Game 18: Habs/Flames

I’ve always hated the Flames. Probably because they made me cry when I was 8. I still hate them, and Lanny McDonald’s dumb ass moustache. Halak is in net tonight, I wonder if his agent has any stats for his previous record against Cowtown?

Go Habs Go!!!

Related Bookmarks Tags

There are currently no tags for this post.

Leave a Comment

7 Comments

#1 PACTUM SERVA says:
November 10, 2009 at 9:58 pm

You sound a little pissed of MN lol.Yeah what is with halaks agent anyways? Twitter? You got to be kidding me

#2 Senet1 says:
November 10, 2009 at 11:18 pm

Yes the agent sounds like a real team builder. All we need is more controversy.

#3 Senet1 says:
November 10, 2009 at 11:20 pm

Matts I think the pressure of this big money setting up the game blog is getting to you. Have a few beers and it will look better in the morning.

#4 Mats Naslund says:
November 11, 2009 at 8:07 pm

Haha, yeah that must be it! Seriously though, I think the reason I’m down on this team right now is that while I’ve been pleasantly surprised at times, the reality of the situation has set in – this team can be alright, but they wont prove any doubters wrong.

Going into the season felt that if any of the younger players stepped up, we would have a solid two scoring lines that had been supplimented with grit in Moen, Metro etc. To date no young player has done anything noteworthy. Maybe that isn’t true because it has been noteworthy how collectively they have managed to not step up. While we watch the youth on other teams grow into professionals we struggle to put 6 forwards on the ice who can be counted on to score with any regularity. Its totally bumming me out. The stats don’t help. Through 18 games Kostitsyn, Lapierre, Latendresse and Pacioretti have a combined 5 goals between them. That is just flat out unacceptable.

While everyone thought that Kovalev’s struggles were tough to deal with last season, it makes me cringe to think of how bad things could still get if these 4 dont figure it out soon. They dont have to lead the team, but they do have to be able to justify their ice time with results. It is already having an effect on the smurfs. The fact that they are the only source of offence means that they are pushing far too much – with poor results.

#5 Senet1 says:
November 11, 2009 at 8:28 pm

I noticed the other night in Calgary that the smurfs could have had four or five goals but they are not taking their time to get in position to shoot. So Matts you are right I think the smurfs are being affected by the lack of scoring form the rest of the team.

#6 Senet1 says:
November 11, 2009 at 8:38 pm

I think it is time for BG to try bringing up AK 74, based on what I read he is playing well in Hamilton and working very hard. If that does not work then BG has to make a move. If the last three games are any indication we have not lost them because of our defence I think it has improved a lot since last week even. But our scoring has been very weak. We have received steady goaltending, not great but nothing to stop us from winning. If you look at every game but one we have had a change to win the game in the third period so if we score three goals a game our record would be above 500% and not where it is, so we have to find some offence form somewhere if it isn’t available within then a trade must be made. Right now there are teams looking for defence and others looking to lower their cap space and others who have a scorer like us just is not producing. I say give AK 74 a week and if that does not work then trade is the only way if we want to make the playoffs this season.

#7 Senet1 says:
November 11, 2009 at 8:47 pm

Matt’s you mentioned that our youth is not demonstrating that they are ready to provide the much needed offence so maybe it is time to trade some of it away along with a veteran or two. We have a lot of defenseman we have Big George who is not playing?? We had the two AK boys totalling 4M. So I can see us moving up to 7M in cap space to make room for something better than what we have for the #2 line. We have a good anchor in Plex, so what we need is a good big strong winger. We also could use a right handed defenseman. we keep cycling the puck aroung to that side and the poor left handed defenseman is always turned the wrong way to go up the ice. It is not his fault it is just the fact he cannot take the puck on the back hand along the boards.

Leave a Comment

ShoutBox

Last Message 11 hours, 2 minutes ago

goalie : Didn't get to see the game at all but it's great to see Pacs get a hat trick and fpor Cole to be + 3. When was the last time this team won three games in a row? Great victory -looks like they're giving 100% effort!
Senet1 : 4-2 win habs
Senet1 : Gomez scores, Yea!!!
goalie : As I said yesterday it will be interesting to see what our lame ass GM gets for players he ships out. Bourque is good and he'll help us but I still think we could have gotten more for him and for Halak when he was traded.
Avatar37 : round those picks occur (probably 3rd).
Avatar37 : An interesting article. If we slip to the 5th or 7th draft pick, a very interesting case could be made for drafting Galchenyuk. If we wind up with the second or third pick, I'm not sure who I'd draft, because clearly Yakupov is going to be drafted first overall. Our second round pick also becomes interesting, I know I'd take Vasilevski if he were still available. It will also be interesting to see if we can turn some of our veteran players (Moen, Gill, Campoli) into draft picks, and what
Avatar37 : «link»
Avatar37 : That is why PG should have waited on trading Cammalleri. Right now, there is a high demand for a top 6 forward, we could have gotten much more than Bourque in return. That isn't a knock against Bourque, but a knock against a knee-jerk reaction trade that didn't maximize our return on a top asset.
Avatar37 : «link»
Avatar37 : chips fall where they may. After all, the only difference between finishing 17th and 29th is how good a pick you get in the draft.
Avatar37 : We currently sit in 26th place in the league. We are 15 points ahead of Columbus, it's safe to bet at this point they will place last. We are, however, only 4 points ahead of Edmonton so it's still wide open as to who is going to finish second last. I still think that it's time to sit the veterans, play the youth, let them get experience, and regroup for next year. I'm not suggesting deliberately tanking like the Penguins, but give all our young players lots of playing time and let the c
Avatar37 : goalie - If it were not for the play of Cammalleri, we would never have made it out of round 1. Cammalleri played as big a part, if not bigger, than Halak did. Sure, Halak played well, but remember the team collapsed in front of him, making his job much easier. We had lots of blocked shots and the ones that got through were typically from the outside.
Senet1 : Goalie you are absolutely right, of course the one thing we had the two previous years that won the games that we are losing this year was our power play. If you look at say 10 games that we should have won had we had a similar power play, again we would not be having these conversations. When your PP goes from first to last in the league that is a lot of goals.How many games have we lost this year by one goal. Again poor management who did not prepare for Markov's possible absence.
goalie : I'll put it another way.... we need more players who are willing to get their noses dirty.
goalie : Two years ago when our goaltending stole series adn our players suddenly scored the coaches / GM believed that that was our true team . Well time has proven that was not. Though I was very glad to see the Habs knock off some very good teams we were very fortunate. And fortunate that spring was spelled HALAK!
goalie : The wrst mistake management could possibly make I believe is to say, we played well some games and we believe the team can play to that level more often in the future. This team CANNOT adnb DOES NOT play to a high enough level. Please do not kid yourself mamngement. hat is partially why we're in the lace we are.
goalie : Senet is correct when he says that if we had more games with a better efort this year we'd likely be in the playoffs. It has been very inconsistent effort but much more than that. We lack big, tough playing and finishing. Never mind fighting for a moment. We did not compete for the pucks nor along the boards nor in front of both nets enough this year. Thus we are in 29th. If the coaching staff doesn't see that then they shouldn't be there.
Senet1 : Surely Molson is not going to keep him as the GM?
Senet1 : when he knows he will be fired at the end of the season. Nothing really makes since in this whole process.
Senet1 : I am not sue why PG has not been fired by now. They could be waiting for another GM to come available at season end, but why would you not set up a committee to manage the team in the short run until a new GM can be named. There is no since in chaning coaches because whoever the GM is he will want to name his own coach. Gainey and a committe of other executives can manage the team through to the trading deadline and onward. What motivation does PG have to making any worthwhile trades when he is
Senet1 : I am too mch of a competitor to want my team to tank to. However, If these players played like they ae cabable of playing all year we would not be having this discussion right now, we woud be talking about the playoffs and who we would rather meet in the first round.
rocky : Exactly, and Senet nails it when he says we have not had an elite top 5 in the nhl player since lafleur.
goalie : I too want the Habs to get the best possible draft this June. We all need SOME hope!
rocky : He is persona non grata in habville, and a ghost in every sense of the term.
goalie : It remains a miracle how we have heard from our mighty GM twice since Christmas - the trades involving Spacek and Cammy and those comments were extremely brief. PG just does not cut it in my world. Part of a GMs job is to go public from time to time. PG never does that in fact he's a ghost GM!
rocky : Its true, there is no honor in that. These guys have only known the ethic of giving it all to win every night. I do not want them to "tank", and they will never do that anyway. I do want them to lose though, as awful as it sounds.
goalie : Roicky as a good point. We all want the Habs to get a really good draft pick. However, players, coaches etc. also have a keen desire to compete and win. That's why they're playing at the pro level. Thus we can only hope that the team plays some good games and let the chips fall where they may. After the disasterous season we've had let's not lower ourselves adn get involved in any dscussions about 'tanking' games.
rocky : So long.
Senet1 : Good discussion rocky, I have to step out for an hour, but may be back later.
Senet1 : The only way this team comes back to a team with long term potential is to draft a game breaker. Even all the other bad teams have a Stamkos or a player like him. He have some good player so what we need is a Malkin that we can count on 80% of the time to win a game for us.
rocky : I mean winning will only do them harm that is.
rocky : It really hurts because my reflexes make me want to cheer like mad, but it will only hurt the team now.
Senet1 : Yes I have mixed feeling when watching the game. Last night I say here we go again. with our record of shoot losses I did not expect to win that one. Yet I wanted to win real bad?????
rocky : God, so horrible to sit and hope for losses, but here we are.
Senet1 : Our problem is we play one out of every 4 games good and therefore, we play well enough to stay on the borderline of a top five pick. If we win three or four in a row we could take ourselves right out of the running.