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Game 56: Habs/Avalanche

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18 Comments
  1. #1 Mats Naslund says:
    February 13, 2009 at 5:39 pm

    Having Chipchura up for tonight will definitely relieve the pressure on Koivu and Lapierre. You can’t just keep having wingers in the faceoff circle. It’ll be interesting to see who sits. I’d like to see grinders on the 4th line where they belong, and to see players playing positions they are used to. It has only been since this team has tried to have scoring lines play like grinders that our troubles really began. This team needs to skate. They need to make good plays in the offensive zone, and take the puck to the net instead of always peeling off of the cycle for a point(less) shot from the defense.

  2. #2 habknot says:
    February 13, 2009 at 6:32 pm

    I don’t get it; Koivu, Kovy and…. TomK? AK, Higgins and …. Dandenault?? I don’t care if there is a natural center or not, get some talent on those lines or we’re going nowhere. I hope the boys prove me wrong.

  3. #3 groundworking says:
    February 13, 2009 at 7:08 pm

    I’m thinking I’m going to try out for the Habs next week. Having a 5’9, 155lb Men’s league player on the top line might just give the team the spark that they need.

    If that doesn’t work, maybe they could throw me in nets for the night.

    I’ll work for food.

  4. #4 Joseph says:
    February 13, 2009 at 7:15 pm

    The Replacements. :-)

  5. #5 Joseph says:
    February 13, 2009 at 7:28 pm

    Thank goodness the game is on TSN tonight because RDS is not available to me in HD here in Toronto, and thus the RDS feed sucks because I’ve a silly HD box, and HD boxes make everything not HD look terrible, which is of course entirely on purpose… a lower than low attempt to entice the subscriber into purchasing more HD channels, most of which he’ll never watch! Hey, Ted?

    Sigh. I digress. Thank goodness the game in on TSN tonight as I can watch it in HD and thus get a good, high definition look at my terrible hockey team.

  6. #6 Donnie says:
    February 14, 2009 at 12:51 am

    Thank God that fiasco is over. That was one of the hardest things I’ve ever had to sit through. It was like one of those films they’d show in Vietnamese POW camps to wear down your resistence.
    Is anybody really happy about this win? If you are, you only saw the score and didn’t watch the game. When I think it’s impossible to get worst, our boys prove me wrong. Outshot 34-7 since the 1st period. I don;t even know what we were doing in the 3rd…looked like a 20 min PP for the Avs. Question….does what we are doing even count as “hockey” anymore?
    So miserable, I missed half the 2nd period cuz I was watching the Sharks/Sabres barnburner..then scanned the channels for something else. Nothing else, so, back to the bamboo chutes under the fingernails again.
    It took our BACKUP goalie standing on his head, facing 50 shots, to eke out a win against the 15th place team in the west. Troubles over you think? I think we barely register as an NHL team anymore…and…against almost any other team in this league, thats a 10-2 loss for us. Even McGuire was calling us ridiculous…as harsh a comment as I’ve ever heard from a broadcaster doing an NHL game. P*ss poor decision in the 3rd Guy..sitting back like pylons…must do great things for our confidence levels. Lucky break, got us a goal, to win a game we didn’t deserve. What’s the stragedy against any team with a higher ranking than LAST in their conference Guy?????
    Also, I’m almost positive now that Kovalev is battling a severe NyQuil addiction. Even this guys passes are lazy. Make for wonder he can’t score or set anything up…I’m surprised he has the energy to lace up his own skates.
    Boy oh boy, have we got a fantastic crew here this year boys.
    Maybe set up a game…Habs vs. bantam girls allstars to get the confidence back. All the effords are an utter disgrace to the team, the fans, the jersey and the organization. I think tonights game finally pushed me over the edge. Awful, awful display!!!

  7. #7 groundworking says:
    February 14, 2009 at 2:26 am

    Brutal.

  8. #8 donaldtherocketrichard says:
    February 14, 2009 at 12:56 pm

    Dear Bob,

    You have some talented players playing as individuals. I was at the game in Edmonton and watched the Avs game last night with disgust. Let’s not kid ourselves, Guy (as much as we loved him as a player) is not coaching this team.

    If the coach was not an ex-hab player he would have been long gone. Fire Guy and the other ex-habs and get someone who can teach these guys to play a puck possession game…not this BS that we’ve been watching where they dump the puck to the other team and then retreat to center ice.

    If a coaching change doesn’t fix it then let’s fix the room, perhaps by signing and playing players that give 100% all of the time.

    Alex we love your skill, but you can learn alot from watching Matthew.

  9. #9 winthemiseaujeux says:
    February 14, 2009 at 3:25 pm

    It started with the announcement at the all star game ‘artificially’ creating excitement and a ‘false standing o’ when he called Lecavalier to the ice and delayed the call for Jeff Carter as long as he could. Tasteless. The fans are NOT that excited about Vinny, we are three years too late on that one.

    We don’t need Lecavalier, the dressing room was just fine before this obvious misjudgement, now relax and let the team be a team again without the distractions from ‘influential’ people trying to be armchair GMs.

    If I were Bob Gainey, I would demand a resignation of Michel Lacroix and let everyone move on.

    Replace him with another star like Bob Cole (kidding, kidding)

    I wonder how Lacroix will handle the announcement on Saturday when Saku cracks the top 10 all time Habs scoring list.

    Saku deserves more than the respect of the entire team and is trying to pull together a group of young, distracted, talented and confused winners. Not whiners.

    Wait and see, these guys will settle down after the trade deadline and we will roll over the East when it matters the most…in April and May.

  10. #10 Joseph says:
    February 14, 2009 at 3:34 pm

    My favourite quote:

    “Kostitsyn scored the tiebreaking goal with 2:16 remaining, helping the Montreal Canadiens snap a seven-game road losing skid with a 4-2 win over the Colorado Avalanche on Friday night.

    ‘I never got one by him before,’ Kostitsyn said. ‘I came in hard on the net, made a good move and got it past him. I got it past him.’

    “That he did, much to Budaj’s dismay.

    ‘I didn’t get it,’ Budaj said. ‘He put a good move on me and I didn’t get it.’”

    I thought that the league was supposed to be doing a better job at drug screening. :-)

  11. #11 Mats Naslund says:
    February 15, 2009 at 1:16 am

    Some rumblings today that the Habs are on the verge of making a deal to set up another.. I’m not sure how much we can read into it, but with 20+ games left on the schedule there is still a lot of time for things to get better in Montreal. It sucks to see the team play poorly, but a couple deals could drastically shake things up.

  12. #12 Senet1 says:
    February 15, 2009 at 11:17 am

    Well here I go with the glass half full again. Someome said that anyone who was happy with the win did not watch the game. Well you couldn’t bew more wrong. A win is 2 points and maybe that is what we really needed. Let’s face, we have some players playing their hearts out while players that should be carrying this team are going through the motions. But what started this mess after we seemed to have righted thes ship just before the allstar game was the return of Price, most of us including myself felt that this was what we needed to take us to the next level. Well Price as good as he will be has simply played poorly. Our defence has not helped him and our offence stopped moving the puck and doing what they do well because of the goaltending. Our problems started in the net. Some of the games that we lost we appeared to get momentum only to loose it with a soft goal or poor defensive play. Simply put Halak stood on his head last night and won a game for us. That is what a team needs when it is going badly. So credit Halak maybe with turning this team around. Now if he can do it again against Vancouver we can salvage a bad road trip and maybe start to play with more confidence. Hopefully, Price will come back eventually and play the way we all know he can but right now Halak ( as much as I hate to admit it) is my goaltender until he proves he does not wan the position.

  13. #13 Senet1 says:
    February 15, 2009 at 11:29 am

    As a follow up to the above, you can have even the best team and loose the game if your goaltender lets in soft goals. Those type of goals change a teams outlook on how they play the game. It was once said by Scotty Bowman that his goaltender had to steel one goal a period for his team to win. That great play by the goaltender can then give the team confidence to play more offensive and play more aggressive. A soft goal does exactly the opposite. So can I be happy with the win YES because it could be the start of something positive that we have lacked since the allstar game. Good goaltending. If you don’t have it don’t expect your team to play well in other areas of the ice.

  14. #14 Senet1 says:
    February 15, 2009 at 11:45 am

    As for firing Carbo, you got to be kidding. A coach cannot get into players heads when they are afraid to play because of the goaltending. This whole team has gone into a shell and it will not come out until they have enough confidence in the goaltender to play their game. Our coaching staff is the type of staff we need come playoff time, when motivation should not be a factor all we have to do is get our goaltending playing better and make the playoffs. The only other thing we need is the two things that Gainey went out to get to improve this team, that being Lang and Tanguay. Lets face it without Lang especially, the big centreman we needed. This team has the same problems it had last year in the playoffs. Tanguay was a bonus as well but without them this team has to rely on Kovalev and Koivu so forget it unless we can make a trade for some help up front and a defenceman.

  15. #15 Senet1 says:
    February 15, 2009 at 12:20 pm

    Well there is talk of a Pronger Trade, not sure how accurate these talks are but Pronger would sure look good in a habs jersey. He would stablize our defence, provide strenght and muscle that we need and help our power play as well. He may even light a spark under Kovalev that Laraque did not do. He may even help bring Komy out of his daydreaming play of late.

  16. #16 Senet1 says:
    February 15, 2009 at 12:22 pm

    If we could get Pronger then that would free up Markov so we could go after Vinny.

  17. #17 Joseph says:
    February 15, 2009 at 1:50 pm

    I disagree. The team’s slump did not coincide with the poor play of Price as much as it did the return of Koivu and Higgins. The guys who had rallied in their absence seemed to let up entirely upon their return. But I guess it all depends on how one watches the games.

    As to Friday night’s game, it was undoubtedly the worst display of hockey I’ve ever seen put on in this league. And if it weren’t for Halak having played out of his mind, it would have been a repeat of the slaughter in Edmonton. Is that truly what this team needed, one of its goaltenders to step to the plate? Perhaps. But I’ve never seen such a terrible brand of hockey before, quite honestly, and thus the only positive I can find upon examining that Colorado game is that Jaroslav Halak cared enough to steal the game and save the team from a lopsided blowout.

  18. #18 donaldtherocketrichard says:
    February 16, 2009 at 3:35 pm

    Come on! Let’s be realistic here and starting watching these games with our brains and not our hearts. The facts are: 14 goals for and 24 goals against in the last 5 games alone; that’s 2.8 goals for and 4.8 against or in other words…brutal!; Ok, so thats’ only 5 games…well since Jan 20th – 3 wins and let’s count them 10 loses; or 31 goals for and 49 against. It’s painful to watch. One or two players are not going to make a difference. We may need a nuke!

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  • goalie : I don't know when they'll announce it but the Oilers will be signing Sutter (Flames ex-coach) to coach their team - that's why Kevin Lowe chose him to coach in the World's. That was the world's worst kept secret.
  • Senet1 : I guess I wish we could get it done so all the speculating was over and we can get to building out team.
  • goalie : I can't type.... what a faux pas on my behalf...
  • goalie : I just realized what I said adn didn't say yesterday. What a fayx as on my behalf. Regarding coaching Randy Cunnyworth MUSDT stay as an assistant- he deserves at least that after the tremendous job he did in the latter part of this past season. I'd still mlike to have Robinson, Carbo adn Allard on the staff also.
  • Avatar37 : I agree Senet, my choice if we can't have Cunneyworth would be Crawford, Robinson on defense, Cunneyworth for offense, and Carbo as offense/faceoffs .
  • Senet1 : I think if I had my choice it would be Crawford and see if he could get Carbo and Robinson as assistants. That would be my idea coaching team.
  • goalie : I witnesed Marc Crawford MANY times when the Avs, etc. played against Oilers and let me tell you - he is constantly on the referees asses virtually game after game. He is the complete OPPOSITE of J. Martin. Crawford is calm on TSN but he is one excited coach behind the bench. A friend of mine who was an NHL linesman for 26 years said they dreaded Crawford he was so tough on the officials!
  • goalie : You know, I've bee thinking about the coaching situation. I'd be really excited if the Habs had Hartley as head coach and Carbo adn Robinson as his assistants. I also read it somewhere about a month ago that Toronto's goalie coach Allard (?) wants to relocate back to Montreal where he has his goaltending school/business. Add him to the mix and I'd say the Habs would be in great shape coaching wise.
  • Avatar37 : Well, from what I recall, Hartley didn't do all that well with the Thrashers. But, I don't know enough about him to judge one way or the other. Crawford I do know, and he always seemed to be a good, level headed coach to me.
  • Senet1 : even Pacioretty two years ago did not impress any of us. Younger players have to play and make mistakes and learn from those mistakes. If they sit in the press box they are learning nothing.
  • Senet1 : Of course if he have some good assistants like a Larry Robinson to teach the young defence and someone like Carbo to teach faceoffs etc. then your coach does not have to be as good at teaching. If Hartley fits the bill you get no argument from me. My only previous point is that if he is impatient with your younger players to the point that he does not play them, then we are right back where we were with Martin. Martin was a good coach too, but how he handled Emelin, PK and even Pacioretty two
  • goalie : I would like to see the Habs sign a coach who realizes that our team isn't tough enough (we need to get bigger and somewhat more nastier),the coach needs t be a great TEACHER and be a coach who can get the players to understand and buy into his system. Other than that I couldn't care what lingo he speaks. I wnat to see our team become a ligitimate contender fast!
  • HabsLoseAgain : Well we dont know if he is or is not a teaching coach. I woukd just hate to paint Hartley something that he is not. There will always be questions but if Hartley was hired as the habs new bench boss i for one would not be overly upset.
  • Senet1 : My thoughts are not that he is or is not a good coach but rather that when he won the cup he had an experience team of superstars on that team. Where as we have a group of young inexperienced players, is he a teaching coach or a tactical coach or both? I am not question whether he is a good coach, but my question therefore is he the coach for us at this point in the deveopment of our team?? Not sure we are all purely speculating at the moment?
  • Senet1 : Something happened to my first post. I will try again.
  • Senet1 : That is why I said I am not sure he is the coach for us at this time? Right now we are all speculating including yourself, because non of us know for sure?
  • HabsLoseAgain : Crawford also won a cup with Patrick Roy so would you say he is a good coach or did he just have great players and one of the best goaltenders of alltime?
  • HabsLoseAgain : Senrt so please give me some reasons why you think Hartley is not the coach the habs need right now. What is it that you do not like about him or his coaching style?
  • HabsLoseAgain : Well all great coaches had great players playing for them so i guess you you add a a pile of other coaches to that list including Bowan......
  • Senet1 : Hartley, was he a good coach or did he just have great players and one of the best altime goaltenders of all time. I am not sure that he is the type of coach that this organization needs right now. Unless of course we sign a ton of free agents.
  • Avatar37 : However, my feelings may completely be wrong, Hartley may turn out to be a good fit.
  • Avatar37 : I didn't say Hartley was unknown, I said we demoted a good coach in Cunneyworth and now have an unknown quantity because we don't have a coach. I don't have that great a feeling about Hartley, I'd be much more comfortable with Crawford.
  • HabsLoseAgain : In my opinion i think he might be a good fit in montreal. Oh and he also likes to have a tough team.
  • HabsLoseAgain : Also this year he coached the ZSC Lions to the swiss championship title.
  • HabsLoseAgain : lol the so called "unknown" won a cup in 2000-2001 with the colarado avalanch.
  • HabsLoseAgain : lol Bob Hartley is not an unknown lol.....sheesh.
  • Senet1 : I think he has until the trading deadline to show us that he deserves to be on this team. If he does not get back on track then he could be simply a 2nd round draft pick to whoever we can trade him to.
  • Avatar37 : Bourque reminds me of Pouliot, size, skill, and invisible. He needs to get back to playing a physical game and bang people around and maybe he'll start getting some of those garbage goals again. Need to get to the front of the net. I hope he can find his game again.
  • Avatar37 : We had a good coach in Randy Cunneyworth. Now we have an unknown, with Bob Hartley rumoured to be the front runner. I'd rather have Cunneyworth.
  • goalie : A player like Rene Bourwue has al the physical attributes of what would be a beter than average player. Hwever, he certainly didn't play that well especially after being in Montreal about three weeks. We NEED players like Rene to play hard AND produce points on a REGULAR BASIS in order for us to be competitive.
  • Senet1 : MONTREAL – Rene Bourque had a rocky start to his career as a Hab, but he’s planning on using the next four years to make up for it. After arriving in Montreal under less-than-ideal circumstances in January, Bourque spent the following 38 games hoping to find the spark he needed to rekindle his offensive production. Despite flanking Tomas Plekanec on the team’s second line to close out the season, the 30-year-old sniper suddenly found himself firing blanks in his new NHL home.
  • Senet1 : I think we have to be patient and not expect too much too soon. Let's get a strong management team in place, make a good choices in the draft get a good coach and then see what we need at the free agent market. I will not be too disapointed if we miss the playoffs again next year if it means a long term team success. We have the opportunity to make some major strides over the next two years at the draft table. Then we fill in the holes.
  • goalie : I certainly agree that we need to get some impact forwards who will sign for 5 years, not for a season then walk away. That's not going to help us.
  • goalie : I wouldn't trade PK for Ovetchkin no matter what. He is a coach's NIGHTMARE and a poor team player.
  • Senet1 : I believe he will as we graducally put better players around him and build this team.

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