Canadiens’ hot start cools fan discontent
A welcome turn of events amid team’s dive in ESPN’s Ultimate Standings
The Canadiens are off and running with a 7-0-1 record as they prepare to meet the Toronto Maple Leafs at the Bell Centre Saturday.
It’s the start the Canadiens needed to quell the inevitable discontent that followed the disastrous 2015-16 season and the unpopular decision to trade popular defenceman and philanthropist P.K. Subban.
That unhappiness is reflected in the annual Ultimate Standings from ESPN. The Canadiens have dropped 44 places to No. 98 in the rankings of 122 major pro teams in North America.
It’s not surprising when you look at the methodology used in ranking the franchises.
ESPN polls fans on their attitudes toward fan relationships, ownership, stadium experience and coaching. It combines these subjective opinions with some objective numbers reflecting affordability and bang for the buck, which compares the cost of attending games with the quality of the team’s play.
The Canadiens’ drop in the rankings is largely based on the fans’ perception of the team. Some of it is unfair, but it speaks to a feeling of resentment from some elements of the fan base.
The Canadiens rank No. 83 in fan relationship and one of the measurements in that category is loyalty to core players. The decision to deal Subban may have been a hockey trade, which makes the Canadiens a better team, but many fans saw it as a betrayal. The Canadiens are viewed as secretive and paranoid, and the circumstances surrounding the trade did little to dispel that notion.
I can only assume that Geoff Molson’s ranking in the ownership category also dropped because of the trade. The man who repatriated the franchise and brought it back to respectability ranked 20th in ownership last season, but his drop has been even more precipitous than the team’s, falling 63 places to No. 83.
The Canadiens are 113th in affordability, which seems about right. Only six NHL teams have higher average ticket prices. And when you combine the product on the ice last season with the high ticket prices, you can understand why the Canadiens dropped 42 places to 93rd in the bang-for-the-buck ranking.
The return of Carey Price has the Canadiens a respectable 50th in the title track category, but it’s obvious that there are a lot of fans who don’t have faith in Michel Therrien despite the fact he produced excellent results until Price went out with a knee injury last season. There’s no way the Canadiens’ coaching should be ranked No. 117.
In fact, there’s no reason why the Canadiens’ overall ranking should be lower than such train wrecks as the Arizona Coyotes (No. 41), Carolina Hurricanes (No. 61) or New York Islanders (No. 84). But the combination of high expectations and low performances has had an effect on the Canadiens.
On paper, the Canadiens sold out each of their home games, but there were signs that support for the team had eroded and that there is work to be done to shore up one of the best fan bases in pro sports.
Toward the end of last season, there were thousands of empty seats for games at the Bell Centre. The same was true during the pre-season.
The Canadiens have announced sellouts for each of their home games since the regular season began, but there are still noshows. For the first time since the 2004-05 lockout, there are tickets available at the box office on game day, and ticket resellers have been offering seats at less than face value.
For the Coyotes game last week, a literal dog of an attraction featuring a team that can’t draw fans at home, one fan offered his red seats on StubHub for US$47. With the exchange and service fees, the ticket would have cost about $75. That was a substantial discount from the $145 face value, but there were no takers. The Philadelphia game on Monday was more attractive, but there were still reds available on the web for less than $100.
Winning will solve many of these problems and the team is headed in the right direction to the start the season. And an important part of that early success has been the play of Shea Weber, the defenceman the Canadiens acquired in the Subban trade, although there are still a number of folks questioning his analytics stats.
It’s understandable that fans miss Subban and if they want to show their unhappiness by boycotting games, I’m OK with that, especially if they follow Dr. Charles Kowalski’s lead and show their support for Subban with a donation to the Montreal Children’s Hospital.
I get it that fans miss Subban. I miss Subban and I don’t think the Canadiens handled the situation well, but it’s a new season. The true fans will revel in the turnaround and the Canadiens should get better reviews when next year’s Ultimate Standings are released.