Sunday, October 16, 2011

No Panic Buttons

A panic button is useful. If you're a security guard and someone dangerous comes by, you hit one. The police or someone with more power shows up to give you a hand. When there's a problem in that whirlpool in your building, you hit the panic button and the conceirge will come help you. So these buttons are signals for help. What does this have to do with the Habs?

Well, they are no 'panic buttons' for the Habs. You can't get help from the outside. Sure, you could give up draft picks or prospects and ruin your future. Spending to the cap does this to you. Was it bad luck that Campoli got injured at the ACC? Absolutely. And that Brett Burns concealed info about his health problems? Probably. And that we overhauled our D with the expectation that Markov would be back in time for the season? Umm...no.

Fact is the team has changed too much. The roster last year was quite similar to the one that made the 2010 playoff run--the only big differences being the goalies and Jeff Halpern. Wiz coming along helped a bit and made up for Gorges. Last year's team was better than the 2010 team in the regular season as well. But this year's team is radically different. Emelin and Diaz on defence. Weber keeps switching positions. Budaj. WHY BUDAJ?! I know I was a bit excited for an NHL starter to be joining us but judging from the preseason the team cannot play infront of him. Carey is going to get a ton of starts. And when he's doing not as well as he was tonight, he's probably not going to get subbed out because we can't even trust our back up. What was so wrong with Auld? He was a supportive veteran who didn't suck.

The biggest point of concern apart from 3 injured players in 2 games and our not so great record is chemistry. The problems in 'clicking' have made the situation in Montreal even more confusing. Erik Cole didn't click with Pleky and Cammelleri. So coach Martin is juggling around and trying his best to make it work. After yesterday's 6-5 SO loss to the Avs, it was obvious that the team can score (just not in the shootout). We don't normally score 5, but including the last preason game we've had 3 five-goal games in 5 games. So we can score. But we can't defend. Not like we could before.

The solution lies in getting back injured players. They are the only solutions coming our way.