Organizational needs

When Marc Bergevin took over as the General Manager last spring, he probably didn’t expect the success that his team would have this season. And it should not go unnoticed; going from being the 4th worst team in the NHL to the 4th best in the span of a year is no easy feat, especially with today’s salary cap. Bergevin stated when he was hired that his main objective was for the Canadiens to make the playoffs and to his pleasant surprise le Tricolore are clearly ahead of schedule after winning their first Northeast Division since 2008. But who was responsible for that unexpected success? Was it the depth that the two rookies (Alex Galchenyuk and Brendan Gallagher) provided on offense? Was it the Norris-esque performance from PK Subban? Was it the presence of a healthy Andrei Markov? Or was it due to Michel Therrien’s system? I believe that it’s a combination of all these things. Gallagher and Galchenyuk made Therrien’s job as a coach a lot easier by giving him the luxury of icing three lines that can chip in offensively. Therrien’s system relies on speed, quick transitions out of the defensive zone and some offensive support from the defense. Markov and Subban are both elite in that department and they’re both no slouch defensively. It’s also well documented that Montreal has a much better record when Markov is healthy.


But how do you explain that a team who had so much success in the regular season had so little in the playoffs? First off, this team is not built for playoff hockey. If you’ve been paying close attention to the NHL playoffs in the last couple years, you’ve probably noticed that the referees stop calling penalties in the playoffs; players can practically get away with murder if they want to. So it should come to no surprise that the Canadiens have been having trouble in the playoffs recently when they keep having 2 or 3 players under 5’10 in their group of forwards. You can get away with having one on your team if he’s surrounded by bigger players (see Boston with Brad Marchand or Danny Brière with the Flyers) but sadly this is not the case here in Montreal. The Montreal Canadiens will never win a Stanley Cup with David Desharnais (5’6), Brian Gionta (5’7) and Brendan Gallagher (5’9) in their line-up. Now I’m not saying we have to get rid of them for nothing but we’ll gradually have to get bigger if we want to succeed. Brendan Gallagher is without a doubt the only one who Bergevin should build around. Desharnais has shown that his defensive game is abysmal and that his minutes need to be sheltered by the coach or he instantly becomes a liability on the ice. Gionta’s best years are behind him and his body is showing signs of breaking down (back to back bicep injuries). His contract expires at the end of next season and I personally don’t see him being re-signed since he’s too small for a role on the 4th line and he’s simply not good enough anymore for a top 6 role.

Second of all, our defensemen are too small. Josh Gorges is 6’1, Andrei Markov is 6’, PK Subban is 6’, Francis Bouillon is 5’8, Raphael Diaz is 5’11, Alexei Emelin is 6’2 and Davis Drewiske is also 6’2. Now I got those numbers from the Canadiens official website and I think they’re being very generous on some guys (Gorges and Emelin especially). My point is that their small stature makes it close to impossible for them to clear players like Milan Lucic (6’4, 220 lbs), Scott Hartnell (6’2, 210 lbs) and Wayne Simmonds (6’2, 183 lbs) from the front of the net. Bergevin made a mistake by re-signing Bouillon (especially at the same salary…) in my honest opinion. He was supposed to be brought in as the #7 defenseman, which I had no trouble with, but Therrien thought otherwise by having him play 20+ minutes on multiple occasions.  Although he played solid for most of the season, Montreal should be looking to get bigger and younger not the opposite. Another thing that has me worried about our defense was the season that Josh Gorges just had. His positioning was not up to his standards this season and he was easily outmuscled in front of the net and in the corners. I don’t think Michel Therrien’s system is suited for him since he shines more in a collapse style of defensive coverage (see Jacques Martin’s system). If Gorges is off to another disappointing start next season, I think we should deal him while his value is still high. With the way he plays, his body is bound to break down with age. Injuries will become a recurring trend considering the amount of shots he blocks every year. Another thing is that the length of his contract has always had me worried that he’d become another Jay McKee (For those who don’t remember McKee was a shot block specialist who signed a 4 year deal worth 16 million dollars with the St. Louis Blues in 2006.  He was never able to live up to that deal because he was always injured due to his style of play. His stint with the Blues abruptly ended when he was bought out by them in 2009) by the end of his deal.  The Bleu Blanc Rouge needs a shutdown defenseman who can clear the front of the net for our puck moving defensemen like Diaz and Markov.


The Canadiens have the tools to play the same defensive model as teams like the St. Louis Blues and the Los Angeles Kings who are both known for their defensive prowess. These two teams like to have three pairings that consists of a Shutdown guy with a Puck Moving Defenseman. As PMD, the Kings have Drew Doughty, the Blues have Alex Pietrangelo and Montreal has PK Subban. The Kings have Slava Voynov, the Blues have Kevin Shattenkirk and the Canadiens have Andrei Markov. As Shutdown Defensemen, the Kings have Rob Scuderi, the Blues have Roman Polak and Montreal has Josh Gorges. The Kings have Robyn Regehr/Matt Greene, the Blues have Barret Jackman but who do the Canadiens have? Alexei Emelin? The Canadiens lack that big presence on the back-end that they’ve been missing ever since Roman Hamrlik and Mike Komisarek left this city. I think we can all agree that Jarred Tinordi will eventually fill that hole but he’s not ready for this role just yet. There are some interesting candidates for that spot on the market but I will go more in depth on my next blog entry.


Finally, Montreal has to replace Michael Ryder who has made it known via his agent that he won’t receive an offer from the Canadiens (Source: http://www.journaldemontreal.com/2013/05/29/ryder-oublie-montreal). Bergevin will have to find a replacement who can bring size and grit, two things that the Canadiens badly need in their top 9. Only Rene Bourque and Max Pacioretty (to a certain extent) bring those elements right now. I’m sure a player like Brandon Prust wouldn’t mind some back-up either. Montreal will also have to find a new 4th line center and a 4th line winger since it appears that both Jeff Halpern and Colby Armstrong will become UFAs on July 5th.

I’ve pointed out the needs for our team and in my next blog I will post a list of candidates for those vacant spots (4^th line center, 4^th line winger, top 9 winger and a shutdown defenseman).

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.