ColRouleBleu Posted July 1, 2013 Report Share Posted July 1, 2013 Travis Moen #32__ Stats __.__ Splits __.__ Game Log __.__ Notes __.__ Videos __Archive 2012-2013 Position: Left Wing Shoots: LeftBirth Place: Stewart Valley, SK, CANBirth Date: 06-Apr-1982 Age: 31Height: 6' 2" Weight: 218Drafted by: Calgary Draft Year: 2000 Round 5(155 overall)Acquired: Free agency 2009 @32trapper Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jedimaas Posted July 22, 2013 Report Share Posted July 22, 2013 Should be an interesting year for travis. 2nd year of his contract...and while many consider last year to be a bad one (not that he was horrible but he's making close to $2m and needs to bring more than we can get out of some journeyman or up and comer bottom six player on a $1m contract) I think he was effective in the role we asked him to play. I think that part of the problem last year was Prust - he did a lot of the "little things" that Moen had previously been tasked to do. Moen was strong defensively and one of our best PKers. With Prust in the lineup you're not going to notice Moen as much but both can have value. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KeepsItReal Posted July 22, 2013 Report Share Posted July 22, 2013 Should be an interesting year for travis. 2nd year of his contract...and while many consider last year to be a bad one (not that he was horrible but he's making close to $2m and needs to bring more than we can get out of some journeyman or up and comer bottom six player on a $1m contract) I think he was effective in the role we asked him to play. I think that part of the problem last year was Prust - he did a lot of the "little things" that Moen had previously been tasked to do. Moen was strong defensively and one of our best PKers. With Prust in the lineup you're not going to notice Moen as much but both can have value. You ask me, a 4th line of Prust-White-Moen come playoff time will be a real asset for this club. Moen was a veteran who didn't play during the lock out, for a guy like him if he's a bit behind the eight ball from the start it's going to be tougher for him to make up for that. There's no denying he wasn't great, but he wasn't a liability either. I expect Moen will be solid next year. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kordic71 Posted July 22, 2013 Report Share Posted July 22, 2013 Travis has never been a plus player in the NHL, he was -4 last year and the PK was 23rd. I don't think he was a great asset and there is plenty of room for improvement. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Noob616 Posted July 22, 2013 Report Share Posted July 22, 2013 Of course he's been a minus player. Guys in defensive roles with middling offensive skills tend not to be on the ice for many goals for. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KeepsItReal Posted July 22, 2013 Report Share Posted July 22, 2013 Of course he's been a minus player. Guys in defensive roles with middling offensive skills tend not to be on the ice for many goals for. Yeah, plus minus really only has any value as an indicator of anything in very rare cases. Like if a solid offensive player on a really good team has a bad minus rating it might raise some eyebrows. The NHL needs to develop a more modern stat. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
habby4ever Posted September 21, 2013 Report Share Posted September 21, 2013 During the off season, Moen works on his family's 3,500-acre farm in his hometown of Stewart Valley, Saskatchewan. Scored the Stanley Cup-winning goal in the 2007 NHL Playoffs against the Ottawa Senators. Appeared as himself along with the Stanley Cup in the "Bed and Brake Fast" episode of the Canadian TV show Corner Gas. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Habs_Hockey_Nutz Posted September 23, 2013 Report Share Posted September 23, 2013 So... does Travis have a spot in the line-up sewed-up? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ColRouleBleu Posted September 24, 2013 Author Report Share Posted September 24, 2013 Himself, not necessarily, his contract however, most probably Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jennifer_rocket Posted September 26, 2013 Report Share Posted September 26, 2013 I'm pretty sure Moen has a spot locked up in Montreal. Will he be dressed for all 82 games? That's debatable. I'd definitely like to him more involved this season. I hope be can bring more of an "edge" to his game. Prust really supplanted him last season as the resident fan favorite "grinder" who plays a solid physical game while contributing some minor offense. Travis should use that as motivation to try to get more ice time. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Noob616 Posted September 26, 2013 Report Share Posted September 26, 2013 Moen still brings a ton of value as a defensive forward. We brought in Prust for exactly that reason, Prust and White can do the rah rah stuff and Moen can focus on his game which is anchoring a 4th line that gets incredibly tough matchups. Prust is the better player of course, but Moen still is a valuable 4th line and PK guy, especially when our 4th line is only getting ~35% O-zone starts. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jedimaas Posted September 26, 2013 Report Share Posted September 26, 2013 Moen still brings a ton of value as a defensive forward. We brought in Prust for exactly that reason, Prust and White can do the rah rah stuff and Moen can focus on his game which is anchoring a 4th line that gets incredibly tough matchups. Prust is the better player of course, but Moen still is a valuable 4th line and PK guy, especially when our 4th line is only getting ~35% O-zone starts. Agreed. Especially when you consider how this current roster is built, I think Therrien will lean heavily on that 4th line to get many more tough defensive assignments than most 4th lines. I mean in reality a line of Moen-Prust-White is probably as good as most team's third lines, so its really not a 4th line imho. Right now, I see us as having three 2nd lines and a 3rd line. It will be interesting to see if one of those "second lines" can truly take the reigns as a "first line" or not this year. Moen should also be one of our top minutes PKers I think. Will be interesting to see how he does this year. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FirstStar Posted September 26, 2013 Report Share Posted September 26, 2013 Agreed. Especially when you consider how this current roster is built, I think Therrien will lean heavily on that 4th line to get many more tough defensive assignments than most 4th lines. I mean in reality a line of Moen-Prust-White is probably as good as most team's third lines, so its really not a 4th line imho. Right now, I see us as having three 2nd lines and a 3rd line. It will be interesting to see if one of those "second lines" can truly take the reigns as a "first line" or not this year. Moen should also be one of our top minutes PKers I think. Will be interesting to see how he does this year. i agree, they're more like a 3rd and 4th line combined. Since we basically have 3 scoring lines, our 4th line should get a lot of defensive duties. As for Moen, haven't been overly impressed with him after signing his contract extension. I don't want to suggest that he's simply going through the motions now he's signed for the next few years, it could also be that he's playing it cool and afraid of suffering another concussion. Diaz hasn't been the same since coming back from his concussion. Moen's not a fighter, he can drop the gloves if need be, but that isn't his role anymore. Not when we have white, prust and parros in the lineup. But if those other guys are on the bench and someone takes a run at one of our smaller, skilled forwards, i'd expect him to stand up for his teammate. If he can drop the gloves 5 times this season, that would be ok with me, considering we brought in a player who's main job is to throw the fists. What i expect from him is to be solid defensively, be the first man on the puck (when dumped in or knocked loose along the boards), win the one on one battles along the boards, yap if he has to, throw around his big body, get the other team off their game and time on the PK. This is the easiest role he's had since coming to Montreal. Other years we expected him to do what I mentioned above as well as drop the gloves. He may be asked on a rare occassion to drop the gloves, if white or prust are out with injury or he's the only one on the ice at that moment, but it's not really part of his role anymore. Given the fact he's not expected to drop the gloves (or very rarely), he should be able to do all the other little things. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
powerplay2009 Posted September 26, 2013 Report Share Posted September 26, 2013 I think as time has gone on, he has slowly taken on more and more of a specialized role. Nothing wrong with that, and he is tremendously valuable in the defensive forward and PK specialist role. He looks a lot more unimpressive now, but that IMO is really a sign of how well he is doing in his role. Sometimes its not bad to never really notice a forward if they are playing a role like his. I still wouldn't mind signing Halpern back and switching between White-Parros and Halpern-Moen for teams like the Bruins for the former and the Penguins or Capitals for the latter. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FirstStar Posted September 26, 2013 Report Share Posted September 26, 2013 i understand what you are saying, that actually is often the case with tenders. People thought Roy was at his best when he was flopping all over the crease> When in reality, he was flopping all over the crease because he didn't do his job right on the original shot and coughed up a juicy rebound. But I'm not convince the same goes for a forward. I think as time has gone on, he has slowly taken on more and more of a specialized role. Nothing wrong with that, and he is tremendously valuable in the defensive forward and PK specialist role. He looks a lot more unimpressive now, but that IMO is really a sign of how well he is doing in his role. Sometimes its not bad to never really notice a forward if they are playing a role like his. I still wouldn't mind signing Halpern back and switching between White-Parros and Halpern-Moen for teams like the Bruins for the former and the Penguins or Capitals for the latter. If he's doing all the little things right, winning 1-on-1 battles, first guy on the puck, back checking/forechecking, throwing the body, getting in the passing lanes on the PK, tying up his guy, then these are things that are obvious to me. But if he just seems to be skating around , not going into the corners, not throwing the body, not creating room, agitating, then what exactly is he doing? Everyone talked about how bournival was the first man on the puck the other night and found white in the slot. But bournival wouldn't have been able to find white or retireved the puck had moen not taken care of his man. Moen wasn't the first guy on the puck, but he took care of the sens defender which left bournival to retrieve the puck and find white. Moen did his job there and it turned into a scoring chance, had he casually skated into the zone and hadn't tied up the defender, sens probably would've gained possession of the puck and brought it back up the ice. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jedimaas Posted September 27, 2013 Report Share Posted September 27, 2013 I know its only pre-season but Moen sure looks like he's come to play. He's more visible in the few preseason games Ive seen him in than he seemed to be for most of last season. I had a theory that he was playing hurt last year & this year's start makes me believe I may well be right. He was able to play good defense last year - even if you believe my idea that he was playing injured - mostly due to his above-average hockey sense but this year he's back to doing the little things than separate him (and Prust) from most 4th line grinders. He also seems much more interested in the fisticuffs/standing up for his teammates than he did last season.If the preseason is a sign of things to come for Moen then that is a very good sign. Moen from 2 years go + Prust will be one heck of a 1 - 2 punch on our de facto checking/grinding line. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FirstStar Posted September 27, 2013 Report Share Posted September 27, 2013 I know its only pre-season but Moen sure looks like he's come to play. He's more visible in the few preseason games Ive seen him in than he seemed to be for most of last season. I had a theory that he was playing hurt last year & this year's start makes me believe I may well be right. He was able to play good defense last year - even if you believe my idea that he was playing injured - mostly due to his above-average hockey sense but this year he's back to doing the little things than separate him (and Prust) from most 4th line grinders. He also seems much more interested in the fisticuffs/standing up for his teammates than he did last season. If the preseason is a sign of things to come for Moen then that is a very good sign. Moen from 2 years go + Prust will be one heck of a 1 - 2 punch on our de facto checking/grinding line. He did suffer the concussion the previous season. And moreso for grinders, they often come back from concussions with disappointing results. But he's had a season to shake the concussion fears and that was evident by dropping the gloves in the preseason. I'm expecting good things from him this season. As you pointed out, he seems to be much more involved. Which only means good things for our habs. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Werzoth Posted September 28, 2013 Report Share Posted September 28, 2013 I guess we didn't see the same thing, I thought he was completely invisible on the ice. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Noob616 Posted September 28, 2013 Report Share Posted September 28, 2013 I guess we didn't see the same thing, I thought he was completely invisible on the ice. Truly that's what we want out of him. Think of him as a "stay at home" grinder, as that's what he's being tasked with. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Werzoth Posted September 28, 2013 Report Share Posted September 28, 2013 Truly that's what we want out of him. Think of him as a "stay at home" grinder, as that's what he's being tasked with. I'm sorry but that's not what we want out of a 4th liner player. We want them to be in the face of other players, finish body checks, spark some energy into the club. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Noob616 Posted September 28, 2013 Report Share Posted September 28, 2013 I'm sorry but that's not what we want out of a 4th liner player. We want them to be in the face of other players, finish body checks, spark some energy into the club. Why would we want him doing that too when White and Prust are already doing that? When you say spark some energy I read "put himself out of position", our 4th line is routinely matched up against some of the best opposition in a defensive role, they're not out there for token hits and fights. They take the tough work so that Eller's line can play against lesser competition. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Werzoth Posted September 28, 2013 Report Share Posted September 28, 2013 Why would we want him doing that too when White and Prust are already doing that? When you say spark some energy I read "put himself out of position", our 4th line is routinely matched up against some of the best opposition in a defensive role, they're not out there for token hits and fights. They take the tough work so that Eller's line can play against lesser competition. Spark some energy does not equal out of position at all. Prust is on the 4th line right now but last year he was a third liner, which is usually the shut down line for most teams, not the 4th line. So yes I disagree with the 4th line thing. Moen is too slow to play defense against the best opponents. Anyways, I guess we just don't see the same player and we'll leave it at that. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Noob616 Posted September 28, 2013 Report Share Posted September 28, 2013 Spark some energy does not equal out of position at all. Prust is on the 4th line right now but last year he was a third liner, which is usually the shut down line for most teams, not the 4th line. So yes I disagree with the 4th line thing. Moen is too slow to play defense against the best opponents. Anyways, I guess we just don't see the same player and we'll leave it at that. That's the thing though. We didn't use our 3rd line as a shutdown line, it was the 4th line which opened things up for our top 9 and which is a big part of why we had balanced scoring. http://awinninghabit.com/2013/03/08/why-youre-disappointed-in-the-habs-fourth-line/ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Werzoth Posted September 28, 2013 Report Share Posted September 28, 2013 That's the thing though. We didn't use our 3rd line as a shutdown line, it was the 4th line which opened things up for our top 9 and which is a big part of why we had balanced scoring. http://awinninghabit.com/2013/03/08/why-youre-disappointed-in-the-habs-fourth-line/ Our second line is actually our shutdown line against the top opponents, Pleky-Gionta-Bourque are all 3 good defensive players and play big minutes against the best players on the other side. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dwdemonwolf Posted October 2, 2013 Report Share Posted October 2, 2013 Best game in a long time from Travis tonight. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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