This team with Koivu, Kovalev, and Jagr would be soooo lollerskates! I don't know how the team would do, but there would be jersey sales, I reckon. Most entertaining $10 million 4th line in the world? How much do our possible 4th line combinations cost anyway, $5-6 million? Haha, too bad. Coulda been awesome. Boat load of points between them tonight, and a short season like this is certainly going to be kinder to guys like them.
Yeah, the merch would be flying
But it seems like we unloaded them at just the right time. Having said that, I'll be cheering hard for both of them. If kovalev's knees are feeling good, and he's motivated, he can still be a joy to watch.
Therry has a dual brief, always deadly if you cannot handle it:
1. Win games now. That means playing Cube a lot. Note that we allowed 2 goals tonight. Maybe Therry values Cube more than you do and maybe he knows why.
2. Develop younger, and riskier, players that may cost you wins this year. Specifically Diaz and Emelin, who are important to this team when it matters, that is, next year and beyond.
I get contradictory briefs all the time in my profession. And I am aware of it. I hope Therry is.
I'd prefer losing with young 500K$ players than with 3,5M$ 4th line plumbers... and giving 4,5M$ for a year to a real top 6 player who can score goals.
Maybe but if tonight is any indication, this team is trending towards a top 3 pick again.
C'mon guys, if we base ourselves on the 1st game of the season the red wings and vancouver would pick top 2, they both looked way worse than us. The question marks all relatively played well tonight, if Subban comes back and if 1st line get back on track then we might have a decent season.
Really? Maybe we should trade for Begin and give him 15 mpg.
You can't fault Bouillon for playing 20+min. If he played 13 or 14 mins he would have been our best d-man out there. But because Therrien played him so much, which he is not capable of, this is your result.
So then I guess we will have to win the next 47. Seriously though, I have no expectations for a team that is very similar to the team we had last year. We had a horrible PP last year and we could'nt score. It looks the same to me, the team is rebuilding and who cares about this year, great year to be bad. I will still watch this train wreck and hope for the best but expect the inevitable.
You can't fault Bouillon for playing 20+min. If he played 13 or 14 mins he would have been our best d-man out there. But because Therrien played him so much, which he is not capable of, this is your result.
This is sad.
Our 1st line center is David Desharnais
Our captain is 5'6" and weighs 160 pounds soaking wet
... and Bouillon is playing 23 mpg
The good news is that we might not even have to tank on purpose.
Agreed. I'd keep him up; despite the fact that it's going to be a bumpy season. His combination of size, speed, "jump", and shot will contribute somehow this year. He's going to need an adjustment period, and I personally wouldn't care if it ended up taking slightly more than the 5 games they have to view him before making any decisions. He's ready enough, and doesn't need any golden soother approach to breaking him into the bigs.
Burn one year ELC for no purpose on a bad team in a 48 game season, expose him to injury risk as an 18 year old with a still recovering knee playing against 27 year old monsters, and have Gally as UFA at 25, in the middle of our prime contending years.
Yeah good idea.
Cannot believe this board sometimes. The answer is in your face. Gally will go down.
4th line, Eller, Markov, Diaz played well. Eller in particular was awesome. He won battles, created a few chances and fired off a rocket that Scrivens saved with the knob of his stick. He needs PP time, and the top line needs to be split up on the PP.
Pleks, Gio and Gally were OK. Price too (would have been excellent had he not overplayed the pass on the first goal).
You can't fault Bouillon for playing 20+min. If he played 13 or 14 mins he would have been our best d-man out there. But because Therrien played him so much, which he is not capable of, this is your result.
Yup just like when Martin would play MAB close to 20mins a night. This falls on the coach not the player. If the coach can't tell his players limitations he is not doing his job. Saying that I still give Therrien the benefit of the doubt here.
4th line, Eller, Markov, Diaz played well. Eller in particular was awesome. He won battles, created a few chances and fired off a rocket that Scrivens saved with the knob of his stick. He needs PP time, and the top line needs to be split up on the PP.
Pleks, Gio and Gally were OK. Price too (would have been excellent had he not overplayed the pass on the first goal).
Everyone else was a disaster.
Other then that one shot off the blocker side from Eller, he was invisible.
First game...no reason to panic yet. Give the leafs credit for playing a textbook road game. We all know that the Desharnais line can play a lot better; if their timing was on tonight we would have easily won this game. What I'm most happy about was that Markov was our best player on the ice, (besides price). If this is the Markov we get night in and night out for the next 47 games we'll have a good chance to make the playoffs. I also thought the 4th line was great and reliable. It didn't feel like we were just burning minutes off the clock when prust and armstrong were on the ice.
C'mon guys, if we base ourselves on the 1st game of the season the red wings and vancouver would pick top 2, they both looked way worse than us. The question marks all relatively played well tonight, if Subban comes back and if 1st line get back on track then we might have a decent season.
I think I see what you're saying...
...you're saying the Habs should trade some top players to Detroit & Vancouver so they don't finish 29th-30th in the standings & get a higher pick right?
And I thought you guys were joking that Bouillon played over 22 minutes. I thought it just SEEMED that long.
One positive: Prust looked real good on a shift at center.
I'll help you out. I'll also add Kessel, Gardiner and Reilly.
Man the Leafs are going to have it so tough next 5 years.
That's great, I assume you where mocking him.
Though to be fair both teams are pretty bad and I would wager the wheels are going to fall off the leafs very soon. At least Seth Jones will be a Leaf soon.
Wasn't a big fan of Bourque getting shifted in Gally's place in the third period. Unless I missed something, Bourque was even more invisible than Gally.
Thought it was a pretty bad game from both teams, the Leafs just got one more bounce than we did. Price (as usual) our best player by far. Our first line was pretty invisible. Bouillon logging #2 D man minutes is going to be a problem very quickly (Bouillon on the PP? LOL)...I wonder how long Bergevin can wait on Subban, realistically. Our fourth line was by far our best line...never a good sign, although I like that we have an actual fourth line this year.
Though to be fair both teams are pretty bad and I would wager the wheels are going to fall off the leafs very soon. At least Seth Jones will be a Leaf soon.
Then you can add him to the list.
As much as Leafs have a bleak future, the Habs don't have a bright one either based on that argument
Only thing Habs have, is Price and I am envious of them because of him. Top 5 goalie in the league. Gives them a chance to win every game.
Other than that, they are an AHL team. They showed that last year and they showed in this game. Let's face reality for a second.
