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Habs Don’t Need A Rebuild

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Let’s all take a deep breath, or twenty.

Do the the Habs stink? You bet they do. Tough to admit, especially when they are “only 3 points out of a playoff spot” but you are what your record says you are, so yes – right now, the Habs stink. How did they get to this damp and sullen place so quickly? In this blogger’s view, two solid years of poor strategic coaching, coupled with non-existent tactical coaching, questionable development of youth and inept managerial moves have crippled this team. Ownership has a good amount of stink on it as well for placing blind faith in a team that was hired to keep corrupted and brainwashed masses content.

The team was never retooled properly following the collapse and subsequent mass exodus of 2009. Jacques Martin was brought in to breathe new life in to the team, as well as to bring a level of professionalism behind the bench that had been missing for years. Surely he had a hand in selecting the players that they eventually traded for, and signed during that summer’s free agency period. Why on God’s green earth they opted for small, offensive-minded players, we will never know. Sure, they’re loveable, respectable, classy guys, which makes trying to be objective about them much more difficult, but their contributions – or lack thereof speak for themselves. The style of play that was promised by Jacques Martin was never delivered – not even close. Instead, he enforced the exact opposite style of play that would have maxed out the players’ talents.  What’s the French translation for ‘appeasement’? The ruse worked for a while…or did it? I think we can all agree that goaltending saved not just the team’s bacon, but the entire barn. Whether Carey Price since the start of last year, or Halak two seasons ago, the trip to the Conference Finals was enchanting, but it was a fairy tale. An anomaly. The road taken was unsustainable. When a game plan calls for a goaltender to stop 40-50 shots per night, and asks defensemen to block almost as many, with the desired end result being a 2-1 victory, it’s only a matter of time before the trap door that you voluntarily stood on top of opens wide. Sidney Crosby’s bewilderment at the conclusion of game 7 spoke for nearly everyone, much of Habsland included.

Last year the team had its ups and downs, eventually bowing out in the first round to the Bruins in seven games. Many saw that as some sort of accomplishment, considering the “injuries”. Yawn. News flash! there are no moral victories in the playoffs. None. There never were, and there never will be. Talk of “tomorrow’s another day” is for the regular season. The playoffs, on the other hand are merciless and not for the faint of heart. Any talk otherwise stems from apologists, exonerators and excuse makers. Pass me the barf bag. The cracks in the foundation were deep and visible, but covered up with Carey Price’s excellence. That Carey Price is even in a Habs sweater is a stroke of luck.

Fast forward to this season, and the slow slide to oblivion accelerated to avalanche speed, and not even Price’s continued fine play could stop it. Jacques Martin quickly lost the pulse of his team, which is not surprising given how he stamped out any semblance of energy and passion – what was left to measure when you don’t communicate with your players? He soon ran out of places to hide, kids to throw under the bus and people to blame other than himself by the time the axe fell. Last Saturday ended what was an infernally long tenure that really wasn’t that long at all; it just felt that way, which is a damning testament to the type of stodgy, stale, flaccid hockey that Jacques Martin had installed. It was, and still is boring, which speaks to the damage that he has done, and that Randy Cunneyworth has been tasked with fixing. Nothing is worse than failing, sleep-inducing hockey, especially when you’re one of the priciest tickets in the league. Nothing. Near the end, Jacques Martin said that it was less about entertaining the fans. Way to keep up with the times, Coach.

Now, as Randy Cunneyworth struggles to pump out the water, he seems as powerless as a nine volt battery trying to power a nuclear submarine. It isn’t his fault; he’s been set up for failure by ownership and management, and the jackals in the French media have already begun gnawing at the carcass before it has even flatlined. Dead man walking.

The result is a team in disarray, or at least the semblance of disarray. There are still some good players on this team: Cole, Pacioretty, Gionta, Plekanec, Cammalleri and Kostitsyn are all eminently capable of 25 goals each, but only one or two of those guys will hit that number…three would be stretching it. As the team spirals to 12th place and poised to sink even lower, fans are predictably calling for a tank & rebuild in the same vein as Pittsburgh, Chicago, Washington, and other teams that reaped all-star talent at the draft table by being appallingly bad for many years.

As tempting as it may be to dream of a lottery draft pick, it’s not needed for this iteration of the team. Serious tweaking? Absolutely. Blowing it up? Stop it. While this season is on the verge of being lost, (if it wasn’t lost in October) there is plenty of hope for 2012-13, provided Geoff Molson gets his priorities straight and stares down those that insist that they have a say in running the team.

Re-signing Price, Subban and Gorges are no-brainer decisions. Bringing back Andrei Kostitsyn isn’t quite a no-brainer, but it’s damn close. Unless he can fetch a king’s ransom in return, he should be retained, and quite frankly, I wouldn’t trust Gauthier to fetch that kingly ransom. Thanks to Gauthier’s panic moves designed to save his, and Jacques Martin’s job (bonjour to those who said that a healthy Campoli and Kaberle would fix all that ails the team), he has saddled the team with some contracts that are suffocating the Habs, and will continue to do so until they’re off the books. That being the case, whoever has the title of General Manager in the summer – because it won’t be Pierre Gauthier – should focus on moving Scott Gomez, Mike Cammalleri and Tomas Kaberle at all costs. Freeing up that kind of scratch and replacing it with the right pieces and coupled with the proper Coaching, will set it back on course in a hurry.

There’s no need to flush out everyone over the age of 27. No need to be voluntary doormats for years to come. No need to waste some of Carey Price’s best years. As long as pillars like Price, Subban, Pacioretty, Plekanec, Cole, Eller, Gorges and Gionta are around, there is plenty to play for, and it’s all the more reason to get things right without waving the white flag of failure.The only capitulations that should be made, if the team can’t pull out of this tailspin absolutely and immediately (meaning tonight vs Winnipeg, and no more consolation loser points), is to trade pending UFAs (except Gorges and Kostitsyn) for assets. That’s it.

The recipe, as challenging as it may be to implement, is really quite simple:

1- Get the organizational priorities straight. Winning? Or pandering & political appeasement?
2- Hire the best General Manager money can buy, language be damned.
3- Let him get the best Coach, and ask him to pretty please with a cherry on top become competent in French as quickly as possible.
4- Sign or trade for players that match the new Coach’s style and fill the team’s gaps.
5- Enjoy hockey again.

Now, if only Geoff Molson can summon the courage to stomp out the filthy agenda-driven rats in the Francophone media and political arena who have infested and warped the views of Habs fans all over Quebec, things might get moving in the right direction. These clowns have once again made the Canadiens a laughing stock, not only in hockey circles, but in global news. It’s not because “outsiders don’t understand”. It’s because it’s farcical that a segment of Quebecers carry the sense of entitlement that allows them to believe that they control the team. The legacy of the Canadiens hangs from the rafters of the Bell Center, and it was built by French AND English. The legacy doesn’t exist anywhere else. It’s a sport. You want to make a statement about your culture and language? Do it through other channels and stay out of the hockey rink. People and organizations trying to shape the Canadiens to reflect their narrow-minded, pig-headed views have no place in the business of sport.

The ball is in your court, Mr. Molson.

Like Poison

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Jacques Martin’s mere presence behind the bench has become deathly poisonous to the Habs. From a terrible strategy game-in, game-out to throwing his young players under the bus, this Coach is about as positive and nurturing a presence as Palpatine is leading the republic. Hell, he even had the audacity to hint that Price, his only hope at his $500,000 playoff bonus was a reason for losing.

They couldn’t beat the best at home, and they couldn’t beat the worst at home. What’s left?

He MUST go.

Fire Jacques Martin.

Limbo Champs

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As the Habs continue to fight against the current, one thing is becoming more and more clear: this team is not living up to anyone’s expectations. Not the fans’, not the media’s, who, although they didn’t peg the Habs as elite, didn’t have them as being this bad, either. Most importantly, they aren’t living up to their own expectations. We hear it repeated over and over in post game scrums and press conferences about how they we not prepared, not focused, not playing as a team. Now they’re griping about seeing the standings every day in their own locker room and not being pleased with what they see. As the writing on the wall starts to take shape, the mood in the room sounds decidedly flat and negative. A once jovial and tight locker room seems to be fraying at the edges. It’s hard to believe that they’ve turned on one another, given that their good character guys, but it’s not hard to believe that they no longer believe in the game plan that is being forced upon them.

It’s clear that the Canadiens are currently not living up to their own expectations. After all, they were the ones who came up with the “Rise Together” marketing campaign. What, exactly were they implying by that? Rise to where, exactly? To 8th place? 6th place? After a 2010-2011 year in which the Canadiens showed great promise, fueled by Price, Subban and Pacioretty, the team’s Marketing department may have made their first misstep in actually trying to RAISE the bar for once. They finished 6th last year, and, as the refrain goes, if they had Markov, Gorges and Pacioretty all year, they could have done better. So I assume they had higher targets this year.

Oops!

You might tell me that injuries have derailed the best laid plans, but I think that’s nothing but a lazy, old and tired excuse. Markov has been out for so long that he should no longer be factored in to the team’s plans or fortunes until he’s back in the lineup. Same goes for Campoli, a wildcard player left on the free agent scrap heap until late September. Surely, such saviours don’t rot on the scrap heap do they? The only thing we can say is that we don’t know how he would have fit in to this roster. Maybe he would have helped, maybe not. Scott Gomez, another big name and cap hit on the shelf wasn’t producing and was a drag on the team, so don’t tell me about him. You can spin the injury argument all you like, but the Penguins hummed along without Crosby, Malkin and Staal for long stretches so save the injury excuse for the apologist round table discussions. Mismanagement of resources, weak bench management, puzzling choices, lack of coach-to-player communication, motivation, outdated and ill-fitting systems, unprepared (and yes, underachieving) players are the real problems of the team. Many of these can be fixed by putting a Coach in place that puts talent in position to succeed, armed with a game plan that matches their skill sets. That hasn’t happened for much of the last 2+ seasons.

Ask yourself this: What other organization can steeply raise prices across the board and deliver such an average product? Even worse than losing is that they’ve become BORING. From the General Manager, to the Coach and now finally tricked down to the ice, the team is void of flair, personality and FUN. That’s perhaps the biggest knock against the brand of hockey that the Jacques Martin era will be known for. Montreal is a city teeming with flair, fun and personality, and given how tightly woven the Habs are in the fabric of the city, their current state is a loose thread on the tapestry. Yet legions of people are willing to accept it? I understand “accepting it because you’re virtually powerless to change it” (you’re not, by the way), but I cannot comprehend anybody “accepting it because you think it’s good enough”. By the way, the Canadiens have played many poor games this year, and currently have the worst home record in the league. Some reward for those people who scramble to find ways, despite the rapidly escalating prices, to go to the Bell Center and buy up all things Canadiens.

Rise Together? I guess if you’re at the bottom, then there’s nowhere to go but up, right? Maybe this has been the plan all along.

Yet as team owner Geoff Molson stands pat, offering his support for the General Manager, Head Coach, and Gomez alike, it seems all too clear that profits are a higher priority for the powers that be than winning is. This should come as no surprise. All outward appearances seem to indicate that making the playoffs and reaping pure profit from a couple home games is the goal. They tell us that the Cup is the goal, but as we all know, actions speak louder than words. In my last post, I’ve clearly showed that winning the Cup is a matter of home ice advantage. Without it, chances of glory are slim, yet that doesn’t stop pie-eyed optimists from believing that “anything is possible”. I don’t hold that belief against anybody, because anything is possible if you want to get in to semantics, but with just one of the last 34 Cup finalists winning it all (that’s 3%) without entering the playoffs with home ice advantage, I tend to put my stock in the overwhelming stat that has been proven over a long period of time.

And so we’ve become very good at limbo, because we happily bend over backwards to make time for this team, spend money on it and invest our hopes in it. What a pity.

Sadly, the Canadiens, through spin, media mouthpieces, marketing and PR have successfully lowered the bar to the point where making the playoffs is seen as some great accomplishment, and as a result, fans now believe that an upset or two (and even near-upsets) are highwater benchmarks of success.

Many of us know better. Unfortunately, it seems that not enough do.That, my friends, is the magic of good marketing.

He’s Lying to You – Part 2

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If you hit up an online sportsbook like http://topbet.com/sportsbook/, you’d have found good odds on whether or not I’d follow up my last post with a sequel. With so much material to write about, you could have taken it to the bank!

During the post-game press conference following the Habs 3-2 shootout loss to the Sabres on Monday night, Head Coach Jacques Martin added to his ever-growing pile of perplexing, curious and false statements carefully designed to deflect pointed questions, avoid damning himself and erect trickster smokescreens. I’m not sure when he’s going to stop insulting the intelligence of the fans and media with his ridiculous answers, but it’s clear from the audacity of some of his replies that he’s running out of tricks.

In a game where the Canadiens dictated the pace and tone through 40 minutes, something changed during the second intermission. In easing back on the accelerator, the Canadiens let the upstart Sabres back in the game. Whether the players were instructed to play it safe or if the players did it themselves out of instinct, lack of confidence or fear of winning, when asked for the reasons behind the Canadiens collapse, Martin offered up the following:

“…a lot of youth on the backend, and they took advantage”.

Stop me if you’ve heard this before. With P.K. Subban, Yannick Weber, Alexei Emelin and Raphael Diaz patrolling the blue line, there certainly were many young kids trying to hold the fort. But is it right to blame them for the loss? A team that has ZERO shots on goal in the third period through 14 minutes sounds like a team that isn’t intent on doing the same things that made them successful through the first 40 minutes – and that includes much more than a handful of young defencemen who played their hearts out. Since taking over as Coach in 2009, Jacques Martin has proven nothing if not that he strongly favours his veterans and only leans on young players if he has no other choice. How else do you explain his overuse of Mathieu Darche on the powerplay? Or Travis Moen on top scoring lines? Or bypassing Lars Eller at nearly every turn despite his rapid improvement? Or benching a slumping Andrei Kostitsyn? Last season, P.K. Subban didn’t rise to prominence until both Markov and Gorges were lost, leaving Martin with no other choice but to play the high-risk/high-reward Subban for 20+ minutes per night.

So are the young defencemen truly to blame, as the Coach would have us believe, or is Martin taking the easy, predictable path of least resistance? After all, if he starts shining the light of blame on his veterans, he can kiss his locker room support – and eventually his job – goodbye. It’s the last bastion of a Coach who can’t adapt, adjust to an evolving game, or make the best use of available resources. Whether it’s strategy or tactics, he simply marinates in old school game plans, then wraps himself in the kevlar vest that is the happiness of veterans while cursing the youth at every turn.

As I listened to Martin drive over his young rearguards and then back over them again, I  thought back to the past two seasons. Oddly, I don’t remember him ever publicly smacking his veterans for their questionable-at-times play. So I took a look at the numbers, and admittedly it’s difficult to try and quantify poor defence. But if we look at turnovers/giveaways under the Jacques Martin reign, we’ll see some eye-popping numbers. No, turnovers aren’t the be-all-end-all metric, but they’re a good starting point. If we can agree that turnovers are a barometer of a player without an idea of what to do with the puck, a player in a panic, a player without poise and without the benefit of experience, then surely veterans must be the opposite, and the numbers will reflect that, right?

Let’s start with this current 2011-12 season. The Canadiens are currently 4th overall in the league in giveaways – that’s 4th most, not 4th least. At first glance you’ll say “AHA! You see, with some many young defencemen, it’s no wonder they’re 4th overall!” Ok, but keep reading. Among the defencemen, it should shock nobody that Subban leads the pack. He’s committed the 6th most turnovers in the entire league, with 17. It’s no surprise that Subban has struggled this year, mightily at times and was guilty of the turnover that led to the Sabres tying goal on Monday night. We’ll concede this to Coach Martin. Right on Subban’s heels is Hal Gill, coming in at 11th place with 16 turnovers, followed by Yannick Weber (31st with14), Josh Gorges (50th with 12) and Raphael Diaz (115th with 9). For their parts, Emelin and Spacek were way down the list, so we’ll let them off the hook. But overall it’s a pretty fair mix of vets and young players, wouldn’t you say? But no, in Martin’s mind it’s easier to only single out the under-25 set. You’ll tell me that Gill didn’t play, and Spacek left Monday’s Buffalo game early. True, but take a look – Gill is still near the top of the leaderboard even if he hasn’t played every game. Hal Gill of 1000+ games played! (Disclaimer: I really like Hal Gill; he can play on my team as long as he wants; his good outweighs the bad).

In Martin’s first season as Habs Coach, the Canadiens committed 910 turnovers, good for 2nd most in the entire league. Leading the group? Roman Hamrlik (3rd in the NHL with 86), Jaroslav Spacek (4th in the NHL with 81), and Hal Gill (8th in the NHL with 76). Well that’s weird. Weren’t those players all in their mid-thirties at the time, with the benefit of experience that thousands of games under their collective belts provides? 2 of the top 5 in the league? 3 of the top 10? Funny, I don’t recall Coach Martin ever blaming his veterans for the team’s defensive woes back then, do you?

Last season in 2010-2011, the Canadiens had a marked improvement. They finished the year with 738 turnovers, still good for a lousy 7th in the NHL. It’s pretty sad when a 7th place finish is seen as a big improvement. Leading the pack? James Wisniewski (23rd with 67, with Isles and Habs), Hal Gill (30th with 62 giveaways),  Subban (49th with 56 and who was a rookie playing the role of a #1 defenceman), Jaroslav Spacek (54th with 55) and Roman Hamrlik (62nd with 53). So while there was a significant improvement, and nobody was even in the top 20, as a team the Canadiens were still guilty of far too many turnovers, and it was largely the veterans who were at fault. Still, we never heard Martin come down on them.

I’ve intentionally left the forwards out of the mix, but rest assured that veterans like Plekanec, Cammalleri and Gomez have all been guilty of many, many turnovers in the past 2+ seasons. Seasoned veterans, all three of them, and they all are among the team leaders in coughing up the puck.

If you’re still with me, I thank you for sticking around. It can be challenging to slog through so many stats and it can be even harder to make sense of them. If you leave this page with any sort of takeaway, it’s this:

  • Experienced defencemen are vitally important, but it’s lazy to always blame young rearguards simply because the Coach says so, or because they make the easiest, most convenient target. The numbers show, at least in part, that in the Jacques Martin era, veterans are just as likely as young defencemen to make egregious turnovers. Regardless of who’s in the lineup (old or young) this team coughs the puck up with regularity.

Instead of pointing the finger of blame at the young blue line, perhaps Martin should be made to explain why his team constantly eases off in third periods? If they maintained an aggressive forecheck, and truly were a puck possession team as he claims they are, then the puck would spend more time in the offensive zone and the “culpable kids” would have less burden on their shoulders, no? We know he said that it’s not the plan to back off, but as I pointed out in part 1, he’s either full of it, or he has incompetent players, and I’m certain it’s not the latter.

With a litany of preposterous answers on the record, Jacques Martin is steadily painting himself in to a corner. The answers all dovetail nicely with his most preposterous claim of all – that the Canadiens are in fact a puck-possession team. How can that possibly be true when his team:

  • Gives away the puck more often than the average team?
  • Is perennially close to the bottom of the league in goals for?
  • Has been in the bottom third of the league in minor penalties for the past 2+ seasons?

Is there something that the Wizard of Oz is keeping secret from us lowly, uneducated fans and bloggers? If it hasn’t become obvious already, this team is often an unfocused, confused group under the watch of Jacques Martin. Getting by with miraculous goaltending is not a sustainable plan for winning.

I’m not saying that the Habs’ young defencemen are perfect or that any of them are going to earn a Norris nomination any time soon. But it’s not asking too much for Martin to show a little even-handedness when doling out accountability through the media. If, as some suggest, falling back to protect a lead is a sign of a team without confidence or experience, then it would behoove the coach to stop throwing the kids to the wolves. The last time I looked, young players not only comprise the majority of his defensive corps right now, but more than anything they need encouragement and mentoring. Not the goat horns.

He’s Lying to You

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I really feel like I could spin the title of this post – “He’s Lying to You” in to a series of posts, and I may just do that. But for now, let’s kick this one around.

“The plan was not to sit back at all. The best defense is offense.” — Jacques Martin

Martin has tried to sell us many good yarns this year, but this one is really a shocker coming from the King of Passive hockey. But if we are to believe what the Coach said in the aftermath of a game blown to the Buffalo Sabres last night, then certainly he must have recent memories and statistical evidence track record that speaks to that belief, right?

Let’s take a look and see what the Coach may be talking about.

In 2009-10, his first season in Montreal, the Canadiens scored 217 goals. That was good for 10th overall in the Eastern Conference, 23rd overall in the NHL and the 2nd lowest of any Eastern playoff team. I know, I know. The Canadiens went to the Eastern Conference Finals, so stuff it, right? Blah blah blah. Spare me your circular logic. As I’ve said before, we know how the Canadiens got to the Eastern Conference Finals and it had little to do with a spectacular offense.

In 2010-11, his second season in Montreal, the Canadiens actually slipped to 216 goals, good for 12th in the Eastern Conference, 24th overall in the NHL and the LOWEST of any Eastern Conference playoff team. I can hear the homers already: “But they took the eventual champs to overtime in game 7…and the injuries…..THE INJURIES! ARGH!!!!”. Where’s the snooze button, because I’m going to push it. Hard. There are no moral victories in the playoffs, and there were plenty of other teams that had more injuries than the Habs last season. In fact, the Canadiens were pretty much right in the middle of the pack in terms of man games lost to injury.

This season, the Canadiens have scored 42 goals through 17 games. That’s 2.47 goals per game on average, and projects out to 203 goals for the season. So if the Coach think that a best defense is a good offense, his team is going in the wrong direction, and has been going in the wrong direction for what is now a 3rd consecutive season. The addition of Erik Cole, a full season of Max Pacioretty and a bounce back season for some vets were supposed to set the stage of a more potent offense, was it not? Aside from Markov, who has been a gigantic question mark for many months now, the team has been relatively healthy. Cammalleri and Kostitsyn have missed a few games apiece, but certainly not enough to be the sole reason for the Habs’ continued inability to score goals.

Going back to what the Coach said: “The plan was not to sit back at all. The best defense is offense.”…how exactly does the Coach practice what he preaches? As the moribund powerplay continues to circle the drain, the Coach still affords Mathieu Darche precious minutes while other more talented, more deserving players sit and watch from the bench. Does having Tomas Plekanec on the point help or hurt? Does the Coach get his team to continually push the pace? Does he encourage and motivate them to play the same way that put them in a position to have a 2-goal lead to begin with? Or rather does he stand pat while his passive 1-2-2 system kills any offensive momentum his team may have had? If he in fact does not preach sitting back to protect a lead, then why does he continue to let it happen? It’s his job to change his players’ habits, is it not? If the players come out and talk about how they sat back, yet the Coach says that wasn’t the plan, then where’s the disconnect from the Coach to the players? Are the players stubborn? Incompetent? Is the Coach’s message not getting through? Is it not properly delivered? No matter, getting the best from his team and ensuring that his message is getting through is HIS job.

We’ve taken a look at some of the things we can see with our own eyes, but now let’s delve a little deeper in to some stats to try and help paint a clearer picture.
The Canadiens have 14 third period goals this season, which puts them in a logjam with the likes of Phoenix, Columbus, Nashville, Winnipeg and Detroit for 21st in the NHL. Red Wings aside, those aren’t the teams I think of when I think of “offense” and pushing the pace. Until last night, the Canadiens were actually 5-0 when leading after two periods, so a 5-0-1 record this morning should not be the end of the world, and truly it isn’t. The record and team are not on trial here. But that 5-0-1 record still only places them 18th overall in the league when leading after two periods. Since a near-perfect record ranks them a mediocre 18th, it can only mean that more than half of the teams in the league have had more leads to protect after two periods than the Habs, which speaks to the Habs overall inability to score at any point in the game. But the Habs ranking of 21st in the NHL in 3rd period goals means two thirds of the league still manages to score more goals in the final frame. When you put these seemingly disparate pieces of information together, it tells me that the Canadiens don’t push the pace in the third period, whether they are leading or trailing (Habs remain winless when trailing after two periods with an 0-6-2 record) and do in fact sit on leads going in to the third period when they have a lead to protect.

The final analysis says that if Jacques Martin believes that the best defense is a good offense, he does almost nothing to prove it. Is the Coach simply stating what he believes, but is unable to implement? Or is he trying to make us believe (similar to him telling us that young defensemen are to blame, or that his team plays puck possession hockey) what he wants us to believe? Given his track record, we know he’ll probably throw his friend and boss, General Manager Pierre Gauthier to the wolves for failing to provide enough talent. Hmm, that is curious, isn’t it? Tomas Plekanec, Michael Cammalleri, Brian Gionta, Max Pacioretty, Lars Eller, David Desharnais, Erik Cole, Andrei Kostitsyn, PK Subban, Yannick Weber, Raphael Diaz…does that sound like a talentless roster to you? Is that a list of names that evokes “can’t score goals” to you? It’s not to me.

10 More Reasons To Fire Jacques Martin

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In April 2010, I wrote a blog post entitled “22 Reasons to Fire Jacques Martin“. In its aftermath, I received equal amounts of kudos and ridicule. Martin’s detractors agreed with essentially everything I wrote. Much of it is irrefutable, so who could argue? But Martin apologists had their own ammo. The bottom line is that I knew that only one season in to his four-year contract was not the time we’d see the Coach join the unemployment line. The whole exercise at the time was a way for me to vocalize what I thought to be fatal flaws in the team. In the “what have you done for me lately” world of pro sports, Martin’s Canadiens went on to make their first appearance in the Conference Finals since winning the Cup in 1993. Egg on my face, right? Fast forward another year, and it was more of the same. A frustrating system holding players back, but taking the eventual champs to overtime in game 7. Again, egg on my face, right? Hardly. The bar has been so egregiously lowered in Montreal, that a defeat in the first round of the playoffs was seen as some kind of moral victory. Don’t tell me about the injuries. Just don’t. Sobering thought: If Tim Thomas was not so crappy on both winning goals as the Habs jumped out to a 2-0 series lead, it’s entirely possible that the Bruins would have swept the Habs.

This season, year three in to Jacques Martin’s contract, the Habs are off to a dismal 1-6 start. It’s getting worse rather than better. Again, don’t tell me about injuries. Not as long as Dan Bylsma is getting top notch hockey out of his Crosby-less, Malkin-less Penguins. Excuses are for losers, period.

NFL legend Bill Parcells once said you are what your record says you are. And a 1-6 record says the Canadiens stink. Yes. They stink. Did we overestimate this team’s abilies? Or are they not as bad as they’ve shown, and Parcells simply nuts? Regardless, what Parcells’ comment strongly implies is that excuses are for losers.

Regardless, a Coach has to answer for this. So without further delay, here are 10 more reasons to finally get rid of Jacques Martin and start anew:

23- For still trying to stubbornly stuff, bend, fold and shoehorn offensively gifted players in to his defence-first box, despite all kinds of evidence that says defence first does not work if you want to win the Cup, Jacques Martin should be fired.

24- Any team that stands around watching their team’s ONLY chance at success get constantly run over without batting an eyelash has major issues. For neutering this team of any physicality, aggression, and dare I say – truculence – Jacques Martin should be fired.

25- Darche, God bless his heart does not belong on the powerplay over talented players like Andrei Kostitsyn and Erik Cole. For mismanagement of resources and talent to inexplicably insane levels, “Coach’s Prerogative” be damned, Jacques Martin should be fired.

26- For not communicating clearly with his players, and for not clearly defining roles (a 4th liner is not a 1st liner, and a 1st liner is not a 3rd liner, and a defenceman is not a forward!), Jacques Martin should be fired.

27- For instituting a stifling, antiquated system that is currently being taught to future Habs players by Martin clone Clement Jodoin down in Hamilton, Jacques Martin should be fired.

28- For not having any other tactic in his bag of tricks other than extreme line juggling, Jacques Martin should be fired.

29- For his outright lies: “we are a puck possession team” despite being anything but, Jacques Martin should be fired.

30- For his chronic inability to cure his team’s penchant for taking too many penalties (and too many men penalties!), Jacques Martin should be fired.

31- For refusing to ever accept ANY responsibility for his team’s shortcomings (Jacques a little humility is a good thing – try it some time.), Jacques Martin should be fired.

32- Finally, for being a condescending, arrogant knob to a young reporter who dared to ask him a tough and damning question – Jacques Martin should be fired. Jacques, if you’re going to lose your composure in the heat of the moment, try it during a game for once. Try showing some emotion when it actually matters, and not in an insulting way to a young professional.

You may not agree with each and every reason to Fire Jacques Martin that I’ve posted since April 2010 (and I’ve had more rants dating back to November 2009). But I think even his most ardent supporters would have to concur with the majority of them. Even if I’m blindly anti-Martin, just a third of these reasons are damaging enough to the Canadiens that a coaching change should now be a top priority.

Would you add anything else to the list? Anybody want to add a 33rd reason in honour of the number worn by the guy who many think (but certainly not this blogger) should be Martin’s successor?

 

Mythbusting

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When you follow a team that generates as much discussion and speculation as the Habs, urban legends and outright myths are bound to spring up like dandelions. Two of the most popular myths that have endured for years are that the Canadiens cannot lure superstar free agents to Montreal for reasons relating to media pressure, taxes, political strife, and the fishbowl atmosphere. When former General Manager Bob Gainey signed big names like Brian Gionta and Mike Cammalleri to long-term contracts, much of the long-held myth died. Other lower tier free agents like Hal Gill, Jaroslav Spacek and Travis Moen also elected to ply their trade in la Belle Province. Tomas Plekanec elected to return to Montreal when he could have likely gone elsewhere for more money. Gainey proved that as long as the dollars are there, the signatures will follow. This doesn’t mean that it will be a cake walk to sign big names in the future, but it’s far cry from the “fat chance” that it was just a few years ago.

The other myth is one that has needed a debunking in the worst way, and that is the long-held belief that once the Canadiens give up on a young player, he goes on to stardom elsewhere in the league. I don’t know where the myth started, but maybe it traces back to the early 90′s when the Canadiens sent John LeClair to Philadelphia. LeClair went on to 50-goal fame with the Flyers, something no Habs fan saw coming, and something that hasn’t been easy to swallow nearly 20 years later. Perhaps some would refer to the deal that sent Chelios to Chicago for an over-the-hill Denis Savard? On the flip side, let’s also recall that youngster Gilbert Dionne, he of 60 career goals with the Canadiens over parts of 5 seasons was sent packing, only to accomplish less than nothing with the duration of his NHL career. If he had scored 2 goals per game in the 27 games he had left in front of him in his NHL career, he would not have matched his career output in Montreal. Eric Desjardins and Mathieu Schneider went on to have terrific careers after playing with the Canadiens (and being contributors to a 24th cup victory, I may add), but its not like the Canadiens “gave up” on those guys. Both played several years in Montreal and were part of deals that were intended to make the Canadiens better. Give to get, as it were.

Today it seems that the consensus among fans is that once the Canadiens trade Andrei Kostitsyn away, he will instantly fulfill his first round draft pick promise and score 30 goals without breaking a sweat. Maybe he will, maybe he won’t. If he finds the right fit, he will. If he doesn’t get his head in the game, he won’t. If he does manage to consistently score, it will undoubtedly fuel the fire that says youngsters departing Montreal instantly get better by changing scenery, or escaping the clutches of vile gangster Jabba the Hut Head Coach Jacques Martin.

But let’s take a quick look at the ledger, shall we? Without breaking down every stat and every situation, the Canadiens have let the following “young” players go over the past few years:

  • Michael Ryder
  • Chris Higgins
  • Mike Komisarek
  • Mikhail Grabovski
  • Sergei Kostitsyn
  • Kyle Chipchura
  • Guillaume Latendresse
  • Max Lapierre
  • Matt D’Agostini
  • Ryan McDonagh
  • Jaroslav Halak

It’s not an exhaustive list by any means, and without breaking it down in to minutae, at a glance we can see that of those names, only Belarussians Mikhail Grabovski and Sergei Kostitsyn have Habs fans up in arms today. Micheal Ryder has remained a decent player, but isn’t blowing anyone away in Boston and while Latendresse had some success after his trade last year, he’s been hurt for the vast majority of this season. Matt D’Agostini has posted respectable numbers overall, but he isn’t exactly burning up the scoresheet, either. In fact his recent stats suggest he’s slipping back to the form that saw him wear out his welcome in Montreal. Defenseman Ryan McDonagh has been a solid addition to the Rangers blue line but has a long way to go. He will always be known as a guy that was traded away so that the Canadiens could get their man in Scott Gomez. No doubt that the sting of that trade will help fan the flames. The rest of the names: Higgins, Komisarek, Chipchura, and Lapierre have all gone on to circle the drain in their post-Canadiens tenures. Higgins continues to struggle to find the form that had Habs fans labeling him as the team’s future captain. He’s seen time in New York, Calgary, and now Florida, with few signs that he will return to being the player that had three consecutive 20-goal seasons in Montreal. Mike Komisarek has been a huge failure in Toronto after signing a big contract, and everyone except Brian Burke will admit that. Kyle Chipchura is a spare part in Anaheim as he was in Montreal, and Max Lapierre is utterly lost with the same Anaheim team. Perhaps most famously, Jaroslav Halak has been very average with the Blues this season after enchanting an entire city with his performance last year. After a fantastic start to the season, his play has eroded significantly.

Circumstances vary, and the jury is still out on many of these players, but it’s clear from just taking a quick look at the list that very few players actually leave Montreal and become poster boys for success, or are cautionary tales for giving up too early. The myth is just that: A myth. It’s no guarantee that a young player will become a star elsewhere. That said, in this age of the salary cap, it is imperative that teams get the best from their young players or suffer the consequences. The Canadiens have struggled in this aspect, but it’s pretty clear to me that they were not always dealing with blue-chip stocks. I’m not getting in to what the Canadiens got (or didn’t get) in return for these players when they were given their walking papers. That’s a separate issue for another time.

But for now, we can at least try to shelve the discussion that all youngsters dumped by the Canadiens become superstars elsewhere.

Can you think of any other Habs that were traded away, only to become stars elsewhere?

Mission: Impossible

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So the Canadiens have now lost 6 of 7 games, with another one coming up against the league’s best team in Vancouver. Losing 7 of 8 is a distinct possibility. A distinct probability given the way they’re playing lately. The timing couldn’t be worse with the trade deadline about a week away. Now there’s a sizeable portion of Habs fans thinking that Pierre Gauthier absolutely must to do something to improve this team. I can’t put up much of an argument, because the Canadiens do need serious upgrades, but what can he be expected to do with the assets he has, and considering the state of the team on the ice? Not one, or two, or even three trades would fix all that ails the good ship Canadien. Besides – and this may be a well guarded secret that I’m about to expose – other General Managers around the league have cable TV (and satellite, too!), cell phones, and perhaps most shocking of all – internet access! Given all those top-secret tools, the rest of the league can effectively eavesdrop on the Habs and figure out just what the Habs troubles are. They also know what expectations are in Montreal, and can squeeze Gauthier even harder. Here’s another secret: there isn’t a General Manager out there who wants to help the Canadiens get better. They know the Canadiens are in dire straits, and they’re sitting back waiting for Gauthier to talk turkey with them. Within seconds they will have Gauthier over a barrel because they know he’s in dire straits. They probably wouldn’t know if they didn’t have all of those high tech gadgets like TV and internet. Damn them! This is precisely why Gauthier needs to disconnect and restrain himself. Any General Manager will be all too happy to pluck away the Canadiens best remaining assets to assist Gauthier in plugging just enough holes to make the playoffs.
If Gauthier is not planning on making a huge splash that helps shape the core of the team for the foreseeable future, then he may as well take a vacation. Just so that we’re clear, any moves that will affect the core of this team for the future will cost Gauthier assets that already represent the present and future: Pacioretty, Subban, and high-end draft picks. Are you ready to part with them? I thought not. And if you are, I’m glad you aren’t the General Manager. Andrei Kostitsyn, as the most moveable among the top-6 forwards will not fetch a productive power forward in return. And no, packaging Kostitsyn with a 3rd round draft pick isn’t a clever way to pry Rick Nash out of Columbus. “Sweetening the pot” with Yannick Weber or Lars Eller blows you like a stiff breeze in to “poor asset management” territory. Face it, the Canadiens are now living through the bumps in the road that come from poor drafting, injuries galore, and unproductive forwards with gigantic contracts. Father Time is the only one that can fix this, and only if he’s joined on the ride by better drafting, better player development, better coaching, and players that do what they’re paid to do.
The trade deadline is not the place where you transform yourself from bubble team to an intimidating, high-powered, well-oiled machine. That’s never been the intention of the trade deadline, nor will it ever be. The trade deadline is for teams that want to add the last pieces to what they believe is a Stanley Cup puzzle (see: Bruins, Boston). Many Habs fans are pulling their hair out because a hated rival continues to aggressively load up for their shot at glory. The Flyers are also looking primed for their swing at the fence. But guess what? Only one of those loaded teams will get the chance to play for the Cup, let alone win it. To do that, they still need to beat the Western Conference Champ, which is no guarantee either. I suppose some of you will say “but at least they’re trying while Gauthier does nothing”. If viewed in a vacuum, you’re right. But what you aren’t taking in to consideration is the fact that the Bruins and Flyers built slowly through the draft and have made shrewd signings over the years. They are in a position to make this final push for the Cup. The Canadiens aren’t there yet. Regardless, now you want the Canadiens to make a bunch of trades to keep up with the Flyers and Bruins at the top of the East? Sorry, I’m not buying it. There’s nothing Gauthier can do, or should do right now to try and keep up with the Joneses. With the system Jacques Martin has in place, any big-name acquisition is not likely to have the desired effect anyway. If you want real, lasting change for the Habs your best option is to wait for a regime change. Martin is still basking in the glow of last year’s run and probably has immunity for the foreseeable future, especially with his buddy calling the shots. A good place to start would be to have the guy who Bruce Boudreau called “one of the smartest coaches in the league” to alter his philosophy. Stop relying on power plays and goaltending. Implement a system that sees the forwards forecheck hard and keep the puck in the opponent’s end. Force them to chase the Canadiens speedy forwards.
Gauthier should not make moves at the deadline to puck up short-term fixes at the cost of the future. Instead, his best investment is a set of “jaws of life” to pry Martin’s philosophy out of the pre-lockout era.

Orange Kryptonite

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I’ve developed a mantra for relating the size issue to whether or not the Canadiens win. Assuming skill levels are relatively equal between 2 teams, the saying goes a little like this:

Small can beat big, if big doesn’t play big and small plays big. But small can’t beat big if big decides to play big.

The Canadiens have a size issue right now that doesn’t always manifest itself during regular season play, but almost always does when the chips are down in the playoffs.

Fortunately, the future is looking brighter.

I was one of those people that didn’t want to see Pacioretty in Montreal this season, but not because I didn’t think he was good enough to play at an NHL level, but because I didn’t want Martin to get his hands on him. Martin’s modus operandi gives youngsters scant minutes only to bench them soon after for not producing immediately, or heaven forbid taking a penalty. Turns out I was wrong, and Martin, has seen the light with Max. Or, perhaps Martin needs Max more than Max needs Martin. The Canadiens also have some size in developing players like Lars Eller and Alexander Avtsin.

As far as the Habs & Flyers matchup goes, the Canadiens are a combined 4-9 vs Philly over the past 2 seasons, being outscored 40-25 over those 13 games. Maybe there are those among you who would say that that isn’t such a bad thing, after all, those number break down to an average loss of 3-2 for the Canadiens. Not so bad, right?

The Canadiens played the Flyers pretty evenly last season, going 2-2 and being outscored 10-8.

The real interesting (or damning?) part is looking at the playoff matchup. The Canadiens went down in 5 games, and were not able to generate ANY offense against a physical defense. The Canadiens were outscored 17-7 in the 5 game series, but 5 of the Canadiens goals came in their game 3 victory. Eliminating that game, the Canadiens were outscored 16-2 in the remaining 4 games, being shutout in 3 of those games. Need I remind you that the Flyers had the immortal Michael Leighton in goal? If you’re still keeping score, the average playoff loss for the Canadiens morphed in to an ugly 3.4 goals against versus 1.4 goals for. Eliminating the game 3 victory, and the average loss was an abyssmal 4 goals against to 0.5 goals for. Round up if you like, but that’s still not nearly good enough.

The Flyers are the Habs kryptonite right now. But I think it’s also painfully clear that while the Canadiens smaller forwards have hearts the size of Texas, reach is reach and size is size, especially when the organizational edict is to use that size. The smaller Habs forwards are forced to skate twice as far as they ought to just to get themselves clear of the big Flyers defense, and once they are clear, they more often than not find themselves on the perimeter where a decent goalie needs to only worry about the first save. When Mathieu Darche, God bless him, is the only player able to get near Bobrovski, there’s a problem. True, the Canadiens can cause bigger teams fits when they get their speed game going, but as we’ve seen plenty of times, they are rarely able (or allowed) to use that speed for 60 minutes, night in, night out.

The Canadiens, on most nights are a good team. On some nights they are a very good team (witness the 2-0 win vs the current Cup favorite Canucks), but don’t try and tell me that they’re an elite team. Even with the injuries to Markov, Gorges and Cammalleri, the Canadiens are still a few pieces away from being a bonafide Cup contender. And to be considered a bonafide contender, they will need to get bigger and grittier. Offensive teams like the Capitals and Penguins, while bigger than the Habs, don’t always play bigger than the Habs. The Flyers do, and last night’s loss should serve as a good measuring stick for Gauthier to see where he needs to upgrade his team.

Riddle Me This

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I told myself that I wasn’t going to blog about the P.K. Subban goal celebration “controvery”, but it seems as though people aren’t letting it go, so now I have to open my mouth.

Can somebody please explain to me why P.K. Subban’s maligned goal celebration is

SO. NOT. OKAY?

While this celebration by Theo Fleury is not only endearing to hockey fans, but is used as part (however briefly) of CBC’s intro to Hockey Night in Canada? (54 second mark)

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In case you’ve been napping for nearly 20 years, here’s the full clip of the now famous Fleury celebration:

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Now picture if Subban celebrated a goal, regardless of its relevance in that manner and imagine the shitstorm that would ensue.

While nobody from Hockey Night in Canada has come out and criticized the young Habs rearguard yet, I’m betting somebody does, and that, my friends would be sheer hypocrisy.

And if you try to tell me that Theo’s celebration is ok because that was during his third NHL season (hence he had “earned” respect and paid his dues), and because it was a playoff game, I’ll chop you in the throat.

With a crowbar.

Give your head a shake. Both celebrations are fine. Nobody ever threw a wet blanket on Theo Fleury, and nobody, especially his wet goose down duvet coach, should try to smother Subban, either.


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