This team is on the right track

[DAChampion]

All recent Stanley Cup winners were "missing" something or multiple things.

Imperfections in the lineup does not mean we're not contenders.

 

[Lshap]

We have the ingredients of a Stanley Cup dynasty.

I just hope that the problems like:
- Desharnais-centric team strategy;
- Sylvain Lefrbvre being terrible at development;
- Mishandling of Subban;

Don't hurt the team.

My #1 concern is AHL development. Our future D and secondary scoring rests with the young prospects who are currently being coached by Lefebvre. In the next year, some combination of Beaulieu, Tinordi, Nygren and Pateryn should be making a real impact on the Habs' D, and Andrighetto and Hudon should be almost NHL-ready; if not, you'd have to think something went seriously wrong with their learning curve, which is a coaching issue.

I have no problem with having veteran presence on the team, but leaning so heavily on Gonchar, Weaver and Allen looks like a patchwork response to Beaulieu and Tinordi being under-prepared. Pretty sure Bergevin expected them to be further along than they were. We desperately need their infusion of youth, speed and skill on our backend if we're hoping to go anywhere next playoffs.

As for Desharnais, Therrien is notoriously slow to react to what we see as obvious, but unless he picks up his game I believe he'll be demoted or benched pretty soon. This can't go on.

 

[optimus2861]

We've been hearing the Habs are 2-3-4-5 years away from contending for the last 15 years. I'm more optimistic under Bergevin, but I'm still not convinced.

We have a Vezina-calibre goaltender in his prime, a Norris-calibre defenceman entering his prime, a 35-40 goal-scoring winger in his prime, an excellent 2-way center exiting his prime but still very capable, quality depth forwards, a quality #2/#3 D nearing his career's end but still capable, a top-line-centre calibre prospect whose skills are beginning to blossom, and several quality defence prospects knocking on the door to fill out the blueline.

There are a lot of pieces in place or very nearly so, to place us into a Cup contention window that ought to last until Price, Subban, and Pacioretty exit their primes. Heck, I don't see a roster reason we can't make the Cup final this year. We'd likely get dismantled by the Hawks or Kings, but it would still be a valuable step forward.

The biggest problem is inept coaching. Or I could say, the biggest problem is with the general manager who is allowing the potential of this roster to be wasted by inept coaching. If that isn't corrected, I wouldn't be shocked to see this team taken out in the first round by an ascendant Tampa, steady Detroit, or even Pittsburgh/NYI if we were to slip into a wild-card spot.