Predictions for the Habs: He Said, She Said

Written by Chantal, AllHabs.net

MONTREAL, QC. — They say opposites attract. If that saying is accurate, there’s a whole lot of love in the All Habs newsroom.

Looking ahead to the Habs upcoming regular season, I thought it would be fun to get my male and female fellow writers’ opinions on your Habs. Do men and women have a different perception of the Montreal Canadiens? There is no right or wrong, just different points of view. I sent one man and one woman the same statement, all in secrecy, and asked them to comment on it. I want to thank them all for their generous contributions.

Are we really all that different, when it comes to analyzing our team? You be the judge.

►The Habs will have at least one 30-goal scorer this season.

HE SAID :

Well, if the Habs plan on having any chance at a 30-goal scorer this coming year, it will all come down to health.

Brian Gionta, Mike Cammalleri and Tomas Plekanec are the only players that stand that chance in my honest opinion. The addition of Erik Cole should open up more opportunities for Cammalleri and Plekanec, but it’s still far from a given. The Habs haven’t had a 30-goal scorer since Alexei Kovalev potted 35 in the 2007-2008 season.

Having said that – I’ll say ‘yes,’ in fact two. Captain Gionta will get there this year, based on the fact that Gomez will have a better season on his line. Then it will be a toss up between Cammalleri or Plekanec thanks to the much needed addition of Erik Cole. – Iain

SHE SAID :

I think it’s unlikely, for many reasons. For this to even be a possibility, the Habs will have to remain healthy all season. They will also have to put up great numbers on the power-play and the top six forwards will have to remain Moen-less.

I believe the Habs have a more balanced offense this year with the potential for three decent scoring lines. That being said, the game system hasn’t change, and who knows how Jacques Martin will juggle his personnel. I think Habs will have a few 20+ goal-scorers ( Tomas Plekanec, Mike Cammalleri, Max Pacioretty, Andrei Kostitsyn, and Erik Cole.) If Habs do have a 30-goal scorer, I would bet on Brian Gionta because if Scott Gomez is a no show again, he’ll get ice time with Plekanec and his regular shift on the power play anyway. – Chantal

►The Habs will be more disciplined this season.

HE SAID :

The Habs will be not be any more disciplined this year than last. The so called lack of discipline, in my opinion, is a by product of Jacques Martins’ defensive system that puts a premium on positional play. The pressure to play within the system is the root cause. The moment any player is caught out of position leaves him vulnerable to taking a hooking or interference penalty. I don’t foresee Martin changing his coaching methodology and there hasn’t been a large turnover among the forwards so I just don’t see things changing.

Among the defensemen I could make the argument that it might even be worse, at least to begin the season. There will be a couple of new faces asked to do more with the possible unanticipated absence once again of Andrei Markov. Could we see Alexei Yemelin trying to make the big hit and taking penalties in the process? There is no Roman Hamrlik to fall back on. If Jaroslav Spacek is asked to play more minutes I could also make a case that he will struggle with the increased work load – being one year older and certainly not any quicker – I could see him taking some penalties as a result. Add to that a possible rookie in Raphael Diaz, the Habs will not be any more disciplined than last year. – Brian

SHE SAID :

Last year was a season-long learning experience for the Canadiens. The team had too many hurdles to overcome to play like a true Stanley Cup contender (although they tried their darndest.)

The team will return this season smarter and stronger after last year’s trials — Scott Gomez knows that he has to put himself back together. Max Pacioretty is more ready than he’s ever been, and he knows more than ever that he wants a permanent spot in the NHL. Last year’s rookies now have a season of experience under their belt – and it was a heck of a season.

Jacques Martin won’t have to jump over last year’s hurdle of working with less experienced players, and knows his team better than he did a year ago. All of last year’s lessons are going to be applied this season. The team is going to play with discipline because they’ve seen what happens without it. – Erica

►The Habs will improve their 5-on-5 scoring this season.

HE SAID :

The common school of thought is that with the addition of Erik Cole, the return of Andrei Markov and Max Pacioretty, and an improved season for Scott Gomez that the Canadiens will be scoring at will. But many forget that there has not been a change at head coach. Under Jacques Martin, the Canadiens were 30th in the league in 5-on-5 scoring in 2009-10 and 26th last season.

Even the biggest Martin-supporter can’t deny that his passive system stifles offense and exhausts his forwards in their own zone before they can turn their attention to scoring. So can Cole pot 26 goals again this year? It’s no sure thing as he has never played in a Martin-designed offense before.

Let’s be optimistic and assume that the trend to improved 5-on-5 play continues allowing the Habs to again move up a few spots in that category. The question should be, is a marginal improvement in even-strength play enough for them to compete with the elite teams in the Eastern conference? – Rick

SHE SAID :

While I hope that the addition of Erik Cole and the return of Max Pacioretty will improve 5-on-5 scoring, I don’t predict much of an improvement over last year.

The boys will need to continue to be dominant on the power-play if they have any hope of taking the Northeast division this season. – Robyn

►Carey Price will win more games this season than last year.

HE SAID :

No.

Carey Price is coming off of a tremendous season, finishing with a record of 38 wins, 28 losses and 6 overtime losses, playing in 72 games. If Carey Price were to better his record this upcoming season, we would be pretty much looking at a 40-win season, which is no easy accomplishment for any goaltender. Just look at last season, not one single goaltender achieved this milestone, Price and Luongo finishing the season as leaders in wins, each with 38.

I don’t believe Carey Price will obtain 40 wins, or better his win total from last season. Many will quickly say that he can easily obtain one or two more wins this upcoming season in order to accomplish this, but they fail to see the bigger picture.

Peter Budaj was obtained to replace Alex Auld, and the intention is to play him more than Auld was playing last season, and this automatically translates into less games for Price. Price should be looking at playing in and around 60-65 games next year, leaving Budaj with 17-22 games.

Typically, goaltenders who obtain 40 wins in a season play more than 65 games. In the last ten years alone, goaltenders achieved 40 wins in a season on twenty different occasions. From those 20 goaltenders, 16 had more than 65 games played, and of those, 12 had more than 70 games played. I simply don’t feel that Carey Price will play the amount of minutes that will allow him to get there.

If the team goes very well, that should Jacques Martin to rest Price with greater ease, thus even more increasing Budaj’s ice time. On the reverse side, should the team not do so well, we can kiss the 40 wins goodbye anyways.

The good news is, Carey Price doesn’t need to get 40 wins. Patrick Roy, who is one of the most beloved Montreal Canadiens goaltenders of all time, and one of the best to ever play the game, never achieved 40 wins in one of his seasons in Montreal. (Although he did end up doing with the Colorado Avalanche)

Carey Price has actually already surpassed Patrick Roy’s greatest win total ever in Montreal, which was 36, achieved in the 1991-92 season. The last goaltender to get 40 wins as a Montreal Canadien was Ken Dryden, in the 1976-77 season.

So all of this to say, I do expect Carey Price to have a great season, but this does not translate into more wins than last season. – Steve

SHE SAID :

Carey Price will win more games this season than last year.

If you’re big on stats, then this is probably something you agree with. Price can only go up from here, right? Judging by the numbers, yeah, he should have nowhere to go, but up. Which is a good thing, if you ask me.

But if you’re not big on stats or numbers, and you’re like me, you look at last season and say: that was last season. This is a new one. Usually, I start off the season with zero expectations. Why? Because if the Habs end up doing well, I am pleasantly surprised and I can enjoy the season. If they don’t, and I haven’t put an albatross around their collective necks, I don’t feel like I will never watch hockey ever again.

So to say that Carey Price will win more games this season than last year, is like saying I am going to win the Fantasy Football pool. You don’t know it’s going to happen. Carey is an amazing goalie. He has a good head on his shoulders, and last year proved that to aLOTof people. This will be the year where he pushes himself to maintain that level-headedness and calm that he seemed to ooze last year, and he’ll be just fine. Just…don’t put labels on him. Don’t say he’s going to win more games than he did last year. Don’t tell him his numbers are going to be better than last year. Let him figure that out on his own.

And we’ll be just fine. – Bailey