Recrutes: Hockey scouting from a professional perspective from Grant McCagg and Habs coverage from a 33 year veteran covering the NHL from Brian Wilde.
October 10, 2017
By Brian Wilde
Brian Wilde takes on the false narratives surrounding the team and tackles the real problem.
Sorry, but you must be a subscriber to view this content. Click here to sign in
Well said Brian!
Hey Brian,
Disagree with you on where 92 should go, he needs to be the other point man, only he is a strong enough passer to feed left (#6) or right (#27).
Great post. Love the insight!
On one powerplay in the first there were 2 Habs behind the goal line – they spent a good 20 seconds passing the puck back and forth then around the perimeter then back and forth behind the net…WTF?
Agreed. That was so useless. Two guys behind the net? That basically turns it into a 3 on 3 in front of the net. I like a 5 on 3 to be a 5 on 3 looking at the goalies crest not his number.
Excellent points regarding the goal scoring.
And while the defence is not that bad, they do need to make a better first pass. Too many turnovers!
I really believed that the neutral zone turnovers that cost the Habs last night were more forward issues. There was no back support whatsover. Look at the second goal again. Where the hell was the help? The 3 forwards didn’t get back implicated in the play forever.
I don’t agree with what you are saying. I really feel that the coaching staff is hesitant to give Galchenyuk that chance. That is where he belongs, he also belongs on line 1. But I don’t think the coaches trust him enough for us to see that. My biggest worry as a fan is that this team doesn’t have the game breaker to step up when nobody else is scoring. It seems to be easy to shut down this team when it matters. The Rangers series showed us that and maybe as a fan I’m still hesitant to think things have changed.
I don’t see who gets the puck when Galchenyuk is on line one, though I agree with you that he is creating not enough with his talents where he is. He would play well with Lehkonen, but that is the only line that is going….
I really enjoyed Angry Wilde.
It’s unfortunate the the coaching staff have not recognized the deficiencies with the PP yet. I do like the idea of brining Lehkonen into the unit – he’s got the talent to score. He seems to be a consistent player, without any dips.
Hemsky is slowly turning into my Gomez. Maybe that’s not fair to say, but he’s really a wasted body on the ice. The example you provided with him on the PP is concerning. Man advantage or two man advantage means nothing when you have a guy who doesn’t touch the puck.
It was Hemsky who was passing to Pacioretty on the 5 on 3. It was useless but it was him. But Hemsky was a 1 million dollars failed experiment. It was worth a shot. Not Gomez who was 7 milion, but yes, it’s the same type of player. I don’t see him doing a thing this year.
Hi Brian, great points on the PP. Chucky does need to be used for the one timer and Weber needs to be used more as well as his shot is unreal and right now easy to defend against and not utilized. In regards to shooting percentage, I agree it has to go up but I also think they need to get in to the high danger areas to shoot. I don’t recall in any of the games the goalie from the other team stealing the show. Too many easy shots to defend. Watching the Rangers game the other night also reminded me that the team does need some size on forward. Hudon, Gallagher, Byron, Hemsky, Lehkonen, Shaw are all well south of 200 pounds and are not really physical either. They really need McCarron to step up his game.
I would also like to see Hudon on the top line. I would like to see:
Max-Drouin-Hudon
Chucky – Pleks- Lehkonen
Shaw-Danualt-Gallagher
Byron-De La Rose-Scherbak
Pacioretty should be in front of net imo. He has no slapshot so on the point is not strongest idea.
I really get the feeling that the Habs have make up their mind on #27 and he doesn’t fit into their long term plans. Why is it that they can’t develop their high draft picks? Very poor player development. Or maybe 27 has checked out mentally.
So we can blame it on Pas D’Puckluck?…
Good Rant Brian you make too much sense.
Let’s hope they make some changes it could get ugly after Saturday
HabfaninTO
Another potential advantage of having Galchenyuk on the right side is that with his skills he can either tee up the one-timer or the quick touch pass to set up Weber for his canonading drive.
Pacioretty on the left point also has big upside–he could act like a rover or pull off the backdoor play that Markov was so brilliant at for years.
They have the tools to get things going. They will sooner rather than later. Upside from tonight: they finally scored the first goal. We saw the momentum that they had running for the first sixteen minutes of the period. Two quick goals turned things. Had they bounced back or even got an early one in the third I think it’s a different outcome. That’s hockey.
I’m not worrying about the long-term trends here. Look, these are tough teams they’re playing against to start the season–line up almost any squad doing three games in four nights against the Caps, Rangers, and Hawks (all in different cities) and you won’t see many teams getting six points.
On to the next one…The Streak on the line against the Leafs.