he did WHAT



agreed on defense... but offense i will disagree. the whole dvorak line has been pretty good

I really feel Anderson is driving that line by himself. Dvorak has been pretty vanilla thus far and Drouin has produced yes but I'd say he hasn't really done much in terms of driving offense for the line. This line has been by far the best line though don't get me wrong but I think there is still more to give from Dvorak and Drouin. The rest of the forwards......woooffff!

Gallagher is concerning.

time for me to hop around acgms that are buying and ask "may i interest you in a slightly used ben chiarot"

I can't be the only one who feels that Jake Evans is far better suited as the 3rd line center over Brooks, right?

Evans is hurt.

....

I mean we all saw that Gallagher wasn’t himself offensively post-injury last year, and it still doesn’t look like he’s back to his old self yet.

Another issue could be that he’s without Danault, because since 2018 he hasn’t worked well with any other centre. But he’s still seemed to have lost his touch.

Sooooo, maybe losing Price, Weber, Tatar, Danault hasn’t gone too well, Allen is good but he can’t do everything, our D sucks so much and our forwards can’t do anything except the Drouin line kinda. Regular season Ducharme could be back, didn’t like him in the regular season but his playoff performance may have masqueraded his faults

Ripped a page out of @kotkaniemi15 's book and I took a look at our offseason acquisitions and departures for the past 5 seasons and where our mindset was at the time...
only taking a look at notable players or ones that have played a considerable amount of games for the Canadiens

Maybe start at the bottom at work your way up so it's kind of in chronological order.


2021 offseason heading into the 2021-22 season

After a painful Stanley Cup Finals loss, Montreal is looking to bounce back even stronger. The expectations are to contend for a playoff spot in the Atlantic division and see the progressions of the Suzuki-Caufield duo that was so good in the playoffs. With the most additions AND losses in a single offseason in the last 5 years, MTL is currently 0-4-0, has only scored.3 goals in those 4 games and has apparent chemistry issues. I think the problem is chemistry... this is just not the same team we saw in June and July and it shows with the number of transactions they made. The only real answer at the moment is time.

Losses : 13
*Edmundson - Injury
*Byron - Injury
*Price - Injury
Weber - Injury
Danault - Free Agency
Tatar - Free Agency
Kotkaniemi - Offer Sheet
Perry - Free Agency
Merrill - Free Agency
Staal - Probably Retiring
Gustafsson - Free Agency
Fleury - Expansion Draft
Weal - KHL

Additions : 9
Dvorak - Trade
Hoffman - Free Agency
Savard - Free Agency
Perreault - Free Agency
Paquette - Free Agency
Montembeault - Waivers
Wideman - Free Agency
Niku - Free Agency
Brooks - Waivers


2020 offseason heading into the 2020-21 season

Before the suspension of the season, it looked like the 2018-19 campaign was a fluke as the Habs finished as the 24th seed in the whole league. However, the bubble playoffs proved that this team was on the come up with a young center core of Suzuki and Kotkaniemi. The emergence of the young guys lead to guys like Toffoli and Perry to sign with MTL in free agency. The only expectation this season was to make the playoffs and then see what would happen...

Losses : 7
Domi - Trade
Juulsen - Waivers
Hudon - Swiss League
Alzner - Buyout
Kinkaid - Free Agency
Weise - Lost him to the Habs Tonight Podcast
Folin - SHL

Additions : 7
Toffoli - Free Agency
Anderson - Trade
Perry - Free Agency
Edmundson - Trade
Allen - Trade
Romanov - Signed ELC
Frolik - Free Agency


2019 offseason heading into the 2019-20 season

A surprise season lead Montreal to be only one win short of a playoff spot. What was supposed to be a down year turned out to be a revelation. Domi and Tatar had breakout seasons while Kotkaniemi looked like he would be the future number one center after a pretty good rookie year. In the offseason, MTL didn't change much but got a little more depth. Rookies Suzuki and Fleury were making their professional debuts this upcoming season while Kinkaid was finally the right backup the Habs needed since Budaj.

Losses : 4
Shaw - Trade
Benn - Free Agency
Deslauriers - Trade
Lernout - Free Agency

Additions : 5
Suzuki - Signed ELC
Chiarot - Free Agency
Cousins - Free Agency
Fleury - Signed ELC
Kinkaid - Free Agency


2018 offseason heading into the 2018-19 season

After a disappointing year, the Habs looked to start some sort of retool molded around Price and Weber. The team got younger and it was expected to be a really bad year after having traded away Pacioretty and Galchenyuk.

Losses : 3
Pacioretty - Trade
Galchenyuk - Trade
Carr - Free Agency

Additions : 8
Domi - Trade
Armia - Trade
Kotkaniemi - Draft
Tatar - Trade
Ouellet - Free Agency
Plekanec - Free Agency
Agostino - Free Agency
Peca - Free Agency
Chaput - Free Agency


2017 offseason heading into the 2017-18 season

After an underwhelming playoff series against the Rangers, Montreal was looking to keep Radulov and add more even offense to make the playoffs again next year. They also revamped the blue line after the losses of Markov, Emelin, and Beaulieu by replacing them with Schlemko, Morrow, and Alzner...

Losses : 6
Radulov - Free Agency
Markov - Retirement
Emelin - Expansion Draft
Beaulieu - Trade
Sergachev - Trade
Flynn - Free Agency
Redmond - Trade

Additions : 7
Drouin - Trade
Deslauriers - Trade
Alzner - Free Agency
Froese - Free Agency
Schlemko - Trade
Morrow - Free Agency
Hemsky - Free Agency


I may have missed some players, I did this solely off memory


* Expected to come back at some point this season

My assessment of the team’s problems right now:

Forwards
Problem: A lack of chemistry and even luck with the forwards. Few people are gelling, and I’m sure everyone going cold at the same time is also a factor.
Solution: Mostly just wait it out and hope things work out. Toffoli, Anderson, Gallagher, Hoffman, and likely Dvorak should be good for at least 20 goals each barring massive drop-offs, so it’s not like this team won’t score. You can’t force chemistry, and there’s not much Ducharme can do other than continuing to throw stuff at the wall and see what sticks.

Defense
Problem: Officiating and the loss of Joel Edmundson. Our D was not good in the regular season last year. They did get a lot better in the playoffs, which was partially because of the more lax officiating (specifically Chiarot & Weber). Weber isn’t here anymore, but Savard hasn’t brought anything positive in contrast to Weber’s regular season, and Chiarot is losing effectiveness, putting us at a deficit. Now that we’re without Edmundson and our 2nd pairing is ineffective, the D corps is a mess.
Solution: When Edmundson returns that hopefully returns the top pair to being a part of the team that can be leaned on. But still, for the D to improve in the regular season or even get to the heights it reached in the playoffs, Romanov needs to grow into more than he was last year and Chiarot/Savard need to provide something similar at least to what Chiarot/Weber provided last year.

Goaltending
Problem: We aren’t as good without Carey. It hasn’t affected the outcome of any of the games, but we’re worse without him.
Solution: Wait until Carey is back. Maybe we trade for a cheap backup if that isn’t close enough.

Power Play
Problem: The 2nd unit was never good last year. Up until the addition of Hoffman last night, it was lacking a trigger man. The 1st unit (which has now been shaken up) seems to be dealing with everyone just going on a cold streak. Caufield has been snake bitten. Also, no one can replace Corey Perry’s impact in front of the net.
Solution: Hoffman should hopefully make the 2nd unit dangerous. The absence of Weber will prevent the 2nd unit from just being a time-waster. The rest is similar to the forwards, they need to work on chemistry and hope people break out of their slumps.

Intangibles
Problem: There’s a possibility that this team has mental hurdles with all of the players that they have lost over the summer or aren’t currently with the team.
Solution: ?

I agree with everything u said

I think that the real problem is mental. Without Weber or Price in the locker room it feels like the boys have no more motivation

Yeah, the problem is definitely a mix of chemistry, slumps, Ducharme, offseason losses and mental/motivation issues

I didn't even realize. What happened to him?

Ducharme said he has a minor injury. Not sure what it is.

Have you seen the defensive core? Can't win when 3 of our defensemen are stay at home defenders and can't produce an ounce of offense nor can they make a tape to tape pass. Petry is 33 and shouldn't shouldn't the only defender relied on for offense. Romanov - Widemen isn't great, but what do you expect from Romanov when the team just scratched him for the entire playoffs? Montreal ruined his confidence and you expect him to somehow come back perfectly fine? Our coaching is clueless (guaranteed Savard-Chiarot will still be together). The players don't want to play for these awful coaches and it's the correct response. Had all offseason to come up with a new game plan for our PP and PK and they are still running the exact same thing as last year (when it was awful)

Mike Hoffman — Nick Suzuki — Brendan Gallagher
Jonathan Drouin — Christian Dvorak — Josh Anderson
Tyler Toffoli — Mathieu Perreault — Cole Caufield
Artturi Lehkonen — Jake Evans — Joel Armia
Adam Brooks — Cédric Paquette

Brett Kulak — Jeff Petry
Ben Chiarot — Chris Wideman
Alexander Romanov — David Savard
Sami Niku

Jake Allen
Samuel Montembeault

The lines in practice today, hallelujah, Chiarot-Savard isn't a thing

Perreault 3C lmao

Yeah man I agree with everything.

In Bergy's/Ducharme's conference today, he has stated that it's unlikely Weber ever plays again though Weber is hanging around the team apparently, as a much-needed leadership figure, Edmundson is better, but he's with his family since his dad is battling lung cancer, he'd like to stay in Montreal as GM but we'll see what happens, the lines in practice are not necessarily the lines for tomorrow so Chiarot-Savard could still be a thing rip, Bergy and Ducharme have noticed problems with the team through preseason and the regular season ( thanks captain obvious )

and now time for me to hop around Chicago ACGMs to ask for a fair Strome trade

i thought the defense was shifting around

Interesting https://www.tsn.ca/NHL/video/we-can-get-out-of-this-pretty-quickly-habs-not-worried-with-0-4-~2298656

À Brossard, où on n'a pas oublié Kotkaniemi. Ou peut-être l'a-t-on oublié, en fait 🤔 pic.twitter.com/H2TBpMZT1A

— Guillaume Lefrançois (@glefrancoisLP) October 21, 2021

The training facility could use a little update

Wall of ex players maybe? Domi, Lindgren, Kk, Mete are all there