Do ANY of you know ANYTHING about the game of hockey?!???

barry33 · Guru

Do ANY of you know ANYTHING about the game of hockey?!???

davidb · Guru

If you are referring to my posts, barry Please understand where I am coming from. I am trying to make the point that we play great one night and the next we are flat. That has nothing to do with the amount of talented players. I feel there is an underlying problem with inconsistent play. That is all I am trying to put accross. You cannot honestly sit there and tell the rest of us who have been making these posts that you are not concerned with the roller coaster ride. I was not happy when we lost to Ottawa. I felt bad for theo because I did think he played great. We kept up with Ottawa and I was proud of the players. last night the give away by Koivu, well theses things will happen. I am just very concerned. So please do not tell me that I and others on this board have no right to be concerned. We may be 2-4 years away from being a real contender. It to me is just a waste of time watching some of these players just skate around like they do not give a S***. Thats all what more can I say.

barry33 · Guru

David- no I am not referring to your posts. It was a commentary in general. When I see us sitting at 7-3 and I hear comments like "I wonder if Claude Julien is qualified to coach at the NHL level" , and Theo stands on his head againts the Sens Thursday night and after a loss Saturday people here say "They should have started Danis" I question the validity of these comments.

I welcome this forum as a great way to voice our opinions. We all have a passion for the Canadiens and I understand that, at times, this passion clouds good judgement. All I ask is that if you want to present a point, try and have some facts that pertain to your case. For example, the two points I mentioned above I will address with fact:

1) Claude Julien has coached a Memorial Cup Champion, the Canadian Junior Team and has been a very succesful head coach at the AHL level. I am thinking he is porbably pretty qualified to coach at the NHL level. Does he make mistakes? Sure he does. The best coaches in the league do. Coach's need to make split second decisions in game situations that sometimes make them look like genius's and other times make them look like they could not coach an Atmo House League team. But you do not take a mediocre team and put them in the playoffs and into the second round like Julien did 2 years ago, and now have them sitting around first place in what is arguably the toughest division in the league, without being qualified to coach in the NHL.

2) Starting Theo last night- can anyone who knows anything about hockey and goaltending give me a FACTUAL argument as to what would possess Montreal to have started Dani last night? Theo had just had the best game of this season and appeared to be turning the corner. So we should have rewarded that by sitting him on Saturday? Makes ZERO sense whatsoever. You go with the hot hand. As a coach you are hoping that Theo would build on his performance Thursday night and have a good game. For whatever reason, that did not happen. Right now the Habs need to establish a number one goalie. Gainey made that commitment to Theo when he signed him. Like it or not, Theo is our man. Not Danis who will not even be in Montreal in a month.

keVin · Member

i have played tier1/aaa/junior all my life and play in major inline tournaments in north america. i know a thing or two about hockey, but the thing u need to consider is is that everyone has an opinion... right or wong...educated or uneducatec. i have been on this board for about 4 years or so now, and have had to read forum fans posts during that time, so again, i preach patience and that everyone has that right to post, no matter how ridiculous it seems.

my takes:
claude julien is a great coach. he has done all he can, more or less, at his previous levels. i like him. i like that he has a lot of emotion when he coaches. when he is upset with a ref, he lets them know... and when he is happy, he is quiet. a true professional.

theodore, like a lot of other 'down' goalies are struggling. but theodore will bounce back. he is too good not to adjust, plus they have an amazing goalie coach. in my opinion, i would have started danis, despite theos great play vs the sens, for the only fact that he had little to gain, other than a hockey win... mentally speaking. lundkvist, if the rangers lost, they woulda said 'he's not established, he's just on a hot run, like boucher... no big deal for theodore to outplay him'...if the habs lose, its because 'theodore is inconsistent'... which he infact was. i think the mental aspect is similar to what the sens are doing with emery... if you THINK you are a team that can compete with us, i am not gonna give u the mental edge and have you beat us with our starting goalie. let danis try and outplay him... its a bigger mental win for him b/c he can play with a 'hot goalie' and compete with a very strong offensive club.

the game is very mental. these types of mental confrontations can pave the way for the habs... with starting theodore, and he loses, it plays back into the good one night, not the next. and i am not saying this because hindsight is 20/20... i was telling my msn friends that on saturday afternoon. julien is a great coach, but maybe he needs to work on the mental aspect as well as the x's and o's.

habsforeverfan · Veteran Member

It is easy for us to criticize the play of our beloved Habs when they are not winning consistently, night after night. But do you think it is possible that even very good teams will have bad nights? So let's cut the guys some slack and let them play. As long as I see the win/loss ratio in the right direction, I don't see any reason for getting too concerned about the current situation. As Barry stated, this is a young team with a big learning curve. These losses will amount to big returns in the future.

Go Habs!!!

I appreciate everyone's comments as they give me a differnt perspective to the game.

Gravelbourger · Member

At the end of the day, our highest paid player needs to play like the highest paid player. Theo has NOT won a game for us yet. He needs to pick up his game and quick. 6 million reasons to pick up his game!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!