Ouch
-
It’s safe to say the Canadiens strong start is now over.
The Habs are hurting. On the ice they have looked terrible in 2 of their last 3 games. Individual players are starting (continuing?) to struggle. An added dose of injuries and suspension haven’t made it any easier.
It shouldn’t be any easier tonight welcoming the Flyers who no doubt will play their normal physical game. A style that continues to give the Canadiens fits.
The Habs have owned the Flyers in regular season play, but they’ve also owned the Bruins going into Thursday’s game. We all saw how that turned out.
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November 15, 2008 pm30 9:49 pm
This is going to be a loooooooooong year.
November 15, 2008 pm30 10:21 pm
The infamous words of the grounds person from the movie Major League spring to mind… “They’re still ******”.
Seriously though, I wouldn’t push the panic button just yet. This team is capable of a lot more than it’s showing right now.
November 16, 2008 pm30 2:07 am
I think the laffs will finish 8th-10th in the conference…
November 16, 2008 pm30 2:08 am
PEOPLE START POSTING! Why does nobody come here anymore?!
November 16, 2008 pm30 2:52 am
The Habs certainly have a way of making Marty Biron look like an elite goaltender.
November 16, 2008 pm30 3:17 am
It’s the live chat, Habsfreak, which has supplanted the comment posts.
November 16, 2008 pm30 10:58 am
Which team will show up tonight? I hate to say this but maybe carbo needs to take a page out of ron wilsons book and start making some healthy scratches. This team needs a wake up call and a big dose of testosterone.
November 16, 2008 pm30 1:32 pm
I agree Pactum. And my concern isn’t just with the losses, it’s with the wins too. They’ve looked listless in a number of the games that they’ve won, just barely squeaking out a win against teams that they should handily defeat.
I know from my experience that it’s not always possible to bring your A-game against lesser opponents, but I’ve never played for the Montreal Canadiens and I was never paid millions of dollars. If these guys can’t find the pride to play hard for the Canadiens in the team’s 100th year, then I doubt they’ll be able to call upon that extra bit of motivation that’s needed to get a team through the tough stretches in the playoffs. Too early to tell, of course, but I don’t like what I’ve seen from a lot of this team, including some players who were very impressive last year. Koivu, however, is showing yet again why he’s wearing the C.
November 16, 2008 pm30 7:09 pm
Yep koivu is the only one earning his paycheck.
November 16, 2008 pm30 7:51 pm
Habs won’t make the playoffs for the 6th of 9 years.
November 17, 2008 pm30 12:14 am
Umm, doomsayer? The Habs will make the playoffs. I just hope that they do more than that.
November 18, 2008 pm30 10:37 pm
Anybody else getting bored watching the games this year? Terrible hockey.
November 18, 2008 pm30 11:26 pm
Yes, bored out of my mind. I can’t even tune in for a full 60 minutes. There are much better things to do than watch a team that doesn’t play to win.
November 19, 2008 pm30 6:50 am
So most people go to the chatbox now??
November 19, 2008 pm30 8:50 am
Yeah, I’m not sure if the culture of the dressing room hasn’t changed for the worse. The Katstitsyn brothers are playing absolutely terribly–no fight, no creativity, no opportunism. The defense is disgraceful, in part because the forwards are up the ice so far, and working so little, that there’s no puck support for the D. Latendresse had his first good shift of the year last night.
I’m glad that the guys aren’t worried about it yet. At least the death is painless. But my problem isn’t with their losses, it’s with the complete lack of effort that they’ve showed in all but two or three games this year. I mean, if you’re just squeaking by with wins in games that you should win easily, eventually it’s going to catch up with you. So here we go: a 3-2 SO victory over the worst team in the league, followed by a 2-1 loss–and brutally out-shot–to a mediocre team.
I have missed maybe 5 Habs games on TV over the last 3 years (one of them was the third period of the comeback against the rangers), but I’m not just mad at losing when I say that I’ve been having a hard time this year, even when they were winning, bringing myself to sit down and watch a full Habs game. It’s like nobody on the first 3 lines of this team is fighting for anything–not their jobs, not the win, certainly not the Stanley Cup. Ah well.
Something is wrong with this team that we don’t know about.
November 19, 2008 pm30 9:17 am
What is there to say that hasn’t been said already.
Why is everyone else in the entire nation seeing the Habs problems but CARBO?
U park a big guy such as Lats in fornt of the net to screen the goalie, bug the goalie & I don’t mean Price either.
If they want to score goals they have to shoot. The habs R always looking for that pretty pass. Shot the Damn puck. Every shot on net has a chance to go in. Shoot on net and get the rebound.
Stupid penalties & lack of grit.
Price will be ruined if the horse **** continues.
Montreal score in waves. Higgins has his quota for the month.
Kovalev, BGL, Begin, Dandy, Breezer need to go this summer…
Thrown in Carbo as well….
November 19, 2008 pm30 12:07 pm
I agree Groundworking, there is more than meets the eye with this team. Maybe dressing room problems? I dont know but its really hard to watch this team play so far. Somethings gotta give.
November 19, 2008 pm30 2:47 pm
I agree the habs aren’t playing great hockey right now.. but all is not lost. As long as they are peaking at the end of the regular season I will be happy. The expectations surrounding this team were ridiculous from the start. If that Kostitsyn post from last night had gone in, everyone would be singing a different tune. I personally think Carbo should go back to his original lines and let the players play through some adversity. Kovalev with Tanguay and Koivu helps no one. The reason Kovalev was successful last season was because Kostitsyn and Plecks had the energy to let him do his thing. The top line right now is give away after give away. The habs need to control the puck and put on offensive pressure to be successful. Too many careless passes, and not enough shots on goal. Make goalies beat you, and you will win more times than not. If you take half the shots of the other team you are playing with fire.
November 19, 2008 pm30 4:28 pm
Nice post and name, Mats Naslund. I remember watching them last year and thinking “how are these guys this good?” I watch them this year and I have yet to wonder the same thing more than, maybe, 3 times?
But it’s not about winning and losing. I’ve seen them lose games where, at the end of the game, you sit back and think: “wow the other team was lucky, b/c the Habs played better”. I think of the Buffalo game at the start of the year, which was a good game. But lately, they’ve just been getting out-worked by the other teams–not just in the games that they lost, but I think also of those games (against Toronto, Boston and the Islanders, earlier in the year) where they should have lost, but squeaked-out a win.
I agree with you, though. Keep the lines and let them play through adversity. I also agree that it’s better to slump now than later, but I wonder if this “slump” isn’t more than a “slump”, maybe a fundamental lack of chemistry on a brand new team that has frankly not yet played well enough for long enough to call a down-slide a “slump”. They’ve had more bad games than good games, despite the record.
November 19, 2008 pm30 5:15 pm
When things started to go bad i thought that are offence was creating alot of chances but it was our defence letting us down. Then carbo shows them a tape of the toronto game and the mistakes they made. So he says the need to get back to playing more of a defensive game……so he says. We come back and beat ottawa after that with a good effort but then the wheels fall off and our offence is nowhere to be seen and our defence is worse than before. I am not here to blame carbo but can anyone tell me what was with the line of pleckanecs,higgins and kostopoulos? Talk about trying to fit a square into a circle. When carbo starts putting lines like that onto the ice it makes you wonder if he picked them out of a hat. Some of our players are a little to comfortable so maybe a few call ups from hamilton and a few healthy scratches might wake up some people
November 19, 2008 pm30 9:50 pm
every team has a slump every single year. no doubt.
the positive way we canm look at ours is that is happening NOW.. and not in may or aprill.. thank god
November 19, 2008 pm30 11:20 pm
The Habs just released a team Firefox browser. If you like the Habs, its a must have… super cool!!!
http://www.canadiens.com/firefox