There’s 2 things I know before I even get started:
1- Some will brand this as typical Habs fan panic.
2- This post is going to be all over the place.
Where to start? Let’s begin with the roller coaster that has been the 2009-10 season. We’ve seen this team drop 5 straight, and turn around and pull even again. We saw them steal many, many points by goaltending heroics, and a terrific powerplay. These things masked the fact that this team was outplayed and overmatched night after night. If anyone’s counting, this team, through 55 games has had two 5 game losing streaks, one 4 game losing streak, one 3 game losing streak, and four 2 game losing streaks. To counter that, they have had two 4 game winning streaks, one 3 game winning streak, and four 2 game winning streaks. Add it up: 17 wins, 25 losses. Not good.
Some people blame the players for this; they are millionaires and should play like it. What this silly point of view fails to realize is that there are millionaires on the other team paid to do the same thing, and there are millionaires behind the benches that are paid to steer the ship.
Some blame the coach & his so-called plan. I am one of those people.
This mess is largely on Jacques Martin and Bob Gainey. The Canadiens dropped half of last year’s team. Gainey replaced them all with experienced players that have had success in the NHL. He brought in Stanley Cup rings with Gomez, Gionta, Gill, and Moen. He then surveyed the coaching landscape and decided that because there were no coaches that suited the 3 magic criteria (bilingual, experienced, professional), that he would have to pry Jacques Martin out of Florida. And pry he did. Martin now has a 4-year deal with the Canadiens.
55 games in to the season, many Canadiens fans want Martin gone. Personally, I wanted him gone after 25 games. I thought perhaps I was being hasty. The Canadiens were ravaged by injury, but something wasn’t sitting right with me. This team was not passing the sniff test. The pieces didn’t add up. The Canadiens were out there game-in, game-out getting their brains beat in. Not on the scoreboard, but everywhere else on the ice. Outshot by 2-1 margins, outhit, too many penalties, atrocious defensive zone coverage. Turnovers…oh lordy the turnovers. As of last week, 4 of the top 8 turnover leaders in the league were on the Canadiens backend. These are things that Jacques Martin made a name in fixing. A defensive guru like Martin should be spitting nails at a stat like that. Instead, the trend continues. He has simply not adapted to the realities of the new NHL. So anyway, there I was telling myself that once the injuries healed, and the guys got back, a coach like Martin would figure it out and get these guys in the right direction. I have been closely watching the team (even more closely than before, if that were possible) since Markov came back. We all thought that his return would be a watershed moment for the team. It certainly looked as though it would be, as the Habs rolled through a 7 game road trip with a 6-1 record and Markov racked up more than a point per game. Also recall that Halak was particularly brilliant on that stretch. Then things went downhill. The poor, listless performances resumed, and fast. It was then that I decided that Martin had to go. But the little dude on my shoulder said that I was still being too harsh. Martin has been around forever, and at least deserves the dignity of coaching 1 full season. What message would you send to other potential coaches in the league if you fired a tenured, respected hockey man like Jacques Martin after less than 1 season? A season that has had its share of ups and downs. It certainly wouldn’t have prompted a lineup of great candidates knocking at Gainey’s door. Or would it be Boivin’s door? Or the Molson’s door? Because if you think that Jacques Martin has to go, then Gainey has to go, too. He is now on his 3rd coach (though he inherited Julien, and 4th coach if you include Gainey himself). He hand-picked Guy Carbonneau to succeed him and called him “the best move he’s ever made” while GM of the Habs, then fired him a couple months later. Oops!
Gainey’s 9 lives have run out. He may have been limited to a guy like Jacques Martin, but he’s made more than 1 big mistake. Never signing or drafting the big, skilled center this team has been lacking for years is a glaring hole in his tenure. He’s currently on year 7 of a 5-year plan that he set in to motion. He had full support of a very generous George Gillet. He had the blessing of the Molsons to retool using newfound cap space rather than rebuild via the draft. If the team is in better shape now than it was in 2003 when he took over, then it is only so in the bottom line. At most, they are marginally better on the ice, and on the farm. Do the Molsons have the fortitude to make such sweeping changes at this juncture? This is their 1st season as new owners, and this is not how they wanted to start their legacy. Their family’s past runs long and deep, and mostly knew massive success as owners of the Canadiens. They could stand pat and hope it rights itself, or they can be bold and start putting their stamp on the team. I don’t know if they keep confidantes on the side who could help them identify a new management team and other talent. That would be a tough order. What we do know is that the Molsons were watching their new 567 million dollar toy, and could not have been happy with what they saw. I am convinced that they were evaluating the team for themselves. As Arpon Basu said in his great blog today:
“Anyhow, my point here is that the March 3 trade deadline is only three days after the Olympic trade freeze is lifted, which means the Canadiens only have nine games left before that date. Normally, this is about the time where teams make their final decisions if they will be buyers or sellers, where they try to objectively determine if their team has a chance to make the playoffs, where the character and soul of a team is under constant evaluation.
If you were the ones in charge of that evaluation, what would you think of your team right now? Not only based on the past two games, but the entire season, or even just the month of January? I’m not sure I would be looking for ways to load up for a playoff run right about now, and if that’s the direction Bob Gainey wants to go he needs to consider looking at which pieces he wants to move.”
That’s a bang on assessment. I believe that the Molsons won’t allow Gainey to make any major moves with this team. They can’t possibly believe that this team can do damage in the playoffs, even if they somehow managed to add Ilya Kovalchuk.
I don’t think the Canadiens can afford any more half-measures. There are some rotten elements to this team, and they need to be fixed. It’s time for the Molsons to get aggressive with their new toy and start instilling a new culture built on excellence at all levels of the organization. Start with Boivin. Get someone who cares about the team, and not public relations. The best public relations in this city are in the form of wins, especially in the playoffs. They should continue down the hall from Boivin’s office to Gainey’s and let him walk away at season’s end. He should not be allowed to tinker with this roster anymore. Recognize that he’s also looking for a contract and may want to do whatever he can to make the playoffs and preserve his job. He’s been given enough leeway already to make that happen. It ain’t happening.
Finally, Jacques Martin. I know it’s year 1 of his 4-year deal. But we all know this isn’t working. He’s a square peg, and this NHL is a round hole. He doesn’t fit. Perhaps he can stay on as a scout, but he cannot stay behind the bench any longer.
To atone for this, I’d even swallow an increase in the price of a beer at the Bell Center. At the rate this team is going, the fans will have to drink themselves in to a stupor just to get through 60 minutes. They’d recover the payout money to Martin in no time.
Get it over with. It’s time! Besides, we bloggers are running out of things to talk about!