Game 81: Habs/Bruins
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One point clinches a birth in the playoffs.
It won’t be easy against the Bruins who have been owned by the Canadiens in recent years and have to be salivating at the chance at revenge. The Bruins are in a position to inflict some damage to a depleted Habs team. Help force them out of the playoffs and/or send a message should the Habs take 8th, and the Habs and Bruins dance in another playoff match up next week.
Mathieu Schneider may return to the lineup and powerplay to hopefully help secure that point.
Related
The fate of the Canadiens seems to be decided this morning after their failure to close last nights game in Buffalo.
Typical of band...
The Canadiens are in Philly tonight and with a win they can nail down 5 out of a possible 6 road points to start the season.
Guy Car...
What can you say about a guy like Michael Ryder? If you don't know how I feel about him refer to my past posts and getting him re-signe...
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- 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.
- Senet1 : Goalie I agree with Avatar. PK is the present and future of this teams defence. I would not even take Staal from Pittsburg unless I had him tied up in a long term contract of a Minimum of 5 years. Also once has to consider the salary difference. Pk is on the move up probably 3M plus for his next contract and then eventually 4-5M if he keeps on improving. He has moved his game up two gears since he came into the league 2 years ago. He now has to move to the next level and I believe he will as w
- Avatar37 : pressure playing in Montreal, since he has problems with the expectations in Washington and Montreal isn't any easier. Then again, the media were very easy on Kovalev, so maybe it's a Russian thing? No idea. Anyway, yeah, it would have to be an established star that gives us an immediate drastic upgrade at forward, that's the only way I'd trade PK, because we'd be giving up a potential QB on our blueline for the next decade.
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April 10, 2009 at 8:56 am
Why does it seem like all other 7th, 8th, and 9th place teams can pull out the win when they need it? Play that much harder to get the 2 points. I’m not sh*ttin on the boys this time, I’m just saying thats it’s so disheartening as a fan to watch all these other teams playing solid hockey…getting wins against bigger teams, and we get 1 point in our last 3 when wins are critical, no only for points, but for confidence.
We got bullied again last night because we are still one of the only teams who apparently doesn’t need toughness. Chara, Lucic, and Thornton had their way with us again and knew they could. Toughest guy in the league and he’s in the press box…and ya know something…the getting bullied didn’t even pay off…even with all the PP’s we got for not being able to battle the Bruins…WE STILL LOST !!!
April 10, 2009 at 9:06 am
Hit submit comment by mistake….anyways…..as I was saying. I was sitting there boiling last night. The big topic from last season was no toughness…opposing players taking liberties with our guys. We want our guys to feel secure so we resolve the problem….we sign the biggest heavyweight in the league at 1.5 a year to be our policeman. Problem solved right? Amazingly no…we resolve the issue and then sit him in the press box half the year and it seems always in games like this. Still trying to figure it out….throw all the reason you want to at me if any of you disagree, but, Laraque should have been in the lineup last night. Not having a guy in the lineup who is gonna take penalties is one thing…but letting your team get beat up, thumpped around and bullied can do great things for their confidence either.
It was a bad call on Gainey’s behalf. Every other team has one guy who handles problems in the lineup. Are we so unique that we don;t need it…are we doing everything so right that we don;t need to take this path….we’re barely in 8th…think about that before you answer.
Once again, bad call Bob…you still have my respect, and with all the good calls you make…sorry…very bad call last night with Laraque.
April 10, 2009 at 11:55 am
Gainey’s decision to keep Laraque out of the lineup last night will be analysed, overanalysed, justified, criticised, defended, and laughed at, but quite simply there was no method to Gainey’s madness here. Yes, Boston/Philadelphia is precisely why he went out and got him, and yes, he most certainly should have been playing last night. Find logic in this: Laraque had been in the lineup in each of the past several games before being removed from it for a game against not only our biggest rival, not only a notoriously physical team, but one of the primary reasons that we went out and got Laraque in the first place!
April 10, 2009 at 1:27 pm
“From my perspective, it was one of the longest games ever and it didn’t even seem like there was much action in my end,” — Tim Thomas
Oddly enough, your team was outshot 39-33, Tim.
April 10, 2009 at 4:24 pm
Well here is a thought, just maybe Gainey was preparing for the playoffs and that is why Stewart and Larague did not play tonight. And in hindsight just think, if Larague were in the game tonight would Kovalev and Kostysn have come to Komesareks or Jorges aid. This team came together last night like no other game all year. And besides, if George played there were only two possible players that would have sat. D’Agostini or Weber. D’Agostinin got two goals and Weber was brought up to see how he would work on the powerplay. So did Gainey make the right move, who knows for sure, but as a fan I would suggest that he may know a little bit more about hockey than I do and what/how he wants to prepare his team for the playoffs.
April 10, 2009 at 4:25 pm
We won more than a point!!!!!!!!!!!!
April 10, 2009 at 4:39 pm
WE saw a great game last night, and we say a team that did not give up. We saw Dandy playing a position that he has not played much all year and did a commendable job, yet he made a serious mistake. Maybe had he played defence more this year that mistake would not have been made, but the team is adjusting to playing without Markov and that adjustment is going to take time. I thought overall Dandy played a pretty good game, only wished he had not made that mistake, but I bet he won’t make it again in the playoffs. I thought Price played a decent game, could only be faulted on the one goal. This team for the first time all year showed character and they came together as teammates and yes Boston did have the upper hand on the rough stuff, but the important thing is we did not back down, with the exception of Obyrne? Now I wonder what Boston is thinking, we played them even steven took their best shots in their building without Laraque or Stewart, don’t you think they have a question mark in their minds now and are wondering just what this team will be like with those two guys in the lineup? Think about it. Did Gainey really make that big of a mistake, just maybe he planned it?
April 10, 2009 at 4:49 pm
I am glad I wrote my recent comments regarding Laraque before I read this because it give credence to what I was thinking. Here is what Gainey says.
While others had offered up their prediction that Georges Laraque would be there to tame the bears at TD Banknorth Garden, the Habs’ head coach surprised many by not calling on his heavyweight. And don’t expect the mystery to be solved any time soon.
“If I tell you, everyone will know because you’ll publish it,” said Gainey. “I prefer keep a couple of cards in my hand.”
April 10, 2009 at 5:36 pm
The two cards he is talking about could they be Laraque and Stewart?
April 10, 2009 at 6:12 pm
I think Gainey played a hunch in that Boston has been winning games 2-1 in the last month and thus he should have his best offensive team out there. Yes it would have been great to have Laraque in last night, although I think Stewart may have been a little more effective. Weber had to play last night, so that really only leaves D’Agostini out (2 goals!). The hope is that Montreal beats Boston by playing Canadiens hockey. We saw that Boston can get caught trying to pound. If we use speed and determination we can beat that team. I would like to see Laraque-Thornton just to keep that goon honest..
April 10, 2009 at 6:25 pm
Matts that is a good analogy of the situation, I just do not think that Gainey wanted to expose Laraque at this time just before the playoffs. I think in hind sight he made the correct coaching move. You can second guess the coach all the time but the fact of the matter is that we could have won this game with the lineup that Gainey put on the ice and without that lineup I doubt we would have even been in the game? Had we already made the playoffs, then maybe it would have been a different decision but because of a little bad luck and a couple of young players making a mistake we lost. I am wondering what the nay sayers would really say had we won?
April 10, 2009 at 6:33 pm
There is another positive and that was d’Agostini, came out of his scoring slump. Two goals if he stays consistent and scores some goals he may be want we have been looking for, I still think it is only a matter of time before AK 46 scores, he seems to be working hard and even throwing his weight around, so maybe saturday night is his time. I would like to see us win because I think that Philly will beat NY putting us in 7th.
April 11, 2009 at 8:34 am
Well guys….I hope you are right and there was a method to Gainey’s madness. But as diehard Habs fans you all must know what I’m talking about…..watching your team get bullied and beat up while our tough guy sits in the press box….it’s just so frustrating, and kinda makes you slump back in your chair. When your team is in this situation, it takes away from the enjoyment of the game for you, it’s somehwta embarassing, and you are spitting for revenge when you know there is none coming…wow, what a way I was in the other night. I just hope you guys know where I am coming from.
I was hoping to avoid the B’s in the playoffs first round….now, I want the fawkers. GO HABS GO !!!
April 11, 2009 at 7:01 pm
If it’s true that Gainey sat Laraque to save him for the playoffs, then that was one hell of a risky move because prior to the overtime loss, Montreal had not yet secured a playoff spot, and had they failed to earn that point, would be playing for their playoff lives tonight against one of the hottest teams in the league, which still has its eyes on fourth place and home ice advantage.
Risky indeed.
April 11, 2009 at 8:11 pm
I don’t think either Matts or I suggested that Gainey sat laraque to save him for the playoff. They sat him because if we need goals he is not going to get them. And know one has answered this question yet, who were you going to sit? We had Boston so shook up that they started taking penalties and allowed our PP to score. And as for being embrassed by being bullied I did not see us as getting bullied I saw a team that tried to bully us and found out that we will stand up to their tough stuff. The team played as a team for one of the few times this year when they had to. Had they played that way all season we would have been closer to the top.