What in hell was that?

What in hell have we witnessed in the first half of the season. Talk about plans going awry. The habs had a disasterous pre-season and they followed that up with a shocking start to the season. Now as we head to the halfway point the season is probably over in terms of making the playoffs. What went wrong? Everything. The hardest part of the habs season has been watching their A list players falter like Price, Weber, Pacioretty, and Drouin. So why did things go sour?



We can start with the coaching staff. Sorry I expected more from Claude Julien. Both defensively and offensively the habs have looked disorganized and confused. Julien still has not been able to stabilize the defence pairings or the line combinations. Some of the blame no doubt belongs to Bergy and his off-season signings. There have been way too many defensive lapses and way too many impotent powerplays. Kirk Muller was brought in to help a sputtering powerplay. There has been no visible improvement since Muller’s arrival. I never thought Julien would start the season with JJ Daigneault. Not sure if Bergy was behind keeping Daigneault around.

Edit

Whatever the reason the habs defence has been an embarassment. Starting with Carey Price who had another one of his long funks that have left the habs behind the eight ball after only a month. Yes Price was atrocious, leaving a fragile defence in tatters. Last year Bergy rushed to fix a defence that was error-prone especially in the playoffs. Unfortunately his no-name replacements have justified why they are unknowns. They are just not very good. However, that is why we have Price and why he is paid the big bucks to make a mediocre defence seem better than they are. He has slowly started to play better but is it too late? Why in hell did it take him so long to play like he should? Yes there were those social media rumours that frankly diverted attention from Price’s poor start and seemed like a lame excuse for his play. Shea Weber also has not played like he did during the first half of last year. Has he played hurt? Since any injury is not publicized we can just hypothesize how this has affected his play. As well, Julien has tried Mete, Benn, and Alzner as a pairing with Weber. No luck and maybe the reason is because none of them really are anywhere close to being a first pairing defenceman. The big signing of Alzner has been an inconsistent bust so far. The injury to Schlemko really created a hole in the fragile defence.  On the other hand Schlemko cannot be expected to alleviate the issues considering he is 30 and has never been more than an average joe defenceman.

Now for the offence. We used to blame Therrien for having a line blender but Julien seems to be using the same old blender. Who exactly should be playing with who? I still wonder why Hudon and Drouin have not played together for at least a game. Jonathan Drouin was an offensive wizard in junior who has shown flashes of brilliance. However, after the habs poor start, he seems to be getting into his own major league funk. He missed several games during this funk when he apparently had a virus or passport brainfart.  We expected the slick passing Drouin to mesh with the sniping skills of Pacioretty. However, like the Crosby Kessel experiment, the habs duo do not seem to function scoring wise as we expected. Pacioretty looks a step slower and his usual scoring slump followed by a scoring binge has been less consistent this year. Pacioretty still is not a powerplay sniper. Galchenyuk has shown flashes of his offensive skills but as well he seems hell bent on proving he is a defensive liability virtually every shift. Once again I ask where is the coaching staff to show Chucky the defensive light? Sadly Lehkonen has played injured and we have not seen the expected improvement in his production.



On a positive note some  players have stepped up and  impressed. These players have taken the initiative to become leaders. Gallagher and Shaw have taken the bull by the horns and left little doubt that they are the grit of this team. Benn with his limited skills has also proven to be a heart and soul player. Charles Hudon has proven he is an NHLer and Deslauriers and Carr have made the most of their promotion from the AHL.


I have some optimism in the habs core of young players. The young guns  include Drouin, Lehkonen, Hudon, Danault, Galchenyuk, Carr, Deslauriers, Scherbak, and De La Rose. Shaw and Gallagher are just slightly older. Whether Galchenyuk remains as part of this core is still unclear. However, if he does get moved the expectation is another young player will come back. The young gun defensive core is much less secure but Juulsen and Mete are a start. Lindgren, McNiven, and Fucale are credible future habs goalies. Some future habs prospects  playing in American Universities are causing a stir. The long term future seems more promising than the short term prospects. Sadly the habs may miss the playoffs and that will be 2 of the last 3 years. Now what will Bergy do the exasperated habs fanbase awaits in gloomy silence.