St Johns

[Chuck]

Looks like having their AHL team mirror the Hab's winning without scoring system has worked out just fine... NOT! Have they fired any of them yet?

[Mike]

On 04/29/2017 11:39 AM, Chuck wrote:
> Looks like having their AHL team mirror the Hab's winning without scoring system has worked out just fine... NOT! Have they fired any of them yet?
>

Chuck - I’m tired of the negativity. Do you know how hard it is to find
first line centres or 1st line wingers who can score? Teams have them
and aren't giving them away you know. Besides teams can win without #1
and #2 centres. Get with the program man. :-)

[Chuck]

Running out of news... Not much to comment on until the expansion draft in June. Hopefully MB can keep signing a few more free agents such as Antoine Waked. As well as cheering PK on :). I guess Washington hasn`t figured out Eller yet. Watched their last game, he seemed to be all over the offensive zone, lots of energy, too bad he still can`t pass the puck. Washington needs to tell him to be more selfish with the puck, and to go for the net every chance he gets. if he loses the puck, not much will change, but might gain a scoring chance or two, instead of just chasing it around the perimeter his whole shift

[Chuck]

On Saturday, April 29, 2017 at 11:39:26 AM UTC-4, Mike wrote:

Hard not to be negative when the other team I cheer for, the Blue Jays, who along with MB drink the "it is better to recycle veterans inordinate number of times, journeymen who have failed to make it on numerous teams, then to take a chance on players who haven`t yet been given a chance to fail" koolaid.

[Mike]

and I'm getting as sick of MB as you are. I know of no other profession
that when faced with 3 failing years in a row where you can look your
boss in the eye and say "do you know how hard it is to succeed and do
what I'm tasked with doing?" without being shown the door. He's in full
excuse mode now which is delightfully ironic given his first 3 years
were all about "No excuses". He sure can whip them out when he feels it
necessary.

[Gerry]

Hey, this was their best season... after 5 years of missing the playoffs, they even won a playoff game this year before getting bounced!

But seriously, that staff has to go. Sometimes they've had good prospects, sometimes a few good minor league vets, but I would say that by and large the Habs haven't done a great job of stocking the team either. The roster that just finished the playoffs now, you've got the following:

NHL prospects: De La Rose, McCarron, Hudon, Scherbak, Lindgren, *maybe* Lernout

... so ok, 6 actual NHL prospects on your farm team. The number varies from team to team in the league, it feels a little on the low side to me atm for the Habs. Maybe 2 or 3 of those actually make the NHL?

Then fwiw, the rest of the team that played in the playoffs...

Quality AHL veterans: Terry, Redmond, Friberg, Matteau, Farnham, Hanley, Danis

Longshot prospects: Audette, MacMillan, Didier

Roster filler: Camara, Lowe, Petti, Brouillette, Veilleux

And a variety of healthy scratches and others. It seems to me like the team has had a lot of filler... guys on PTOs or who were cast off from other AHL teams, etc, over the years. I guess many AHL teams also feature that element, however in an ideal world it would be nice to think you had actual prospects (longshot ones to be sure) on the ECHL affiliate who could be called up instead. Other than Fucale, the Habs don't seem to use their Brampton affiliation very much (Crisp and Thrower are there too).

That they've left a dismally unsuccessful coaching staff in place on the farm for so long speaks to what I feel is a general state of neglect for their minor league development approach overall. It's not a huge deal in and of itself, but when nitpicking through the wreckage of another lost season, I think it's worth a mention. It's not like they are alone in the NHL in terms of not running a strong minor league development program. But it's obviously an area which could be improved.

l8r,
Gerry