Despite or Because?

Two months of NHL Hockey and our Habs are making fools of most experts who predicted that they will have an atrocious season. Disclaimer I was in that camp and I still got an hard time believing what they have done so far. The one question that remain is simple are the Habs succeeding despite or because of Jacques Martin leadership? Let look at where the Habs have excelled. The big surprise is in net Price is so far one of the best in the league. Price clearly matured on that bench last year but is it because or despite Martin or is it just something that was bound to happen. And how much is the tight defense making Price look a lot better than last year anyway? And the defense is Pearns responsibility not Martin.

Is Martin system really that hard to implement with a team that is loaded on veteran. The strategy is quite simple score the first goal, capitalize on the opposition opening the game to catch up and trap like crazy in the third period if you lead by two! The habs are so set on that track that when they don't score the first goal they never win. Mind you that true of about 3/4 of the NHL teams this year! Add to that that Martin spend the last two months trying in vain to get Gomez going at the detriment of any line stability. To the point that fans are making jokes about it on twitter the best was coined by @johnmbennett Cammalleri suffering from the "I play on a line with Scott Gomez" disease.
He as yet to bench or scratch Gomez yet Subban screw up a couple of times after having played 20 minutes a game for most of the season and he's getting the boot! Give me a fucking break. By the way the "They have to play Weber!" argument is stupid Gorges is playing hurt for a while now and could use a few games to recuperate!

The power play is getting better but that Muller responsibility so the question remain are Jacques Martin Habs winning because or despite of him? Because teams have been known to win despite of the bungling of a coach in the past after a while if the guy in charge is an idiots the players just ignore him!

One last thing before I log out Bill Guerin is retiring after 18 season in the NHL. While I did not see him fit with the Habs it still sad that nobody in the League did not feel the need to take a chance on a guy who got 45 points just last year.     

The Habs have found their style and it Jacques Martin Trap 2.0!

After Jacques Lemaire Devils won the cup in 1995 almost everybody in the league tried to imitate them for a while this lead to what many observers would call the trap era. In fact the league used the lockout to dramatically change their rules to speed up the sports and end the trap era! Today Eric Engels on The Engels Angle says The Canadiens Have a Very Clear Identity. And I happen to agree with him the Habs do have a identity. But it not a new or innovative system it just the good old trap making a comeback Jacques Martin style. Not a big surprise considering that Martin is a coach from that era or should I say THE LAST coach from that era.

For the trap to work you got to have every players committed to the system. You also must capitalize on your opponent mistakes, you got to score on the power play and you got to have a really great and really consistent Goaler. If you don't if for some reason one part of that house of card is not right the whole thing come crashing down on top of you. That why of their five defeats in regular time so far the Habs loss two by shutout that also why during the last playoff they lost three by shutout to the Flyers. When you don't have much offensive chance to capitalize on you can't afford to have players sit on the back of the bus waiting for their slump to end!

But what if they succeed, what if they do win a cup this way? Great for us Habs fans but are you ready for a return to the trap era?