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At what point do we look at the GM...

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http://montrealgazette.com/sports/h...of-puck-moving-rearguards-stifling-pacioretty

It was such a good idea to get rid of markov and not get a puck moving defenseman.

From 2012-13 to 2016-17, he ranks fifth in goals scored (156), behind Alex Ovechkin (219), Joe Pavelski (161), Sidney Crosby (159) and Patrick Kane (159). And if you filter the results by even-strength goals, Pacioretty’s scoring prowess is even more impressive. His 113 even-strength goals are second in the NHL during that time frame, behind only Ovechkin’s 118. It’s worth noting that Pacioretty played almost 700 fewer minutes than Ovechkin during those seasons.

Secondly, he’s no stranger to scoring slumps, which is often the case with high-volume shooters. During the past five seasons, Pacioretty ranks fifth in the NHL in shots, with an impressive 1,306 making their way to opposing goalies. Which brings us to the question du jour: What’s wrong with Pacioretty this season?

There are two ways of looking at the situation. You can shrug it off as an ill-timed scoring drought, which is a familiar issue for the Canadiens’ captain. Or you can look at how he has scored his goals, and cross reference the results with the current roster.

The focus tends to be on forwards when discussing goal creation, but the vast majority of scoring plays start in the defensive zone.

During the last three seasons, Pacioretty scored 102 goals. Sixty-four of them were assisted by Andrei Markov (30), P.K. Subban (25) or Nathan Beaulieu (9), who are no longer with the team. Subban and Markov provided both assists on four of those 64 goals, so we can lower the number of goals assisted by former defencemen to 60, or a stunning 59 per cent.

It makes sense because Pacioretty’s best weapon is his release, which he uses to fool opposing goaltenders with a combination of neutral-zone speed following an outlet pass. As it stands, the Canadiens simply don’t have the personnel on the blue line conducive to Pacioretty’s preferred method of scoring.

Montreal has no issue retrieving pucks, a skill that players like Shea Weber and Karl Alzner excel at, but the quick, accurate outlet passes are few and far between.

Jeff Petry and Weber combined for 13 assists on Pacioretty goals last season, but this year they’ve been rather occupied with defensive play, and have struggled to relaunch the offence. In fact, the only defender who’s managed a primary assist on defence this year has been Alzner, who’s primarily known for his defensive play.

This is where Markov’s loss hurts the Canadiens most. The Subban-Weber trade is the subject of debate but, at the very least, general manager Marc Bergevin acquired a defenceman in that transaction who helps the Canadiens in various aspects of play. Not only did Markov lead all Habs defencemen in even-strength primary assists last year, with 11, he was fifth in the NHL when you include power play assists. Not bad for a 38-year-old.

Losing Markov without a proper replacement was a death blow for head coach Claude Julien’s defensive corps, especially when it comes to generating offence. The result has been a disengaged, virtually invisible Pacioretty, who’s struggling to find ways to score because he has used outlet passes to generate chances throughout his NHL career.
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This GM is on a mission to destroy the team. Almost nothing else makes sense.
 
GrandWazoo said:
He has. Mete, Weber, Alzner and Petry have been ok for the most part, it's the 3rd pairing that has been killing us, along with the lack of scoring up front.
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Interesting cause the results don't match that narrative. Our defense sucks just as much as the offence.

I like Mete --- but some of the praise is likely due to him being the least stinkiest piece of shit of all the pieces of shit we have.
 
CaptainBolduke said:
Has he though?

Or is he just less shitty than the other guys.
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Mete has been good....the most satisfying thing is that he's been good at the age of 19 on the top pairing on a struggling team.

His ability to skate and move the puck out of the defensive zone, I like to call escalability, has made the size concern a non issue


I like the Bryan Rafalski comparison by far...skates well but is very reliable in his zone
 
DonKay said:
Mete has been good....the most satisfying thing is that he's been good at the age of 19 on the top pairing on a struggling team.

His ability to skate and move the puck out of the defensive zone, I like to call escalability, has made the size concern a non issue


I like the Bryan Rafalski comparison by far...skates well but is very reliable in his zone
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I hear yah and I like Mete, but I'm convinced this narrative has a lot to do with that fact that he's 19 and has no expectations.
 
GrandWazoo said:
He has. Mete, Weber, Alzner and Petry have been ok for the most part, it's the 3rd pairing that has been killing us, along with the lack of scoring up front.
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None of them are really helping with the transition game, at least not in the same league as subban and Markov, even beaulieu to an extent.

If what that article is pointing to is correct, max pac is going to be struggling for some time.
 
CaptainBolduke said:
I hear yah and I like Mete, but I'm convinced this narrative has a lot to do with that fact that he's 19 and has no expectations.
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Well I think teams are extremely tough on evaluations of 19 year olds in the first nine games...if you're not good they simply send you down so that a year of ELC isn't blown.

You have to be really convincing as a 19 year old to get by the first nine games and Mete has had that pressure and responded.
 
DonKay said:
Well I think teams are extremely tough on evaluations of 19 year olds in the first nine games...if you're not good they simply send you down so that a year of ELC isn't blown.

You have to be really convincing as a 19 year old to get by the first nine games and Mete has had that pressure and responded.
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Again, I like Mete - but my opinion stands. He's the least stinkiest piece of shit out there right now. He's playing fine, but he's benefiting from the shit that the others are doing.

Bunch of shithawks.
 
It's bad out there but I've been very impressed by Mete. Of course him being 19 years old improved the context.
 
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