If you were Carbonneau and knew you needed to stir the pot offensively, what lines would you change? Who would you call up?
I think I'd bring up Chipchura if possible (I heard he's injured???) and give Gregory Stewart one final shot this season to play. That kid played with a lot of intensity and I think maybe he could get our offense going. Who knows, but what ideas have you guys got? One last ditch effort to win.
Also: Who here thinks we can bring it back?
How would adding Stewart or Chipchura add to the offense? Those 2 were not even scorers in the AHL.
I might add Ryder and have the guys get the puck to the net more, especially on the PP, and score some garbage goals instead of always trying to do the pretty passing play.
Run the goalie (Biron obviously.) First 5 minutes, take the penalty who cares. Then lets see how comfortable he is. Sure it's cheap and dirty, but at this point who cares.
How would adding Stewart or Chipchura add to the offense? Those 2 were not even scorers in the AHL.
I might add Ryder and have the guys get the puck to the net more, especially on the PP, and score some garbage goals instead of always trying to do the pretty passing play.
No one else is friggin scoring, at least somone will bring in some physical aspect to their game. This'll be a chance for some players to get a taste of the NHL playoffs and get them to work that much harder come training camp.
I don't think the team is having any problems with getting the puck to the net, the problem is getting the puck IN the net. 142 shots in 4 games is serious business
If you were Carbonneau and knew you needed to stir the pot offensively, what lines would you change? Who would you call up?
I think I'd bring up Chipchura if possible (I heard he's injured???) and give Gregory Stewart one final shot this season to play. That kid played with a lot of intensity and I think maybe he could get our offense going. Who knows, but what ideas have you guys got? One last ditch effort to win.
Also: Who here thinks we can bring it back?
This is exaclty what I was thinking yesterday night right before sleeping.
we don't need any special offense, any crazy line tuneups or goalie change to win this series. all we needed starting in game 1 was to play playoff hockey. going into the corners, standing in front of the net and taking a beating - this is how you score goals in the playoffs, plain and simple. the goals that we actually scored were because of the traffic in front of the net.
We need 3 scoring lines, otherwise bye bye playoffs,
Andrei Kostitsyn - Tomas Plekanec - Alex Kovalev
Guillaume Latendresse - Saku Koivu - Michael Ryder
Christopher Higgins - Mikhail Grabovski - Sergei Kostitsyn
Mark Streit - B. Smolinski - Tom Kostopoulos
Andrei Markov - Mike Komisarek
Roman Hamrlik - O'Byrne
Francis Bouillon - Josh Gorges
Those are the right soldiers. Now they have to decide if they will take the easy way out or push forward as they did all season when they hunted the Senators down in the Northeast and re-establish themselves as the Eastern Conference Champions. No room for passengers. The next game and this series is now down to will and not talent.
I would avoid drastic changes. Other than goaltending, the Habs have dominated play, no reason to tinker with the forwards and defence. Put Price back in, and keep spraying Biron with shots - he's not superhuman, as we proved in the 3rd period last night.
Insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different result. -Albert Einstein
As far as last night, the Habs got those goals in the third period by crashing the net. If they do that every time in Philly's zone, they will have a very good chance in this series.
We need 3 scoring lines, otherwise bye bye playoffs,
Andrei Kostitsyn - Tomas Plekanec - Alex Kovalev
Guillaume Latendresse - Saku Koivu - Michael Ryder
Christopher Higgins - Mikhail Grabovski - Sergei Kostitsyn
Mark Streit - B. Smolinski - Tom Kostopoulos
Andrei Markov - Mike Komisarek
Roman Hamrlik - O'Byrne
Francis Bouillon - Josh Gorges
If he brings back Higgins-Koivu-Kovalev I hope he gets fired.
And yeah, what happened to the 3 scoring lines? As soon as the playoffs start we bring back the 2006-07 Canadiens. We couldn't get a scoring chance for most of the Bruins series, and we can't score a goal to save our lives in this damn series.
Run the goalie (Biron obviously.) First 5 minutes, take the penalty who cares. Then lets see how comfortable he is. Sure it's cheap and dirty, but at this point who cares.
its too late for that now, but shoulda been done before... we are not playin dirty enuff or with that ugly grit philly has.... why all u ppl want lats in the line up is beyond me.. he is ****ing brutal.. .so stop thinkin with ur hearts... and realize he isnt that good...or maybe its bc he is french!? take him out/striet out.... chuck in locke or grab
If Ryder actually gives a **** about the game, he should be in... if not, maybe Stewart...
But we need a guy to crush the net on Koivu's line and that person should be Lats:
I'd go with
AK46-Pleks-AK27 (this line was the bread and butter all year long, we got problem scoring, I don't get why they aren't together)
Lats-Koivu-SK (Lats has one job: get in front of the net!, let the other two cycle around and shot to the net... and you get the rebounds!)
Higgins-Lappy-Ryder/Streit (Higgins and Lappy forecheck the hell out of the puck and dish it to Ryder... basically 3 guys who shoots but can't pass, might be able to get some garbage goals)
Begin/Streit-Smoke-Kosto (Less playing time please...)
AK, Pleks and Higgins aren't competing. Not good. SK is too small.
Markov does not look good to me, I would plug Hammer in there more and drop Markov to the second pair with O'Byrne. Streit is completely useless with his injury and he wasn't a good Dman to start with. I'd keep him on the bench just for powerplays.
I like your third line though. Lappy plays harder when Tender is there and that can only rub off on Higgins.
We're at home with the last change, so we can put more skill in the lineup:
EVEN STRENGTH -- FORWARDS
Andrei Kostitsyn - Tomas Plekanec - Alex Kovalev
Guillaume Latendresse - Saku Koivu - S. Kost.
Christopher Higgins - Lapierre - Ryder
Begin - Smoke - Kostopoulos
EVEN STRENGTH -- DEFENSE
Roman Hamrlik - Patrice Brisebois
Francis Bouillon - Josh Gorges
Andrei Markov - Mike Komisarek
I would go with the same line-up at forward unless one of our players comes forward and says they cant play the game because of injuries illness etc. Although ryder and Grabo look like good choices to get the offense going they havent played all playoffs for the most part and would be coming in cold and rusty. The habs dont have time right now to bring a cold rusty player of the bench and should go with what they have. Also, changing the line up would only break up the chemistry in the locker room and the chemistry on the ice. BUT i would maybe give the lines a lil shaking. I would put kovalev back with plekanec and A. Kost in the hopes that this line can get it going again offensively like they did all year. Then i would put koivu with higgins(who has to pick up his game) and S.Kost. This would also break up our 2 best players, koivu and kovalev so the flyers could not use coburn and timonen to shut down our 2 best players, they would have to choose against which line to play coburn and timonen.
On defense i find philly are taking advantage of montreals small D and driving to the net well and setting screens. Philly are really killing us in the physical department as well so i would take out brisebois and put obyrne with hamrlik. I think our D is our weakest part of the game and we really have to let bouillon and gorges go so we can get bigger. Im excited to see what our big russian blueliners valentenko and emelin will be able to bring in 2 seasons and hopefully they add some sandpaper to our d to go along with the hard hitting komisarek!
Andrei Kostitsyn - Tomas Plekanec - Alex Kovalev
Chris Higgins - Saku Koivu - Sergei Kostitsyn
Guillaume Latendresse - Brian Smolinski - Michael Ryder
Steve Begin - Maxim Lapierre - Tom Kostopoulos
Andrei Markov - Mike Komisarek
Roman Hamrlik - Patrice Brisebois
Francis Bouillon - Josh Gorges
Carey Price
Come on for christ's sake.
Edit: I like how everyone puts Smolinski on the 4th line yet he has been better than both Lapierre and Plekanec in the series thus far (and this is coming from someone who hates him with a passion). Smokes deserves to be on the 3rd line with 2 offensive players like Latendresse and Ryder.
