Halak Attack

Guy Carbonneau pretty much went on the record saying that Jaroslav Halak will be the goaltender the Canadiens will rely on to get them to the post-season.

Can he do it?

It wouldn’t be the first time the Canadiens try to rely on a hot goalie to get them into the playoffs and even win them a cup.

There’s a lot of pressure on the 21 year old goalie that has barely even played in the NHL.

Looking at the remaining teams in the playoff hunt and their goalies:

Atlanta Thrashers: Kari Lehtonen
Tampa Bay Lightning: Denis/Holmqvist
NY Islanders: Rick DiPietro
Toronto Maple Leafs: Andrew Raycroft
Carolina Hurricanes: Cam Ward
New York Rangers: Henrik Lundqvist
Boston Bruins: Tim Thomas

Not very much experience there with the exception of maybe DiPietro and Cam Ward who is still young and has still never completed a full season. Halak however is the least experienced of all.

It will come down to who gets hot and stays hot down the stretch.

A lot to ask of a rookie goalie.

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103 Comments

#1 Habs#1 says:
March 9, 2007 at 12:57 pm

The rebuilding process must begin immediatly. Kovalev and Samsonov must be bought out, put on waivers or traded. Koivu stays. This team lives and dies with him. When he’s injured or playing poorly(because he’s not a #1 freakin centre! He dosen’t have the physical tools to play that spot and he’s worn down), the Habs suck. When he’s on the team is on. If they can get a centre to share the load with him this team will be a lot better.

Carbo needs to bring in an assistant coach who knows how to coach offence cause he dosen’t. They only send two forecheckers in and no one goes to the net hard were most of the loose pucks are cause they’re hanging around the blueline playing defence. But Carbo isn’t getting fired. You don’t fire a coach after less then a year on the job. That’s stupid. That’s the type of panic move that’s gotten this team in trouble in the past.

And don’t jump all over Halak. It’s only his 7th NHL game, and he’s only played one year in the AHL. He’s only 20 years old. He’s not Ken Dryden and
he’s not Patrick Roy. He’s Jaroslav Halak. Give him a break.

This teams playoff hopes died with Huet’s Hamstring. Time to turn this rebuilding yet still trying to make the playoffs strategy that isn’t working into a full blown rebuilding with all young guys(but keep Koivu cause every team needs a veteran player for leadership: Pittsburgh has Gary Roberts and Mark Rechhi for a reason). This team has a life threatening cancer growing in it daily and Gainey will need to preform major life saving surgery in the offseason for there to be any hope not just for now but for the future.

And good on Cournoyer and the Pocket Rocket for telling the French Media to shut up. They do drive FA away. It takes a special player to acctualy want to play in the biggest fishbowl in hockey. The majority of NHL players, especially a lot of the superstars(If Joe Thorton counldn’t handle it in Boston he’s be crying within a week in Montreal), don’t want to deal with all the **** the media dumps on them in MTL. That reporter sneaking into Koivu’s hospital room to take a picture of him injured is an example of why no one wants to play in MTL.

#2 PoorHabs says:
March 9, 2007 at 9:38 pm

I have to agree with Habs#1 regarding the need for Koivu. He is a motivator, and the heart of the team.

This team needs to improve their defense play more than anything else. They have SH_T loads of offensive talent. Just remember back to the last Buffalo game when things opened up.

Unfortunately however, as soon as the game tightens up, they get all choked up and forget how to create simple plays and GET in FRONT of the net! It’s quite a shame to have to end the season like this. I don’t believe that Montreal WANTS to lose games on purpose.

Even if Montreal MADE the playoffs, does anyone even think that they would actually get past first round???

Let’s not pin any blame on Halak. His style is much more stand-up and aggressive than Abbylovestoplayonhiskneesforsure. Halak will be a quality NHL goaltender someday. I much prefer watching Halak getting scored on (even the softies) then seeing Abby sliding to the wrong side of the net… on his knees of course… and then ending the final attempted puck stoppage while ON HIS FACE!

Gotta get rid of the following in the off-season:
1)Samsonov
2)Kovalev
3)Abbylovestoplayonhiskneesforsure

Mustkeeps:
1)Koivu
2)Markov
3)Souray

Lets build a team around the positives, guys that will show up ALL THE TIME, like Doug Jarvis did, and we’ll have a great bunch of guys to watch. Even when they lose, you’ll have respect for them.

See you next season!

#3 Don Carnage says:
March 10, 2007 at 5:10 pm

Right fire the coach because he is sub 500 … last time I looked we were 33 30 thats not sub 500 … yet ? Who knows but the problem cant always be the coach and Montreal has had problems for a while now its been 14 years since the last Cup ..must be Sammy’s fault or Kovalev they were here 10 years ago?

Naw this team needs to rebuild and has needed to for a longtime , they will I cant remember a team that went from mediocore to the summit in 2 years and was able to stay there? Anyone ?

Look at the Canes WOW 8th place and hanging on by a toenail defending champs?

Sucks but thats the way things are right now , we need some fresh blood and I am sure we will see some , but the truth is as stated before there are so many places where good players can play in peace, pay less taxes, and have nice weather .. Odds are against the Habs when it comes to FA’s we need to build from the roots and draft the core of this team in the meantime while that happens, we need to live the dark hours we live now.

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Last Message 19 hours, 59 minutes ago

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.