On the eve of Passover # 5770, we put together our noggins to discuss some pertinent issues in Habsland. Is Andrei Kostitsyn overrated? Will he still be a Hab next year? If you had to pick one, would it be AK46 or his little bro SK74? What’s wrong with the power play and how can Martin fix it? Most importantly, will Pat manage to avoid eating bread for an entire 8 days this year?
Would you rather Ryan Kessler or Tomas Plekanec? Would you rather a great power-play or great 5-on-5 play? Would you rather keep Price and Halak or trade one of them? Most importantly, would you rather fart blue smoke or burp green myst? Okay I just made up that last one, but in case you haven’t noticed, our latest podcast is full of questions that need answers. Listen in…
Let’s face it, 2009 sucked!!! In fact, the whole friggin decade sucked! We go over just how sucky it really was and – more importantly – whether we can expect more of the same suckiness in 2010. Goodbye 00’s – Hello 10’s! 10 is so much nicer a number, don’t you think? Pretty sure the Habs do…
Habs Radio Episode 12 Part 1 [14:58m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download Habs Radio Episode 12 Part 2 [14:57m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download Habs Radio Episode 12 Part 3 [14:56m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download
In addition to all the weekly goodies, we discuss Jacques Martin’s handling of the young and incredibly important forwards on the team, as well as the French media’s obsession with Guillaume Latendresse.
Episode 8 Part 1 [14:59m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download Standard Podcast [14:59m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download
Pleky, Cammi, Gionta and Gomez (and Metro) are the only guys scoring. Here are the forwards who aren’t: AK-46, Latendresse, Lapierre, Pacioretty, D’Agostini (before the hit), and for good measure, brother Sergei.
Notice something? NONE of the forwards from last year are playing well this year except the veterans, Pleky and Metro. So why aren’t they performing?
Let’s look at what our slumping forwards have in common: Good size, speed, experience on a variety of lines….but MOST importantly I think…all are 24 and under (very young), all of them were drafted by the Habs to play a certain way, their head coaches were basically only Don Lever or Guy Carbonneau and beloved Saku was their captain.
None of that is true anymore. Now it’s a new system. New coach. New players. New linemates. No captain.
Taking all this into account, of course the young guys are going to have more trouble adjusting than the old guys. Plus, Jacques Martin is a perfectionist. He gets upset when he doesn’t get what he wants and starts frantically switching lines – this too will be tougher on the young guys.
The young folks are suffering from career-low confidence right now. We would love for them to be pros, to suck it up and grow a thicker skin, but it seems to me like they need patience and consistency, otherwise this season is in the toilet.
