Where does Montreal finish in the Atlantic?

[poetryinmotion]

Why would the habs have to leap above any of those teams? They finished ahead of them last year.

We overachieved, haven't 'ya herd?

 

[Monctonscout]

We overachieved, haven't 'ya herd?

So did ottawa. especially in nets...but I guess that doesn't matter.

 

[poetryinmotion]

So did ottawa. especially in nets...but I guess that doesn't matter.

No way are they overrated, Ottawa beat us in preseason with their D lineup, Karlsson will score 90 points and Bobby Ryan 100.

 

[FrontierPsyCHiatrist*]

So this is my real and official Atlantic standings prediction:

1. Toronto/ I love their balance
2: Boston/ Looking good as usual
3: Detroit/ Good steady team
4: Tampa Bay/ They underachieved last season
5: Ottawa/ Still close to a playoffs spot
6: Montréal/ Injuries
7: Florida/ Same Old ****
8: Buffalo/ With Steve Ott as a captain

Honestly, I could write a book about next season, but I'll keep it simple.
And I know, I change my mind a lot

EDIT: I predicted 7 out of 8 teams who made the playoffs last year (Pittsburgh, Montréal, Washington, Boston, Toronto, Rangers & Ottawa. I had NY Islanders 9th dammit!)

 

[poetryinmotion]

So this is my real and official Atlantic standings prediction:

1. Toronto/ I love their balance
2: Boston/ Looking good as usual
3: Detroit/ Good steady team
4: Tampa Bay/ They underachieved last season
5: Ottawa/ Still close to a playoffs spot
6: Montréal/ Injuries
7: Florida/ Same Old ****
8: Buffalo/ With Steve Ott as a captain

Honestly, I could write a book about next season, but I'll keep it simple.
And I know, I change my mind a lot

Go home, ur drunk.

 

[Lafleurs Guy]

Price having a great year, we could be top-3 in the conference.

I do expect a better defense in our team.
We replaced Weber by Tinordi and Kaberle by Murray.
Emelin will also come back.

Many forget to remember that MT started in the worst possible situation. He had a week to put a team together with a new system. This organization will be much better and we will reap the benefit of the stability introduced last season.

This team has a depth that few teams in the league have.

Price was mostly great last year... folks saying he was mediocre are looking only at his year end stats. I think he'll be good but I'm still unhappy that we've not reinforced things back there because Emelin is due back in January and that's IF there are no setbacks.

In my opinion that's our biggest weakness this season (well that and a terrible PK that must be fixed.)

 

[FrontierPsyCHiatrist*]

No way are they overrated, Ottawa beat us in preseason with their D lineup, Karlsson will score 90 points and Bobby Ryan 100.

Ray Bourque was a poor man Karlsson

 

[FrontierPsyCHiatrist*]

Go home, ur drunk.

Because my opinion is different, I'm drunk? Total lack of rispeck

 

[poetryinmotion]

Because my opinion is different, I'm drunk? Total lack of rispeck

How could you not have Ottawa at #1??

 

[FrontierPsyCHiatrist*]

How could you not have Ottawa at #1??

Karlsson will lead Ottawa to no. 1 spot for a big part of the season, until he gets injured and the team collapses under the loss of their great lord.

 

[poetryinmotion]

Karlsson will lead the team to no. 1 spot for a big part of the season, until he gets injured and the team collapses under the loss of their great lord.

Spawn more...

 

[CGG]

Am I the only one that remembers last year when the Habs finished ahead of every other team in the Atlantic Division? Now most seem to think Boston, Ottawa, Detroit and Toronto will somehow all of a sudden be better than the Habs?

Montreal certainly didn't get worse in the off-season. And there's a definite path to improvement - better play from Price and an improved penalty kill. They're still young enough that most of their key players will get better (Pacioretty, Eller, Gally, Gally, Subban, Price). I don't see how or why anyone with their head on straight picks them 5th.

The love fest over Boston has to stop as well. Lucic got 7 goals last year. Erikson got 12. Iginla had 14 but he's old, just like Chara. They got rid of 2 of their best scorers in Horton (13 goals) and Seguin (16 goals). They had trouble scoring goals and now have gotten rid of a good chunk of their offense. I don't see them as a clear cut # 1 team, and I don't think they're any better than Montreal right now.

Detroit? Anyone who complains about our D should have to cheer for Detroit for a while. Very thin back there after Kronwall. Very thin.

 

[FrontierPsyCHiatrist*]

Am I the only one that remembers last year when the Habs finished ahead of every other team in the Atlantic Division? Now most seem to think Boston, Ottawa, Detroit and Toronto will somehow all of a sudden be better than the Habs?

Montreal certainly didn't get worse in the off-season. And there's a definite path to improvement - better play from Price and an improved penalty kill. They're still young enough that most of their key players will get better (Pacioretty, Eller, Gally, Gally, Subban, Price). I don't see how or why anyone with their head on straight picks them 5th.

The love fest over Boston has to stop as well. Lucic got 7 goals last year. Erikson got 12. Iginla had 14 but he's old, just like Chara. They got rid of 2 of their best scorers in Horton (13 goals) and Seguin (16 goals). They had trouble scoring goals and now have gotten rid of a good chunk of their offense. I don't see them as a clear cut # 1 team, and I don't think they're any better than Montreal right now.

Detroit? Anyone who complains about our D should have to cheer for Detroit for a while. Very thin back there after Kronwall. Very thin.

The thing with Boston is that they're so strong defensively. Just look at the +/- column: http://www.nhl.com/ice/playerstats.htm?fetchKey=20132BOSSASALL&sort=plusMinus&viewName=summary

Detroit are a well coached team and they somehow always manage to make the playoffs.

About Montréal, we're just an unpredictable team. 2011-12 is still fresh in my memory.

 

[Lafleurs Guy]

Ray Bourque was a poor man Karlsson

Okay, now you are drunk.

 

[Lafleurs Guy]

Am I the only one that remembers last year when the Habs finished ahead of every other team in the Atlantic Division? Now most seem to think Boston, Ottawa, Detroit and Toronto will somehow all of a sudden be better than the Habs?

Montreal certainly didn't get worse in the off-season. And there's a definite path to improvement - better play from Price and an improved penalty kill. They're still young enough that most of their key players will get better (Pacioretty, Eller, Gally, Gally, Subban, Price). I don't see how or why anyone with their head on straight picks them 5th.

The love fest over Boston has to stop as well. Lucic got 7 goals last year. Erikson got 12. Iginla had 14 but he's old, just like Chara. They got rid of 2 of their best scorers in Horton (13 goals) and Seguin (16 goals). They had trouble scoring goals and now have gotten rid of a good chunk of their offense. I don't see them as a clear cut # 1 team, and I don't think they're any better than Montreal right now.

Detroit? Anyone who complains about our D should have to cheer for Detroit for a while. Very thin back there after Kronwall. Very thin.

Once we lost Emelin we were a different team. We didn't do anything to address this in the offseason and Emelin is gone until January. That's a big hole and I suspect it's a big reason why folks are expecting a fall off. Tinordi's a rookie and Murray (who is now out for the first month) is a wildcard. It's scary back there defensively.

Personally I think we're a playoff team and have too much talent to miss. But I'm upset with what MB did over the offseason because I don't think we're coming into this year better than last season (other than what we'll see from the natural development from our younger players.)

 

[Monctonscout]

No way are they overrated, Ottawa beat us in preseason with their D lineup, Karlsson will score 90 points and Bobby Ryan 100.

I thought you were being serious for about 1/2 a second.

Price was mostly great last year... folks saying he was mediocre are looking only at his year end stats. I think he'll be good but I'm still unhappy that we've not reinforced things back there because Emelin is due back in January and that's IF there are no setbacks.

In my opinion that's our biggest weakness this season (well that and a terrible PK that must be fixed.)

I wouldn't say he was mostly great. He was a solid NHL starter until the last two months then he struggled. Bottom line 2.59 and .905 are not good numbers for a team that finished top 5 overall. maybe if he played for Colorado or Tb those would be good numbers...

Am I the only one that remembers last year when the Habs finished ahead of every other team in the Atlantic Division? Now most seem to think Boston, Ottawa, Detroit and Toronto will somehow all of a sudden be better than the Habs?

Montreal certainly didn't get worse in the off-season. And there's a definite path to improvement - better play from Price and an improved penalty kill. They're still young enough that most of their key players will get better (Pacioretty, Eller, Gally, Gally, Subban, Price). I don't see how or why anyone with their head on straight picks them 5th.

The love fest over Boston has to stop as well. Lucic got 7 goals last year. Erikson got 12. Iginla had 14 but he's old, just like Chara. They got rid of 2 of their best scorers in Horton (13 goals) and Seguin (16 goals). They had trouble scoring goals and now have gotten rid of a good chunk of their offense. I don't see them as a clear cut # 1 team, and I don't think they're any better than Montreal right now.

Detroit? Anyone who complains about our D should have to cheer for Detroit for a while. Very thin back there after Kronwall. Very thin.

I see a ton of people overrating Boston(to a lesser extent, they will be in the race for 1st in the division), Ottawa(most overrated team) and Detroit(defense is painful to watch).

 

[Monctonscout]

Once we lost Emelin we were a different team. We didn't do anything to address this in the offseason and Emelin is gone until January. That's a big hole and I suspect it's a big reason why folks are expecting a fall off. Tinordi's a rookie and Murray (who is now out for the first month) is a wildcard. It's scary back there defensively.

Personally I think we're a playoff team and have too much talent to miss. But I'm upset with what MB did over the offseason because I don't think we're coming into this year better than last season (other than what we'll see from the natural development from our younger players.)

Adding Murray and promoting Tinordi wouldn't be addressing Emelin being out? Guys like that are not walking the streets...

 

[Lafleurs Guy]

I wouldn't say he was mostly great. He was a solid NHL starter until the last two months then he struggled. Bottom line 2.59 and .905 are not good numbers for a team that finished top 5 overall. maybe if he played for Colorado or Tb those would be good numbers

He had three straight horrible games in April that killed his year. Otherwise we'd be talking about what a good year he had. The final two weeks (not two months) weren't very good. For the majority of the season he was great and we had already clinched before his collapse.

And this collapse coincided exactly with us clinching and exactly with us losing Emelin. Neither of this had anything to do with his loss against Toronto (which was absolutely on Price) but in the following game against Philly (another game where he let in 6 goals on 29 shots) his D was nowhere to be found. And that D was terrible for the rest of the year too.

That's why it boggles the mind that our GM didn't do something about it.

 

[ZARTONK]

4-5 I guess.

 

[Lafleurs Guy]

Adding Murray and promoting Tinordi wouldn't be addressing Emelin being out? Guys like that are not walking the streets...

It might. But we should've gotten something proven instead of putting this on a rookie and leftover. Tinordi is very raw. Murray was passed on by 29 other teams and was basically a waiver wire pickup (or to use your words 'walking the streets.) Maybe it's enough to get by. We'd better hope so.

 

[CGG]

He had three straight horrible games in April that killed his year. Otherwise we'd be talking about what a good year he had. The final two weeks (not two months) weren't very good. For the majority of the season he was great and we had already clinched before his collapse.

I think it mentions repeating: despite the awful stretch late in the season, Price still had better stats in 2012-13 than he did in 2011-12.... at even strength. What destroyed his save percentage last season was a brutal penalty kill. Montreal used to be good at killing penalties. They were terrible at it last year.

I'm assuming that was a huge focus at training camp, since most of our roster came back and was already familier with Therrien. Playing PK on the PK will help, and a better system than the crap system they tried last year should fix that up.

So even if Price doesn't play "better" his save percentage should still improve dramatically and he should let in fewer goals, simply by improving the penalty kill.

 

[Wandering Maroon]

Am I the only one that remembers last year when the Habs finished ahead of every other team in the Atlantic Division? Now most seem to think Boston, Ottawa, Detroit and Toronto will somehow all of a sudden be better than the Habs?

Montreal certainly didn't get worse in the off-season. And there's a definite path to improvement - better play from Price and an improved penalty kill. They're still young enough that most of their key players will get better (Pacioretty, Eller, Gally, Gally, Subban, Price). I don't see how or why anyone with their head on straight picks them 5th.

The love fest over Boston has to stop as well. Lucic got 7 goals last year. Erikson got 12. Iginla had 14 but he's old, just like Chara. They got rid of 2 of their best scorers in Horton (13 goals) and Seguin (16 goals). They had trouble scoring goals and now have gotten rid of a good chunk of their offense. I don't see them as a clear cut # 1 team, and I don't think they're any better than Montreal right now.

Detroit? Anyone who complains about our D should have to cheer for Detroit for a while. Very thin back there after Kronwall. Very thin.

I have to agree with this poster. Detroit is ageing and hasn't developed any players, excluding Jimmy Howard, since Zetterberg in 2004. The habs defense is better than theirs - Erickson, Kronwall, DeKeyser, Smith, Quincey, Kindl. And they're $2 mil over the cap. Weiss is an underachiever and Alfredsson is at the end.

Great points about Boston. But Kreji is still a dangerous player and Erickson is a stud. Defense isn't OK but Chara is getting old.

Toronto is thin in terms of depth and is missing some offensive punch. Ottawa's goalie covered up weaknesses in their D.

I like our chances for 2nd. Patches looks good and Briere will push Desharnais who has to get his act together or he'll be on the third line with Gallagher or Galchenyuk moving up. The skill players are small but Parros, Prust, and Murray can fight better than the goons on any of the other teams.

He who laughs last.....laughs longest.

 

[Kingbobert]

i think our top 9 has the potential to take us into the playoffs

The problem is the back end. its all over the place same with price last year flopping all over the place.

I dont understand. Is therien blind? does he not see how unorganized they are? the team does now play as a unit in our zone. There's always a man open or blown coverage. Even worse on the pk.

We have the 5th best coach in our division, and our division has a very small margin of error, so unless therien tweaks are defensive play, we're in for a long season.

 

[DenverHabsFan]

Once we lost Emelin we were a different team. We didn't do anything to address this in the offseason and Emelin is gone until January. That's a big hole and I suspect it's a big reason why folks are expecting a fall off. Tinordi's a rookie and Murray (who is now out for the first month) is a wildcard. It's scary back there defensively.

Personally I think we're a playoff team and have too much talent to miss. But I'm upset with what MB did over the offseason because I don't think we're coming into this year better than last season (other than what we'll see from the natural development from our younger players.)

Could not agree more. The D is soft as butter. What some are forgetting is that we could have fallen behind all those teams depending on the outcome of the last few of games of the season. Nobody seemed to be winning at that point.

The Habs still have no "bite" to their game, unlike what I see with the Leafs, Bruins and, to some extent, Wings and Sens. Until that changes, we're still an easy team to play against.

I watched the "24CH" marathon on NHL Network last week and came out with a different feeling about last season. It seemed like we didn't win really hard games. We often bounced back by playing the Florida teams. The only tough team we competed really hard against were the Bruins. But that's more because we get in their heads imo.

Say what you want about the Leafs, they're a nasty team to play against. Their forwards are a bit more elite and they convert an insane % of chances into goals. I love the Habs but I don't see them finishing above Bruins, Leafs, Wings, Sens (in that order).

Wings are my big question mark. I've seen a lot of their games here out West and I don't know how well their game will translate to the Eastern Conference. If we make the playoffs, I suspect it's between us and them.

We're still too easy to bully. Until that changes, I don't expect us to be competitive every night.

 

[Captain Mountain]

i think our top 9 has the potential to take us into the playoffs

The problem is the back end. its all over the place same with price last year flopping all over the place.

I dont understand. Is therien blind? does he not see how unorganized they are? the team does now play as a unit in our zone. There's always a man open or blown coverage. Even worse on the pk.

We have the 5th best coach in our division, and our division has a very small margin of error, so unless therien tweaks are defensive play, we're in for a long season.

I'll give you Claude, Babcock and Walrus, but who else is better than Therrien?