Nice job by the wonderman Markov, this guy is not doing it for me at all....if i had to pick 1 player for trade bait, it would be him, while his market is somewhat up there.....2nd best powerplay and that happens.....boys aren't creating chances at all.

Bad habs night

2nd Intermission

Buffalo -- 3

Montreal -- 0

Shots on Goal

Buffalo -- 19

Montreal -- 14

Caper_hab_fan wrote:

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Nice job by the wonderman Markov, this guy is not doing it for me at all....if i had to pick 1 player for trade bait, it would be him, while his market is somewhat up there.....2nd best powerplay and that happens.....boys aren't creating chances at all.

Bad habs night

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Off the glove into the air and bounced into the net. Plain as that.

Shorthanded goal went in because Huet played the man with the puck for too long and lost his angle leaving the far side of the net wide open watch the reply and look and see just how far out he is to the side.

3rd goal went in because huet didnt see a thing, i think it was Komi ( THINK ) who stood right infront of him and a few weird deflections later it was in.

What is REALLY bothering me are how the habs shots are ALL being blocked. Nothing is getting through and passes are being made too long. Keep your game short against the sabres!!! they are too fast and break out VERY fast. Habs have to get closer and take faster shots and get rebounds if they are going to score and come even close to tying the game.

Hope we see much more shots for the habs and these damn refs stop calling some of the worst calls ive seen this year! That hooking call on Lats and also Souray at the end of the second were TERRIBLE calls!

uhmmm. It's not the refs. It's not uninspired play. Buffalo is just the  better team so far. I suspect they will continue to show who is boss the remainder of the night.

I think this has been a good yard stick. At the end of the night, have a look at the tape and see how you stack up against the best.

I assume that donout problem will need to be addressed. and i think Boullion will provide some much needed mobility back there. Komi looks slow and ploundering against these guys.

Here is what I would do:

Move Koivu down to the Russian prancers to give them some grit.

Place Bonk between Higgins and Ryder( Higgins is looking good enough to go it alone without Koivu).

Plek goes between Johnson and Perez( a speed line ).

Sit Murray( he is useless) and create a grind line of latendrese-begin-laperierre.

A little shake up to get two lines scoring?????

Muller93 wrote:

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Here is what I would do:

Move Koivu down to the Russian prancers to give them some grit.

Place Bonk between Higgins and Ryder( Higgins is looking good enough to go it alone without Koivu).

Plek goes between Johnson and Perez( a speed line ).

Sit Murray( he is useless) and create a grind line of latendrese-begin-laperierre.

 

A little shake up to get two lines scoring?????

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Ok, I will keep saying this, until I turn blue, whether or not I am right, since I think I am, and doggone it, that's good enough for me.

Putting 3 guys who like to carry the puck on the same line is a BAD idea. Having two wingers who like to carry the puck all the time is also a bad idea. (Any example I can think of, and feel free to jog my memory, where two puck carriers have been on the same line and flourished are all when one is a centre, for example, Lemieux and Jagr). Our puck carriers should be split up. They are, as I see it, Koivu, Kovalev, Samsonov, and Perezhogin. Those guys carry the puck better than anyone else on the team, and one per line makes sense to me. Each scoring line needs at least one winger who is either a finisher or a guy who likes to go hard to the net and pick up the dirty goals. Those guys as I see it on our team are Ryder, Higgins, Johnson, and Latendresse. Kostsitsyn might also fit that mold when he graduates.

Let's not split up the first line, since most games they are carrying us. Let's get a net crasher or a guy with a booming shot on the second line, let's leave the 3rd line largely untouched (unless we promote Johnson and have Lats take his place), and for the love of pete, let's find a way to get Begin on the wing again.

I see two shakeups that I like for different reasons. The first, and least drastic:

Higgins, Koivu, Ryder

Johnson, Plekanec, Kovalev

Perezhogin, Bonk, Latendresse

Samsonov, Murray, Begin

This allows Pleks to play more defensively and give Kovalev a target in front of the net, while also sending a message to Samsonov, keeping our first line intact, and rewarding/challenging Latendresse for recent hard work and letting him play with some more offensively gifted players, and putting Begin on the wing.

The second option I like is:

Higgins, Koivu, Ryder

Samsonov, Kovalev, Latendresse

Perezhogin, Bonk, Johnson

Begin, Plekanec, Murray

This keeps our two best lines intact (though you could easily switch Pleks and Bonk since I feel either would excel in either position, but I don't think we should demote Bonk after playing so well), It puts Begin in his natural position with a very good centreman for the fourth line, and it lets the Russians play with a pure net-crashing finisher. The biggest problem with this arrangement is that the second line does not get better defensively and Kovalev would have to adapt to being a centre, but as has been pointed out before, he can win faceoffs and his skill set suits the position.