Go Habs Go!

[EagerBeaver]

Or maybe the reason Habs GM’s can’t fill the holes is because the highly skilled free agents just don’t want to sign and play in this city

I think there is no doubt whatsoever that this is a problem for Bergevin and whomever else might be GM. It's mostly the high taxes, and as GM you have to tell ownership that they simply have to pay guys more to equalize things but under the salary cap it's hard to do. Salary caps do not adjust based on taxes the athlete has to pay.

A few years ago I had a conversation with Darian Durant, who was then the starting QB of the Montreal Alouettes. I had no idea who he was but he came into Deville Dinerbar, alone, and sat a few stools down from me at the bar. Eventually I struck up a conversation with him which started when he told the waiter he did not know what to order and I gave him some suggestions. We then started talking and I learned he was QB for Montreal Alouettes and he told me he had played elsewhere in the CFL, and Montreal had signed him. I asked him how he liked Montreal and he said he loved the city but hated the taxes and the weather. He was paying over half his salary in taxes and that's a lot of money and more than what he had paid in his other CFL stops. He was from South Carolina I think, and had starred for the U of North Carolina in college. He was I think kind of homesick at that point. Since he was alone I had the impression he had family and girlfriend back in the USA. But with him mainly the taxes were a big shock. The conversation opened up my eyes to the fact that these athletes do not necessarily see Montreal as a great landing spot. In the case of Durant, he was at the end of a long and good career as a CFL QB and it was a final paycheck. I did not ask him, but he probably did not have many other offers as he was around 35 at that time. Montreal at the time needed a QB and he did start but only 1 year and then I think he retired. At the time I talked to him he knew he was at the end of the line. Was an interesting guy to talk to.

 

[gaby]

...pas de cadeau pour l'arrivée du Nouvel An ..et lourde perte...GALLAGHER....qui s'ajoute à Byron---Armia--Drouin....2020 part du mauvais pied.....

 

[Doc Holliday]

And yes star free agent player just wont come to Montreal. The pressure and weak dollar does not help.

The 'weak' dollar argument is a bad one since the players are all paid in US dollars. The big reason why many prefer signing elsewhere is because Montreal has the highest taxes in the entire league. And that's why the habs constantly have to overpay in order to attract a free agent or re-sign one of their top players. In order help the player make up the financial loss from the higher taxes.

 

[Doc Holliday]

...pas de cadeau pour l'arrivée du Nouvel An ..et lourde perte...GALLAGHER....qui s'ajoute à Byron---Armia--Drouin....2020 part du mauvais pied.....

Injuries are part of the game. Look at the Leafs. Losing many players due to injuries since the start of the season. But now some of them have returned and it has showed in the win column. But of course the change in coaching philosophies has also greatly helped the team.

Most of the teams in the league have to deal with key injuries at various points throughout the season. Some teams get luckier and have fairly healthy lineups throughout the season. And often those teams are among the leaders in the standings. But that's partly one of the reasons why many of those teams falter when it's playoffs time since other middle-of-the-pack teams get their injured players back in time for the playoffs and appear to outperform, but quite often that's not the case. It's simply a case of finally being healthy again.

 

[Doc Holliday]

Following tonites loss (against the Hurricanes), that will be ''it'' for Carey. Bergerien and his baboons will try to salvage their jobs and honor and convince Princess, to wave his no trade clause and unload him. Get bigger, get tougher bring back ''ol' time hockey.

Wasn't Lingren in the net last night?

Carey Price is literally untradeable at this moment in his career. He's getting up there in years, his best seasons are clearly behind him and he simply will not waive his no-trade clause simply to accomodate the organization. There are few cities in the league he'd be willing to relocate to but now that he has settled down with a family it will be difficult to get him to agree to relocate anywhere.

But the biggest reason he'd next to impossible to trade is his big contract which runs out in 2016 and is a $10.5 million cap hit. The majority of teams in the league don't even have players getting paid that much on their roster! Let alone a goaltender who is now only an above-average goaltender in decline.....somewhere in the middle-of-the-pack of the NHL's starting goaltenders.

In other words the habs are stuck with him. What they could or should do is to play Primeau & Lingren more in order to boost up their market value and trade one of them for a decent return.

 

[gaby]

There is still time.. you will see.

Moi et gaby on va aller monter les marches de l’oratoire a genoux ca va tout changer

Ouin....va falloir les monter à genoux sur la glace et....les redescendre de la même facon......lol.

 

[sharkman]

The joke around Montreal is that the Habs are now called the "Has"-beens"!

 

[EagerBeaver]

The joke around Montreal is that the Habs are now called the "Has"-beens"!

What are the fans really expecting? How can anyone with a half of an objective brain not look at that team and think they are - at most - a bubble playoff team? I read these posts guaranteeing a playoff berth and wonder if this guy would bet the life of his kid, or his job, on the Habs making the playoffs- never mind advancing at all? Would you?

I looked at the Yankees last year in baseball and I knew they probably weren’t good enough to get by Houston and they didn’t. Sports fans have to be realistic. Now next year of course is another story.

 

[sharkman]

I'm not a Habs fan EB...so like our friend Doc, I relish seeing the pain this HAPless organization has been going through!....I saw it coming a long time ago!

 

[EagerBeaver]

Sharkman,

I think it would be cool if Montreal had a really good and exciting team like they did in the late 1970s, but they don't, and I find it appalling that the organization has been treading water for the last 20 plus years with teams that are continually on the playoff bubble, yet they manage to bamboozle fans like Gaby and Jalimon into thinking that a Stanley Cup is within a short grasp. I am not seeing it. I don't understand how Habs fans are so easily bamboozled, but then again I did not understand how Trump could convince voters to elect him either. I see these bamboozlements as being very similar.

 

[jalimon]

EB me and Gaby are in love with the habs. And when you are in love you dont' count or think wisely. You just hope, hope and hope that you will have the most wonderful time of your life with your team

Anything else does not matter much

Cheers,

 

[gaby]

Wow.....Bergevin a bougé....nous amène CINDERELLA .....lol...et oh wow la superstar en déclin KOVY......hâte de les voir à l'oeuvre....ca sent la......

 

[sharkman]

Wow.....Bergevin a bougé....nous amène CINDERELLA .....lol...et oh wow la superstar en déclin KOVY......hâte de les voir à l'oeuvre....ca sent la......

...et le pourquoi de ma référence dans le Post #1668 que les Habs sont devenus des"Has"-beens"!!!

 

[EagerBeaver]

Kovalchuk is a washed up player who was just released and unclaimed. He has very little left in the tank at this point. Montreal signed him for peanuts, because peanuts is all he is worth. It’s a classic pay nothing and get nothing in return deal. If they catch lightning in the bottle, which is unlikely, they will have paid nothing for it.

As a fan I prefer something for nothing deals. Like the Yankees getting an all star year out of Gio Urshela whom they rescued off the scrap heap and signed to a minor league contract. That’s something for nothing.

 

[jalimon]

Wow.....Bergevin a bougé....nous amène CINDERELLA .....lol...et oh wow la superstar en déclin KOVY......hâte de les voir à l'oeuvre....ca sent la......

Ca sent le brainstorming sur comment vendre des ticket pis de la biere qui goute rien a 13$... C’est plus vendeur une ancienne vedette que dale weiss

 

[EagerBeaver]

Jalimon I don’t think ticket prices are going up because of Kovalchuk, come on now.

 

[jalimon]

Jalimon I don’t think ticket prices are going up because of Kovalchuk, come on now.

Never said that. I say they need a way to keep some kind of show on the ice to make sure the building keeps being filled up!

 

[gaby]

...autre défaite.....semble bien qu'on va se battre plus avec les DEVILS----SENS et WINGS....very sad...:doh:

 

[Doc Holliday]

Kovalchuk was getting paid by one of the worse teams in hockey NOT TO PLAY FOR THEM. Think about this.

Considering what a sad affair the current team is i can't really blame Bergevin for giving Kovalchuk a try considering he'll be paid the minimum. He's considerably slowed down since his days with Atlanta and New Jersey but he probably can still put the puck in the net, which is what the habs need right now more than anything.

I have a couple of pals who are die-hard habs fans and have been all their lives. Right now they cheer every loss by the habs. I tell them it won't matter too much since they aren't bad enough to finish last and have the best chance to get the top draft pick next June. As long as they hang on to Carey Price they'll never finish last. But surprisingly they tell me they don't care & that's not why they're cheering the habs to lose: They figure this is what will finally get the coach fired. When i tell them that things won't change since he's not really the problem they then tell me "good then if it means Bergevin will finally get fired!"

But Bergevin has actually made some decent trades and pick-ups. He hasn't made that many bad trades as a GM if you look at his track record. From my point-of-view the problem has been drafting and player development. Kotkaniemi never should have been drafted third overall. Brady Tkachuk was the consensus pick. If both players would be on the market today Ottawa could get a gold mine in return for Tkachuk. Kotkaniemi? Not so much. He's still a prospect with unknown potential. They could get something decent in return but not much else. But Tkachuk??? The guy is a gem!!!

The other day i was watching a game between the Marlies & Laval. It's quite known that the Leafs have built a great farm team in order to help out the NHL team whenever they lose players to injury. Injuries to key players on the Leafs haven't hurt that much since call-ups from the Marlies performed admirably when called upon. That's what having a lot of organizational depth is all about. But as i was watching that Marlies/Laval game no one on the Laval team really impressed me or could be used as trade bait to help the big team. Other than Primeau or Lingren (both goalies) who do the habs have to offer in the minors? McCarron?? Don't make me laugh!! Poeling?? A career 3rd or 4th liner if i ever seen one! Proof of this came recently when the habs decided to call up Dale Weise to replace Brendan Gallagher who's injured. Yes.....DALE FUCKING WEISE!! He was the best option they had down in Laval!!!! Un-fucken-believable!!!!

But that young Rusisan kid Romanov playing defence for the Russian junior team had a great tournament and was selected to the tournament's #1 all-star team. He looks like a good prospect. But the habs will likely either make him play too early or they'll end up trading him away if he's too good. They never fail!

With two aging players (Price & Weber) siphoning up a good part of the team's cap space for years to come nothing will change until these two are gone. And like usual the organization will wait too long to get rid of him and won't get as much in return (as compared to if they'd trade them now).

THEY'RE NOT EVEN A PLAYOFFS TEAM WITH PRICE AND WEBER IN THE LINEUP!!!! WHAT HAVE THEY GOT TO LOSE???? TRADE THEM GODAMN NOW!!

By the way things will never change until Geoff Molson steps down as team president and let's someone with credentials do the job. He's the team owner and should let hockey people run the team. He's also too close to Marc Bergevin and i can't see him being able to fire him. A different team president would have the balls to get rid of Bergevin and Timmins and completely overhaul the entire organization. Joel Bouchard in Laval is doing a good job and he's a good hockey man. You hang on to people like him. But you also need to bring in people such as Stephane Quintal, Vincent Damphousse and maybe even Guy Carbonneau. Serge Savard should be brought back as a consultant. Maybe even bring back Bob Gainey.....Larry Robinson.....Jacques Lemaire. People who bled for the habs as players and later as coaches/managers.

 

[Doc Holliday]

Will Carey Price and Shea Weber get traded before next season?

Shea Weber is having a career year at age 34. He still has 7 years to go on his current contract. The team is currently going nowhere and will once again miss the playoffs for the 5th time in 6 years. I doubt that his value will ever be higher than it is now and there may be a GM foolish enough willing to give a decent return for the 34-year old defenceman with the big, long contract. The habs will regret not trading him now if they wait too long to do so.

Carey Price has become an average goalie. He's definitely not as good as he was 2 years ago, and a shadow of what he was 5 years ago. He's 32 years old and if you look at the law-of-averages he's starting to be old for a goalie. Same thing with Weber as a hockey player. Of course you have exceptions like Zdeno Chara who's still playing high-calibre hockey in his 40's. But if you go with the law-of-averages you realize that these two players will never be better than they are today. Price will probably be harder to trade even if he waives his no-trade simply because he's now an average goalie but is the highest paid goaltender in the history of hockey and still has 7 years left to go. However i'm sure there are still some GM's out there who are blind to the fact that Carey Price is average and gets worse ever year. Once again his value will never be as high as it is now. The habs are going nowhere once again and the team must seriously consider a full rebuild or else they're literally wasting the younger players they have. They've wasted Weber and Price's value over the past two years by not trading them when they could. But if they're serious about improving the team for the future they absolutely MUST trade them now!