Same-Day Analysis: The Habs have lost their way on and off the ice
What the Montreal Canadiens need in the wake of their managerial bloodletting is patience and a steady hand, something Jeff Gorton should be able to provide
When Montreal Canadiens owner, president and chief executive officer Geoff Molson last crawled out from whatever desk he hides under, it was to apologize to a hand-picked media contingent for the shocking lack of judgment the organization showed in drafting Logan Mailloux. And after taking a flamethrower to the organization’s hockey operations department over the weekend, he’ll speak again on Monday. It will be interesting to hear what he has to say in both of Canada’s official languages.
Credit Molson for one thing. And that is that he didn’t allow this tire fire to continue one minute longer. Even though the Canadiens won Saturday night for just the sixth time in 23 games, they are bad. So bad. Epically bad. If they were to maintain their .304 points percentage, it would represent the second-worst season in franchise history, better only than the 1939-40 edition, which went 10-33-5 under former Canadiens star and all-round pushover Pit Lepine, who was named coach only because Babe Siebert, who had been named coach of the team after his retirement, tragically drowned in Lake Huron the summer prior.
So now the Canadiens are without their GM (Bergevin), two assistant GMs (Scott Mellanby and Trevor Timmins) and head PR man Paul Wilson. That’s not a purge. It’s a bloodletting. And in order for the Canadiens to move ahead from the disaster that was largely the creation of three of these people, it was absolutely necessary. It would surprise no one if coach Dominique Ducharme, who either has no discernible system of play or has been utterly incapable of communicating it to his players, is the next to be looking for work.
In a number of ways, advancing to the Stanley Cup final and being easily defeated might have been the worst thing for the long-term health of the Canadiens. It essentially made it impossible for Molson to fire Bergevin. But it also didn’t give Molson the confidence to extend him. And the result was a man who was coming off a Cup final and working to save his job, a combination that made him believe the Canadiens were actually closer to contending for a Stanley Cup than they actually were. In Bergevin, the Canadiens had a good GM who put together some good teams, not one of which (including last year’s team) was anywhere near being a true Cup contender. Like David Poile, Bergevin proved to be a cowboy as GM, unafraid to jump in with both feet and make blockbuster deals that always seem to look better on paper than they do on the ice (see Anderson, Josh and Dvorak, Christian). And like Poile, he has nothing more than an unsuccessful trip to the Stanley Cup final to show for all of his bold moves.
Then came the drafting of Mailloux, who had asked not to be drafted after taking a photo of a woman in a consensual sex act and distributing it among his teammates. It seemed to be a no-brainer, especially for an organization that prides itself on its public image. But the Canadiens went ahead and drafted him anyway, going against everything the organization has ever represented. One can only imagine what kind of horror Jean Beliveau would have displayed had he been alive to witness that debacle. If Bergevin wasn’t on thin ice prior to that pick, he had to be afterward. It was the beginning of the end for him.
It turns out the Canadiens weren’t nearly as good as Bergevin or anyone else in the organization envisioned this season, in part because, since 2002, Timmins has been a major part of the Canadiens’ drafting and developing. And it has been rather atrocious. For every Brendan Gallagher, P.K. Subban and Carey Price, there have been too many Michael McCarrons, Nikita Scherbaks, Noah Juulsens and David Fischers. The drafting has been spotty and the development has been even worse.
Both on and off the ice, the Canadiens have lost their way. It’s as simple as that. There was a time when the organization was the beacon of the NHL, the template for all others to follow. They treated their current players better than any other team and their former players with the reverence shown by no other. They were the gold standard for ceremonies. And all they did was win. There was a time when people heard almost nothing about the inner workings of the Canadiens because all they did was do their jobs and win championships.
But particularly during Bergevin’s tenure, there has been so much on- and off-ice drama that it’s sometimes almost impossible to keep up. What this organization needs more than anything is stability and a steady hand at the rudder, particularly for the lean times that could be looming. The Canadiens have brought in Jeff Gorton as executive vice-president, hockey operations. Gorton is a smart guy. He can learn to speak French. Until then, the face of the hockey department will be someone who can communicate with the fan base, as it should be. It could be Mathieu Darche, perhaps Martin Lapointe. (It should not, and almost certainly not, be Patrick Roy. The last thing the Canadiens need right now is more drama.) But the important thing is that whoever it is, that person will be charged with delivering the message while Gorton does all the heavy lifting behind the scenes.
There will be no shortcuts to getting the Canadiens on a winning track. They are without question better than they have been in the first quarter of this season. But they’re still not in the same area code as even a dark horse Stanley Cup contender. Doing what Molson has done this weekend was the first vital step. If Gorton can do his work unimpeded and away from the drama that has enveloped this franchise over the past couple of years, there are few people more qualified than him to get the process started.
Doug Stolhandjust now
I wonder if this was done to prevent Bergevin from putting in a claim on Evander Kane. He's shown that he doesn't care how bad the man is off the ice, or in the locker room, as long as the player is good on the ice. The timing is...interesting.