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

Man-cold from Hell, so why not discuss the Habs draft options

With the Habs doing their usual overachiever act in the standings, I figured it would be fun to have a look at the Habs prospects and their potential draft picks.

Let me rephrase that, players that are ranked around the Habs draft pick.  NONE of us have any idea who the Habs are ever going to draft as they can go off the board. See Fischer, David and McCarron, Mike as two quick examples that pop into my head.

The two positions I'm going to focus on are center and defence and why do I think they are weakest positions in the prospect pool?

Bournival is nearly "graduated" to full time player and well, Leblanc is a bust who was only picked to appease the "Restless Natives". After that, it's still too early to decide on de la Rose and Joonas Nattinen seems too soft for a 3rd line center.  Though Nattinen could make himself into a 3rd-4th line defensive forward yet.

As for Defence, I am of the firm belief that you can never have too many quality D-men in the system.  With Tinordi & Beaulieu nearing full-time status in the 'Show' and Pateryn bidding his time to become a 5th-7th D-man.  This leaves the cupboards pretty bare as the Habs other D prospects are 3-4 years away.  That, and the hockey boner many people had for Mac Bennet has straight up vanished.

So being the hockey nerd that I am, and using the mind blowing powers of  "What prospects are ranked around the Habs draft pick", let's have a look at 4 potential 1st round draft picks in this average draft class.

Ryan MacInnis, C, 190cm / 6'3, 77kg / 170lbs.  Do you like "hockey genes"?  Do you like players who have bloodlines to former NHLers?  Then why not have a look at Al MacInnis' son.   What's not to like of this potential two-way center? He has size with tons of frame to fill out, and a very heavy shot.

No, not your cup of tea? How about a player that everyone will be afraid to draft just because he's Russian.

Vladislav Kamenev, C,  188cm / 6'2, 92kg / 203lbs.  The former #3 over all in the KHL draft, the Vladislav has been documented as a strong defensive center , but put up the 3rd most points at the recent 2013 World Junior A Challenge. (7pts in 5 games)

A few D-men to have a peek at who's last names don't end in Ekblad are:

Brycen Martin, D, 190cm / 6'3, 81kg / 179lbs.  Martin is on a very strong Swift Current team this year, and like the other two I've listed above has room to fill out his fair size frame.  Most importantly, scouts have noted his first pass.  The first pass is the most important for D-men.  A trait he shares with our next prospect.

Jack Glover, D, 191cm / 6'3, 78kg / 172lbs.  Yes, Glover has a lot of his frame to fill out, and yes he is more of a 2nd round pick, but I'm giving him notice as he is from the draft machine that is the USNT.  Being a teammate of Mike McCarron will give the Habs lots of time to look at the kid.

Note for all of you hardcore Canadian fanatics, the US is going to start pumping out more and more high end prospects.  Get used to it.


As I said, these are only players that ranked around the Habs draft pick.  There's no saying who they'll pick.

Cheers