Go Habs Go!

[Doc Holliday]

They're already losing fans so i doubt they'll have the courage to 'blow it up'. People who are earning $15-20 an hour are tired of getting robbed at the box office by a marginal team. Why would anyone pay $200-300 for a ticket when he can just take the subway and watch the Rocket play in Laval for a fraction of the price in a gorgeous arena?

Marc Bergevin fucked up by giving Carey Price a $10 million/8 year contract so soon into the season. He could have waited until the end of the season or at least watch how he performs this season. He was absolutely terrible in last season's playoffs and he's been nothing short of terrible this season! The fact he now has $80 million guaranteed for the next 8 years is no motivation. I also have no sympathy for Carey Price when i hear people saying "poor Carey...he has to play behind one of the worse defences in hockey." You know what? No one twisted his arm and forced him to sign that huge contract in order to stay in Montreal. He got greedy and i hope he sucks for the rest of his contract! It'll show them that there's a price to pay for their arrogance!! The best goalie in the world?? Don't make me laugh!!! He's not even among the top 15 goalies in the NHL!!!

Shea Weber is also a big problem. His not getting any younger and he's not worth the kind of money he's being paid to play hockey. And they're stuck with him until 2026!!!!!! Not only are they stuck with Weber.....THEY'RE STUCK WITH CAREY PRICE!!! There is no team out there who's willing or able to trade for a 30-year old goalie being paid $10 million per season (for another 8 years) in the decline of his career!

So if the Habs ever want to get rid of their contracts they'll have to do what Toronto did with Phil Kessel and Dion Phaneuf: suck it up and hope that there's a team out there who wants to do you a favor and accomodate those types of contracts for next-to-nothing. Toronto knew fully well that they were literally giving Kessel and Phaneuf away when they made those trades with Pittsburgh and Ottawa. But they had to rebuild from scratch and this meant getting rid of your most expensive assets.

I also doubt Max Pacioretty will last the season in Montreal. It wouldn't surprise me to see him traded very soon. Who else can they trade? Galchenyuk has no value. Weber is too expensive. Same thing with Carey Price. And the rest? They're a dime-a-dozen around the league.

The solution is a complicated one and it will take a long time to work. But first it has to start with Geoff Molson stepping down as the team president and to hire a hockey man with the brains and know-how.

By the way, whatever happened to our friend Go Habs Go????

 

[Doc Holliday]

Scherbak and McCarron demoted

MONTREAL - Forwards Nikita Scherbak and Michael McCarron were demoted from the Laval Rocket and will be joining the Montreal Canadiens for their upcoming game against the Florida Panthers. Word around Montreal is that the two hockey players were not too happy after hearing the news of their demotion.

In other news, Montreal Canadiens forward Ales Hemsky is out of the lineup with concussion symptoms. Our guess that his recent three-game trip on the west coast was too much of a disaster for his brain to put up with. His status is day-to-day.

And finally, still no news from resident Habs fan better known as "GoHabsGo". He is still missing in action. Anyone with news of his whereabouts is asked to please contact the team's headquarters at the Bell Centre.

 

[EagerBeaver]

It’s a rough time right now for GoHabsGo and all diehard Habs fans. But even the other fans posting in these threads seem out of touch. The time is now to blow it all up. That starts with terminating a GM now 6 years into a 5 year plan who has a roster far weaker now than the one he inherited. The new GM will clean up the fucking mess and that starts with trades of Pacioretty and Price for draft picks. It didn’t take long for Vegas to field a competitive team and I believe a 3-4 year rebuild is quite possible. Otherwise the team is doomed to losing records and watching playoffs on TV with the rest of us.

 

[Doc Holliday]

It’s a rough time right now for GoHabsGo and all diehard Habs fans. But even the other fans posting in these threads seem out of touch. The time is now to blow it all up. That starts with terminating a GM now 6 years into a 5 year plan who has a roster far weaker now than the one he inherited. The new GM will clean up the fucking mess and that starts with trades of Pacioretty and Price for draft picks. It didn’t take long for Vegas to field a competitive team and I believe a 3-4 year rebuild is quite possible. Otherwise the team is doomed to losing records and watching playoffs on TV with the rest of us.

I agree with the 'blow it all up' idea. But this team is so awful that there isn't much 'blow it all up' left to do. Carey Price now has a new contract which will kick in next season. It expires at the end of the 2026 season and it'll have an annual cap hit of $10.5 million US. He's 30 years old and his career has already started declining and has been through very serious knee injuries in his career. There are very few teams in the league who have room to fit such a contract and who would even be willing to pay that kind of money to a goalie. Especially one who's 30 years old and declining. Thus, Carey Price is literally untradeable.

Shea Weber is also in the same boat. He signed a 14-year contract while with Nashville and that contract also expires at the end of the 2026 season. He has a cap hit of nearly $8 million. He's 32 years old and his best years are behind him. He's slower every year and right now it appears the only skill that remains is that big shot from the point when they're on the powerplay. He's also literally untradeable. Google highest paid NHL players. Weber's name always comes up among the leaders. Year after year. Unbelievable!

Max Pacioretty. He'll be an unrestricted free agent two seasons from now when he'll be 30 years old. His production has drastically went down and he hasn't shown any leadership ability since he was named captain. His work ethic is constantly being questioned. He still has value but it's the lowest it's ever been. If the team wants to trade him it better make sure he regains his goal-scoring ability or else they won't get much for him. His contract is currently very cap-friendly so it wouldn't be a bad idea for the habs to hang onto him. But who else do they have available to trade that's of decent value?

Alex Galchenyuk. Underachieving forward who never should have made the big team at age 18. He should have been sent back to the juniors and then spend some time in the minors to improve and learn the game. They rushed him and now both the team and himself are paying for it. His value on the market has never been lower and they won't get much for him. He's been spending the season playing on the fourth line so it looks like the organization has literally given up on him.

There isn't really anyone on the farm which would be attractive for other teams in a trade. Maybe goalie Charlie Lindgren but teams rarely give much to obtain goaltenders.

"Blowing it all up" won't be easy since you don't really have the talent available to get rid of in the first place. As i mentioned Price & Weber are literally untradeable. The other players won't fetch much on the market. Sure some of them could fetch back some draft picks but they'll be useless middle round draft picks.

Marc Bergevin. Two years ago he signed an extension which will put him through the 2022 season. So with 5 years left to go on his deal there's no way Geoff Molson will fire him and have to pay him all that money to stay home especially when there's no proof things would improve under someone else. Bergevin has taken risks and most of those risks have not paid off. Last season people were praising the PK Subban deal and today everyone is regretting it. This summer people were praising the Jonathan Drouin trade and today they're not sure anymore. Guess what? Sergachev currently has more points than any Hab! And guess what? They traded Sven Andrighetto last season for a guy who's no longer with the organization. Want to know something? Andrighetto has more points than any Hab! Nathan Beaulieu. They traded this former first-rounder to the Buffalo Sabres for a third-round pick!! On top of that he was one of their rare puck-moving defensemen and they literally gave him away! If they didn't want him they at the very least should have left him unprotected in the expansion draft and in the process would have been able to hang on to Alexei Emelin, one of the few Habs on the team who actually hit other players!

What was the rush in re-signing Carey Price? Bergevin had an entire season to do this. I'd understand if the move would have been cap-friendly to the team but that's obviously not the case! No other goaltender in history has ever been granted such a big contract! He hasn't even started playing on that contract yet and he's already untradeable! Unbelievable!!

The team is already struggling to sell out regular season games. Imagine if they'd chose to 'blow up' the entire team. You'd have thousands of empty seats. Geoff Molson doesn't want this. That's why he'll never agree to 'blow it all up'. The other day they had nearly 6000 empty seats in nearby Ottawa for a Thursday night game. And the Senators are one of the top teams in the league. If it happened in Ottawa i can see it happening in Montreal if they do not put out a competitive team. Many fans who attend hockey games go because they want to see Carey Price, Max Pacioretty or even Shea Weber. If those players are not around the fans won't go. That's also why the PK Subban trade makes less and less sense. He was the most popular player on the team and was fantastic around the community. It almost seems like he was traded away out of jealousy. Unbelievable!

(GoHabsGo where are you?)

 

[EagerBeaver]

The team is already struggling to sell out regular season games. Imagine if they'd chose to 'blow up' the entire team. You'd have thousands of empty seats.

This is where I disagree with you. If you give the fans a young team that clearly has a future, they will come out and see the team, maybe not in sellout numbers but the loyal fans will come. They will come because they will want to see that team grow up together. You get that team by trading the big contracts, the overpriced players for young, cheap draft picks and develop those picks. Montreal, instead of developing Sergachev, traded him for a guy (Drouin) who is just a good player. At least Drouin is young, and he is piece to start the rebuild.

So to position themselves to do this, the Habs just gotta clean house. Fire sale all the big contracts, eating some of them if necessary. Price, Weber, and Pacioretty all have value. In fact, Price would be a logical choice to trade to the Toronto Maple Leafs, which need a really good goalie in order to take that next step. That means Bergevin needs to get on the phone with Lamiorello and work something out, with Montreal obviously taking on Freddy Anderson and paying some of Price's contract. If Bergevin will not do it, fire him and bring in someone who will. The Leafs have young pieces, some of which they will have to trade in such a deal, and they can also trade picks. Weber has to be dealt now while has still has value. Pacioretty probably the most marketable guy of the 3 with some ease, because he is not too old and honestly I think he would be a lot better on another team that has actual offensive talent.

Basically you can trade the whole rest of the roster for whatever you can get, or release them if need be. Then just start bringing up guys who are close to the NHL and let them play.

The way you sell it to fans is a 5 year plan with young players who will grow together in a system, and you will all want to watch the growth process. As long as you present the fans with actual young talent, they will come to the rink and watch. What you can't sell is a terrible team that has no room to grow. Like I said previously, look at what Vegas did already from SCRATCH. No reason Montreal can't do better and Vegas is 6-1-1.

 

[Doc Holliday]

This is where I disagree with you. If you give the fans a young team that clearly has a future, they will come out and see the team, maybe not in sellout numbers but the loyal fans will come. They will come because they will want to see that team grow up together. You get that team by trading the big contracts, the overpriced players for young, cheap draft picks and develop those picks. Montreal, instead of developing Sergachev, traded him for a guy (Drouin) who is just a good player. At least Drouin is young, and he is piece to start the rebuild.

They already can see that young in Laval for a fraction of the price. Look, nobody in Montreal will pay $200-400 per person to watch a bunch of young no-names. Even if they're loyal fans. They might if the Laval Rocket relocates but i'm betting that team is here to stay.

I agree that Drouin is a good piece to start building with. But i still have doubts about his attitude. He was literally a cancer when he was with the Tampa Bay organization and they were more than happy to get rid of him. On top of that they got an extremely promising young defenceman in return.

 

[Doc Holliday]

So to position themselves to do this, the Habs just gotta clean house. Fire sale all the big contracts, eating some of them if necessary. Price, Weber, and Pacioretty all have value. In fact, Price would be a logical choice to trade to the Toronto Maple Leafs, which need a really good goalie in order to take that next step. That means Bergevin needs to get on the phone with Lamiorello and work something out, with Montreal obviously taking on Freddy Anderson and paying some of Price's contract. If Bergevin will not do it, fire him and bring in someone who will. The Leafs have young pieces, some of which they will have to trade in such a deal, and they can also trade picks. Weber has to be dealt now while has still has value. Pacioretty probably the most marketable guy of the 3 with some ease, because he is not too old and honestly I think he would be a lot better on another team that has actual offensive talent.

As i wrote in my previous posts it'll be nearly impossible to get rid of those 'big contracts' in a hard salary cap league. This isn't MLB with its ridiculous no-cap luxury cap system. It's the NHL and teams have to remain under the $75 million cap space. Several teams can barely reach the $55.4 million minimum due to poor revenue in non-hockey markets. Few teams if any want to give that big a portion of their salary cap to one player...especially a goalie. The Leafs and most teams won't even want to touch Carey Price and his $10 million+ salary cap number right now and in the future. Heck, the Leafs have Freddie Andersen locked up at $5 million/season for another four seasons and i consider him a top-10 goalie. I WOULDN'T EVEN TOUCH CAREY PRICE FOR EVEN HALF THAT PRICE RIGHT NOW! HE'S FUCKING BRUTAL!!! AND HE'S GETTING OLD!!!!

IN A HARD SALARY CAP LEAGUE YOU SIMPLY CAN'T GIVE $10 MILLION TO A GOALTENDER WHEN HE'S NOT EVEN AMONG THE LEAGUE'S BEST GOALIES IN THE FIRST PLACE AND HIS BEST DAYS ARE BEHIND HIM. Unless he's on the last one or two years of his contract.....BUT CAREY PRICE IS LOCKED UP UNTIL 2026!!!!

Same thing with Shea Weber. Sure he's got value. BUT HE'S ONE OF THE HIGHEST PAID PLAYERS IN THE ENTIRE NHL AND HE'S ALSO LOCKED UP UNTIL 2026!!!!! On top of that he's been steadily declining over the past 2 seasons and his best days are behind him. Sure, i'd take his contract for a year or two.....BUT NOT FOR ANOTHER 9 YEARS!!!!

There are some players i'd take but the right price: Pacioretty, Galchenyuk, Shaw, Drouin, Gallagher. But the Habs won't give them away and especially not to the Leafs.....THE LEAFS ARE THE ARCH-RIVALS OF THE MONTREAL CANADIENS!!!!

What Montreal would need from the Leafs are a William Nylander or Mitch Marner type....and a couple of defencemen. But the Leafs won't give them away and i'm not sure Montreal has anything to trade for them. Plus....THE LEAFS ARE THE ARCH-RIVALS OF THE MONTREAL CANADIENS!!! In other words, it's not happening!!!

As a Leafs fan i don't want no fucking CAREY PRICE AND NO FUCKING SHEA WEBBER either!!! Too expensive and too underperforming. Not worth the money and not worth the contractual nightmare they'll be for another 9 years!!! On top of that the Leafs are at their cap limit and will need every penny to re-sign Auston Matthews, William Nylander and Mitch Marner. James Van Remsdyk is also an unrestricted free agent after this season and the Leafs have to figure out a way to either re-sign him (he wants to stay in Toronto and even offered to make adjustments in future contract in order to stay) or trade him for something of value. They don't want to lose him for nothing. Leo Komarov is also an unrestricted free agent and they want him back. And Tyler Bozak is also an unrestricted free agent after this season although i doubt he'll be back with the team next season. The plan is to move William Nylander to his natural centre position which means he'll take over Bozak's spot.

What i'm saying is that even if we would assume that the Leafs would want Carey Price and/or Shea Weber it would be impossible to accomodate their big contracts unless they trade Auston Matthews and William Nylander. Which isn't happening especially for two overpaid and declining veterans that nobody really wants.

And to conclude i'll take Freddie Andersen over old Carey Price any fucking time for the same fucking amount of money!

 

[EagerBeaver]

Doc,

You keep talking about half-hearted and half-assed rebuilds. The only way a rebuild works is to completely blow it up, eating huge amounts of contract if necessary to do so, although ownership has to sign off on that. Cap hits do not matter when you are not going to be signing anyone anyway and are paying a bunch of young kids. Cap hits in such situations can be taken like Muhammad Ali use to take Joe Frazier's punches. I don't think you understand that when you blow something up, you blow it up. This is what I mean:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cEpa9TXXLC4

Would you ask your demolitions expert to only blow up half of a house or 3/4 of a house, and not use the full load of dynamite? Of course not. You want the whole thing blown up. So you either do that or you stick to a mediocre game plan for the future.

 

[Doc Holliday]

You have to be realistic. You can't blow a team up when you can't get rid of the players you want to get rid of. Carey Price & Shea Webber are untradeable. Buy them out?? That'll still count on the salary cap and it would cost them plenty.

You also have to be realistic in the fact blowing the team up will NEVER happen in Montreal. There is too much $$ involved for this to happen. It could happen in the large majority of teams in the NHL but NEVER in Montreal. It's sad but it's a fact. Not only will the fans refuse to allow it, but ownership will NEVER allow it. If it happens they'll sell the team and they won't be able to sell the team if it's been 'blown up' with no stars left on the team to attract the fans.

The habs still have around $8 million to play with. My guess is that they're saving it for Markov to come back after the Olympics. Who knows. Maybe they should overpay the Avs for Matt Duchesne. But the players that the Avs would have wanted earlier on are unproductive and now the price has gone up. And it's not easy to make a trade with a conference rival (like the Leafs, for example) unless the team you trade with robs you. And considering all the heat the habs and Bergevin are taking....it won't happen.

 

[tiga]

Of course this start Is disapointing, but it Is way too early to panic trade or to even think of tanking.
I thank you both for your concerns..

 

[jalimon]

Hum Tiga, in order to "tank" you need to first be at the top. Then you tank like the Habs did 2 years ago.

This year they will not tank, so that at least is positive

Cheers,

 

[tiga]

Je ne comprends pas ce commentaire, l'année dernière Canadien a fini en tête de division.

Tank signifie terminer dernier la saison volontairement pour avoir de bons choix au repêchage.

 

[EagerBeaver]

Jalimon,

Your understanding of English slang terms is off. Tiga is correct, he understands the slang better than you do. A team need not be on top to tank, and usually is not. Tanking involves any strategy which causes defeats and losses, usually over the short term, with the goal of obtaining high draft choices or the ability to trade for better personnel. The teams incentivized to tank are not those at the top, but those close to the bottom, who are a few selections below a #1 pick. Various NBA teams tried tanking strategies which directly resulted in the institution of the NBA draft lottery, as the league would not tolerate it. An NBA team can still tank on purpose, but the reward is not as great, they only get chance to be in the lottery and then the balls are weighted so as to not overly reward the tanking team.

The only teams on the top of the league that have any incentive to tank are those teams that get old all at once and fire sale the old guys, to dump contracts and bring up the rookies. An example was the Yankees at trade deadline 2016, making no moves to improve the team despite still being in the pennant race. And instead releasing and fire saling off old guys with big contracts in order to get younger. This year, that strategy paid off. Last year, it was considered a tank for the Yankees, although they finished with a winning record, just over .500. But they failed to make the playoffs and the trade deadline moves were viewed as a surrender for 2016 to move on to the future.

Habs need to dump some contracts and get some young talent so yeah, it is probably a tanking situation now. The Leafs did the same thing and got Matthews as a reward.

 

[tiga]

That Is also my understanding and the draft lottery also exists in the NHL. So tanking Is not a shure thing if you want to improve the team.
On a positive note Chucky, Weber and Gallagher just each scored in the last 3 minutes.

 

[EagerBeaver]

Jalimon, here is an article about tanking in the NBA, the professional sports league that has observed the most widespread and creative uses, by many teams, of assorted tanking strategies. I think the NBA was the first league to institute a draft lottery to stop it, and they have again refined the draft lottery to continue to counteract tanking strategies:

https://www.sbnation.com/2014/1/10/5266770/nba-draft-lottery-tanking-gm

The NBA team that has been most effective at tanking the last 5 years is the Philadelphia 76ers, which has assembled a very young but massively talented core of top 3 draft picks. They have a bunch. What they did that was new and creative was when their young players got hurt they began to invent these creative minutes and games limitations designed to "preserve" them and also to not play them on the medical advice of "not playing back to back games." One of the 76ers talented young players, Joel Embiid, has publicly criticized the strategy of holding him out of games to save stress on him.

In baseball, similar is done when pitchers are "shut down" for the year due to minor injuries, in order to preserve the innings pitched limits, which usually are not even close to being met.

The NFL, due to key injuries to many star players, will see some taking strategies implemented in the second half of the season. Right now in the NFL if you know your roster is not deep and you lose a few key guys, you are dead meat, and might as well tank with younger players.

in the NHL, Edmonton and Toronto have tanked their way into nice pools of young player talent. I am suggesting Montreal can, and should, follow that lead.

 

[jalimon]

Oups mea culpa my bad. I really tough tanking was going from complete dominating position to loosing streak that brings a team way down.

Cheers,

 

[tiga]

"To tank "(que je traduirais par se saborder) n'est pas nouveau dans le sport professionnel, les Nordiques de Québec l'ont fait dans le temps et ont recruté haut d'abord Joe Sakic puis Lindros qu'ils ont échangé pour Forsberg et plein d'autres excellents joueurs avant d'aller gagner quelques coupes avec Patrick Roy au Colorado. C'est un processus qui s'échelonne sur plusieurs années et qui ne fonctionne pas à tout coup.
Personnellement je ne pense pas que ce soit la solution pour le Ch, ils ne sont pas aussi mauvais que ce début de saison indique.
Espérant que cette victoire contre les Panthers sera un point tournant.

 

[Doc Holliday]

in the NHL, Edmonton and Toronto have tanked their way into nice pools of young player talent. I am suggesting Montreal can, and should, follow that lead.

People are jumping to conclusions too quickly in regards to the Oilers. Currently they're aren't too far from the bottom. Again. And other than Connor McDavid and Leon Draisaitl i'm not too impressed with their 'nice pool of young talent'.

 

[Doc Holliday]

Mario Tremblay Drops A Bombshell About What Galchenyuk Was Doing This Summer

With no games since Friday, nothing has really improved surrounding the Canadiens, especially when it comes to Alex Galchenyuk who has become the scapegoat of the team.

Yesterday, Mario Tremblay was the guest on the Mario Langlois show on 98.5FM, and he went for a statement that could have serious consequences for Chucky!

Tremblay claimed that Chucky had spent part of his summer in rehab, and that he might have even been in two different places, both of which were set up by the National Hockey League.

According to DLC, who reported the news this morning, a rehab stay would make sense since it matches up with some information he had previously received.

However, it would be weird for him to have made two different stays during the summer because after the first one, the second is usually made public (see Zack Kassian).

It seems that Galchenyuk is completely sober after his time in rehab, which goes hand in hand with the information that DLC had received recently, having heard very good things about Galchenyuk.

The Canadiens organization will probably be furious with Mario Tremblay, since he has disclosed information that should remain strictly confidential.

It goes without saying that this type of information that damages the reputation of a player and at the same time could scare off other teams from acquiring his services.

Mario drops bombshell about Chucky

 

[gaby]

HI....pensez vous que les Habs vont répéter ce soir contre les Kings ?