habs into a first place standing or close to it. To come out of the injuries and a team goal scoring slump with a 11-9-2 record is impressive. I'm curious to see how the Habs respond to a 6-2 thrashing of the Wild ( a very good team) when they play the Caps tomorrow. Go Habs. Time for the Habs to catch fire

I guess some see the glass half full while some others see it half empty.. If it wasnt of masterful goaltending performances, this team would be out of the top 8 right now.. When you look at the standing, NYR CAR have both 20 pts and 1 game in hands, NJ 21 pts with 1 game in hand, OTT only 4 pts behind, philly 18 pts with 2 games in hands, if they win their 2 games in hand, they are only 2 pts behind.. Plus, if you look at the Western standing, if the Habs were playing in that conderence, we would be 6 pts away of making the playoffs with teams having games in hands on us..

This team still have alot to prove and alot to do in order to make the playoffs..

 

[Devourers]

I don't disagree and for the record, I am optimistic about this team. The management scares me a bit but barring a Mike Milbury-like meltdown, I think our youth will eventually take us where we need to go.

That having been said, I'm just tired of it always being the same story with us. It's always injuries holding us back. I really hope one day we have a really robust team, that isn't to say I expect no injuries to happen, I just wish we'd be able to be better when they do happen.

 

[ArtPeur]

Well, if were still so close to the top... it's because every team "sucks".

 

[Lafleurs Guy]

Why use the Oilers? Why not Pittsburgh, Chicago, LA, St.Louis?

You think Colorado is upset about picking up McKinnon?

Imagine having another Gally going into the season? Just saying....last year especially in a short year did nothing for us. I would have rather finished at the bottom and picked up a Jones or McKinnon.

I expected us to finish at the bottom... didn't happen because our youngsters turned out to be too good.

At the end of the day there's nothing we can really do about this short of trading away Price, Subban, Max and our younger core players because they're the ones who are going to keep us above the bottomfeeding teams.

If we were going to do a true rebuild, the time for that was five or six years ago. That's when it would've made sense. We're past it now and like it or not we're going to probably have to go with what we've got. Only alternative would be to deal a guy like Markov for a great prospect. But then we'd have a huge hole on the blueline now. We wouldn't tank far enough to get a high pick but it wouldn't do our playoff chances any good.

 

[Lshap]

At the end of the day, does it really matter since we all know how this season will end? Crash and burn in the playoffs.

I hate to be that guy, but this is not a good team. The more people realize that, there will be less shock and outrage when we get dominated by a better team in the POs.

I'd rather a year or 2 of tanking so we can draft some elite talent.

This is nonsense on two levels. First, a five-game playoff series does not define a team. If it did, Chicago, Boston, Pittsburgh and Detroit would've been "Crash and burn" playoff losers in 2013, since all of them were dumped in the first-round in 2012. This happens every single season. Teams get hot or cold in the playoffs DESPITE how good they're perceived to be, and it has nothing to do with what they did in last season's playoffs. When it comes to playoffs, "Results may vary" is a huge understatement.

Second, please tell me which team has gone far in the playoffs with so many key injuries. Yeah, I know, injuries aren't the only reason Habs lost, but injuries were a big reason with half the forwards out or hurt, plus Price. So before this debate goes further, give me an example of another team that went deep in the POs with multiple injuries and I'll reconsider my opinion.

It drives me nuts that Montreal, with all its rookies and young players, is now seen as a weak playoff team based entirely on five games. The perception is knee-jerk and plain wrong.

 

[Habssince89]

The positive: Weve weathered the storm (largely thanks to Price and Budaj) and are in a position to maintain a playoff spot. Also as much as people will justifiably be mad at the vets, its a very positive thing for our young guys putting the team on their backs and leading the attack.

The negative: We have some holes in our lineup, poor in-game tactics, and we still need to beef up our team.

As far as the playoffs go: We will make it and while people are expecting a repeat of last year, we have to give them the benefit of the doubt. Emelin is healthy, Bournival is an excellent addition, The gallys and Eller are even better this year, Markov looks great, and we even have guys like Briere who might really surprise us come tge post-season.

Its too early to assume either way, but to me we're in a better position for success in the playoffs than last year.

 

[TofoEmptyNt]

I'm hoping our injury problems were why Therrien had us playing safe no risk hockey until last game.
Notice how our defensemen were pinching much more against the Wild instead of backing off to prevent odd man rushes?
Notice how our high forward was being more aggressive in the offensive zone instead of staying high to prevent odd man rushes?
This is how we need to play to be successful. We don't have the personnel to sit back, play safe and capitalize on our own odd man rushes/transition chances. We need offensive zone time, puck possession and a high volume of scoring chances. And of course more time in their zone equals less in ours.
If we get back to doing this every night, like we did last season, I'm confident we can be a top 4 team in the East.

 

[Born in 1909]

Having Emelin back is huge.

The serious team troubles started when he went down last season, as fans will remember.

 

[Lafleurs Guy]

This is nonsense on two levels. First, a five-game playoff series does not define a team. If it did, Chicago, Boston, Pittsburgh and Detroit would've been "Crash and burn" playoff losers in 2013, since all of them were dumped in the first-round in 2012. This happens every single season. Teams get hot or cold in the playoffs DESPITE how good they're perceived to be, and it has nothing to do with what they did in last season's playoffs. When it comes to playoffs, "Results may vary" is a huge understatement.

Second, please tell me which team has gone far in the playoffs with so many key injuries. Yeah, I know, injuries aren't the only reason Habs lost, but injuries were a big reason with half the forwards out or hurt, plus Price. So before this debate goes further, give me an example of another team that went deep in the POs with multiple injuries and I'll reconsider my opinion.

It drives me nuts that Montreal, with all its rookies and young players, is now seen as a weak playoff team based entirely on five games. The perception is knee-jerk and plain wrong.

I'm not too keen on our playoff chances. Don't go to the dirty areas on either side... tough to win that way. We need real changes to this lineup if we want to go for a cup.

 

[Kriss E]

It's not like we lost Price, or PK, or Markov, or Plekanec...

We're talking about MaxPac, Prust and Emelin.
MaxPac and Prust bring important things, but we have enough guys up front that can pick up the slack.
Briere missing was more good than bad.
Emelin was a big piece, but he's still just a top 4 guy.

Ottawa did it last year without Karlsson and Spezza. Those are premiere guys.
We should be able to do with some of our depth gone, especially with the East being so weak right now. The Flyers that only won 3 games through 11, is just a point away from 8th spot.
Meanwhile in the West, the Team that was the big talk earlier is now 8th. Colorado is 8th despite having a .750 winning percentage!!!

So ya, I wouldn't put much exploit on us still being in a PO spot despite having a few injuries to depth guys.

We're not playing particularly well, and have relied a lot on our goalies.