Guest GreekHockeyCoach Posted March 2, 2008 Report Share Posted March 2, 2008 Devils_fury2 had an idea for a thread polling the members about the success of the Habs thus far based on an article by Red Fisher of the Montreal Gazette. I volunteed to make the poll for him. Please vote with absolute honesty. I think it would be alot of fun seeing how you guys vote to this on this poll. If you'd like, post a little explanation on your choice. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Oatmeal777 Posted March 2, 2008 Report Share Posted March 2, 2008 I think 2nd. Ahead of Boston/Ottawa and all those, but behind New Jersey or Pittsburg. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
amp73 Posted March 2, 2008 Report Share Posted March 2, 2008 At the start of the year I predicted that they would fight for the final PO spot and could quite possibly miss the playoffs entriely . In fact, if I remeber the Poll, it was " Cancel your RDS Package " Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest GreekHockeyCoach Posted March 2, 2008 Report Share Posted March 2, 2008 I thought they'd be in 8th to missing the playoffs after last year's meltdown. What a pleasant surprise this year has been. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest HRK Posted March 2, 2008 Report Share Posted March 2, 2008 I knew they would be competitive...I thought that if we got solid goaltending and our special teams were good, then I figured anywhere between 6-8th position.. I knew our youth would be better than most "experts" predicted.. Never would have guessed this high this late in the season, though... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest muskeg Posted March 2, 2008 Report Share Posted March 2, 2008 At the start of the year I predicted that they would fight for the final PO spot and could quite possibly miss the playoffs entriely . In fact, if I remeber the Poll, it was " Cancel your RDS Package " that was it. heh i remember voting "fighting for a playoff spot" Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest habsrule4eva3089 Posted March 2, 2008 Report Share Posted March 2, 2008 what i'd like to see is all the so called expert predictions... if i recall most of them seemed to be saying 13th ......experts my foot. they even had the makebelieves finishing in front of us.....they kjnow nothing! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tmash Posted March 2, 2008 Report Share Posted March 2, 2008 Probably between 6th and 10th. But I'll be optimistic and go with 6 as my choice - since this was about the best I thought we'd be. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest devils_fury2 Posted March 2, 2008 Report Share Posted March 2, 2008 After missing out on free agents like Ryan Smyth and Daniel Briere,and then on top of that losing Sheldon Souray as a free agent and after it was set in stone that Montreal was going with another *youth movement* I thought for sure Montreal was going to be fighting for the eighth and final playoff spot.....but alot of players have suprised me....on defense guys like Mark Streit asnd Andrei Markov have really stepped up on the power play to take the place of Souray.....while Mike Komisarek, Ryan O'Byrne, Roman Hamrlik and Francis Boullion have really played hard defensively and have been really playing some agressive hockey this year, something I thought that was going to be lost with the losses of Rivet and Souray....Even though Price played great last year I never thought he'd be playing Montreal and playing this good in the NHL that Gainey decided to trade Huet and go with Price as the number one goalie....also at forward..even though I always knew Kovalev had the talent to be Montreals top forward I figured going in it was going to be another disappointing season for him, and guys like Andrei Kostitsyn and Tomas Plekanec have really impressed me too (that line has been so great for Montreal and is one of the most consistant in the whole NHL...who would have guessed it going in) even though guys like Saku Koivu and Chris Higgins have been struggling at times they are still chipping in when needed, Mark Streit is impressing me more and more up front and it would be a shame if Montreal would lose him as a UFA and Sergei Kostitsyn has chipped in and has been playing well for the Habs not only offensively but defensively as well GO HABS GO thanks GreekHockeyCoach for helping me out as well with this poll question Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Lafleurfan2 Posted March 3, 2008 Report Share Posted March 3, 2008 I have faith in our team I thought the devils , senators , penguins and Rangers would be ahead of us. I knew after the 2 left Buffalo they were going to have there problems . I knew we were going to beat out our 2 biggest rivals Boston and Toronto. I thought we would be ahead of the Islanders. I voted 5th place. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest - Tonio - Posted March 3, 2008 Report Share Posted March 3, 2008 Well since honesty is the theme I predicted 6th place. The 'experts' had us missing the playoffs, but the entire time I truly believed we had a solid team that would safely make it. After thinking about what went wrong last year (Huet injury, flu bug, massive slump etc..) and considering what the new year would bring (young guys improving, no samsonov distraction, carbo more experience etc..) I knew we would be better. Not first place better...but better. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Ricochet Posted March 3, 2008 Report Share Posted March 3, 2008 I'm optimistic, so I put us in second. Realistically, either NJ or the Pens are going to pass us, but not Carolina or Washington. The optimist in me insists we will take our division over Ottawa. They are still tinkering and we have a solid lineup and game right now. The pessimist says that we will finish ahead of either the Pens or the Devils and Ottawa will return to form and take the division, which would put us in fourth place. We are 5 and 6 points ahead of the Rangers and Bruins right now and they are the only other "hot" teams within reach. I refuse to consider we could become cold and drop the ball down the stretch and fall past them. As long as we keep pace, we will keep a 3 or 4 point buffer between us and them. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest habs domination Posted March 3, 2008 Report Share Posted March 3, 2008 I'm optimistic, so I put us in second. Realistically, either NJ or the Pens are going to pass us, but not Carolina or Washington. The optimist in me insists we will take our division over Ottawa. They are still tinkering and we have a solid lineup and game right now. The pessimist says that we will finish ahead of either the Pens or the Devils and Ottawa will return to form and take the division, which would put us in fourth place. We are 5 and 6 points ahead of the Rangers and Bruins right now and they are the only other "hot" teams within reach. I refuse to consider we could become cold and drop the ball down the stretch and fall past them. As long as we keep pace, we will keep a 3 or 4 point buffer between us and them. its for the beginning of the season not we're we sit right now Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest fansince1975 Posted March 3, 2008 Report Share Posted March 3, 2008 I honestly thought Montreal was a far better team then the team that missed the playoffs last season. Injuries, Samsonov, Abby, and the flu cost the team numerous points last season. Last year in a few games with the best in the EAST we looked equal to them. I am pleasantly surprised that Montreal is first place. However, I did think that Montreal could finish in 4th place with the assumption that Ottawa would be first place in East and therefore first in the same division. When Ottawa started this season playing such a dominating game my hope was that if they beat Montreal that they would also beat the other teams Montreal was fighting with for position in the playoffs. For the most part this occurred early in the season. Now Montreal has to keep winning to prove that Montreal is a cup contender and to keep 1st place. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest js2 Posted March 3, 2008 Report Share Posted March 3, 2008 I voted for 6th. Although we lost Sourays goals, we also lost his bad defensive play, so that became a non-factor of him leaving. The thing I knew we were gaining was our youth as they progressed with more experience. I was also expecting Kovalev to bounce back from last season but didn't quite think that he'd be playing this well. So I figured from 10th to 6th was reasonable. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Ricochet Posted March 3, 2008 Report Share Posted March 3, 2008 its for the beginning of the season not we're we sit right now Oops! My bad! I always put us at number one in the league. I never want or think that we will do anything less. Even if I have no reason to believe, I will still believe. It's my job as a fan. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest ComeBackStanley Posted March 3, 2008 Report Share Posted March 3, 2008 well as a lunatic habs fan i always say "first" lol but "realistically" i figured we would end up somewhere in the middle. behind ottawa in our division and then the rest depended on the other teams so i took 6th as my poll choice. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ColRouleBleu Posted March 3, 2008 Report Share Posted March 3, 2008 i had said sixth and i still maintain it. i hope we stay 1st but the standings are so close and this end of the season will be no picnic. no matter which rank we finish though, i hope we start the 1st round against the booins or the flyers Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
roy_133 Posted March 3, 2008 Report Share Posted March 3, 2008 I said out of the playoffs, I thought anywhere between 9th-12th. My reason was too much needed to go right for us to be a very good team, Huet and Price needed to be solid and find some consistency, Kostitsyn needed to bust out, Plekanec, Higgins and Latendresse needed to prove they could be good, consistent players over 82 games, Kovalev needed to bounce back, the PP needed to find a way to continue to be very productive even after Souray left, Markov and Komisarek needed to elevate to an elite level pairing, Carbo needed to improve all around and most importantly we had to avoid injuries. I did say at the time that if all or most of these things happened, we could be a good team, but it was just banking on too much. My prediction fluctuated between 9th-12th but never much higher, but 90% of what I've listed has come to fruition, and I couldn't be more thrilled I was wrong. Who saw it all coming together this fast? Not even the coaching staff, so I doubt many people outside of the organization saw the team being THIS good. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Habs_Mania Posted March 3, 2008 Report Share Posted March 3, 2008 Last September I predicted a 7th place finish. Reason for this is I thought there wouldn't be a whole lot of scoring this year but thought they'd at least make the playoffs because of having Hamrlik and being without Souray's -19 (also knowing Souray wouldn't put up those same offense numbers again). I had no way of knowing that Kovalev was going to have such a great season or that all those young guys were gonna step up the way they have. Amazing story so far this year. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest NewfieHab Posted March 3, 2008 Report Share Posted March 3, 2008 I thought at the beginning of the season that they would be fighting for home ice, so I figured they would be fourth or fifth. I didn't think that they would be ahead of Ottawa and fighting them as well for the division, and the conference. Hopefully they keep up the strong play GO HABS GO Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tmash Posted March 3, 2008 Report Share Posted March 3, 2008 I thought at the beginning of the season that they would be fighting for home ice, so I figured they would be fourth or fifth. I didn't think that they would be ahead of Ottawa and fighting them as well for the division, and the conference. Hopefully they keep up the strong play GO HABS GO well you may still be right as soon as tomorrow. There are 3 seperate playoff races going on, the fight between Montreal, NJ, Pittsburgh, and Ottawa (and possibly Boston soon) for spots 1, 2, 4, and 5. There's the race for spot #3, and then a race for the final 3 playoff spots. The division winner getting a spot automatically is really making the races even more interesting, and one night can mean the difference between 1st and 5th, and if Boston gets up into our race (they have 2 games in hand), it could mean quick drops from 1st to 6th. It's going to be a fun but gut wrenching last month. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest hatethoseleafs Posted March 3, 2008 Report Share Posted March 3, 2008 I was pretty confident of our playoff aspirations from the beginning. I beleived we were rolling along pretty good last year until we had that team devastating flu epidemic combined with the collapse in goal after Huet was injured. I coudnt foresee the same events happening this year,,, and had a feeling Kovalev wouldnt put in 2 back to back stinker years ( actually i thought BG would trade him in the summer if he could).I also had a feeling Price would make the team after his performance in Hamilton and i went so far as to tell my freinds that he would be #1 by Christmas ( little off there). I predicted 6th. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest hatethoseleafs Posted March 3, 2008 Report Share Posted March 3, 2008 I like our chances of making the playoffs this year. The team that was tearing it up and challenging for a top 4 placing a good chunk of the season last year is still pretty much intact. We went through a slump which was amplified by some shoody backup goaltending that pretty much did us in last year.I don't see history repeating itself in that area this upcomming year. All systems are GO in Hab land. I actually found my post from the summer in the media thread. I would recommend a lot of members go back and reread the thread. It might help refresh some memories. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Habcup Posted March 3, 2008 Report Share Posted March 3, 2008 I just voted 4th because I though that the question related to now. Sorry!! At the start of the year I thought we would be fighting for a play-off birth 6-8's place. Now I think we will be in the 4th spot. The 4th spot because I truely believe that Ottawa is stronger and will get their act together. Next year, with all the kids gaining experience and confidence we will consistently be near or at the top and we will be cup contenders! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Archived
This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.