In the previous game with the Sens, I thought Weber had a difficult and frustrating game in trying to contain Brady Tkachuk. Last night looked even worse.
Tkachuk is a beast and hard for anyone to play against. Last night's game looked a little different. Montreal made some adjustments for Tkachuk but in doing that they opened the front of the net to Batherson. Batherson is also another big 22 year old boy.
I think Karine is right. If you are a physical defensman and unable to handle the bigs down low, maybe it is time to hang up the skates.
In the previous game with the Sens, I thought Weber had a difficult and frustrating game in trying to contain Brady Tkachuk. Last night looked even worse.
Tkachuk is a beast and hard for anyone to play against. Last night's game looked a little different. Montreal made some adjustments for Tkachuk but in doing that they opened the front of the net to Batherson. Batherson is also another big 22 year old boy.
I think Karine is right. If you are a physical defensman and unable to handle the bigs down low, maybe it is time to hang up the skates. - spatso
I think he'd still be a decent top 4 dmen if his minutes were managed, but that is not happening.
The guy trying to assemble the puzzle comes off as a little stupid imo. He's a poor communicator who fumbles through press conferences at a snail's pace. I zone the (frank) out when he speaks and I imagine the players do too.
Excellent article. Its nice to see a proper and current analysis of Weber. He was an elite player, but those days are gone. This partially explains the failure of Bergevin's experiment.
Years worth of picks and prospects have been traded and/or rushed to compete in the competitive window afforded by the two elites, Price and Weber. Finally Bergevin has assembled a cast of adeqauate players to surround Weber and Price. Unfortunately, age related decline has relegated the pair to statistically sub-par performers. Thus, the window never truly opened as the surrounding cast arrived one or two seasons too late. Even if Price and Weber were in their prime, we would not be cup favourites. The experiment failed.
Now that the Bergevin experiment appears over there seems to be a number of questions the team must consider before moving forward:
1. The team is loaded with picks and good (but not great) players. How does the team use its assets to acquire two or three elite players. All recent cup contenders have them. Can they be acquired by trade, or is a rebuild necessary?
2. How good are our top players? Much of the offensive stats were achieved during the first 10 games. All of the other teams were treating these games as a training camp, working on line combinations and systems. Instead of system building, Bergevin and Julien were pushing for points. Since then the offense has shrivelled and the defensive is being mocked league-wide. It now appears we were deceived as none of players outside of Petry might be starters on a competitive team. In the Atlantic division, Tampa, Boston and Toronto all have at three or more players better than our best. How can this be fixed?
3. Can slow defenders still be useful. Perhaps a system can be established to prevent opponents exploiting the gaps. Is this possible or does much of the defensive core need to be changed?
4. Will ownership replace Bergevin and Ducharme with the best, or simply the best francophones? Perhaps the best available manager and/or coach will be francophone, but this should not be a requirement.
The guy trying to assemble the puzzle comes off as a little stupid imo. He's a poor communicator who fumbles through press conferences at a snail's pace. I zone the (frank) out when he speaks and I imagine the players do too. - Uranus
Yeah there was a lot of discussion about that in the last thread, I agree with you. If the guy only struggled to answer English questions, I’d give him a pass because French is his first language, but he struggles in both. At first I thought it was never and it would go away but not, last night he looked like a deer in the headlights during his post game presser. Some of the guys say that speaking to the press is different from speaking to the players and it is, but the guy cannot be a good communicator to come across that badly in his interactions with the media.
Excellent article. Its nice to see a proper and current analysis of Weber. He was an elite player, but those days are gone. This partially explains the failure of Bergevin's experiment.
Years worth of picks and prospects have been traded and/or rushed to compete in the competitive window afforded by the two elites, Price and Weber. Finally Bergevin has assembled a cast of adeqauate players to surround Weber and Price. Unfortunately, age related decline has relegated the pair to statistically sub-par performers. Thus, the window never truly opened as the surrounding cast arrived one or two seasons too late. Even if Price and Weber were in their prime, we would not be cup favourites. The experiment failed.
Now that the Bergevin experiment appears over there seems to be a number of questions the team must consider before moving forward:
1. The team is loaded with picks and good (but not great) players. How does the team use its assets to acquire two or three elite players. All recent cup contenders have them. Can they be acquired by trade, or is a rebuild necessary?
2. How good are our top players? Much of the offensive stats were achieved during the first 10 games. All of the other teams were treating these games as a training camp, working on line combinations and systems. Instead of system building, Bergevin and Julien were pushing for points. Since then the offense has shrivelled and the defensive is being mocked league-wide. It now appears we were deceived as none of players outside of Petry might be starters on a competitive team. In the Atlantic division, Tampa, Boston and Toronto all have at three or more players better than our best. How can this be fixed?
3. Can slow defenders still be useful. Perhaps a system can be established to prevent opponents exploiting the gaps. Is this possible or does much of the defensive core need to be changed?
4. Will ownership replace Bergevin and Ducharme with the best, or simply the best francophones? Perhaps the best available manager and/or coach will be francophone, but this should not be a requirement. - Jackie Daytona
Thank you, you ask some great questions and I’ll tackle them for sure in the future, most probably in the off season with the insane rhythm at which they are playing games, but I believe it’s time to live with the times and stop thinking that building from the net up is the way to go. The game is now fast and skilled and more money must be invested up front if the Habs are to return to their former glory.
Dang was gonna ask this guy: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=GS1hv7w1cBo but I just found out he was sentenced to death for crimes against chickenity... - Karine Hains
