HabsCast Hockey Blog

For the second year in a row, the Canadiens came out with a strong start and jumped up the standings, as high as top 5 in the league for a short while. Then, same as last year, the “Slump”.

Why do we seem so strong at firsts and then crumble?

Some people think we don’t have the right players to win. I don’t. Clearly, we have proven more than a few times that we can compete against the best teams in the league. What we lack, though, in my opinion, is adjustability and long-run strategy.

To illustrate my point, let me use a boxing analogy. If you use the same punch over and over on a punching bag, it will not react and eventually there will be a dent in the punching bag. If you use the same punching combos in boxing against another experienced boxer, he will see your pattern and quickly find the way to hit you. Our team is like a strong boxer, that keeps hitting in the same spot for 12 rounds against a human opponent. It might work the first round, but to hope the same combos work for 12 rounds is foolish. That’s why there’s a coach in each corner, to see clearly what’s going on and give advice on how to adapt and win the fight. Without the coach, the boxer might miss subtle patterns and subtle flaws of his opponent and knowing how to work on those might help him win the fight.

I think what is happening in our case, since the last two years is that we are like a boxer without a coach. We are stuck with a one-system, one strategy minded coach. If we say, hypothetically, that overall, the coach can have an impact (positive or negative) on his team’s success between 10-20% (surely debatable, but whatever). Looking back to many of our losses, where we lost by only small margins, I think it is fair to say that some of those losses could have been avoided by the coach’s influence on the game. Look how Lindy Ruff turned the situation around. It took time, but somehow his team got back on track. Even though Boston still sucks, Julien had some effect on the team, and they are doing better this year with the same roster. I could go on with examples like this.

The Canadiens have very talented players. But after a while (i.e. 20-30 games) most other good teams figure out the flaws and strengths of other teams and adapt their play according to their capabilities, while we are stuck to the narrow-minded, frustrating Carbonneau system (”just outskate them” doesn’t work 82 games - Kostopolous and Begin can skate around all they want…). We become simply outcoached. Just look at it, most of the games we have a chance to win, and except a few losses like in New Jersey, we lose by a small margin of 1 or 2 goals.

In other cities coaches pull out their goalies, give more or less ice time to the right elements according to situation, adapt the system, call a timeout or pull up a goalie to change momentum, etc. Clearly a coach that gives 10-12 mins per game to his 3rd-4th line while we lack scoring upfront, who puts defensemen (Breez-By) or players (Kostopolous) known to make turnovers when we lead by 1 at the end of the game, doesn’t call timeouts, is lost. Overall, I agree with people who say Carbo has improved since last year, but has he yet improved enough to make an impact and to keep his team’s slumps from overextending? That’s what we’ll see in the next year. He did improve, but this is the NHL, not a kindergarden for rookie coaches, so maybe Gainey’s patience with Carbo shouldn’t be eternal. Boivin’s patience with Gainey shouldn’t be too long, as well as Gillet’s patience with all of the above. But that’s just me having fantasies again. Gillett is busy cheering for his soccer team, Boivin is eating poutine with (or at?) Lafleur’s, Gainey is…nobody knows what the hell he is doing and Carbo is just doing what he excels at doing, crying and looking pissed during post-game conferences.

Whatever… Any thoughts? Or anyone know a good hitman for hire?

[Topic via HFBoards.com]

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