Senet1 – I don’t recall saying Bergeron was not worth his salary, I said he wasn’t worth the roster spot (which I suppose could be interpreted to mean he’s not worth any salary at all). He’s non productive at forward (which I suppose is better than being a liability on defense), although even at forward his coverage in the defensive zone is still questionable and he still makes high risk passes. For a one dimensional player who is -16, I think you could fill the spot with someone more productive for the team. You can argue that he’s really helped our PP along, which he may have in the beginning, but… He’s -16! It’s exactly the same problem we had with Brisebois…. I swear, I’ll never understand Montreal’s fascination with defensemen who can score 15 goals but cost the team 30 along the way…

As for O’Byrne, I agree with you, defensemen take longer to develop because it’s a harder position to play, and O’Byrne is coming along quite nicely. In my opinion, he’s the most improved player on the team, hands down. I do, however, think it’s a fallacy that simply because the forwards are smaller that you NEED to have bigger defensemen. You can’t sacrifice skill for size, and that’s what they did in signing Gill. Yes, he’s 6’6, but he’s not a strong 6’6. He’s easily knocked around. Sutton is big and strong too. Markov isn’t huge but there’s no questioning the value he brings. Volchenkov isn’t big either but there’s no question about the value he’d bring (if he doesn’t resign in Ottawa).

They do need to have someone who can actually drop the gloves, which Martin doesn’t agree with, which is a philosophy that Martin and I will always disagree on. I thought Stewart did a decent job of that, and right now we’re stuck watching O’Byrne or Gill fight when really, neither of them are fighters, they’re just big. Gill’s last fight, all he did was use his reach to keep his opponent far enough away to not do any damage and wait for the linesemen to step in. I’m not knocking him for it, he’s not a fighter. Say what you want about Laraque, but when he was on the ice, no one was taking runs at Markov (and when NY did, the coach didn’t play him to protect his players from that).

Mats – I don’t think predictability is the problem, it’s the style of play. Montreal is built around one thing: speed. They have small, fast forwards that will burn almost any team in the league if given the space. The problem is, that’s countered by trapping the middle and causing turnovers and dump ins, and even if they get set up in the offensive zone, there’s nowhere for them to go with the puck. Once you’re in the offensive zone, speed doesn’t matter so much as size, because that’s what you need to dig for the puck in the corners and battle for position in front of the net. It’s the main reason why adding Pouliot to the Gomez/Gionta line was such a big success, he’s got decent speed and the size to bang around in the offensive zone which creates space for Gomez and Gionta.

I really believe that no other team in the NHL can match our forward lines line for line. Keep Metro/Moen together on the third line and use that kid line from Hamilton as our fourth line and it takes a lot of pressure off the first two lines because our third and fourth lines are capable of dominating other team’s third and fourth lines. I really believe that if we can get some defensive defensemen in front of our goalies, that this team will go from being a marginal playoff team to a contender. I hope ferverently this is the area that gets addressed in the off season.