Montreal Canadiens

[evans334]

Chiarot won't play tonight, apparently hurt.

MB must not have liked him trying to win games with all those goals.

[tweetdrivr]

Or he’s been traded...

[tweetdrivr]

Gallagher is a go tonight. That’s great.

[ericdaoust]

[tweetdrivr]

Nailed it.

Should have put Mete with Weber and Fluery with Scandella. Those two got beat.

[Axeman33]

I know we have some hard core Habs fans on this site. I want an honest opinion from you.

In your opinion, do you consider Marc Bergevin's 6+yrs as the Habs GM to be successful? Feel free to elaborate one way or the other.

[evans334]

I know we have some hard core Habs fans on this site. I want an honest opinion from you.

In your opinion, do you consider Marc Bergevin's 6+yrs as the Habs GM to be successful? Feel free to elaborate one way or the other.

First 4 years, in hindsight, no.
Last 2 years, yes.

I think it took him awhile to learn to stop being so re-active and start planning ahead.

I think he is a very active GM and a majority of the trades he has made have been good. (Danault, Armia, Domi, Drouin, Weber)

Some of his signings have been questionable, but there are few GM's that haven't done that. (Alzner, Subban, Price)

But on the opposite he is also not afraid to take calculated risks. (Aho, Kovalchuk, Radulov, Vanek)

I think he does very well at learning from his mistakes.

Tinfoil hat on, I don't know how much Molson has a say in what happens with the operations, but I feel like if there was any it stopped over the past two years.

[Auston'sWilly]

I'll say this much for Bergevin - I wish the league had more people like him.
He oozes integrity and he's not afraid to do things that most people would avoid. He's got serious cojones. Biggest in the league.
e.g. Subban for Weber (most people slammed him badly for this, but it's turned out to be not nearly as bad as everyone said it would be)
Galchenyuk for Domi (same thing, people said he got fleeced, but he actually did the fleecing in hindsight)
Drafting Kotkaniemi as high as he did (jury's still out, maybe should have scooped Hughes or Tkachuk, but still a good example of this GM having guts).

You're going to make mistakes when you take chances like that. Overall, I'm a big fan of Marc Bergevin.

[ericdaoust]

Gallagher is having headaches again so he's getting tests to see if it's illness or the concussion.

[ericdaoust]

Quick summary on Bergevin:

He's done very well with small trades and in general has done very well getting value out of bubble NHL players. That's what he was as a player so it makes sense. He can relate to that. The problem is he tends to treat other players like they're bubble players and as a result he goofed on his handling of a lot of key players, resulting in popular players leaving and sell-low trades. He also had an awful farm system for years with player after player hitting a plateau either in the AHL or while transitioning to the NHL. Now they're trying to build up a young core while the major players of the team (Price, Weber, Petry) are aging and will offer less and less each year. It's a battle they're currently not winning.

In the end he's an average GM. He does some things well, and other things not so well. I'd say Julien was a lot more influential in the team overachieving last year than Bergevin.

[Ryan9]

In Juliens defense you can only work with the product your GM gives you. Claude Julien is a great coach. He’s getting everything he can out of a not so great roster.

[tweetdrivr]

In Juliens defense you can only work with the product your GM gives you. Claude Julien is a great coach. He’s getting everything he can out of a not so great roster.

He’s a good coach for sure. He’s not getting everything he can right now but he’s also got a lot of key injuries. But even this current group absolutely should not have lost three times to the red wings. I also think his decision to pair Mete and Fleury the other night (against Edmonton) was a bad one and those two got caved in as a result. Price has quit on his GM. He’s been dropping back handed dissention in the media since this summer. He’s pissed and tired of Bergevin only dealing in these bubble player trades Eric talked about while sitting on picks and cap space. Price has been quite below average this year and is laregely responsible for both of these lengthy losing streaks. He should be traded to a contender - the Habs can retain some salary. Let him go win a cup.

[ericdaoust]

The Habs season is playing out like a bunch of their recent games. Fall behind a bunch and then a mad dash at the end to try and get back into it!

[ericdaoust]

Armia is in tonight for Weal. Kulak in for Fleury.

[ericdaoust]

The Habs seem to be really pushing the message that this team is pushing for the playoffs once the injured guys return. Of course they have to try, but don't expect anyone to be moved prior to the deadline barring a setback this week. I'm expecting a mad dash at the end and the team falls a few points short.