Friday, 24 January 2014

Writing on the wall for the Habs?


I'm not going to lie, I'm pessimistic and cynical.  Thanks a lot, lessons learned in life!
When you include a love for one's hockey team, and continuous questionable moves, ie Gomez and Briere, it tends to re-enforce these attitudes.

I've always prided myself on being a fan, lead with my brain and not my heart, which is why I've been pleasantly surprised for the majority of this season with Montreal's play. Currently 3rd in the Atlantic and 4th in a very weak Eastern conference, the Habs have been riding high in the standings for the majority of this season for a simple two reasons.

Carey Price and the power play. However, something here is faltering, and it's not Carey Price

With their last 10 being of 4 Wins and 6 Loses, the Habs are stalling. Why?, Because they got their early success by the power play and the power play is dead in the water.

How dead?, The last ten games it's been are floating carcass of  11.8%.. That's a far cry from their season average of 19.3%.  Hell, go back even another 10 games and the Habs power play is 11.3%  We're talking terrible. Hence why they've 9-11 in their last 20

The Habs can barely gain the zone lately and when they do teams have figured out that the only players they have to pressure are Markov and Subban.  After that, it's clear our forever undersized forwards away from the net as the perimeter players won't dare crash the net.

When you live by the sword, you die by sword and that's what is taking place in Montreal.

Their 5 on 5 is brutal.  This team can barely play 5 on 5.  They rank 24th in the league for Goals For/Goals Against and 29th...2nd last in the league with an amazingly terrible 76 Goals for... on 5 on 5.

Let that set in.. 2nd last.

When you play, on average, 48 minutes a night at even strength, that screams that:
A) The Habs system sucks (Therrien is terrible)
and
B) The Habs better start beefing up their offense.  Be it via the Draft (Offensivly, the cubboard's dry), Trade (We're over a barrel) or Free Agency (you know the Habs will have to over pay so English players can tolerate the hardcore Francais Quebec media.)

If it wasn't for Carey Price, we'd be swimming with the Oilers.

Lastly, if the Habs can some how make the playoffs, Carey Price deserves a Hart nomination.

Cheers
@Dingwell