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Post by GoMtl on Dec 6, 2002 1:33:00 GMT -5
A lot of discussion has been had around the play of these two players. Most people can't decide which has been worse... I took the time to do some research on the two players production. The following stats are of each players production in games where they saw atleast 10 minutes of ice time. Who do you think deserves to be in the press box? the numbers are a clear indication. along with the fact that if you look at the minutes played and powerplay minutes played you'll notice that audette logs a lot more of both.
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Post by habmeister on Dec 6, 2002 2:32:57 GMT -5
this is really pissing me off. how does every stat and comment pertain to MT being a dolt! is there anything he is doing right?
There's a question for you all. What is MT doing right? What is he really good at? Can anyone think of anything at all positive about MT?
Feel free to fire away, before i give up on yet another season!!
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Post by JohnnyVerdun on Dec 6, 2002 2:35:52 GMT -5
This has been noted by a few posters. Average pp minutes, points per minute, plus/minus, etc, etc. All the numbers favor Czerkawski and it's never really been close.
But it's never really been about the numbers. Nor has it been about attitude or work ethic, as Therrien's comments have suggested. It's all been about money, from the beginning. It's about money because Audette makes a lot of it. Especially for a one-dimensional player who has almost certainly been identified as the guy who stabbed Therrien in the back after the Carolina series. When Savard got Czerk, in June, his plan was almost certainly to move Audette as soon as he could. Even going with three offensive lines, Savard probably envisioned re-signing Petrov and moving the moody, back-stabbing dwarf, Audette, either at the beginning of the season or at the deadline. This has so far proved to be a bad miscalculation.
When the season started, and it became clear to Savard that no one was interested in "the Donald", there was only one thing to do: play him. Let him get going, rack up some points on the first line, and wait for a GM needing offensive and powerplay help to come calling. Didn't happen. Audette didn't score. And GMs didn't call. Not one of them, if the reports of the "fax to 29" can be believed. What did happen is that reality fell like a guillotine on the plans to have three offensive lines, which forced Gilmour to the wing and made it very difficult to keep these very similar right wingers in the lineup at one time. Audette wasn't producing but if they wanted to move him they had to play him. Fair enough. That's what they did. Until they couldn't play him any longer because the team was stumbling and the powerplay was a major problem. Eventually they were forced to sit Audette and to play Czerk on the first line.
Czerkawski actually produced. He didn't score goals, but the first line worked and he racked up a number of assists. Nonetheless, after four or so games in the pressbox Audette heads back onto the powerplay and eventually the top line. Was this to help the team? Well, yes and no. Yes because if Audette gets going offensively the powerplay will be better and the team will be less likely to lose. But the real driving force behind the move -- a move which kept Czerkawski off the powerplay and eventually sent him to the pressbox more than anything he did or didn't do -- was the desire to demonstrate to GMs out there that Audette could score on the powerplay and help their team. Well, Savard experienced a "negative outcome", which is to say that it didn't happen. The team continued to stumble, the powerplay improved only marginally, Audette scored a couple of big goals and then went cold again, and Czerkawski eventually got fed up with being a healthy scratch.
The net result of this gambit by Savard is that he has two (relatively) high-priced right wing scorers who aren't producing and who are both known for being poor defensively and potentially dangerous locker room influences. One of them -- Audette -- is likely hampered by a serious injury which has never fully healed. The other has demanded a trade and has now cleared waivers. Neither of them are in high demand, which is an understatement. Of the two, Czerkawski is the more tradeable, but it will be for little return and will involve paying a signifcant portion of his salary. Audette is less marketable because of the length of his contract, the shortness of his legs, the concerns that he's not 100%, and his reputation for spouting off at the mouth. And the one we should want to keep (Czerk) has been completely alienated and pissed off. And we never even really got to see what he could do here.
So this is what I guess will happen. A trade will be organized for Czerkawski. He will go elsewhere and be productive. He'll either be somewhat prodcutive, or quite productive. Anybody who looks at the numbers and watches the tape will conclude that Czerkawski is not some kind of slacker villain but the victim of managerial stupidity as much as anything. They will take a chance on him and they will get a huge bargain. Whoever takes him will get a bona fide scorer for something in the range of 1.5 million dollars this year. The Habs will pay the balance. And for their trouble and their stupidity the Habs will also be stuck with Audette; a guy who has probably back-stabbed the coach, who may not be completely healthy, who hasn't produced despite the best opportunities to do so, who's been in a scrap with one of the team's leaders and the best buddy of its captain, who's been terrible defensively, and who's going to cost the team millions of dollars not just this year, but next year and the year after that. It is, in Viet Nam parlance, a complete and utter clusterf#ck....
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Post by habwest on Dec 6, 2002 4:07:14 GMT -5
Very good post JV. I'll have to agree that AS has finessed himself into a corner on this one, although the overall idea of replacing Audette by Czerk was/is a good one IMO. I agree with your interpretation of Savard's intentions, although we'll never really know. I would still be tempted to go to GG and say:
"George, we've really tried with Audette, but, it looks like he hasn't fully recovered from that nasty arm injury and never will and because of that he's lost the edge that he needs to be a scorer in this League. And he's no good as anything else. I think that it would be in the long term best interests of the team if we bit the bullet and cut our losses by buying him out. Czerkawski's POd but we can probably fix that with Audette gone and him playing full time with Koivu. At the very least he's likely to go on one of his scoring streaks and then we can see if we can do anything in the trade market if we still want to go that way. If that kid Ward is still burning up the AHL he finally just might be ready to play in this League so maybe this would be a chance to find out."
Or words to that effect. Of course that's easy for me to say and would be very difficult to do but, politically, I don't think that Boivin or GG can or will hang the Audette deal on him if it's chalked up to his arm. Of course the calculated risk is that he gets a try out with another team and shoots the lights out. But I kind of doubt that would happen anytime soon. Really, if Audette gets too snarky just put him on waivers to send him to Hamilton. He'd of course refuse and then AS could just tell him to get lost, disappear from the team, banned form the dressing room. Czerk plays on the first line and AS announces that it's unfortunate but it's become glaringly apparent that poor ol' Donald has never sufficiently recovered from having his arm nearly severed, the team has given him plenty of opportunities but it just isn't working out and now it's starting to hurt the club so it's time to move on. End of story, answer no more questions from the media on this topic.
That of course would take big brass b**** but would be in the best interests of the team. But you are probably right, they'll mess around with Czerk, ie get rid of the symptom rather than the problem. But, after all, the logic to getting Czerk in the first place as far as I can see was to move Audette and if he can't be traded and can't deliver then he should go the only other route available.
If AS goes the route you suggest it will be the first major disagreement I have with AS's handling of the team. But then again, it's awfully easy to be a critic from the peanut gallery rather than be in the front lines.
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Post by FormerLurker on Dec 6, 2002 6:20:51 GMT -5
I agree that of the two, Czerkawski is the one we want to keep. I also think that we can patch things up with him -- but only with both Audette and Therrien gone.
There actually is a way to get rid of Audette without buying him out. If his lack of production is indeed caused by the injury to his arm, and this can be proven medically, then the balance of his contract should be covered by insurance. His insurers will likely argue that the injury is only partly responsible, and a settlement will be reached, say in the neighbourhood of 2/3 to 3/4 of the remainder of his salary. The Habs will offer to pick up the balance, and both sides save face.
That's about $8mln for Audette to hang up his skates now. If he's unwilling to retire, then he has to forego his insurance payment, as Berard did.
Getting rid of Therrien is even easier, all it takes is one five minute meeting between Savard and Therrien and a phone call to Larry Robinson.
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Post by MPLABBE on Dec 6, 2002 7:19:41 GMT -5
I'd get rid of both of them but Audette is definitely the worst.
and the funny thing is the french media is wondering what he did to go to the pressbox...LMAO
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