Wednesday, February 3, 2010

Whee! That was fun, but for how long?


It's funny, in spite of the fact that the boys beat Vancouver last night, coach Martin wasn't  overly pleased.  He described the second period as wide open but it's not the "system" he wants them to play.  Yawn.  I have the Habs' most memorable games DVD set.  One thing that stuck with me was before the big Rangers come back game on the DVD, Guy Carbonneau does a short interview, he said "as a coach if you're down 5-0 you're already planning your strategy for the next game."  He also said when the guys started their come back he just simply ripped up his notes, threw them away and let the guys play how they wanted.  After watching last  night's game I wish Martin would rip up his notes.  The other day Scott Gomez was quoted saying "we need another game plan."  Glen Metropolit sounds extremely frustrated, I don't think he and Martin see eye to eye. Sometimes the guys actually look bored and disinterested.  I wonder if Martin's system is what's been stifling Sergei Kostitsyn and Max Lapierre?  Sergei was the best player on the ice last night.  I wonder if that's the reason they're good one game and crap the next?  Martin has to go back to the drawing board and instead of trying to instill his "system" play the system that best compliments the players' abilities. Until that happens, it's going to be a rocky ride.

8 comments:

Number31 said...

Ugh...facepalm. When I heard Martin talk like that I wanted to punch him...

Other games this season played like the one last night:
- Columbus game
- Detroit game once the team woke up
- Centennial game
- 1st Washington one
- 2nd Ottawa one
- Part of the Dallas one
- Carolina game before Christmas
- Florida game during Christmas
- 1st and 3rd Rangers game

Just to name a few.

What do they have in common? They're all WINS and have 3 or more goals in the game.

Guy Boucher > Jacques Martin

Kate said...

31,

The thing that baffles me is Gainey hiring Martin and signing pure offense. I know he has to meet certain "criteria" for this stupid province but maybe as you said, Martin said the right buzz words to land him the job. One thing is for sure, Martin's eyes were watery the night they introduced him as the Hab's coach on the opening night at the Bell Centre. A dream job for sure, and he may re-adjust his sails.

Number31 said...

I was listening to Guy Boucher talk before the Bulldogs game the other day... Man, I really hope Martin was listening. He's just so insightful and amazing, like a textbook on how to be awesome and successful in hockey.

Another weird thing about Martin is whenever he says "we need to be aggressive and attack etc" they come out and play defensive and passive, but when he says "we need to defend" they come out like gangbusters. I wonder if it's a trick lol...

soperman said...

JM has been a coach for a very long time and I doubt he will ever "change his stripes". I also believe that he and Gainey see eye to eye on a lot of hockey matters. I think it will take a move by ownership to uproot JM, and that will be in the form of replacing Gainey. Thus, the conclusion would be another two to three years of Bob and Jacques hockey.

(note that, while I cannot remember the source, I do recall JM saying the media gave him a bad rap on being too defensive, i.e. they are not "the flypaper Frenchmen".)

Kate said...

You're probably right Soperman. If this team can get more wins than losses, I'll stop complaining, but so far that hasn't been the case.

soperman said...

Oh I support complaining, I just think we are doomed to watch the flypaper frenchmen for a couple more years.

If we stop complaining, then we will become sheep like the leaf fans and we all know how well that is working for them....

Kate said...

Soperman,

+100 for flypaper frenchman!!!!!

soperman said...

I can't take credit for the "flypaper frenchman", but unfortunately due to a bad memory I can't give credit either.

It is funny, though.