I believe Laraque what he is saying ,to be the truth on Martin.Why?
Because he isn't lying about Carbo in the same article.
We found out ,and Carbo later admitted communicator wasn't his strong suit.
Him helping the team?,debate away.
I believe in the bare facts of what Laraque is saying, more or less. I don't necessarily subscribe to Laraque's interpretation of them.
The point being that Martin being unwilling to play Laraque or Roy might no be due to not liking physical play to instead believing that they couldn't contribute enough on the ice to be worth putting in the lineup.
I'm not saying your wrong. I am saying that I think you're over-interpreting the evidence. Did this really change Laraque's mind or anything or did he already decide that Martin was a certain way and look for supporting evidence? I suspect him of suffering from confirmation bias because he prefers the "its Martin's fault for not playing me" interpretation over the "I could no longer play a regular shift without being a huge liablity so they got rid of me" interpretation. After watching him play and tracking his results I think that the second one has a strong basis in fact.
Why people are so nervous about St-Denis? He's a calm defensman who keep things simple. I bet most of us have never seen him play.
I remember Gorges first season. In that one game he made that horrendous pass in the defensive zone, intercepted in front of the net for a goal. People were calling for his head, media were making fun of him (he finally got his first assist!). I was defending him then, and now he's one of our most important player.
St-Denis is the same kind of player. Maybe I'm wrong but I have high hopes for him, I think he can turn out to be a regular in the NHL one day.
LOL this is exactly what I had in mind but it isn't even the only example. He's played tough guys before they were just guys who also knew how to play a game called hockey and not cost their team anything in the W column.
Why people are so nervous about St-Denis? He's a calm defensman who keep things simple. I bet most of us have never seen him play.
I remember Gorges first season. In that one game he made that horrendous pass in the defensive zone, intercepted in front of the net for a goal. People were calling for his head, media were making fun of him (he finally got his first assist!). I was defending him then, and now he's one of our most important player.
St-Denis is the same kind of player. Maybe I'm wrong but I have high hopes for him, I think he can turn out to be a regular in the NHL one day.
Except St-Denis is like only a year younger than Gorges is now. Gorges made the NHL as a 21 year old, St-Denis is playing his first game at 25 and only because of extreme injuries.
I like St. Denis. Not sure he has any NHL potential, but I could maybe see him sneak in as a solid, unspectacular #6.
I was impressed for a first game. He did what a lot of our d-men have trouble doing, which is consistently doing the simple plays, properly. That said, every one of our D looked good tonight, because Carolina was lifeless. Tomorrow should be much more of a measuring stick for St. Denis. The good news is that he'll be playing with confidence going in to the game. Frankly, tonight's game was exactly what all our young D needed. Now they can always look back to this game and remember the feeling of playing an almost error-free game. We were sloppy in the last 5-7 minutes, but that's normal when you're up 4-0.
I really hope this rag-tag group can go into NY confident and play the same way.
I believe in the bare facts of what Laraque is saying, more or less. I don't necessarily subscribe to Laraque's interpretation of them.
The point being that Martin being unwilling to play Laraque or Roy might no be due to not liking physical play to instead believing that they couldn't contribute enough on the ice to be worth putting in the lineup.
I'm not saying your wrong. I am saying that I think you're over-interpreting the evidence. Did this really change Laraque's mind or anything or did he already decide that Martin was a certain way and look for supporting evidence? I suspect him of suffering from confirmation bias because he prefers the "its Martin's fault for not playing me" interpretation over the "I could no longer play a regular shift without being a huge liablity so they got rid of me" interpretation. After watching him play and tracking his results I think that the second one has a strong basis in fact.
I agree with you, I think laraque mistaked his benching for "I don't like tough guys" rather than "I don't like guys who can't play hockey and when they're supposed to be tough, aren't". Also, going back to the article posted:
Quote:
"Martin would never look you in the eye," Laraque writes. "He would drone on emotionlessly, shuffling papers and glancing at his computer, trying to make you feel as if you're wasting his time, even though he called the meeting. I kept trying to convince myself that Jacques Martin wasn't a moron, that one day he'd realize I could really help the team."
That's because you were georges and you're wasting our time now.
Raymond Bourque 5-10
Greg Hawgood 5-9
Don Sweeney 5-10
Michael Thelven 5-11
Garry Galley 6-0
Glen Wesley 6-1
BTW - the Habs defence played pretty well tonight, something that group of "small D" that used to play for Boston used to do frequently.
only problem i see is ,there's no Ray Bourque on the Habs d today .
The Bruins as good as that set of d played ,couldn't touch silver mug as Bruins.
Who was the last team to ice a small d core 6 ft and under and win a cup?
Cup winners
Bruins 2011
Johnny Boychuk, Zdeno Chara, Andrew Ference, Shane Hnidy, Tomas Kaberle, , Adam McQuaid, Dennis Seidenberg
Hawks 2010
Dustin Byfuglien, Brian Campbell,Brent Sopel, Boynton,Brent Seabrook
Pens 2009
Sergei Gonchar,Brooks Orpik,Kris Letang,Hal Gill,Philippe Boucher
only problem i see is ,there's no Ray Bourque on the Habs d today .
The Bruins as good as that set of d played ,couldn't touch silver mug as Bruins.
Who was the last team to ice a small d core and win a cup?
We are not in the cup finals at the moment.
How else can such a statement be answered to? I mean we have massive injury problems at the moment and its painfully obvious Gauthier didn't intend to make a cup run with St-Denis or even the three of Diaz, Weber and Emelin in the lineup. All they need to do with the depleted defense is win some games. They did exactly this last night and stand a good chance against the Islanders.
only problem i see is ,there's no Ray Bourque on the Habs d today .
The Bruins as good as that set of d played ,couldn't touch silver mug as Bruins.
Who was the last team to ice a small d core 6 ft and under and win a cup?
Cup winners
Bruins 2011
Johnny Boychuk, Zdeno Chara, Andrew Ference, Shane Hnidy, Tomas Kaberle, , Adam McQuaid, Dennis Seidenberg
Hawks 2010
Dustin Byfuglien, Brian Campbell,Brent Sopel, Boynton,Brent Seabrook
Pens 2009
Sergei Gonchar,Brooks Orpik,Kris Letang,Hal Gill,Philippe Boucher
I was impressed for a first game. He did what a lot of our d-men have trouble doing, which is consistently doing the simple plays, properly. That said, every one of our D looked good tonight, because Carolina was lifeless. Tomorrow should be much more of a measuring stick for St. Denis. The good news is that he'll be playing with confidence going in to the game. Frankly, tonight's game was exactly what all our young D needed. Now they can always look back to this game and remember the feeling of playing an almost error-free game. We were sloppy in the last 5-7 minutes, but that's normal when you're up 4-0.
I really hope this rag-tag group can go into NY confident and play the same way.
Someone earlier in this thread likened St. Denis to Gorges. I've seen him in that light for a few years now.
I concur, though: I was thinking during the game that this was a terrific game for all the youngsters on D, as well as Palushaj.
only problem i see is ,there's no Ray Bourque on the Habs d today .
The Bruins as good as that set of d played ,couldn't touch silver mug as Bruins.
Who was the last team to ice a small d core 6 ft and under and win a cup?
Cup winners
Bruins 2011
Johnny Boychuk, Zdeno Chara, Andrew Ference, Shane Hnidy, Tomas Kaberle, , Adam McQuaid, Dennis Seidenberg
Hawks 2010 Dustin Byfuglien, Brian Campbell,Brent Sopel, Boynton,Brent Seabrook
Pens 2009
Sergei Gonchar,Brooks Orpik,Kris Letang,Hal Gill,Philippe Boucher
Byfuglien played forward
Boynton played 3 PO games for the Hawks...
I don't buy that at all. Is he actually slower than Gill. I think Gauthier is scared Henry might play physically.
Gill may be slow but he is very smart and that allows him to operate within his limitations.
I wouldn't mind Henry getting the call for a Boston or Phillie game, but if he was mobile enough to play in the NHL don't you think one of the other 29 teams would ahve claimed him on waivers? He's gone through the last 3 years.
