Other GMs have faith in the Habs, you should too!

Jay1982 · Guru

Other GMs have faith in the Habs, you should too!

barry33 · Guru

I am tired of all of this "If Saks had not gone down we would have gone a long way in the playoffs" stuff. If I could guess the right 6 numbers tonite I will be 10 million bucks richer. Was Saks going down a factor? Of course. It magnified Gaineys total reliance on one center and the fact that he has not gone out to get one..yet. But the turning point in the series was when the Canes got some goaltending! Gurber was simply brutal in the first 2 games. Cam Ward came in and shut the door, series over. Plain and simple. Haiving said that I know that Gainey will finally address this issue that has plagued the Habs for 50 years (at least it feels that long lol) and go get one via trade. But to say that they lost because Koivu went down is simply ignoring the facts. Carolina got goaltending part way into game 2 and it was series over.

Jay1982 · Guru

Thats why we were winning game 3. Anyways Barry, sinc I've been here, you have flipped sides over and over and over. When the habs do good this season, and they will. You'll be cheering them on like you never doubted them

Diehardhabsfan · Veteran Member

I think everyone should stop fighting, I mean what do we have to be upset about, atleast we aren't

leaf fans

Jay1982 · Guru

no ones fighting, we are discussing.

macneil · Guru

barry i cant agree that was the turning point , he came in in game 2 and lost on ot , he did give them better goaltending but i fell as others do that if we dont lose koivu we win the series , we were in every game without koivu so i think with him we win game 3 then up 3-0 i believe we win the 4th easily . but thats just me and a few thousand other habfans .

Jedah · Guru

macneil wrote:

barry i cant agree that was the turning point , he came in in game 2 and lost on ot , he did give them better goaltending but i fell as others do that if we dont lose koivu we win the series , we were in every game without koivu so i think with him we win game 3 then up 3-0 i believe we win the 4th easily . but thats just me and a few thousand other habfans .

Not quite. Barry is 100% accurate in his assessment and I have felt the same way the whole time.

Cam Ward did come in during game 2; however, not until Martin Gerber had already let in 3 goals. If you remember, Carolina came back in that game and took the lead 4-3. Ward did let in 3 more goals, but it was also his first game and he hadn't played in the beginning of the game to set the tone. That being said, he did take over in game 3 and shut the door. Koivu being injured played a big role as well, but not as much as some of you might think.

I think if Kovalev or Huet were injured, that could be considered a much bigger turning point. As I'm sure we all remember, when Kovalev had surgery our team stunk, plain and simple. And before Huet took over for Theodore we also stunk. Koivu makes a big difference as well, but it was not the turning point in the series.

And FYI, I'm huge a Koivu supporter so don't get the wrong idea. I even have a Koivu jersey, so I don't mean to sound like I don't like him.

JohnM · Guru

I believe we are talking about momentum and not game breaking ability. Like And-o said, there are only a few who have that ability and Koivu is not one of them. The team just sagged after Koivu went down, there was no one on the team who was able to rally the troops and get the job done.

Without the injury the Habs would have still had the momentum as well as the lead in the game and would have likely carried it into game 4 with a 3-0 lead. Not to mention that Koivu puts up points in big games and the first line was lost after he went down...

barry33 · Guru

JohnM wrote:

I believe we are talking about momentum and not game breaking ability. Like And-o said, there are only a few who have that ability and Koivu is not one of them. The team just sagged after Koivu went down, there was no one on the team who was able to rally the troops and get the job done. Without the injury the Habs would have still had the momentum as well as the lead in the game and would have likely carried it into game 4 with a 3-0 lead. Not to mention that Koivu puts up points in big games and the first line was lost after he went down...

Johnny- we all agree that Saks is a huge part of this team (even And-O0. I guess my final point will be that if one player going down can ruin a playoff run or a season, Bob had best have some trades up his sleeve. Because we are in HUGE ca ca this season.

ray · Senior Member

barry33 wrote:

JohnM wrote: I believe we are talking about momentum and not game breaking ability. Like And-o said, there are only a few who have that ability and Koivu is not one of them. The team just sagged after Koivu went down, there was no one on the team who was able to rally the troops and get the job done. Without the injury the Habs would have still had the momentum as well as the lead in the game and would have likely carried it into game 4 with a 3-0 lead. Not to mention that Koivu puts up points in big games and the first line was lost after he went down... Johnny- we all agree that Saks is a huge part of this team (even And-O0. I guess my final point will be that if one player going down can ruin a playoff run or a season, Bob had best have some trades up his sleeve. Because we are in HUGE ca ca this season.

I agree Barry, I've been camping for the past week, and when I came home I was hoping too see a few new bodies. We need some more scoring, and if we don't get it I'm afraid it will be alot harder this year too make the playoffs than it was the year that just passed. We had a great start to the year as other teams limped out of the gate, now with everyone playing a whole year with these new rules, we need the extra talent. Very dissappointed to find out we haven't attracted anyone yet and a little disappointed with BG for not improving this team so far. I'll give him the benefit of doubt, right now!