Montreal Canadiens

[AtlantaSportsFan]

Go Habs Go-- tonight at least. I'll be tuning in and cheering.

[ericdaoust]

Obviously the team is much better than they have played of late but with just three games left on the schedule the fact is that they are stumbling into the postseason. I'll break this down as well as I can:

Offensive game: The team is able to generate a lot of shots and even some quality chances. Too many of these chances result in missing the net or missing the puck entirely. When they do score it tends to be late in the game while in comeback mode.

Defensive game: The shot totals are generally low but as Mario Tremblay pointed out after the game the team is allowing more than 50% more quality chances than it has previously. This makes life difficult on the goalies especially when the goals only come later in the game. They are also having trouble with positioning and simply getting the puck out of the zone.

Goaltending: We can say what we want about the quality of shots, but Carey Price is being outplayed by the opposing goaltenders. The problem is usually created early in the game when goals are allowed quickly and the game seemingly gets out of hand right away. Price is clearly slumping and the team's defensive play is taking a minor problem and turning it into something that looks so much worse.

[habs83]

Defensive pairings at practice this morning:

Gorges-Diaz
Bouillon-Subban
Markov-Weber

Not a fan of the third one... but at least eveyone is playiing on their strong side.

And Eric will be please to know that Moen was skating on the 5th line at practice. Armstrong says that he is ready to play, and he practiced with Halpern and Prust.

[ericdaoust]

I've written many times here that I was not a fan of his signing from the beginning and took a bit of heat for it. Too much term and too much money. No reason to tie up a roster space for that long on a guy that can be replaced by the hundreds of other hardworking two-way guys available as free agents. And, well, the hardworking aspect is gone. He's just kinda there. Now he's just kinda in the press box.

[blayze]

I just have one question... how afraid are you guys of potentially facing us in the 1st round?

[ericdaoust]

I just have one question... how afraid are you guys of potentially facing us in the 1st round?

Not afraid at all. The Habs themselves are terrifying these days.

[habs83]

Therrien confirmed that Moen will be a healthy scratch tonight, and that Armstrong will take his spot in the lineup.

Price in nets, of course.

[ericdaoust]

Past management mistakes are still hurting teams even with the two amnesty buyouts. Habs are buyout out Gomez/Kaberle but if those two mistakes never happened it would be possible to just send Moen on his way this summer.

[newfcollins]

Past management mistakes are still hurting teams even with the two amnesty buyouts. Habs are buyout out Gomez/Kaberle but if those two mistakes never happened it would be possible to just send Moen on his way this summer.

I understand what you're saying, but I'm kind of glad they won't buy out Moen. It was Bergevin's mistake to sign him to that bad contract, so he should have to live with it.

[ericdaoust]

I understand what you're saying, but I'm kind of glad they won't buy out Moen. It was Bergevin's mistake to sign him to that bad contract, so he should have to live with it.

Other GMs get bailed out of their mistakes. Bergevin gets to use his mulligans on Gainey/Gauthier mistakes.

[ericdaoust]

At this point it's tough to find new material because the team remains a step beneath its normal level of play in every area. Even though stats don't tell the whole story there are always numbers that give a strong indication during streaks or slumps. The most obvious one is two goals on 21 shots on goals which is simply not good enough. This was a poor push-back for a team trying to erase a three-goal deficit. The Devils played well defensively but the Habs are a playoff team and has to be able to overcome this.

Carey Price: He is working hard to get out of his funk and the team in front of him is not helping matters. He is on the ice far too much and tends to find himself stuck to one post or the other often rather than just playing square to the shot. He made a lot of key saves to keep the game in range but in the end he must learn to turn one of those three Devils' goals into a save. He needs to be a difference maker.

PK Subban is pointless in four and Andrei Markov is pointless in three. This is a good indication that something is wrong offensively. It usually starts with these two.

Tomas Plekanec and Brian Gionta have to be better leaders. The team is down and I would expect these two (and with Gionta being the captain after all) to at least elevate their play in this situation.

Lars Eller and Alex Galchenyuk need to play more.

Rafael Diaz had a strong game and picked up his first point since his return.

[habs83]

At this point it's tough to find new material because the team remains a step beneath its normal level of play in every area. Even though stats don't tell the whole story there are always numbers that give a strong indication during streaks or slumps. The most obvious one is two goals on 21 shots on goals which is simply not good enough. This was a poor push-back for a team trying to erase a three-goal deficit. The Devils played well defensively but the Habs are a playoff team and has to be able to overcome this.

Carey Price: He is working hard to get out of his funk and the team in front of him is not helping matters. He is on the ice far too much and tends to find himself stuck to one post or the other often rather than just playing square to the shot. He made a lot of key saves to keep the game in range but in the end he must learn to turn one of those three Devils' goals into a save. He needs to be a difference maker.

PK Subban is pointless in four and Andrei Markov is pointless in three. This is a good indication that something is wrong offensively. It usually starts with these two.

Tomas Plekanec and Brian Gionta have to be better leaders. The team is down and I would expect these two (and with Gionta being the captain after all) to at least elevate their play in this situation.

Lars Eller and Alex Galchenyuk need to play more.

Rafael Diaz had a strong game and picked up his first point since his return.

Markov is a mess right now. He has no speed, and his breakout passes miss the target with regularity. His decision-making in his own zone has been subpar for the last 10 games or so. He clearly does not want to be involved physically, and the opposing team have all the time in the world to set up plays when he his on the ice.

Galchenyuk and Eller both played more than 15:00, but they need to see some time on the PP. Both special teams are struggling big time, even with MaxPac lucky goal yesterday.

Desharnais isn't bringing anything to the table right now. At least, yesterday, he was on fire on faceoffs. But there is no creativity in his game, nothing like he displayed last season.

[newfcollins]

Other GMs get bailed out of their mistakes. Bergevin gets to use his mulligans on Gainey/Gauthier mistakes.

Just thought of this this morning. Why not use the cap compliance buyout on Moen, and a regular cap buyout on Kaberle?

According to capgeek, to buy out Kaberle's contract would bring a cap hit of $1.25 million for the next two years. So we'd save $3 million next year in cap space from Kaberle, and the almost $2 million for Moen. And both would be gone.

[ericdaoust]

Just thought of this this morning. Why not use the cap compliance buyout on Moen, and a regular cap buyout on Kaberle?

According to capgeek, to buy out Kaberle's contract would bring a cap hit of $1.25 million for the next two years. So we'd save $3 million next year in cap space from Kaberle, and the almost $2 million for Moen. And both would be gone.

Knowing how GMs work I think they will ultimately keep Moen to see if they can make it work out. I think the free Kaberle buyout sits at about 95% chance of happening.

[habs83]

Price will start tonight, and it is confirmed that tinordi will be in the line-up. Therrien didn't say yet who will go to the pressbox, but Weber seems like a safe bet, unless one of Bouillon and Markov can't play, since the two of them missed practice yesterday.

The Habs only need one point to secure home ice advantage.