Montreal in Technicolor

so, i decided to wait a bit for my second blog as I wanted to see how to habs would fare meeting the always-boring New Jersey Devils. we put up a fight, but maybe if the powerplay had a little luck we could have one this one. this game highlighted one of our huge issues: lack of physicality.

here's the rest of the last I started last time.

4. lack of a veteran presence in goal. I'm sure there's 800 angry montrealers wanting to jump me and hurt me for even trying to criticize our goaltending, but we do have one problem with it: no vet. Circa 2 years ago, we sent off a vet named Cristobal Huet in favor of a very young 'savior' named Carey Price. An excellent goalie with an excellent pedigree, but instead of taking the oft-mocked smart route of keeping a vet there to show him the ropes of the mental side of playing the hardest and loneliest position in sports, we threw a millionaire 20 year old into a city equally known for its nightlife as much as its hockey. MISTAKE. we should have either kept a vet or got him someone to live with. See: Crosby, Sidney and Tavares, John. Carey is now suffering from being roasted, as many youth in montreal before him, for not being Patrick Roy and carrying a mediocre team to the Stanley Cup, which he didn't ask for. Now before we start trading Carey to Edmonton for some midget named Cogliano, i suggest we pick up a washed up, Francophone vet named Martin Biron in the offseason and hand him the #2 job. Alternate starts between Carey and Jaro depending on their performances, and have Martin around to show both, but mostly Carey, what it takes to be professional in a sport, especially in a high-pressure environment. In the playoffs, having a young goalie with no experience, and one goalie with experience that he probably wants to forget is not desirable when you're up against Marty Brodeur, Evgeni Nabokov (hahaha the sharks wish!) or Marc Andre Fleury.

3. The coach. To put it mildly, he's probably the worst decision Gainey ever made. At first, I was happy since we seemed to be out of the hiring ex-players mentality, and were going for a coach of experience. Until i saw his numbers, especially with Ottawa. If he couldn't beat the friggin Leafs in the playoffs with a stacked Ottawa team, then what exactly was he going to do with an average team here? Not much clearly. Other little decisions have made me come to the conclusion that we hired a coach for a physical, big team when we have a weak, small and quick team that's not adept to his preferred methods of dump-and-chase or the trap. Decisions like having Cammy and AK46 out when we're killing off a 6on4 with 2 minutes left against the top team in the division didn't endear me to his methods either.

2. lack of a powerplay. this is worrisome going into the playoff stretch. Now that we've got MA Bergeron's bullet from the point and Cammy's one timer, our powerplay looks even more horrific than it did when they were missing. Brian Gionta said it when he stated that the habs needed to opportunistic and not perfect. I touched on this on an earlier post, but they need to shoot and put either Benoit Pouliot or AK 46 in front of the net. They're both big with a good shot and will bother the goalie. I know this is not AK46's usual spot but just standing there will be extremely helpful. I'm almost positive of it.

1. the fans. The fans in montreal are horrific. I love the habs, but i know im hyper-critical. Booing the home team when they lose isn't helping them. Booing Carey when he lets in a softie doesnt help him. SINGING OLE WHEN THERE' 20 MINUTES LEFT AND WE'RE HANGING ON BY A GOAL ISN'T HELPFUL. Starting another goalie/mafia/coaching/fire gill! debate isn't helpful to the team, it's detrimental. Cheer them on, they're not going to win every game. By all means, if you don't want them to qualify for 8th and be one and done, by all freaking means stop buying merchandise, stop going to the games and definitely don't watch them on RDS. Send management a message by letting them know that their investment will not make money if they don't give us better than 8th. but if you're going to take up a fairly expensive and coveted seat at a sold out game, you better be cheering them on, win or lose.