{"id":16848,"date":"2017-09-29T14:32:01","date_gmt":"2017-09-29T18:32:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/?p=16848"},"modified":"2017-09-29T14:32:01","modified_gmt":"2017-09-29T18:32:01","slug":"shea-weber-not-ready-start-season","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/2017\/09\/29\/shea-weber-not-ready-start-season\/","title":{"rendered":"Shea Weber: &#8220;We&#8217;re Not Ready to Start the Season&#8221;"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Is it time for fans of the <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonhockey.com\/nhl-teams\/canadiens\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Montreal Canadiens<\/a> to panic? With no wins in the preseason,\u00a0few goals, and some serious issues on the blueline, it may be. According to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.hockey-reference.com\/players\/w\/webersh01.html\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><strong>Shea Weber<\/strong><\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/translate.google.com\/translate?sl=auto&amp;tl=en&amp;js=y&amp;prev=_t&amp;hl=en&amp;ie=UTF-8&amp;u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.tvasports.ca%2F2017%2F09%2F28%2Fdes-postes-ouverts-a-la-ligue-bleue-des-canadiens&amp;edit-text=&amp;act=url\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">&#8220;<span class=\"notranslate\">I do not think we&#8217;re ready to start the season, but we have two games left to do it. &#8220;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n<h1>Shea Weber: &#8220;We&#8217;re Not Ready to Start the Season&#8221;<\/h1>\n<p>Why aren&#8217;t the Habs ready? The most glaring problem in the pre-season is on defense.<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Montreal Canadiens vs Toronto Maple Leafs - September 25, 2017 | Game Highlights | NHL 2017\/18\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/PoyDEP0J9yo?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>There are three contributing factors here.<\/p>\n<h2>Defensive\u00a0Talent<\/h2>\n<p>The first is a lack of talent on the blue line. It is now clear the <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonhockey.com\/2017\/07\/27\/andrei-markov-not-return\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">failure to re-sign <strong>Andrei Markov<\/strong><\/a> or sign or trade for a true number two defenseman was a mistake. <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonhockey.com\/2017\/09\/07\/habs-watch-2017-18-karl-alzner\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">The <strong>Karl Alzner<\/strong> signing<\/a> established the Canadiens as a team prioritizing on defensive-defenseman. While <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonhockey.com\/2017\/09\/07\/habs-to-watch-in-2017-18-jakub-jerabek\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Jakub Jerabek<\/a><\/strong> and <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonhockey.com\/2017\/09\/25\/montreal-canadiens-victor-mete\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Victor Mete<\/a><\/strong> are exciting possibilities, Jerabek has played zero games in the NHL and the younger Mete is more unlikely to play more than ten games in Montreal.<\/p>\n<p>According to Gord Miller, the Canadien&#8217;s defense\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/www.tsn.ca\/radio\/montreal-690\/miller-canadiens-defence-just-isn-t-very-good-1.869095\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">&#8220;just isn&#8217;t very good.&#8221;<\/a><\/p>\n<h2>Adapting to Zone Coverage<\/h2>\n<p>The second reason is that the Habs are struggling to adapt to Julien&#8217;s defensive zone system. Both Shea Weber and Karl Alzner have had some trouble. <a href=\"http:\/\/montrealgazette.com\/sports\/hockey\/nhl\/montreal-canadiens\/hudon-stands-out-for-habs-in-another-exhibition-loss-in-ottawa\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Julien recently noted<\/a>\u00a0that Alzner is still adjusting.\u00a0\u00a0\u201cWe have some guys who are learning to play differently and we have some guys who are struggling,\u201d Julien said. \u00a0\u201cWe had some breakdowns in our end&#8230; &#8221;<\/p>\n<p>On Karl Alzner, Julien said, &#8220;He\u2019s used to playing a lot of man-to-man and we play more of a zone. [Shea Weber[ had the same adjustment to make last year and he picked it up pretty quickly.&#8221;<\/p>\n<h2>Lack of Consistent Partners<\/h2>\n<p>The third challenge is a combination of the first two. The lack of consistent defenseman during training camp has made adjusting to Julien&#8217;s defensive system even more difficult.\u00a0To be successful,\u00a0his system requires <a href=\"http:\/\/www.tsn.ca\/radio\/montreal-690\/ward-habs-new-defensive-system-a-major-shift-1.867612\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">communication and adaptation<\/a>. The biggest challenge is that defensive players need to understand their partners.<\/p>\n<p>As <a href=\"https:\/\/www.bostonglobe.com\/2014\/10\/04\/the-boston-bruins-defensive-system\/BBadpZIgD6tliJJq7aEQwN\/story.html\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Fluto Shinzawa points out<\/a>, under Julien the Bruins defensive positioning requires layers of coverage in the defensive zone. As players move through pre-defined areas of the ice, defense partners must work together to cover attacking players and force shots from the points or high slot.\u00a0It will take some time to work out the kinks. Adjusting to the new system is made even more difficult when you have a different defensive partner every night.<\/p>\n<p>Is it time to push the panic button Habs fans? Well given that the Canadiens hired a defensive coach, traded or failed to resign any players with speed on their\u00a0blue line, and as yet have failed to adapt to Julien&#8217;s defense system, the answer is Yes. When the Vegas Golden Knights are successfully chirping you, it&#8217;s time to panic.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"550\" data-dnt=\"true\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">But we&#39;ve also won two MORE times than <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/CanadiensMTL?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">@CanadiensMTL<\/a> have won the Stanley Cup since 1993\ud83d\ude0e <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/BIQWecreHd\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">https:\/\/t.co\/BIQWecreHd<\/a><\/p>\n<p>&mdash; Vegas Golden Knights (@GoldenKnights) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/GoldenKnights\/status\/910544579153166339?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">September 20, 2017<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Main Photo:\u00a0PHILADELPHIA, PA &#8211; FEBRUARY 02: Shea Weber #6 of the Montreal Canadiens skates against the Philadelphia Flyers at the Wells Fargo Center on February 2, 2017 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The Flyers defeated the Canadiens 3-1. (Photo by Bruce Bennett\/Getty Images)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Is it time for fans of the Montreal Canadiens to panic? With no wins in the preseason,\u00a0few goals, and some serious issues on the blueline, it may be. According to Shea Weber &#8220;I do not think we&#8217;re ready to start the season, but we have two games left to do it. &#8220; Shea Weber: &#8220;We&#8217;re [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2253,"featured_media":10418,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[1158,1579,1638,254,481],"class_list":["post-16848","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-canadiens","tag-claude-julien","tag-jakub-jerabek","tag-karl-alzner","tag-shea-weber","tag-victor-mete"],"modified_by":"Ben Kerr","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16848","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2253"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=16848"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16848\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/10418"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=16848"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=16848"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=16848"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}