Martin new head coach, return of assistant coaches a 'work in progress'

"A work in progress" paleeze, this is not a work in progress, this is a sabotage in progress as we watch Gillett and Gainey piece together an abomination of a hockey team, worse than watching Gretzky trying to pull together a weird team, they should start a new trophy in the NHL, the most weirdest wackiest team, the Habs would win every year under Bob Gainey!

Mario Tremblay??? Please, say it ain't so!

Mario Tremblay back with the Habs? Great. Another step backwards. The reason a boring coach was hired is because Gainey is boring and the Habs have become a joke. Very sad.

wow, who plays for us?

I'm on the fence,.. indifferent about Martin being head coach. He did a pretty good job in Ottawa as coach,.. his GM'ing in FLA wasn't as notable on the other hand. I'll give him points for axing Keenan. I just hope he turns this ship around with whatever magic he can muster. As for the assistants - get rid of Muller (even Jarvis)... but please DO NOT bring back Tremblay. No more drama queens.

And the naysayers say nay... Defence is easily our biggest weakness, and easily Martin's biggest strength. Perfect match in that area. He also brings a lot of positional discipline to his team, which was sorely lacking last year. Besides, as likehoy says, Martin helped turn guys like Hossa, Havlat and Bouwmeester into the stars they are today -- and now they're free agents who may be interested in playing for him again... Would the naysayers rather have Roy, who's never coached so much as a single AHL game? 1. www.flickeringpictures.com - not a hockey site, but still kinda neat 2. Mike Boone: "With Gainey at my side, I'd walk into any dark alley in the world."

Can someone please remind me WHAT TO HELL Martin has accomplished other than underchieving? *** maybe i answered my own question he'll fit right in!

Great lets inherit all of Ottawas diseases... Jacques martin is a coach that cant get the best out of his players. Hes been known to bench guys that take penalties, end result is you eventually get guys who don't play full out or play scared. Ottawas finally breaking out of that 'zone'.

They brought in Martin for one reason only - to work with the 20 or so young up and coming Habs that will be manning the team over the next few years and to instill a new "team first" system. Don't count on MTL spending any money to re-up any of the old guard nor will they spend any money on free agents. They will, of course, be forced to spend to at least the NHL's salary floor but don't expect much else. This team needs to grow from within and need to draft a couple of young homegrown superstars to grow with the team. If Gainey would just come clean and say that "We are re-building from within", I'd throw my support behind him 100%. As it stands, I'm betting they will play around, pay lip-service to free agents, add a few "names" that don't cost too much and finish at or near a playoff spot with no chance of going for gold. I hope I'm wrong.

It might be interesting to put together a list of star player free agents that have played for Martin. I wonder which ones would consider coming to Montreal to play for their former coach/GM?

Great, Mr. Hohum meets Mr. Dull, Martin meets Gainey. Boring hockey matches the most boring trade maker, so what's next, the Habs will draft Timbits hockey players?

C'mon people. 14 more posts or so and the Martin as Head Coach thread gets more comments than the Lafleur on Koivu one! Let's show the world that we Habs fans can appreciate actual hockey news as much as sensationalist over the top speculation!

WOAH! TSN: "It also marks the first time since 1992-93 that the Canadiens have formally hired a coach with NHL experience." O__O Never thought about it.. Wait from Price to bloom...it's his 'Prime Time' in 3-4 years.

In the earlier thread, the negatrons were predicting disaster with a boring style coming to Montreal with Martin. Its nice to see so many postive comments for a change. I am actually very surprised this has happened. BG must have approached the Panther owners for permission to talk to Martin. And I am equally surprised Martin agreed to take the job. Going from a nice comfy job as GM with the Panthers to coach the Canadiens? Does he have any idea what the life expectancy behind the Habs bench is? He must be crazy. It seems to me that a coach's job is to work with a GM and the players he has to win games. You take a coach out of one situation and put him in a completely different situation (i.e different GM, different players, different fans, different city), he will not necessarily try to replicate what he had on his last team. So I am not worried about him bringing boring hockey with him. I haven't listened to the press conference yet, but from the sounds of discussion here, he doesn't plan to implement a boring system. I liked Mr. Happy's earlier post, which I will paste here as I think it warrants repeating: its a solid move at the right time for the organization. martin should bring in no particular order. a strong work ethic. overall team defense should improve. a committment to the team concept. no pandering to diva's. an understanding of each players strength and weakness.skill set. Sounds great to me - just what the doctor ordered. I think this is a very positive move for the club.

Habs will be great next season, the holes will be plugged that were wide open last year. Price will have support and our team will be much more stable then it has been in a long time. We have depended on 1 line far too long and this season has shown the brass that we have to play a counter-attack. Detroit was a slumping team for Decades and now look at them, Montreal will content in the near future. I'm very suprised to see all of the negativity that has came from this decision. People often talk about Ottawa's playoff troubles, well keep in mind that Patrick Lalime was the starter and had trouble with shots from center ice. Martin will have Price to mend the crease and hoepfully Markov - Komisarek on the blueline. Up front, if Kovy goes, he goes. I would rather have hard working 20 goal scorers then a floating 30 goal scorer. I like Kovy, but if we are building a solid team we need team players! __________________________________________________________________ Please Beware: Maple Leaf products may contain traces of Lysteria.

...it will be interesting to know if Martin gave up a GM post in Florida because he may know that Florida's franchise is on its last leg ? ...or Bob has indicated he may be stepping down to allow Jacques to take over as GM at some point ? Habitant means PASSIONATE HOCKEY http://www.nationalpost.com/news/story.html?id=423049

...after getting my kids off to school ...and rollin into HIO to check the latest ...I don't know what hurt the most ...learning the Montreal Pool Room will be closin' ...or learning We will be watchin' 'Jacques Martin Hockey' for the foreseeable future ...BUt the MORE I think about it ...it's a STEP forward ...don't think a Jacques Martin Team will ever sniff the Cup (I will be happy to be proven wrong...) ...BUT it's WHAT We need at this time ...hopefully We also will put more Francophones ON the ice ...as well as behind the bench Habitant means PASSIONATE HOCKEY http://www.nationalpost.com/news/story.html?id=423049

When your best players are responsible defensively you have a chance to win.....this cliche makes sense if you really think about it at a basic level. The most talented offensive players in the world are too talented in general for the most talented defensive specialists in the world.....enter Detroit..."the exception" . What Detroit has is world class offensively skilled players applying their superior skill level to defenseive use in trying to combat opposing superstars. This is not something that just any scorer can do but growing in a system that requires this allowed Datsyuk and Zetterberg to excel at either end depending on their job description on a given night. Martin isn't all that different as evidenced in Hossa and Alfredsson. I remember times when Kovy decided he was going to stop someone...he almost always did. There isn't a player in the league who can turn as quickly as Kovy (obviously he's lost a step north/south but east/west he is still among the elite)when he applies that skill defensively it is effective. One problem witht this style is that you MUST have depth and skill to match other skilled teams despite the apparent focus on defense. This is where the Devils and Wings are far ahead of the curve.....this mentality is a decade old within their organizations and second nature....and they have been built this way long enough to ensure capable depth. We actually have a leg up from where it appears we are if you look deeper. We have guys like Pleks, Higgy,Laps,Sergei K, etc.....that could very easily thrive in this style. We also may be able to put Andrei's skills to use if we can get him playing a la Hossa. Whichever skilled guys we keep will be required to sharpen up and sacrifice will not be rewarded...but expected....this is what is required of a winner...and winning is what is required in Montreal so it all stand to reason. PUck possession sounds simple but it starts with not only skill but work away from the puck..... hockey is really a series of moving games of monkey in the middle where the monkeys can move wherever they please.....2 on 1's. To play a puck possession game requires always giving a puck carrier at least one safe option...not expecting him to create one....a guy without the puck is the one responsible for making a completable pass possible. It is like a game of keepaway with an underlying but actually more important goal of attacking a 6 by 4 target but realizing that a safe pass is better than a feeble attempt to beat a guy one on one. Once you understand this style (pleks/andrei and Kovy actually played it to near perfection two seasons ago) it is actually very entertaining and incredible to watch(if your team is the one doing the puck possessing that is). Defensemen need poise, a great first pass and patience.....you can't hurriedly just dump the puck in the corner (but a player or two away from the puck need to provide targets). The skill level which we possess is actually putting us in a decent position to make a slight alteration to our style and play this way. It isn't far off what we did 2 seasons ago we just weren't quite good enough at it yet and last year we strayed from it (actually we strayed against Philly but I must let that one go). I welcome Martin with open arms and await some personnel moves to enable us to alter our game slightly.

...after getting my kids off to school ...and rollin into HIO to check the latest ...I don't know what hurt the most ...learning the Montreal Pool Room will will be closin' ...or learning We will be watchin' 'Jacques Martin Hockey' for the foreseeable future ...BUt the MORE I think about it ...it's a STEP forward ...don't think a Jacques Martin Team will ever sniff the Cup (I will be happy to be proven wrong...) ...BUT it's WHAT We need at this time ...hopefully We also will put more Francophones ON the ice ...as well as behind the bench Habitant means PASSIONATE HOCKEY http://www.nationalpost.com/news/story.html?id=423049

And another thing...GOOD ON US FOR FINALLY INSTATING A COACH WHO WASN'T A PLAYER! Not that they are necessarily a bad thing, but for a group like ours, they are nothing but a cancer that feeds fuel to the hormonal rookies' fire.

Can we see a potential positive in this and assume this may make Bouwmeester want to sign with us? Come on... Hell, maybe if we offered Hossa a contract, he would bite! This could be good on different levels. Defense is going to be more solid (so the expectation goes so far). I like this. Bob is moving. I like that.

I think this signing will make the decisions to leave easier on Tanguay, Koivu, Kovalev, and a few other UFA's. There isnt much joy in playing Jacques Martin's brand of hockey and not much appeal for creative veterans. I see the need for an improved defensive system, but this will bring more of the 1-2-2 trap system or even a 3-2 side lock. Creativity will be banned and the puck will be moved up the boards and into the corners. Dark day for the habs.

The ones who 'hate' Tremblay on this site, definitely did not grow up watching him play the game. Don't be cowed into basing your opinions on one game 14yrs ago.

Tremblay as an assistant coach would be a dreadful move. I think Jarvis and Muller should go, not based on performance but that if you really are shaking things up, then they should move on. They carryover the Habs of the past. I'd like to see Lemaire or Robinson take up an assistant job. If Martin falters, both of these guys are proven winners as coaches. How about Patrick Roy as goaltending coach? Anyone? If not Patrick, Jeff Hackett??

Gotta love those huge ears that Martin has...he'll be able to hear defensive strantegies from opposing teams through the crowd noise... Knowing is Half the Battle...

Anyone else think players like Lapierre might be seeing an expanded role in Martin's new system?

Does anybody know how to put up the link to the press conference here!?? Thanks in advance!