CARBONNEAU NEEDS TO CHANGE HIS STYLE

Hello all!

I was at the game last night (Dec. 11, 2007 vs Tampa) and was very dissapointed with what I saw… I can’t believe I actually paid to see that poor performance. With this said, I don’t think the players are completely to blame. Yes, they had all the trouble in the world to clear their zone. However, when players like Lecavalier, Richards (whom played awsome) and St-Louis are constantly buzzing in your zone, you are prone to make mistakes.

My “lemon” performer of the night was Guy Carbonneau. He made several coaching mistakes that just cannot be acceptable in the NHL. Among others, these are the top three miscues by coach Carbo:
1. ALWAYS ROLLING 4 LINES. Why does he insist on doing this? It was driving me crazy last night. For example, during the game last night, the Koivu line had the puck in the offensive zone and had a good scoring chance. At this point, the Habs had a bit of momentum (which were far and few between last night) and forced a faceoff in Tampa’s zone. Carbo decides to make a line change and bring in the fourth line of Lapierre-Kostopoulos-Latendresse?! Needless to say, this line change killed the momentum they had and Tampa controled the puck (which they did most of the night). Why didn’t Carbo come back with the Kovalev line in the offensive zone instead of the fourth line? Is he affraid to use his best offensive talent in back-to-back shifts? Give me a break*&^%$#@!

2. ONE MAN FORCHECK. The main reason why Tampa always seemed to have control of the puck is because the Habs were not pressuring the defense. All night (including when they were trailing in the third period) the Habs only had one forward deep while his teammates were waiting in the neutral zone for something to happend. Therefore, the Habs forchecker was always out-numbered 1 to 3 and had absolutely no chance of creating any offence.

It was well documented that Tampa was the worst road team in the NHL and had one of the worst defence core in the league, not mentioning the fact they had played the night before in T.O. and arrived in Montreal at about 2:00am!!! Why didn’t coach Carbo apply a more aggressive style of play to exploit these facts? They should of had at least two forwards at all time forchecking and hitting their defence every chance they had. This is what creates turnovers and ultimately scoring chances. I’m sorry, but the Habs limited offensive talent has nothing to do with the style they play. If coach Carbo would let them use their speed and allow the forwards to go deep in the offensive zone, I’m sure the Habs would score more goals or at the very least create more scoring opportunities.

NO SHUTDOWN LINE. Could someone tell me whom the Canadiens shutdown line is? Lately, coach Carbo has been utilizing the Koivu line to shutdown the oppositions #1 line… why? No need to wonder why Koivu hasn’t been scoring lately, he’s to busy trying to stop Lecavalier, Zetterberg, Sundin, Heatley, etc. from scoring!!! I think Carbo is trying to do with Koivu what the Habs did with Damphousse, turn him into a defensive specialist. Do all #1 centers on other teams have defensive missions like Koivu? Is Carbo telling us that we only have 1 offensive trio (Kovy-Pleky-Kosty) and 3 defensive ones? This is pathetic coaching. Carbo needs to identify his 3 top shutdown or “shit-distuburs” and put them on the same line. I would put Chipchura centering Lapierre and Dandenault as a shutdown line with their present roaster. Eventually, I would put Begin and remove Chipchura from that line when he returns.

Anyway, this was my rant on coach Carbo for today. After seeing last nights game, I realized that the players are just doing as they are told, meaning playing a pasive defensive style of hockey that I’m sure they are sick of. Gainey could make any trade he wants and it won’t change a thing if Carbo doesn’t change his style of coaching and quickly! Until that happens, the Habs will lose a lot more games that they will win due to poor coaching. I’ll be very surprised if coach Carbo won’t be replaced before the end of the present NHL season…

What do you all think?

Thanks for reading!