OffThePost.org

Habs lose to the Sens in OT.

Shea Weber has been awful lately. Two goals and -4 after 17 games. Lost a battle in front of the net to Josh Norris.

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Heard that they are 5-6-1 against teams NOT called the Canucks. Ouch!

It's actually 5-5-2. Don't make it any worse than it already is.

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I'm putting most of the blame on Julien so far. When the team started out fast the defencemen were active and they were taking chances on offence. After a couple of losses Julien reverted the gameplan to playing it safe.

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Absolutely livid. Gallagher scores with 3 seconds left, only it gets called back on goalie interference, even though Murray was set. Then they go to overtime, Julien puts his defensive guys out and they turtle. Habs lose in the shootout.

Absolute debacle. League screwed up, Habs screwed up, Julien screwed up.

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It's a short season, so there's no time to mess around: after an embarrassing weekend and last night's debacle, the Habs fired Julien and Muller. Coach-in-waiting Dom Ducharme gets his shot.

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Wonder if we'll see a non-Francophone head coach in Montreal within our lifetimes.

Habs drop their first two under the new coach. They dominated Saturday, then put out duds in OT and got schooled by three forwards.

Danault hasn't scored in a calendar year and if things go sideways here, maybe they trade him. Suzuki-Kotkaniemi-Evans-Poehling would be fine if they weren't all so wretched on faceoffs. Man, Suzuki is so bad at faceoffs.

Allen looks more like Price than Price these days.

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The Avs have Landeskog take a lot of draws because MacKinnon kinda sucks at them. Can any of the wingers take them?

Danault looks like the cat that got eaten by the canary these days. Turned down a lucrative contract offer from Bergevin and it sure looks like that’s a gamble he’s going to lose big-time. Maybe now he can just acknowledge that he’s a third line guy.

So far new coach is sticking with the old lines. Hopefully that changes soon.

Danault hasn't scored a goal in a calendar year. Elite defence can only get you so far. How I'd do it, with Anderson currently out:

Drouin-Suzuki-Toffoli
Tatar-Kotkaniemi-Gallagher

Byron-Danault-Armia

Lehkonen-Evans-Perry/Frolik

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I like those forward lines!

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Habs lose another one in OT, but Drouin is flying and Kotkaniemi is gaining confidence daily. The wins will come.

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Much needed 7-1 rout against the Jets.

Kotkaniemi and Anderson looked great together. Danault-Tatar-Gallagher playing like old times.

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How do we feel about the defence?

Petry is playing like a Norris nominee, outside about a week after he got hurt in the Leaf game.

Weber and Chiarot are looking slow together. I don't hate Edmundson but is it too much slow on the back end? Looks like it, but he's also leading the league in plus minus riding shotgun with Petry.

Romanov makes rookie mistakes but he's the one guy after Petry who can take chances and not get burned. He's confident. Kulak gets a bum rap but he's also a guy who can come back and clean up mistakes.

Mete was great when he played. Just the odd man out.

On paper it's a solid 7, but I don't know if the moves to add size are working out. Still early, and Chiarot really got going later on. They all but said Edmundson would need months to get up to speed.

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So far the biggest beneficiary of a new coach is Kotkaniemi. Playing all situations, 6 points in 7 games, winning faceoffs, being physical.

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Sorry if I already mentioned this, Friedman talked in one of his pods about how Bergevin feels a successful team needs players who can get you to the playoffs, and players who get you through the playoffs. Obviously in loading up on big bodies for the back end as well as Josh Anderson up front, Bergevin is betting he has a club built for the postseason. I can't say this is an entirely bad idea either. It'll all come down to how well Price and Allen do anyway, so I guess we'll see.

Funny that's become Bergy's most enduring quote because he's had a miserable time getting into the playoffs, and even less luck getting far once they get in. His moves don't really suggest he's got a handle on what constitutes a regular season guy and a playoff guy.

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Chiarot got hurt in his fight yesterday, his roadtrip cut short. Big chance for Mete to probably play with Weber.

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I was hearing they may put Romanov with Weber.

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Bit of a rough one tonight. Habs burnt by Sutter's flame broiled D.