A Surprising Start

On May 2nd 2012, Geoff Molson hired a new General Manager for the Montreal Canadiens. The man who was chosen for such a stressful and demanding job was former NHLer Marc Bergevin who had been working behind the scenes with the Chicago Blackhawks organization since 2008. Marc Bergevin made it clear in his first press conference as General Manager of le Tricolore that the team was much better than the place that they finished in (27th overall) and that he expected better results as soon as next season. Bergevin, who won a Stanley Cup as Director of Player Personnel with the Blackhawks in 2010, believes that dynasties are built from within, in other words by having close to impeccable drafting. It’s not a revelation to see that Bergevin shares the same philosophy as the team he previously worked with. The Blackhawks’ core who won the cup back in 2010 was built from players they drafted like Patrick Kane (1st overall), Jonathan Toews (3rd overall), Duncan Keith (54th overall), Brent Seabrook (14th overall) and Dustin Byfuglien (245th overall). But another facet that the recently hired GM put a lot of emphasis on during his press conference was character. With almost 1200 NHL games under his belt, the former player certainly knows what it takes to turn the Canadiens into a Stanley Cup winner.  The successor of Pierre Gauthier blamed the catastrophic season of the Bleu Blanc Rouge mostly on a lack of an identity on the team. The word around the league at the time was that the Canadiens were an easy team to play against because they were not only small and easy to push around but also easy to intimidate. The GM promised the fans that he would make sure to address this concern over the summer.


Bergevin put his money where his mouth is on July 1st when he signed one of the most sought after UFA in Brandon Prust. Prust brought exactly what Bergevin mentioned during his assessment on what the team lacked: physicality, hard work and character. Exactly the type of player you go to war with during the playoffs. Prust wasn’t the only Free Agent Montreal went after, Bergevin also brought in an old face in Francis Bouillon and a player looking to turn his career around in Colby Armstrong. The new management didn’t take very long to assimilate their new mentality on the players by changing the team slogan to ‘’No Excuses’’.  The players quickly bought into the new attitude and the new system introduced by the new Head Coach Michel Therrien. This all lead to a surprising 2nd place finish in the Eastern Conference for the Canadiens. Unfortunately, the fans’ hopes towards a potential 25th Stanley Cup were crushed pretty quickly since Michel Therrien’s troops were eliminated from the playoffs in the very first round by the Ottawa Senators in just 5 games.


The disappointing finish can be attributed to many things like injuries (Pacioretty, Gionta, Price, Eller, Emelin, Prust, Plekanec and White all played with injuries or were out of the line-up due to them), subpar goaltending (both Carey Price and Peter Budaj had a save percentage below .900%) and a terrific performance from Ottawa’s goaltender Craig Anderson (.950% save percentage and a 1.80 GAA). 


In my next blog I will suggest what moves I would do if I were Marc Bergevin to avoid another first round exit and slowly turn this franchise into a consistent Stanley Cup contender.