Julien4JackAdams

Habs need 1 game changer. firing jullien will help, but a game changer is required. Who that is? I have no clue.

guy boucher inbound

I would like to preface this with I think you are still likely to finish 2nd in the North Division, its not really far fetched to think perhaps your team isn't as good as most seemed to think it was. After all you were super far out of a playoff spot last season and added two middle 6 wingers. That doesn't generally translate to a huge jump up the standings.

In all honesty I think Hab fans should chill out. No need to worry yet, the one thing I saw with this team is they could be prone to stretches where their offence dries up. They don't have the star power to turn a game around on one shift. Even when they out chance a team, especially in this division, they could set themselves on the wrong side of 3-2 games. That being said, I think over the whole season, they will have winning records against pretty much everyone other than TO and maybe Winnipeg. I thought Calgary would be a hard matchup but they seem like they are imploding. You'll beat Edmonton 6 or 7 times and I doubt you'll lose to Vancouver this season. So take a deep breath and relax. This is just a rough patch.

Nah, I didn't like Julien the day he was hired to replace Therrien. Like Therriens habs owned Julien's bruins, why would you replace your coach with someone the coach you just fired routinely out coached. It's so weird that Therrien was replaced by Julien twice! Statistically speaking (point % and playoff performance) Therrien was the best MTL coach since Therrien the first time. Also look where the bruins are without Julien.

Therrien got a lot more out of less when he was coaching MTL - Julien is on his 5th season now and the results have not come, his time is up. Anyone watching the habs right now know how bad his coaching decisions are right now, see the long description above for some examples.

MTL is currently 4th in the division, they play Ottawa twice (MTL is 1-1-1 against them now) and the Jets 4 times coming up. If things don't turn around quick MTL will have no choice but to make changes before the season is lost.

Well it's comforting to see the Leafs aren't the only fan base that blows things way out of proportion.

This is exactly what he did in boston btw. ruined or stunted alot of their younger talent to keep vets that could backcheck effectively in the lineup. He was also miserable at in game adjustments. I cried tears of joy when the habs took on Julien lol.

Coming from a leafs fan, this is like saying Toronto should not have fired Babcock. Look at them now, for the first time that I've seen the the team is actually committed to playing a defensive structure and with all that offensive talent it is pretty scary for other teams.

How is wanting a coaching change after 5 years of losing blowing things out of proportion? Therrien got fired when MTL was 1st place in the division... Julien can't even make the playoffs.

I would have fired Babs earlier but I think Julien is not deserving this right now. The years of losing is a personel issue.

That's like saying "oh it's not Babcock fault matthews, marner, Nylander, etc. just don't know how to play defense - it's a personel issue".

It is naive to pretend that coaching does not impact how a team performs. Look at Keefe in TOR, look at Boston immediately after firing Julien, look at what Trotz did for NYI, look at what Tortorella did with CBJ after they lost everyone to free agency, look at Gallant with the Vegas expansion team, look at Coach Q in Florida this year, look at Berube taking a last place STL blues to cup champions in the same season.... coaching is so important.

At this point Julien just has excuses, he does not have answers or solutions - his time is done, just like the many coaches that get fired every year. It is nothing personal, he has not gotten results in 5 years, this year expectations are high there are no excuses for Julien. Last year expectations were high too after MTL missed playoffs with 96 pts - and Julien failed to deliver again but was saved by COVID.

If you can't see it this way we will just have to agree to disagree - you of all people being a leafs fan should know the difference a coach can make. It is too easy for fans of other teams to say it is a personel issue when you don't watch the players be misused night in night out.

Of course coaching matters but I don't see coaching being a problem in Montreal. When Montreal loses, it isn't generally because they get out played. It's because they lack the game breaker that other teams have. Against TO it wasn't that they were that much worse, Matthews and Marner just always seem to capitalize on their chances. Having a team of 3 decent 2nd lines has its advantages and disadvantages.

Against teams like TO and Edmonton you are going to get your chances and sometimes have the edge in chances but the problem is the guys behind your chances just won't ever be as dangerous as guys like Matthews, McDavid, Draisaitl, Marner, JT or Nylander. Which is why you are in a cold streak. Tofolli and Anderson are not going to score 30 goals this season. Over 56 games I can see the Canadiens having several 30-40 point players but likely no one over 50. Which I think will lead to more than a few stretches where you lose 5 out 10 where you were not at all bad but just don't score as much. And there will be games where you are clearly the better team but McDavid scores 4 points and you lose 5-4.

Blaming the coach for that is ignoring the big problem. Doesn't matter who you have behind the bench, the players on the ice are just lacking game breakers. In the North it's even worse since there are many in the division. TO and Edmonton and to lesser extend Winnipeg and possibly Calgary all have guys that can hurt you at any given moment. Montreal doesn't have that.

No one is claiming Montreal has game breakers or Toffoli / Anderson will score 30 goals this season.

There strength is there depth, but if the coach does not have players in the right positions to succeed well then it's not going to work.

KK playing less than 14 minutes a game.

Romanov playing 3rd pairing on his off side with Kulak and Mete. This guy is a top prospect and a rookie - wouldn't you want him playing with a veteran? Maybe a veteran like Shae Weber - who has been awful next to Chiarot this season, but they are somehow the two most used defenseman on MTL, even though Petry is having a Norris caliber season. Is a Norris contender not considered a game breaker?

They also have Jake Allen who is giving them Elite goaltending, yet they continue to give more starts to Carey Price who is one of the worst goalies in the league right now (based off Evolving Hockey's GSAx metric).

There powerplay set up is the worst part and they changed it while it was successful just because they felt the need to get Perry on the 1st unit.

If you want to dumb it down to they have no game breakers you can, you don't watch MTL game in game out to see the issues related to coaching decisions.

Petry never plays against top competition because he can't handle it. He gets PP and 2nd pair matchups while Weber gets all the hard matchups. Petry is a good defenceman but a Norris contender is about as big a stretch as there is on here.

Depth is great but as I mentioned have 3 decent to below average 2nd lines can get you in trouble when guys run cold. KK would get destroyed going toe to toe with top lines like TO, Edmonton and Winnipeg have. Against some teams, his line will look really good as they play against 3rd and 4th lines. I'd love to see Montreal hard match KK against Matthews or JT. It won't go well for you.

Montreal needs a true franchise centre and they don't have one and instead try to overwhelm with speed and depth. Against certain teams that will win a lot, against others they can run dry.

I figured Montreal was going to be a good team this year, however I felt they would have some rough patches where their scoring dries up temporarily. Just stay calm and weather it. Calgary is a dumpster fire and you will at worst finish 4th without much trouble but I'd be confident enough to bet you'll finish 2nd or at worst 3rd if Winnipeg proves to be the real deal which I think is a stretch.

Dude... this circles back to the coaching issues. You claim Petry never plays against top competition because he can't handle it yet him and Edmundson are statistically the best D pairing in the NHL right now while Chiarot and Weber are getting buried defensively.

KK is the 9th youngest player in the NHL. In the bubble he had no problem playing against the likes of Crosby, Malkin, and the Flyers. He dominated scoring chance shares in playoffs and I can't find the articles but he essentially gave up zero high danger chances while he was on the ice. Coming back to coaching again, it's pretty telling that when Julien left the bubble for his operation Muller was playing KK 19 minutes a game and now Julien is playing him less than 14 minutes a game again while Danault has no goals in 17 games and continues to get top 6 minutes.

Dude just drop it, you aren't even here to discuss coaching I've had to respond to your talent evaluation of a team you don't even follow 5 times now when this thread is about the coaching.

All I am saying is just take a breath dude, thinks aren't as bad as they seem.

Things could definitely be worse.

Much worse, I think we are going to get a TO vs Montreal playoff matchup and that is going to be great.