What did I miss?

[PJackb]

For multiple reasons I've completely disconnected from the Canadiens this year. I don't like the coach and GM way of managing the team and got really fed up of the same old crap on the ice. The break started mi-season last year and Not firing Therrien at the end of the year combined with trading my favourite player was the last straw.

All this to say I haven't been to a single game this year and have maybe watched part of 4-5 games on TV max. This is from a guy that went to between 5-10 games a year and watched or listened on the Radio EVERY single over the last decade or so. (I've seen many other teams however)

That being sais I kwew the team was doing great and were standing in 1st overall and first in Atlantic for a good chunk of the season, so I was a little surprised when I turned on the radio to listen for some news on Eric Guay performance at the World Cup , to hear the guys talking about firing Therrien, trading Galchy and the team not making the playoffs ( I checked the standings they're still 1st I can see). I checked a few threads here and it's more of the same


So it prompted the question, What did I miss?
Is this just typical Montreal overreaction or is the team imploding again?

Click to read more...

 

[BLONG7]

Our 13-1-1 start, is now long gone, and we are starting to mirror last year, only everyone is healthy...Price and MT seem to be in some sort of battle, and Price has not saved us this year, as previous years...
The players look like they are done with Therrien, and Bergevin has been missing in action recently...
No beard yet...

 

[ThaDevilGirl]

If you've followed last season then it's exactly the same thing.

 

[OldCraig71]

The coaches shelf life has expired.

 

[Jeffrey]

If you've followed last season then it's exactly the same thing.

With a different cast but with the same director.

 

[Skip Bayless]

We traded Jonathan Racine

 

[Censored Toad]

The coaches shelf life has expired.

last year

 

[Video Coach]

What did I miss?
Is this just typical Montreal overreaction or is the team imploding again?

First of all kudos to being able to turn away from the Canadiens for a time. I would have liked to but I just don't have the will power. Must. Watch. Habs.

Anyway, yes, it's a bit of the Montreal overreaction, but the team is basically 500 since that 13-1-1 start. Carey has not been himself for pretty much all of 2017 and then team has struggled scoring.

We had some injuries, including Galchenyuk, who went down in December after starting really well and exploding when he was paired with Radulov. Since coming back he's struggled, especially defensively, but his conditioning looks off (which makes sense given his knee injury).

Radulov has been the MVP so far, driving play and making every line better, except when he's been paired with Plekanec, who has struggled offensively all year. Pacioretty has been very hot over the past 2 months after starting very slow.

Nice surprises have been Danault, who has turned into a legit centre, Emelin, who has looked pretty steady and quiet paired with Weber, Byron, who has tailed off but already has 14 goals, and Lehkonen, who has already established himself as a very good 2 way winger.

Therrien was being lauded earlier in the year when the team was doing well but as the losses have mounted he's hearing it again. Not sure what's really different about his coaching this year, beyond having Muller in insulate him. But the biggest reason people are clamouring for his demise is this is another year of Habs collapsing after a hot start and there doesn't seem to be any change in play. Losing streaks are expected but these past 2 years have seen 2 long ones and that is concerning.

Most fans seem to expect Therrien will hold his job and instead Bergevin will try to make a trade. The most talked about names are Matt Duchene (who is available), Martin Hanzal, Nugent-Hopkins, and Gabe Landeskog.

Habs are now in their bye-week and the trade deadline is 3 weeks away so it's probably a decent time to start paying attention again, though I'm sure it'll be insufferable until something happens (trade, firing, winning streak).

 

[sandviper]

We traded Jonathan Racine

This was the most important news IMO, not just for the Habs but a real game changer for the world of hockey itself.

 

[Seb]

Yet another half season of boring hockey

 

[PJackb]

Interesting comments Fred, It seems the team is one major injury away to total collapse again.

I'm glad the Radulov experience is working out , I think lots of people around the league and fan base had serious doubt it would.

Is Danault and Byron being good the result of what I would call the Weise/Fleishman syndrome? Meaning a coach that plays you and give you great opportunities because of your "grinder" qualities?

What about Captain Canada, Mr Intangibles, wasn't his leadership supposed to prevent this?

Who's looking to be the scapegoat this time?

 

[Censored Toad]

Interesting comments Fred, It seems the team is one major injury away to total collapse again.

I'm glad the Radulov experience is working out , I think lots of people around the league and fan base had serious doubt it would.

Is Danault and Byron being good the result of what I would call the Weise/Fleishman syndrome? Meaning a coach that plays you and give you great opportunities because of your "grinder" qualities?

What about Captain Canada, Mr Intangibles, wasn't his leadership supposed to prevent this?

Who's looking to be the scapegoat this time?

Rads has been great.
Byron and Danault: Byron was overproducing but wasn't being that overused
Danault has played pretty good and deserves his time. They both arent grinders really but work hard and have good speed.

Weber hasn't really shown up. He was hot to start but now when we need him to do things we were promised he would, he isn't. He's not playing well right now.

AG27 is in the crosshair right now... he's the new eller.

 

[Smokey Thompson]

You missed nothing. Same crap system, same crap bench decisions, same excuses. Radulov has been entertaining, but not as entertaining as PK... which makes last season more entertaining

 

[waffledave]

Nothing has changed.

Therrien sucks.

Bergevin has failed to turn the team around or increase the talent level of this team.

People still cling to stats from October pretending like they represent the REAL Canadiens and not the team we have seen for the last ~50 games. The same team we saw from the majority of last year too. Someone broke a mirror cause it's a LOT of bad luck.

 

[Foltronic]

Nothing.

The fan base still loses it's mind when this team goes through a slump, it's the end of the world, fire everybody.

 

[uiCk]

Nothing.

The fan base still loses it's mind when this team goes through a slump, it's the end of the world, fire everybody.

We losing our mind because we want to see the habs as real contenders.
I'm past the stage of watching the habs just to watch the habs with no expectations.

 

[BLONG7]

We losing our mind because we want to see the habs as real contenders.
I'm past the stage of watching the habs just to watch the habs with no expectations.

Speaking of expectations, MB is such a great spin doctor at that...he has the let's make da playoff, and see what happens speech, year in and year out...

We need someone to take that, to another level, we used to be the team, who would not accept anything, but a final appearance, and the Cup!!

 

[uiCk]

Speaking of expectations, MB is such a great spin doctor at that...he has the let's make da playoff, and see what happens speech, year in and year out...

We need someone to take that, to another level, we used to be the team, who would not accept anything, but a final appearance, and the Cup!!

Not to mention half the fanbase is repeating the falsehood of "once your in anything can happen" even though pens/chi/la have been racking up almost all the cups in last decade.

 

[walsy37]

Actually, you missed nothing except the PK for Weber deal. We are in the same situation we were last year except with an older, less exciting but more "steady" defender.

 

[Foltronic]

We losing our mind because we want to see the habs as real contenders.
I'm past the stage of watching the habs just to watch the habs with no expectations.

I do too, I just think a lot of fans are being too quick to compare this season to last year's.

There's no way in my humble opinion that the Habs end up in the same spot as last year, it may take firing the coach if they lose their next 3-4 games but the hope for a bounce back to this slump isn't gone and I'm 100% in MB making some good deadline deals.

 

[Montrealer]

2015-16
October-----10-2-0----0.833
November---8-2-3----0.731
December---3-11-0---0.214
January------3-7-1--- 0.318
February-----6-6-1--- 0.500
March--------5-8-1--- 0.393
April----------2-2-0--- 0.500
December-April--------0.366

2016-17
October-------8-0-1----0.944
November----8-5-1----0.607
December----6-4-4----0.571
January-------8-5-1----0.607
February------1-5-1----0.214
December-Feb----------0.514

Not as bad as last year, but take away the first two months and the team wouldn't make the playoffs. How is this team supposed to compete for the Cup playing like this?

 

[Garbageyuk]

Nothing.

The fan base still loses it's mind when this team goes through a slump, it's the end of the world, fire everybody.

Why do people still push this narrative? We're in the middle of yet another major collapse after the worst one in NHL history. This franchise is closing in on 25 years of mediocrity. Are you not sick of it yet? Real Habs fans expect management to try to make the team competitive, not hire all your buddies and sit around smoking cigars, and trade anyone who dares to go against MT. Anyone who is ok with this crap is not a real Habs fan.

 

[uiCk]

I do too, I just think a lot of fans are being too quick to compare this season to last year's.

There's no way in my humble opinion that the Habs end up in the same spot as last year, it may take firing the coach if they lose their next 3-4 games but the hope for a bounce back to this slump isn't gone and I'm 100% in MB making some good deadline deals.

They wont end up in same spot as last year obviously.
But habs are not contenders, and we want contenders, not maybes and Cinderella runs.

And I get it, when I started watching the Habs and posting here, I was same as these so called "real fans", asking people to chill out, anything can happen in POs, one or two moves away from doing some noise in POs. Was content with some PO runs, and clinging on the hope of "what if we had X person or what if they hadn't scored that one goal, what if Koivu didn't get speared in the eye" etc for years before I noticed the pattern of real contenders, and winning cups.

I have not witnessed the greatness of habs past, and I'm sure the people who have, know the habs in past 20+ years have not even been close to being a contender in this league, no matter how much loyalty and passion you might have for the habs. They still enjoy watching? Sure , so do I.

Doesn't change fact some of us are demanding the habs to be in the best of the league. Even ****ing TO is lining up for potential greatness.
This is a ****ing sad state of affairs, and people will voice their dissatisfaction.
5 years of MB, and this is what we have?

Deadline deals are there for depth complimenting your CORE. They should not be made to FIX your team or finding that one or two players that will elevate your team to a contender.

God dammit, just typing this is making me sad af

 

[Video Coach]

Interesting comments Fred, It seems the team is one major injury away to total collapse again.

I'm glad the Radulov experience is working out , I think lots of people around the league and fan base had serious doubt it would.

Is Danault and Byron being good the result of what I would call the Weise/Fleishman syndrome? Meaning a coach that plays you and give you great opportunities because of your "grinder" qualities?

What about Captain Canada, Mr Intangibles, wasn't his leadership supposed to prevent this?

Who's looking to be the scapegoat this time?

Biggest difference between last year's collapse and this year's is this year is with Carey healthy. Though I guess it's sort of similar in that if we don't get elite goaltending we're not a very successful team.

Byron was paired with Radulov and Galchenyuk in a classic Therrien move but actually his speed and defense really helped that line. Radulov plays with a lot of pace (unlike Galchenyuk) so that added something to the line

Danault got an opportunity due to injuries and seized it. Galchenyuk and Desharnaris went down at the same time and Plekanec was struggling so Danault was moved up to play with Radulov and Pacioretty and has been really good. Strong player, hard on the puck, good wheels, smart, decent puck distributor and hard worker. Really establishing himself as a very good 2 way centre. He's really controlled the middle of the ice well. Most people see him as a great 3rd line centre who can move up and play on the top 2 lines but it's possible that we're just starting to see his potential and he may well yet be a legit top 2 centre.

Weber started really hot and has tailed off offensively but has been steady. As expected, he isn't a gamebreaker like Subban but Radulov has taken that role. Weber is definitely a force out there and I think he's made the Habs harder to play against.

Scapegoat is hard to pin down now. There are some media rumblings about Galchenyuk but I really doubt he's traded or blamed. Price has been the biggest reason they haven't picked up more points recently but he's obviously not going anywhere or getting too much criticism because of his track record. That pretty much leaves Therrien...

 

[OldCraig71]

Speaking of expectations, MB is such a great spin doctor at that...he has the let's make da playoff, and see what happens speech, year in and year out...

We need someone to take that, to another level, we used to be the team, who would not accept anything, but a final appearance, and the Cup!!

Running a team is only hard here, the other 29 teams have it easy. A 1.2 billion dollar team that could pay the best coaches available in every facet of the game but we have a front office full of buddies having a good time and reminding us all to chill.