What happened?
I have to admit I had predicted the Habs finishing in the top 5 spots in the East this year. So what happened in the first 3 months?
Weren't we one shot away from eliminating the Bruins last year? If only we had Pacioretty for that series, the result would have been different we all said. So onto the new season and hope springs eternal. However, a malaise hit the squad as early as the preseason. The oomph wasn't there and we could not beat anybody. Who did we sign in the offseason? Cole and Markov our big signings and Campoli to add a little consistency to the defence and some European ringers Diaz and Emelin. We had Pacioretty back and Gomez was promising to mend his lackadaisical ways. We could always count on Gionta and Cammalleri for key goals. We were still small at center especially with Gomez, Plekanec, and Desharnais. We also had budding superstars PK Subban and Pacioretty. We had the likes of Eller and AK46 who could only get better.
So what happened? I think we have to look at the manager and the coach. I still go back two years to the trade of Halak. Totally unjustified to hand the job to Price based on his performance. Even though Eller shows signs of becoming a good player I still think we could have done better in that trade, if we had to trade Halak. Price has been a good workhorse but has shown none of the Halak magic or the Roy or Dryden magic so far. He also suffers from mental lapses that cost us a game in the Bruins playoff and several games this year. Gauthier did sign Cole and I think that was more a result of his outbidding other teams and the fact Cole lives close to Montreal. However, I totally disagreed with the Markov signing. My feeling was that Markov showed signs of slowing down even before his knee surgery. To sign him long term and for that amount made very little sense to me. I commended Gauthier for the Wizniewski trade, and the Wiz seemed to bring spark and youthful brashness to the team last year. However, there was no thought to signing him in the offseason. What to make of the lack of ruggedness on the Habs? Gauthier did nothing. The beatdown the Bruins gave the habs last year in that 8-5 game probably reversed the season for both teams. The shot heard round the world when Chara ko'd Pacioretty did not help matters. It could have been an accident but I doubt it. The point is that Chara was not suspended and the habs never sought vengeance. The main reason was that the habs had no one to wreak vengeance. I don't even want to talk about the past and all those players we have given up for virtually nothing like Ribeiro ,Grabovsky, and Sergei Kostitsyn.
Now for Jacques Martin. I still do not get many things about Martin's strategy this year. His insistence on playing Darche on the powerplay and Plekanec at the point was a total failure and he persisted for a quarter of a season using these players. His non-use of Cole both on regular shifts and the powerplay left me scratching my head. The worst thing Martin did was mess up PK's head. He simply leashed PK and forced him to become a stay at home defenceman. He played him on the second powerplay unit. We stopped seeing those wild rampaging rushes from PK that would drive opponents batty.
We cannot blame Martin for everything. Injuries as those suffered by Gomez, Campoli, White, and Markov did not help . We cannot blame Martin for the lacklustre performances by Gionta, Cammalleri, and Plekanec. On the bright side we still have all those future habs on Team Canada in the juniors, and if things don't pick up we can have a chance at the first pick overall for next year's draft.
Weren't we one shot away from eliminating the Bruins last year? If only we had Pacioretty for that series, the result would have been different we all said. So onto the new season and hope springs eternal. However, a malaise hit the squad as early as the preseason. The oomph wasn't there and we could not beat anybody. Who did we sign in the offseason? Cole and Markov our big signings and Campoli to add a little consistency to the defence and some European ringers Diaz and Emelin. We had Pacioretty back and Gomez was promising to mend his lackadaisical ways. We could always count on Gionta and Cammalleri for key goals. We were still small at center especially with Gomez, Plekanec, and Desharnais. We also had budding superstars PK Subban and Pacioretty. We had the likes of Eller and AK46 who could only get better.
So what happened? I think we have to look at the manager and the coach. I still go back two years to the trade of Halak. Totally unjustified to hand the job to Price based on his performance. Even though Eller shows signs of becoming a good player I still think we could have done better in that trade, if we had to trade Halak. Price has been a good workhorse but has shown none of the Halak magic or the Roy or Dryden magic so far. He also suffers from mental lapses that cost us a game in the Bruins playoff and several games this year. Gauthier did sign Cole and I think that was more a result of his outbidding other teams and the fact Cole lives close to Montreal. However, I totally disagreed with the Markov signing. My feeling was that Markov showed signs of slowing down even before his knee surgery. To sign him long term and for that amount made very little sense to me. I commended Gauthier for the Wizniewski trade, and the Wiz seemed to bring spark and youthful brashness to the team last year. However, there was no thought to signing him in the offseason. What to make of the lack of ruggedness on the Habs? Gauthier did nothing. The beatdown the Bruins gave the habs last year in that 8-5 game probably reversed the season for both teams. The shot heard round the world when Chara ko'd Pacioretty did not help matters. It could have been an accident but I doubt it. The point is that Chara was not suspended and the habs never sought vengeance. The main reason was that the habs had no one to wreak vengeance. I don't even want to talk about the past and all those players we have given up for virtually nothing like Ribeiro ,Grabovsky, and Sergei Kostitsyn.
Now for Jacques Martin. I still do not get many things about Martin's strategy this year. His insistence on playing Darche on the powerplay and Plekanec at the point was a total failure and he persisted for a quarter of a season using these players. His non-use of Cole both on regular shifts and the powerplay left me scratching my head. The worst thing Martin did was mess up PK's head. He simply leashed PK and forced him to become a stay at home defenceman. He played him on the second powerplay unit. We stopped seeing those wild rampaging rushes from PK that would drive opponents batty.
We cannot blame Martin for everything. Injuries as those suffered by Gomez, Campoli, White, and Markov did not help . We cannot blame Martin for the lacklustre performances by Gionta, Cammalleri, and Plekanec. On the bright side we still have all those future habs on Team Canada in the juniors, and if things don't pick up we can have a chance at the first pick overall for next year's draft.
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