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The (Around the League) Playoffs Thread

I think I'm entitled to issue an I told you so.

I said the Rags would win. Everyone laughed. I still find it outrageous that anyone thought the Habs would do anything in this postseason. It was plain as day.

My sympathies to the Habs fans though. Sucks for your season to be over, and the franchise is in dire straits right now. Blow that piece of shit roster up and start over.
 
JackBurton said:
I love how everyone will say "Rebuild Like Toronto" now in Montreal.
They'll never win without a true rebuild. And they'll never have a true top management team with their silly speak French rule.
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The Leafs were never going to win it all without tanking and drafting.

The Raptors are never going to win it all without a true Superstar (which they have never had).

The Habs were never going to win it all without a true number 1 C, D, etc.

The Jays will never win it all as long as they have a hack hack home runs home run all the time mentality and an in ability to manufacture runs otherwise.


People keep fighting these but they always come back to be true. Having the above doesn't guarantee a win, but not having it guarantees not winning.
 
Aberdeen said:
Sadly I could see Sens going deep.
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Yeah them and Oilers as well imo. Was paying attention to that Oilers-Sharks series and it surprised me how hard San Jose worked for their goals but still couldn't really generate much. Oilers have come a long way from being that shitty defensive team..Good goaltending too. It would suck for us if both teams managed to meet..Wouldn't hear the end of it from guys like Sensible and few others. Both are good and improved teams though so credit to them.
 
Aberdeen said:
Sadly I could see Sens going deep.
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Yeah. The Sens are definitely capable of finishing off the Bruins and defeating the Rangers as well.

As fun as our series against the Capitals has been to watch, that's the real shame of the Leafs not getting into the Atlantic division bracket. If the Leafs' road to the semi-finals went through Ottawa and the Rangers, I'd almost be willing to lay money on them getting there.

Still, I said it before the Montreal series, and I'll say it again now: the Rangers should not be underestimated. Their lineup may look unimpressive at first blush, due to it's lack of star power or elite-level talent. But their forward group is deep. They've got nine or ten forwards that can legitimately produce offensively. Their defense is more talented & mobile than it's been in recent years with the additions of Brady Skjei & Nick Holden. And if Henrik Lundqvist's posting a .947 SV%, that's a problem for their opponents.
 
It's amazing what can be done with a legit #1 center. All these peripheral pussies on teams can take a flying ****. Without the man in the middle is an exercise in futility.
 
LeafGm said:
Yeah. The Sens are definitely capable of finishing off the Bruins and defeating the Rangers as well.

As fun as our series against the Capitals has been to watch, that's the real shame of the Leafs not getting into the Atlantic division bracket. If the Leafs' road to the semi-finals went through Ottawa and the Rangers, I'd almost be willing to lay money on them getting there.

Still, I said it before the Montreal series, and I'll say it again now: the Rangers should not be underestimated. Their lineup may look unimpressive at first blush, due to it's lack of star power or elite-level talent. But their forward group is deep. They've got nine or ten forwards that can legitimately produce offensively. Their defense is more talented & mobile than it's been in recent years with the additions of Brady Skjei & Nick Holden. And if Henrik Lundqvist's posting a .947 SV%, that's a problem for their opponents.
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Rangers offense blows. They can be beat. Price let in 4 very unPricelike goals in the past 3 games. While his numbers were good, Lundqvist was there when they needed him.

That said, any coach will tell you that you generally need 3 goals to win a hockey game. Habs scored 3+ twice in the series. Guess which games they won?
 
Habsy said:
Rangers offense blows. They can be beat. Price let in 4 very unPricelike goals in the past 3 games. While his numbers were good, Lundqvist was there when they needed him.

That said, any coach will tell you that you generally need 3 goals to win a hockey game. Habs scored 3+ twice in the series. Guess which games they won?
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I think "blows" is an exaggeration, but yeah, the Rangers are no juggernaut. They can be beat. Like I said, I think both the Leafs and Sens are fully capable of beating them. And if some of your top guys who ended up with doughnuts on the board, like Galchenyuk and Pacioretty, had managed to produce offensively at all in this series, that probably would've been all the difference you guys would've needed to win.

As for Price, whether he allowed softies or not, I don't think you can even begin to pin any blame on him when he allowed two or less regulation goals in five out of the six games in this series, and three goals in the other game. I'd kill for the Leafs to have gotten that kind of goaltending in this series against the Caps.
 
yeah the narrative here has to be either the habs blew it or Henrik won it, I think.

I would lean towards the latter - i didn't watch all of it but Lundqvist looked great to me, when he was pretty awful most of the year. If lundqvist played anything like that this season the rags would have finished much higher.
 
It's not Price's fault. It's all their faults. Plus, Julien tried playing Bruins meathead hockey. He made some pretty stupid decisions.

If this signals Bergevin's dismissal it will have been worth it. If not, the Habs are in Canucks/ old Leafs territory. Bleh.
 
Habsy said:
It's amazing what can be done with a legit #1 center. All these peripheral pussies on teams can take a flying ****. Without the man in the middle is an exercise in futility.
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Would you guys deal Gally + + to solve this?
 
Habsy said:
It's not Price's fault. It's all their faults. Plus, Julien tried playing Bruins meathead hockey. He made some pretty stupid decisions.

If this signals Bergevin's dismissal it will have been worth it. If not, the Habs are in Canucks/ old Leafs territory. Bleh.
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Yeah, this is true. Though I think Molson should be buying his pink slips in bulk. Really, pretty much your entire front office and most importantly your entire scouting department should be shown the door. Their recent track record is just as bad, if not worse than the Leaf scouting group that Shanahan axed a couple of summers ago. And their performance have just as much to do with Montreal's lack of depth as Bergevin's poor performance as GM.

Then after that, thick wads of cash and the prestige of the Canadiens franchise should be enough to bring in top quality scouting & front office talent. As long as they don't continue with the insane idea that a candidate's last name and first language are the two most important starting criteria.
 
Nobody allows shits like Byron and Mithchell to step foot on the playoffs stage, and Price has never been regular season Price once the postseason started. The team sucks. I said it from day one through today. I'm really not rubbing salt, I just think it was so obvious to anyone paying attention.
 
My dad ran into Mitchell's mom just this morning and she was bashing the Habs for not playing Torrey.

And regarding Price, can you win in the cap era giving your goalie 11 million per? Not so sure.
 
it's pretty hard to **** up drafting a prime price and subban together.

but instead of trading Galy+ to fill their needs up front, they traded the stud dman.
 
Max has to wear some major goat horns. He just did not step up. This guy really is the worst captain in franchise history like Therrien said in the summer. Even if they don't blow it up, they have to trade him and give the C to Weber, since he's definitely not going anywhere for many, many years.

They also need to deal Galch. They clearly don't like him and they're driving his value into the ground by basically telegraphing everyone in the world that they don't like him as a center. He really is a one dimensional winger like JVR, so either embrace it or get rid of him now.

Whatever they do, the franchise is toast, and I don't see it being an easy decision for Price to want to resign. At least you could trade him for a ton. Do it this offseason. Tear the core out and start over. This shitty nucleus has had a decade to prove they could do something and they've never come close and are still missing a #1 C that they can only possibly get from the draft.
 
Pacioretty's not a bad player. He's basically JVR, but an even better goal-scorer.

But if you're counting on him to be your captain, leader and #1 offensive weapon, then you're not going to go very far. Especially since, like most goal scorers, he's going to have his hot streaks and his cold streaks.

In order to have success, he basically needs what Phil Kessel did---to have at least a couple of other forwards on his team that are his equal or (preferably) betters offensively. And where he's just a member of the supporting cast, where other members of his team are actually a threat when he's going through a slump.

And where he's not one of the main guys that has to stand in front of the press and face the music after each and every loss.
 
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One thing that's baffled me. Every year we get the win a cup for Ovy/Thornton narrative, but i never hear the same thing for Lundqvist.
 
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