ah...can I buy a vowel?

 

Unless Mario is the new GM, you must mean for him to ask some questions...

Forum Fan wrote:

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                             and Mario should address it !

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I'm not sure what Mario can do about this problem, but I agree that we do have a problem.  Some of you complain about our defensemen, but I think we have a genuine star (Markov), two top-tier ones (Rivet/Souray, and arguably the Cube) and 3 or 4 very solid others, so we're well in hand there.  We have a lot of young forwards, but no great prospect at centre.  Ribs, as bad as he was, was our second best centreman, and now he's gone.  (I'm not complaining - all things being equal, I'd say good riddance, but things are not equal.)  And we get one more solid defenseman - I hope! - in return.

I think we should package a few of these d-men for one big stud centre.  Gomez would do - and I'd give up Souray and, say, Dandenault for him.

Nil d wrote:

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Forum Fan wrote:

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                             and Mario should address it !

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I'm not sure what Mario can do about this problem, but I agree that we do have a problem.  Some of you complain about our defensemen, but I think we have a genuine star (Markov), two top-tier ones (Rivet/Souray, and arguably the Cube) and 3 or 4 very solid others, so we're well in hand there.  We have a lot of young forwards, but no great prospect at centre.  Ribs, as bad as he was, was our second best centreman, and now he's gone.  (I'm not complaining - all things being equal, I'd say good riddance, but things are not equal.)  And we get one more solid defenseman - I hope! - in return.

I think we should package a few of these d-men for one big stud centre.  Gomez would do - and I'd give up Souray and, say, Dandenault for him.

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I don't want to sound like I am complaining about our D, because I think they are a serviceable squad, but I think it would be a huge mistake to trade one of our top guys for a centre right now. Firstly, We have just changed the make up of the locker room quite a bit, and too much change days before the season starts is a bad thing, and secondly, we just don't have enough top defensive guys.

Markov is a good number 2 defensemen. That's not meant as a slight to him, he has exceeded expectations and done very well. Souray should be a number 3 defenseman, but he is more of a number 4 defenseman unless he improves on his poor last season. Bouillon is a number 5 guy, and the rest are either number 6 or number 7 guys. Yes, Cote and Komisarek, as well as Streit will move up the depth chart in the coming seasons, but this is where they are now. Like someone else pointed out, Carolina won with a similar style defensive corps, and they are all (maybe not Niinimaa, I dopn't know) hard workers, but I still don't think that means we can trade our second best guy for a position that is STRONGER in our organisation.

Koivu fits very well between Higgins ans Ryder to make a good number one line.

Plekanec seems to have very good chemistry on the second line.

Bonk played well with Perezhogin and Johnson, proved last year he is qualified to be a third line centre, and Carbs thinks he can bring him back to where he once was offensively.

That leaves our fourth line, where until Grabo, Locke, Lapierre, or Chip are called up, Begin and Murray will have to centre that line. Both seem to do better on the wing, but are we really going to trade away our second best defenseman because we are having minor temporary issues on our fourth line?

barry33 wrote:

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kuvu wrote:

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What are you talking about? Have you seen our center depth. We have Chipchura,LapiereGrabvosky,Locke,Maxwell who we just drafted. Pleks is going to be a great player and he looks after both ends of the ice to.

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Yes we do!!! The only problem is the only one who is ready to wear a habs Jersey is Pleks. Depth is great, if you do not mind taking a beating for 5 years until they are ready.

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Grabo is ready once he comes back from injury. Lapierre is ready for grinder (fourth line) duty, and Locke will certainly push for a scoring line role this year provided getting cut didn't shatter his ming vase like confidence.

Gotta disagree with you on this one, Nilsy. I like the guys we have on D as people -- I'm sure they do a lot for charity. But aside from Markov, none of them are consistent performers. Yes, Souray has a heart as big as Saskatoon and a wicked slapper, and Rivet is supposedly a good leader in the locker room, but all of these guys (including the Cuber) have spent way too much time fishing pucks out of the net after getting undressed by the opposition over the past few years for me to feel comfortable that we have a solid corps of D-men.

Part of the problem, you might correctly argue, is that our offense hasn't been strong enough (especially down the middle) to take pressure off our defense. No argument there. But time and again, Souray and Cube and Dandenault have been simply outskated and outplayed in their own end, leading to shots on goal that nobody could stop -- tap-ins.

I'm bummed that Cote is out because I have a lot of hope for him. I think he's going to be a keeper. And I hope that Niinima returns to form when he suits it up for the Habs. But in my opinion, a stronger defense is what the Habs need to be Cup contenders. We've got some scoring punch as it is, and while all of us would love to see a first-rate center join the team, I'd spend my time and money shoring up in our end first.

Les Canadiens sont la

As the old adage goes; Drive for show, putt for dough. Seems to me that in the old NHL, the team with the best defense won it all, me thinks that in the new NHL, it is gonna be the team with the best offense that wins it all.