The Montreal Canadiens, in the midst of a five-game road trip, will look to knock off the ever talented Ottawa Senators in an all-Canadian Saturday night match-up. Montreal offensive woes continue to hurt them in the standings. The oft-scratched Andreas Dackell scored his third of the season in Thursday night's 3-1 loss to the Islanders. Despite outshooting the opposition, the Habs fell victim to lack of firepower. Saturday's team will have a much different look, although maybe a far worse one. The Sens, despite struggling out of the gate, are a dynamite club that have had the Habs' number of late. Ottawa leads the season series, 2-0.
Time : 7:00 Location : Corel Centre Ottawa, Ontario TV : CBC, SRC, RDS Radio : CJAD, CKAC, Team 990 (postgame)
- With no defensive line intact, how will the Habs go about shutting down the Sens undeniable ammount of offence? Is tonight the night we abandon the trap?
- See that smile on M. Koivu's face? That has to dissapear. The hard work won't get you everything, pal. Time to start producing some points.
- How will Joe Juneau play, in his first game on a scoring line in forty-five years?
- Will Jose Theodore abandon this team? Does he have the nerve to jump off of the Bell Centre roof? Seriously, he turns in many quality starts, only to see the Habs' offence suffer.
- Why did Claude Julien scratch two of his harder working, more physical players in Mike Ryder and Marcel Hossa, against such a fine team as Ottawa?
- After a strong game, in which he logged a little over 12:00 of ice time, will the Habs' youngest defenceman, Ron Hainsey, play?
jl.roberts, excelent game thread. Ottawa will win this one, which is OK maybe the GM will start doing something for this team.
btw what I can't stand CJ anymore!
Well........soemone is going to say i'm on crack or something, but I'm going to predict a 4-1 win for the habs. Montreal will catch Otawa playing flat footed early on, and trap them to death after that.
I don't know if I'd want this to happen or not. As much as i'd like them to win, I"m thinking that if they do Juneau just might remain on the scoring line.
Guys , the above comments and the ones in the Juneau thread below are some of the most negative (pardon) bull so far this season. This is just getting ugly.
Look at where we are and decides if it's time for the hysteria. We are 2 games below 500 in what everyone acknowledges has to be a transition year. Our shots and goals against are way, way down compared to a year ago. Theo has 4 shutouts. It's only a matter of time before the improved defensive play pays some dividends.
Obviously (no one is blind) we're mired in an horrible scoring slump. We have also outplayed the opposition in our last three games and come away with 3 points, not so bad. The offense is just not working right now. Ryder and Hossa, despite what looks likes decent effort, have produced very little - therefore, can I suggest that Julien and management, who are certainly a lot closer to the situation than any of us, have to be trusted with the decision to time to sit these guys and shuffle the lines, in order to try and find a spark.
Juneau and Dackell, arguably 2 of our best forwards thus far this season, are continually badmouthed. Same for Quintal (our best plus-minus). Boullion will never get any credit, no matter that he has been our most consistent defenseman this year. We're now starting on Zednik (a 10th round draft pick for crisakes, he will score 20+ this year once he gets going). Julien, according to many here, should be run out of Town right now. While we're at it, I am sure the coach is not making the lineup decisions by himself, so do we want to call for Gaineys head too?
I too don't understand why people hate Juneau so much. The blind hatred is reminiscent of those people booing Brisebois whether he played poorly or not. I am actually not so upset about Juneau being on the first line - he's been one of our more consistent and responsible players this year, and he has much more hockey sense than Kilger, so why not?
What I have a problem with is what has been done time and again with Hossa and Ryder. If Julien really wants to shake things up, while at the same time reward those players who have earned it, then why not sit Audette and put Ryder on that line? Likewise, how about sitting Perreault and throwing Hossa out there to center the 3rd? Would that not shake things up yet still reward (by dressing) the guys who deserve to play?
As I look at those lines above, the second one looks embarrassing. I also feel for Bulis and Dackell, whose backs are gonna be hurting from carrying Perreault all night long.
EDIT: jl.roberts, another admirable job on the game day thread. Well done, sir!
I don't think too many around here hate Juneau, the hate is directed to CJ for putting him on the 1st line and Perrault on the third. IMO, Junaeu's play has been solid almost every night and great on some...as a 3rd line checker. Now instead of a a good checking line and crappy scoring lines, we have a crappy checking line and a crappy scoring line. Juneau's was the one line where some chemistry actually existed, and it's baffling why CJ broke them up.
What I have a problem with is what has been done time and again with Hossa and Ryder. If Julien really wants to shake things up, while at the same time reward those players who have earned it, then why not sit Audette and put Ryder on that line? Likewise, how about sitting Perreault and throwing Hossa out there to center the 3rd? Would that not shake things up yet still reward (by dressing) the guys who deserve to play?
I'm with you on this one. It would have been easier to swallow the Juneau "promotion" if Hossa and Ryder were in the lineup.
If CJ wanted to put Juneau on the 1st, then what about...
The kid line has been the line that looked the more dangerous and promising before it was broken up by CJ after only 2 games and Kilger was supposedly going to be used as a center since he's big and fast and can handle the bigger forwards.
Right now it's not Juneau on the 1st line that's more pathetic. It's the lineup as a whole. And I'm more pissed about the fact that with this lineup, we will have some horribly soft and boring hockey again more than the fact that we give ourselves or not a chance to win.
If Julien wants to get a message across, benched the older players and play the kids (with more icetime too). Benching the kids doesn't wake up the vets, it wakes up the kids more and they aren't deserving of being scratched they have played with more passion and heart than the majority of the vets on this team. I think Julien is a good coach, but I don't think he is thinking straight right now and the pressure really seems to be getting to him with some of his coaching decisions of late.
On a better note:
Saw the Dogs game last night, Higgins and Plekanec look really really good.
I'm going out on a limb here and saying that the Habs take this one, 2-1. Remember the last couple of years how a lot of our wins would be games that we didn't deserve but we'd get a slim lead and then hang onto it for dear life being badly outshot until 00:00 rolled up on the clock? I think it'll be a game like that. The news lines shake things up and we get a couple of goals, then in the 3rd Ottawa's talent comes on strong but a combination of the trap (which will be pregnable by a team like the sens) and Theodore having a great game will get us our first win against this far far better team.
Hell, nothing else about the habs has been consistent this year -- why should the trend of getting beaten senseless by the senators be any different?
hmm..you know these comments about ryder and hossa? well if they play with such heart and character, its obviously a lot tougher for them to produce, seeing as how the rest of the team cant keep up with them. i say bench them, tell them that theyre just too good for the rest of this team, and it would be a waist of time and confidence for them. let the crappy guys get hurt, and then well toss them in there. i know that juneau has scored 100+ pts in his rookie season, but that was like 10 years ago...ten years ago, the habs had won the cup. i do wonder about perreault on the third line though..maybe CJ wants him to learn defensive play also, maybe it's a strategy to make him a better player overall. who knows, it could be good. and maybe tonight we'll get our lucky break and finally win one. also someone mentioned that maybe CJ said:"oh man, **** my system, these guys are retarded, let's just throw em out there and tell them to do whatever they like"..im pretty sure he's getting close to throwing the towel, he said it himself: he's never coached a team that couldnt score like this.
Predictable outcome for tonight’s game, the Habs won’t score more than 2 goals and the Sens will score more than 3.
I’m not ready to jump on the ‘fire Julien bandwagon’, but how can you bench Ryder? I don’t get to see a lot of games but from the few I do see and from what I read, he’s one of the hardest workers on the ice. Has he tailed of from his fast start?
vs. 
