OCTOBER 15, 2021 – For those of us that pay to watch the Habs online we want our money back after watching the embarrassment in Buffalo.
Simple reality. When Dom was hired to replace Claude Julien the team really didn’t improve. They backed into the playoffs.
Even their Cinderella run which was fueled by injuries to the opposition and some good fortune had the team playing better while Dom was out with Covid.
It’s not Dom’s fault. It’s just actually insane to put a rookie coach into a situation like the Habs. Unfortunately artificial political silliness has left Montreal with much less options at coach so their options are to stick it out with Dom until he hopefully improves or find a retread francophone coach. Hope that coverage in le Journal to Montreal is worth it. But the prep that should’ve been done during pre season didn’t appear to be on the ice or the play of the team so far in these two losses. That’s on coaching.
The good. Dvorak. He’s a very good player. He’s winning face offs. Suzuki and Dvorak are not Crosby and Malkin, but they’re better than Danault & Suzuki. Jake Allen was stellar in the loss to the Leafs. Kulak wants more ice time and based on the first two games should probably get it by default. Certainly until Edmonson returns he should be supporting Jeff Petry.
Drouin is skating well. Josh Anderson is awesome.
The Bad. D – simply put the Habs needed a second offensive D man or teams can key on Petry. Wideman is off to a good start, but probably should be limited to 3rd pairing and some PP. He’s a band aid, not the solution.
The Habs have a stronger forward corp, but they need to move the puck through the neutral zone and sustain an attack. That’s not happening. The passes are not working and you need to carry the puck to draw penalties and get into power play situations. Of course you need to score goals on the PP to make that work.
Coaches jobs are to get more value out of their rosters. This isn’t happening right now. Montreal needs to remedy this fast. Never mind excuses about injuries, lame duck GM’s, and Covid. The team was blown out by what just may be the worst team in the league in Buffalo. 40 year old Craig Anderson nearly notched a shut out.
Geoff Molson needs to kick this into gear if he hopes for this team to make the playoffs. Losing two in a row to start the season is not a good omen.
jamie@cornwallfreenews.com