Thursday, December 18, 2008

Another Ten Games Down

Habs Ratings: Ours and Theirs

This season is really chugging along. It seems like just yesterday I updated this post for the last 10 – I guess that's the middle of the NHL season for you – lots of games, not many memories... Anyway, here are the stars from the last ten games according to Tobalev, three star selectors and other bloggers.

Who were the best players over the last ten games?


A funny ten game spell. The feeling is all negative now, but there was a nice stretch from games 21-27. The game reports once again cough up a list that feels right (to me anyway).


Our top team over 10 games (Season dome)

Forward 1: Andrei Kostitsyn
6 dome games (again) and 2 game pucks mean Kostitsyn is consistently one of the best Habs. He continues to look like a real threat game in, game out; even though Carbonneau: a) can't wrap his head around that or b) can't figure out how to use him.

Forward 2: Alex Kovalev
6 dome appearances and two game pucks. Funny how as his goalless streak wound on (well, not anymore) he was actually getting more into games and becoming a bigger factor. If we had eyes on Kovalev like last season this 10 games would have shown he's back to form.

Forward 3: Matt D'Agostini
4 domes. The rookie makes quite an impression. That said, Koivu would be the one in the team here if not for his injury. It is a reflection on Koivu that Matt makes it here on his first try. Still, his goals were both impressive to watch and timely. Couldn't ask for more than that.

Honourable mentions (forwards): Koivu and Lapierre – 3 domes each. Both players had been on fire for the winning portion of the 10 game spell. Lapierre continues to deliver what is asked of him and more.

Where are they?: Isn't Tanguay paid nearly $6 million dollars. He's been good at floating and poaching shots, but when the chips are down, so, unfortunately, is he more often than not. No domes in 10 games – not very impressive. Consider Latendresse had 2...


Defenceman 1: Andrei Markov
An incredible 9 domes without argument from readers. And a game puck to boot. He simply is a class apart from the other Habs defenders. Even without his PP mastery he would be first in the pecking order.

Defenceman 2: Roman Hamrlik
6 domes. Carries a big burden for the Canadiens and is impressively reliable. The one problem is that he isn't making this team due to impressive efforts on his part – a lot of best of the rest type stuff.

Honourable mention (defenceman): Brisebois. He'd been knocking on the door a few times in these ten I thought. Let's hope there's more where this came from.


Goaltender: Jaroslav Halak
7 domes in 9 starts. Ignoring the 2 games he blew up, he has been good over the past 10. Only games like those to remind us he has yet to play a full NHL season.

Honourable mention (goalie): Price – 2 game pucks as well. His injury is hurting us as much as Koivu's at the moment. one of those team in front of him confidence-type things that he has...


En Route Pour La Coupe Power Rankings

One again, a very good read (if you read french, anyway), and comprehensive ranking.

As Fred is doing these rankings a bit differently than me (i.e., taking into account the previous 20 games, I think), he comes up with a bit of a different list. For example, his forwards for the 10 games would be Lang, Koivu and Kovalev. Fair enough, but how does Tanguay linger in the top 6? Andrei Kostitsyn has been better over 20 games now, much of the time without support. D'Agostini, our other star forward from 21-30, languishes in 21st somehow, while Latendresse (who played 5 of 10 games) loses no places and is apparently a top 10 talent on the Habs. Good thing I linked to this post, because that is real news to most habs fans, I think.

Everything else looks just about right to me. Not sure that Gorges is still Hamrlik's superior on the team. The fact


Three star selectors

Any scientist will tell you, too little data does not make for a good experiment. That's what I said last time. The Habs can't get a star selector to pick them to save their lives these days. it's hard, I guess, when you have to reserve a spot for the opposition goalie in every loss. So again, these 3 star averages look a bit pointless (just like most of our players)... But check it out, Plekanec makes it!

Based on 5 points for first star, 3 for second and 1 for third. here's their dome:

Forward 1: Andrei Kostitsyn (2, 0, 0)
Forward 2: Matt D'Agostini (1, 0, 0)
Forward 3: Tomas Plekanec(0, 1, 1)

Defenceman 1: No defencemen selected
Defenceman 2: No defencemen selected

Goaltender: Carey Price (2, 0, 0)

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