Game 50: Habs/Rangers

Lots of disapointment to go around after last night’s blown opportunity to move ahead in the standings. However, life in the NHL does not allow for brooding. The Habs are back in action tonight against the NY Rangers in NYC. Though they blew an opportunity to move up in the standings, the Habs will get another opportunity against another team struggling to find wins. New York has been terrible offensively, and hopefully the Habs can use that to their advantage by getting a jump early on. One would guess that Jaro will play tonight in a back to back situation.

Go Habs Go!!

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3 Comments

#1 Mats Naslund says:
January 19, 2010 at 11:33 am

Here is the skinny on your Canadiens as we reach the final stretch of the NHL season. They blew an incredible opportunity to jump up ahead of a bunch of teams despite having played more games this past weekend. The gap between 5th and 13th is razor thin, and I hope the team can rebound instead of having a mid season meltdown that would guarantee a miss of the playoffs. I can hear the Jim Moras of the crowd now.. “What’s that? Ah — Playoffs? Don’t talk about — playoffs? You kidding me? Playoffs? I just hope we can win a game! Another game.” Your voices are heard you dark, brooding faction who believe the Habs are better served tanking for picks this year than trying for the post season. Unfortunately, we are tweeners this year. Not high enough to have playoff aspirations, and yet incapable of the inneptitude that could win us the kind of pick that the Oilers or Leafs.. make that Bruins will enjoy.

In my mind there are two factors that will be the key in deciding whether or not Montreal will be a playoff team this year, or gambling with the draft and free agency to make us better next year.

The first factor will be wins. Sounds obvious, but I’m talking about wins as a tie-break when teams are tied in points. It happens almost every season that the final playoff spot is so closely contended that the 8th seed is determined by wins when points cannot decide. The Habs are in a good position in this regard. They have more wins than all teams around them in the playoff hunt save for Ottawa, and the Flyers (with whom they are tied). If Montreal can continue to win games while others gain points through overtime losses, Montreal will hold a tie break advantage with other teams should they need it. Its early to consider this kind of thing, but gaining a couple hard fought overtime wins down the stretch may be the difference.

The second determining factor this season could be the looming trade of one of our goaltenders. Yes it could be risky, but if we wait until the deadline – it may be too late to feel any impact of a trade that should have a descent return for the Habs. Gainey made a splash prior to July 1 last year by making a deal to bring in Scott Gomez. If Gainey could make a deal early enough that a player could influence this team, we could go on the type of winning streak that will move us up in the standings. Right now we are a bubble team. A top 6 winger or top 4 defenseman would improve our potential substantially. Halak is worth at least that. One wonders what Price could fetch.

#2 Senet1 says:
January 19, 2010 at 9:32 pm

Mats I for one agree with you, I am not about to give up on the season every time we loose a couple of games. It is amazing to me how certain bloggers are so positive one game and so negative the next, so much for the ups and downs of our hockey team, the good news is that the bottom three stops are all up for grabs and all the teams that we are attempting to beat for those positions are playing as inconsistent as we are. If we could just go on another 5 or 6 game win streak it would put us in good position. This team has the players to do it, I still am not convinced of Martins system and it would appear that many of the players are not convinced as well. I think that is why we are playing so inconsistent. I would agree that it would be best to make that trade as soon as possible, but finding the player we need and the team who wants to trade him are difficult tasks and this dam salary cap is also causing us problems.

I have been a supporter of Gil all year but his 2.5M would help secure a player or make room to sign Plec and or Price.

My feeling is that one of the three defenceman in Hamilton will be up next year. If they are not ready then FA is an option.

#3 Senet1 says:
January 19, 2010 at 11:24 pm

Matts what do you think about picking sykora off waivers. Salary 1.6M over half paid off this season so he would be a reasonable priced pick up that does not cost us anything. May fit in with Plex?

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Last Message 8 hours, 52 minutes ago

Senet1 : He may just bring all three of the kids up.
muller93 : MB is forced to go out and get a big D-man. Missing Emelin for almost half the season is the last thing we needed to hear. Now going out and getting a big D-man is a MUST!!!
muller93 : Now for the Fu**en Bruins who have no business even being in the second round are going to get a nice rest. Yes the same goons who took out one of best D-man for 6 more months. There is NO Fu**en justice. Just venting--Ok i feel better now.
muller93 : So pissed to see the Rangers lay down and play like total crap. How did the Rangers beat the Caps? This team is playing with no heart--a must win and can only muster 23 shots...PATHETIC !!!
muller93 : Senet I did see Galchenyuks goal--Made a great move for the game winner. You can see the kid has so much confidence.
goalie : If Rangers get swept I wonder if Tortorella will get his walking papers? Or Glen Sather? They have tons of 'talent' but zero wins in this series.
goalie : It's really too bad we lost to the Sens as we would have played the Rangers and the way NYR are playing we would have beat them too. If only. If only!
Senet1 : Actually I agree it was a good move for them to play a shorter season and get the experience. He could not have played in the minors this year he would have had to play junior or the NHL. However, he now has a year under him and knows what to expect next year and hopefully take a bigger responsibility on the team. Did you see those two goals in the bronze game? Wow.
muller93 : Good move by the Habs not having Galchenyuk play in the minors. Now Galchenyuk has 1 year in the NHL and playoff experience this is going to pay off big time come next year.
Senet1 : Galchenyuk scores to back to back goals in shoot out to help USA win Bronze metal. I did not see the second goal but the first was a beauty.
Senet1 : So we could pick anywhere from 25th to 23rd depending on who wins these quarter final series.
Senet1 : First, is the 14 teams in the lottery. Then there are 12 teams that did not make the semi finals in the order of the seasonal finish, Then there are the four teams in the semi final the first two eliminated pick in the order of the regular season points total and the last two based on who wins and who loses the cup. So as it stand now if say Detroit beats Chicago then Detroit moves up to pick after us. Boston or NYR will move up and pick after us. LA or San Jose will move up and pick after us
Senet1 : Basically, I was wrong about the draft pick situation. There are three groups of drafting teams within the 30 teams.
Senet1 : seriously ready to challenge for the cup. He will us win games but he will not be the difference between winning the cup and not winning the cup. You pick up players like that once you have the team ready to challenge,.
Senet1 : I am looking at the players to draft and there are a lot of big 6'3-6'5 forwards available ion the draft this year. If we could draft 3-4 big young players in the 2nd and 3rd round why would you want to give that up for a roster player who may have 2-3 years at best. If we are going to build a winner to have to build it with bigger players and there are a lot of good big players available this year. So you sign Ott and he is with us for the short run, but probably not when we are seriously re
Senet1 : Boullion is a great mentor for the young D-men
muller93 : Boullion is one of MBs great additions--Boull ion is a definite Keeper.
muller93 : Getting rid of Kaberle frees up a lot of cash. Boullion is small but is reliable and doesn't back down from anyone.
muller93 : Exactly Goalie any thoughts on a punishing D-man?
goalie : They;re showing determination adn skill vs Ducks and Blackhawks.
goalie : REd Wings could turn out to be the surprise team of this year's playoffs!
goalie : WE need to rid our team of Kaberle and Webber. Step two would be to then move Diaz. If we get that big d-man I believe that would push Boullion to # 7 on the chart. We'd then go with Georges, PK,Markov (to continue mentoring Ememlin) Tinordi as our starting six . THEN I'd be excited about our chances. We could then work on getting bigger forwards.
goalie : I too would gladly give up a 3rd round pick for Ott- the type of player we sadly lack. AND if we could get one more rugged, expeienced defenceman it would help immensely.
muller93 : Senet what you are saying makes sense but if we can get Ott for a 3rd round I'll take that all day.
muller93 : MB should be looking at a big D-man first, even though I like our blue line with the addition of Tinordi. We need that insurance just in case one gets injured. Also I'm a firm believer in starting with the goalie first then-defense-for wards-and we already have good goalie. We have all noticed when we have the lead Price is tough to beat.
Senet1 : So sometimes you have to sacrifice for one year or two to build that team in the draft. then add the finishing touches through FA and trades.
Senet1 : Muller, Detroit is another good example. They have been in the hunt every year with good well balanced teams yet only one or two cups to show for it. However, they have built a team that has a chance every years for the last 10+ years. That is what I think we have a chance to do this year with a good draft. It reminds me of the habs teams of the mid 80 and 90's we built a team then with sold draft picks and won the cup twice during that time period. So sometimes you have to sacrifice a one
muller93 : Very true Senet, you do need luck and we haven't had any luck it seems since the habs moved to the Bell Center. We had an incredible run in 2010 with some crazy goal tending from Halak. With Galchenyuk-Tinor di-Gallagher all in 1 year--not too bad, even with an early exit in the playoffs.
Senet1 : Muller I guess we all have our own ideas, but there has never been too many times that were successful when they traded their draft picks away. We have a chance to build this team so we have a shot at winning the cup over the next 10 years. Even as good as Pittsburgh has been they have only won the cup once since Crosby and Malkin have been with the team. That is because you not only need great players but you need luck to win, but one thing about Pittsburgh they have a chance every year. The
muller93 : Good point on Torres, he might be a liability. Torres has to tone it down a bit, but that's his game-very aggressive.
goalie : Though I don't condone what Raffi Torres did - thos shows you how repeat offenders or near offenders are going to be treated. His hit was NOT illegal BUT what the rap sheet adn reputation Torres has he got severly punished. Lesson to be learned by OTHER players because Torres dopesn't learn fromk his mistakes.
muller93 : Senet normally I would agree with you on not trading draft picks but we are not in a rebuilding stage. Sometimes draft picks can be a roll of the dice and it can take up to 3 years to be NHL ready. We have a good team and I agree with Stuo players like Clowe-Torres-Ott -Scott will make a big difference. Somebody has to protect Gallagher, he can't keep getting hit the way does--we need a tough forward so they think twice before going after Gallagher.
Senet1 : Really a heathly Habs team would probably win more games against the Pens that we did against the Sens. Reason they Pens would not play as physical against us as against the Sens. If we get good goaltending we win at least two games.
zpezada4ok : hello all «link»
stuo11 : hes a tougher big guy too! Just a minor adjustment but will help a bit