HabsWorld.net --
On a scale of disaster, it would be hard, you’d think, to top the Montreal Canadiens’ final season under GM Pierre Gauthier. Yet here we are, six years on, well short of that dubious low-water mark with just a handful of games to play. Of all the losing campaigns in the Habs long and storied history, in other words, this one may take the cake!
But despair not, Habs fans, because Marc Bergevin, lo and behold, has a plan. One that’s still short on details and apparently doesn’t include blowing up the roster or conceding that the team’s core – Max Pacioretty, Carey Price et al – won’t be breaking the Stanley Cup drought that stretches well into its third decade anytime soon. But a plan it is, though it’s safe to say no one’s doing cartwheels down Saint Catherine Street and lighting cars ablaze in anticipation of a parade.
Geoff Molson, to our collective bewilderment, declared that he stands firmly behind his beleaguered GM. Marc Bergevin, said Mr. Molson, remains one of the league’s premier evaluators of talent—a rose-coloured assessment that flies in the face of all that we’ve witnessed on the ice this season at top speed. The Karl Alzner, Ales Hemsky and Mark Streit signings, the David Schlemko acquisition, the failure to re-sign Alexander Radulov and Andrei Markov with no backup plan, the magical thinking behind the expectation that Jonathan Drouin could draw on his deep well of talent to seamlessly morph into a number-one centreman, the P.K. Subban trade (still), and the list goes on.
These are not the decisions of a GM with a sharp eye for talent.
The lack of accountability on Bergevin’s part has been mirrored in the team’s performance. Barring a few exceptions – your next captain, Brendan Gallagher, and Paul Byron, with props to Jeff Petry – the players counted on to deliver the mail (Pacioretty, Price, and to a lesser extent, Drouin) have given us prolonged stretches of uninspired play, with Price, in particular, looking completely out-of-sync on his way to putting up AHL-worthy numbers.
The team-record 12 shutouts against (and counting), more than attest to an anemic offence, reflects a reluctance to “arrive at the net with the puck and in ill humour,” to quote legendary Flyers’ coach Fred Shero. On too many nights, the sheer will, tenacity and self-sacrifice needed to win in today’s NHL were almost nowhere to be seen—which is perfectly understandable if you believe hockey players take their cue from their captain.
The Montreal fans I know all say they haven’t watched a full game for weeks if not months. At the Bell Centre box office and in sports bars, pubs and restaurants across the province, people are feeling the pinch of a season lost with 40 games to play. And chances are the worst is yet to come. Forget about John Tavares (he wants to win now!) and retooling via trades and free agency: the Canadiens are more than a player or two away from playoff contention. Besides, Montreal is the Siberia of free agent destinations: Everyone loves to play here, as long as they’re suiting up for the visiting team.
There have been some bright spots in this otherwise woeful season: Gallagher’s return to form after two injury-plagued seasons, Charles Hudon’s solid rookie campaign, Nicolas Deslauriers’s take-no-prisoners approach to every shift, and the continued development of Nikita Scherbak. Artturi Lehkonen is a well-rounded young forward who plays a 200-foot game, and he’ll rebound from this year’s sophomore slump. Alex Galchenyuk’s improved second-half play bodes well for next season, providing the Canadiens don’t make the mistake of bailing on him. None of the above plays centre, of course, unless you include Galchenyuk, and who wants to reignite that debate?
But let’s not kid ourselves: there will be no quick fixes for your Montreal Canadiens. Not this year or next. Tanking is the clearest path to renewed respectability (unless you’re the Edmonton Oilers), together with a front office shakeup early in the offseason to give the new brass, ideally led by GM Julien Brisebois, time to prepare for the upcoming draft and finally begin the process of rebuilding this once-proud franchise.
Not gonna happen, of course. At least not for now, if you believe Geoff Molson. But that reckoning will come, perhaps as early as next season. Because the time for half-measures is past. Montreal fans deserve more.
To quote the late great Fred Shero once again: “Success is not the result of spontaneous combustion, you must first set yourself on fire.”
