Posts tagged Mathieu Dandenault

Gainey’s day one

Mar 10th

Posted by Yves in Coaching

Comments

The post-Carbonneau era begins today.

Doesn’t that sound strange??
Don Lever comes in as an assistant. I like that. Lever has some serious coaching experience.
I was so surprised that it happened yesterday….
Anyway, Gainey had his first team practice today… interesting quotes.
Mathieu Dandenault will be in the lineup tonight… here’s what he had to say about Gainey:
“Bob has a gift of making any player feel like they’re the best player in the world,” explained Dandenault. “He’s always direct and you always know what to expect from him. Even down to the role players, it’s important to Bob to let them know they are an important part of the team.”
We’ve heard that Carbonneau didn’t communicate a whole lot with the team…. Gainey’s style will be very different. From hearing Dandenault being frustrated not playing and thinking trade… to having him being made feel part of the team…
It’s quite possible if Gainey can get all the team to feel very important in their roles that we could see some interesting results…. team toughness….. being emotionally involved… I think Gainey is workin’ towards it.
, ,

Looking for answers

Mar 6th

Posted by Yves in Montreal Canadiens

Comments

After getting a short winning streak going, the Canadiens played their hearts out in a first period against Buffalo… the a quick goal at the end of the first… no big deal…

Another goal coming in the second… the wheels flew off.
Tonight, the Habs play in Atlanta.
Halak will most certainly be in goal.
I’m hoping the team can find a way to come together. They need to play so much tougher then they did vs Buffalo.
With big Georges Laraque out with more injuries to his back and his season all but done… the guys HAVE to play tough as a unit. Much like Carbo talked about, but we didn’t see last game.
Tom Kostopoulos, Maxim Lapierre, Gregory Stewart… these guys will and should paly tough… so should Komisarek, but I have to believe that he’s hurt.
Over the last few seasons, we’ve seen it over and over again…. guy hammers your captain… or another guy like Kovalev… no one responds…. guy comes through the crease and hammers Price… Halak…. no one responds….
Moves were made to adresse some of those problems. One of those moves was Georges Laraque. But Georges Laraque was practically not %100 all season… much of the season out due to injury and now seems as though he’s out.
So tonight… a big test. I believe Atlanta will be out to hit guys and jam the net. Carbo and crew NEED to play tough….. they need to jam Atlanta’s net… to get the emotions going…
From a fan’s point of view, if they don’t play tough the season may be over. Really.
I’m hoping to see Tanguay back in the lineup tonight. And please… I would put Dandenault in there on D… give him some time…. give Breezer a break.
, , , , , ,

Habs VS Isles – Who will step up?

Nov 24th

Posted by Yves in Montreal Canadiens

Comments

At the start of the season the talk was about how deep the habs were, there was lot’s of talk about a couple of the prospects in Hamilton and talk about being atop the league with whispers of a cup coming to Montreal had become common.

I’m still not sure I would panic at this point but I must say that at this point of the season, we’ve seen both great potential and also some of the things that may need a “tweeking”….
One of the things that sticks out a bit and has been talked about is on the D. Especially now that Komisarek is out. Brisebois is having to be in the lineup full time… O’Byrne is getting prime time…
About Brisebois, I think that playing  a certain number of games, he can give some quality. Playing full time, I’m concerned that the quality will surely diminish.
For O’Byrne, I thought he was gonna play a great game against Boston…. he came out being much more physical, which is an important part of his game.  Not sure if it’s all psycological, but he’s made quite a few mistakes… some being quite costly.
I’m starting to wonder if playing Dandenault at D wouldn’t help at least in the short term. He’s a guy I think works hard, plays his role and he’s played on D most of his career…
I would love to see a couple of farm “teamers” come up and maybe shake it up a bit… like D’Agostini, Maxwell.. Max Pac.. but I think it’s hard to make those moves because there aren’t  very many guys you can move to make room.
I’m sure whatever happens, Gainey isn’t sitting around “hoping for the best”…. if there is a good move to be made, I’m confident he’ll pull the trigger.
Tonight, the Islanders are in town. I really want to see guys play hard…. and EVERY shift. Tonight, they gotta start kicking the monkey off their backs.
Hard hitting, hard skating…. lot’s of shots on goal.
One would hope that this is “the slump” in the season, and that the tides of work ethic (etc..) will bring the habs to peak at the end of the season… what a story that would be.
Peace!
, , , , , ,