Poll: Habs 2016-17

[BigTed3]

Pretty simple. First poll of the season. Your prediction on how the Habs season will turn out? Big prize or big flop?

[habs1952]

The usual.....win it all. 

[habs_93]

Anywhere from lottery to ECF. It mostly depends on luck. That's what happens when you rely totally on goaltending.

[kinot-1]

I think they will make it to the 2nd Rd. 

[maas_art]

I said final four.  Would i bet money? no.  But I also think this year's team (assuming Carey stays healthy) does have a shot at winning it all so 3rd round is doable.  

Or we could miss the playoffs. 

[jeff33]

missing the playoffs.

 

we have a team, which, if actually configured and deployed in a logical manner, isnt that bad.  do i trust our coach to do either of those things? NO

radulov might rip it, carey might shut the door and our bit players/kids might fill in the required performances...but i genuinely hope not. and please let me explain because i have loved this team my entire life.

this is not a real contender roster. plek and markov are past it, patch is the most overrated "star" in the league, gallagher is a beauty but he is what he is,an undersized 50 point guy...... subban for weber and eller for shaw were dreadful backwards moves and the good kids we have are at the mercy of one of worst coaches in the league, especially in the area of favouring plugs and pets over guys who are actually performing.

we are currently blessed with the best goalie in the league, and he covers the warts which i dont want covered. i want a bad enough season, which we are more than capable of without bad luck, to culminate in a house cleaning and a new era which might salvage what we have and move on from the dead weight. whatever good we do this year will be a fugazi, and just prolong team gritty foxhole for 2 more years at least.

sorry for the negativity amigos, but im too old for kool aid :S

 

 

 

[HabsRuleForever]

Healthy Price=playoffs.

The other=early golf season.

[Noob616]

Voted fringe playoff team and I expect a 1st round exit, but Price could maybe win a round on his own.

This is probably the best Habs roster since '93 but there's a lot of issues that have to be addressed for the roster to actually live up to its potential. Carey Price is the best goalie in the world, Pacioretty is one of the 5 best goal scorers alive, an elite penalty killer, and a monstrously good possession player which is incredibly rare from a winger. Galchenyuk has been a first line center for 2 years and the team finally seems to believe in him as a top flight center, he's seriously good and will eat the weak Atlantic division defense alive. Gallagher is criminally underrated and drives possession and goals at even strength like very few players in the league. Plekanec is still a strong two way player and a skilled passer and PP guy who will benefit from having quality linemates for the first time since he played with Kostitsyn and Kovalev almost a decade ago. Lehkonen was great in a high level men's league last year and is probably a top 6 NHL winger already. The Habs have tons of quality bottom 6 players to make a third scoring line with, Desharnais, Shaw, McCarron, Hudon, Andrighetto, Carr, and probably Scherbak are all quality 3rd line scorers and can play on the 2nd line in a pinch. This depth spills over into the 4th line where Mitchell is a solid anchor who can eat minutes without getting demolished. 

On D the outlook is far less positive but there's still bright spots . Petry is an all situations anchor who can give you 25 minutes a night of strong play, Beaulieu is at least a top 4 guy and has fringe top pair potential and a good skillset to compliment Weber. Weber is no longer the guy who can drive the bus at even strength but he's the best goal scoring defenseman and 2nd best power play defenseman in the game. Markov is still holding on and with limited minutes he's capable, Emelin is fine on a third pair and between Redmond and Pateryn the right side is in good shape. Sergachev is the big wildcard, it's a big ask for an 18 year old defenseman but if he's able to play top 4 minutes and push Markov to the 3rd pairing and Emelin to the press box, the Habs could be in good shape. There's a lot that has to go right for the Habs and there's little room for anything to go wrong (a prolonged Petry or Beaulieu injury could be catastrophic) on D, but I don't think it's out of the question that Beaulieu-Weber/Sergachev-Petry/Markov-Redmond is good enough to not be a drain on the forwards. I don't think the team's defense will actually be good this year outside a big trade or if Sergachev is the Russian Ekblad but it's possible they can be good enough that the forwards can carry the team, and that the D can be good enough to not throw away the advantage of having Price. Basically the Habs have the best goaltending, probably the 7-8th best forward group in the NHL, and could maybe have the 15-20th best defense if everything goes right. That's not ideal but the Penguins won the cup in 2009 with a mediocre defense. Just have to hope Price can tilt the scales as much as Crosby/Malkin did.

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That being said, I have little to no faith whatsoever that they will make the necessary adjustments. They brought in Shea Weber because he makes the safe play, namely he either moves the puck to his partner or throws it off the glass. That's fine as long as he plays with Beaulieu who can complement him and move the puck, but for whatever reason this team seems to be very low on Beaulieu as a player and I fully expect them to punt him to the third pairing at the first sign of trouble, and then throw an 18 year old Sergachev to the wolves in his rookie year. I expect the coach to rely heavily on Markov despite the fact that he's a shadow of his former self, for the past 3 or 4 years they've said they want to control Markov's minutes and he ends up playing 24 minutes a night in all situations and being completely gassed by playoff time if they even make the playoffs in the first place. I think they'll try Emelin-Weber for a while and take too long to realize it's not good because they'll make a bunch of big highlight reel hits and block shots so we can all feel great about how much they hated to lose. I think they'll try Markov-Weber for an extended period of time and take a while to realize it's not actually good because Markov will make impressive passes to Weber leading to slap shot goals and they'll never get caught massively out of position because they're too slow to ever be out of position in the first place.

I think Beaulieu will start with Weber, have a couple bad games and some turnovers, and get punted to the third pair and replaced with Sergachev who will struggle with those minutes in his rookie season and then eventually Weber will be paired with Markov or Emelin for far too long. It's pretty easy to imagine the team having a rough stretch and trading Beaulieu for a veteran guy who was good a few years ago but isn't good anymore, and then play that guy far too much. I expect Shaw to end up on Plekanec's line and Radulov to play with Desharnais. I expect good players like Hudon, Carr, McCarron, Andrighetto, and Scherbak to be pushed down the depth chart in favour of grinders like Mitchell, Danault, and Byron. I expect the team to start strong and then at the first sign of trouble the tactical response will be to tighten up defensively and return to Therrien's signature "breakout" of hurling the puck off the glass and giving the puck away. I expect the team to make adjustments to alleviate any big glaring deficiencies, but to worsen the macro level possession issues and lose from the harm of a thousand cuts. I expect Lehkonen to be moved down to the third line and replaced with Carr after he makes a defensive gaffe, I expect Shaw to remain on the power play despite him being probably the 10th best PP forward on the roster because they need to justify throwing 3.9M for 6 years at a grinder. I expect them to turn the 3rd line into a grinding line after the scoring line makes some bad defensive plays, but it won't be any good because Desharnais is weak defensively and they traded Eller who was versatile enough for a flex 3rd line for Shaw who isn't a great center and is a worse defensive player.