Habs buy into team culture shift
Is a surreal memory, as Canadiens jump out to their best start since 1992-93 season
The resurgence of the Canadiens is clear to see in the standings: Through 17 games, notwithstanding a 4-3 overtime loss Thursday to the New York Islanders, the Habs are 11-4-2, atop the NHL’s Eastern Conference.
This is the team’s best start through 17 since its 12-3-2 launch into 1992-93, which (ahem) is coincidentally the season of the Canadiens’ most recent Stanley Cup championship.
There’s a lightness in the step of Montrealers these days, no matter that we’re trudging through a winter that’s hung coats of snow on the Bell Centre courtyard statues of Morenz, Richard, Béliveau and Lafleur.
Last season’s cellar-mired disaster is a surreal memory. The lockout is long-ago forgiven by fans, not that there was any chance in this town that it wouldn’t be.
The standing of the Canadiens, compared to what it was last April 7 when the curtain mercifully fell, is literally turned upside down. From 15th to first, despite a fivegame winning streak having ended Thursday.
Nine and a half months ago, following an exhaustive, exhausting search aided by the highly respected Serge Savard, Canadiens owner Geoff Molson introduced Marc Bergevin as his team’s 17th general manager.
Who knows how many sleepless nights Molson endured the season past with the Canadiens’ legendary global brand — largely built, nurtured and protected over many decades by his family — suffering as badly in the court of public opinion as the team was on the ice.
As he welcomed Bergevin last May 2, Molson spoke of the club’s need to “re-establish a winning culture,” ad- mitting with those words that it had gone missing.
Molson couldn’t be expected to turn his seemingly aimless team around like a Formula One car in a hairpin. But after the misery of last year on so many levels, and with a labour conflict looming, nor did he have the luxury of reversing its direction like an ocean liner at sea.
Bergevin was given the wheel, and he promptly surrounded himself with a topflight hockey operations staff. From his first words as GM, it was clear he would not be an autocratic, even dictatorial leader like his predecessor.
A 20-season, 1,191-game defenceman whose collar was forever blue, Bergevin sought to build his new club with a few more frayed edges and a focus on the future. To that end, here patriated head coach Michel Therrien, a wholly unpopular choice with many oh-no-not-again fans when he was introduced on June 5.
It’s early, yes, but Therrien 2.0, a more mature and less volatile coach, has instilled a pride, responsibility and accountability in his players. Under Therrien and his hand-picked assistants, the roster has responded with the work ethic, commitment and (mostly) the discipline that are the coach’s cornerstones.
Second-guessing any coach’s lines is full-time work in Montreal, but Therrien has had a largely healthy lineup with which to work, rolling four trios effectively, roles clearly defined. It speaks to this team’s balance that the Habs are where they are with just 10 goals total from last season’s prolific No. 1 line of David Desharnais, Erik Cole and Thursday’s two-goal scorer, Max Pacioretty.
There was little coming from Therrien post-game to break down the overtime loss after a blown 3-1 lead, just two questions — the same one in each language — probing meekly.
The larger picture is that there is indeed a new culture being sown, from Molson on down. This won’t guarantee success on the ice, but without it, this team absolutely was doomed to repeat its miserable recent past.
The ignition is turned by Therrien, who was interviewed for his job by Bergevin in Florida — wisely well away from Montreal’s nosy glare.
Therrien coveted gritty free agent Brandon Prust, the team in bad need of a sneer who could score. So on July 1, as the UFA window opened, the coach and Scott Mellanby, the club’s new player personnel director, turned up on the Thorndale, Ont., doorstep of Kevin and Theresa Prust.
“Is your son home?” they asked in so many words, then gave Prust a Canadiens jersey with his name and number on the back during a chat in the backyard.
Prust signed that day and he’s been a fabulous addition, a sparkplug who on Thursday climbed a ladder to fight 6-foot-8 Joe Finley, a forward the size of Long Island, in defence of a teammate.
You must duck to avoid being hit by Therrien’s “No Excuses” motto, stressing the accountability of all. No one steps on the CH logo on the dressing-room carpet, lest he be fined.
Bergevin bought out centreman Scott Gomez, whose situation here finally proved impossible.
The new GM didn’t buckle to public demands — as- suming he heard them at all — that popular holdout P.K. Subban be nailed down longterm at almost any price.
Bergevin ultimately signed the defenceman to a two-year bridge contract that respected cap issues and didn’t rock the salary boat in the room, and Subban has responded with excellent play, working hard to fit into this new team dynamic.
The P.K. Subban-Carey Price post-game triple-lowfive celebration was banned by Therrien in favour of a general team salute to the fans.
And the new masks of Price and backup goalie Peter Budaj are not personal statements. Gone are cowboys, country singers, playing cards, angels of death and cartoon characters, replaced by artfully painted Canadiens logos.
These are small things, but they’re important parts of the whole, perhaps necessary steps in a cultural shift.
There remain 31 games to be played, beginning with the New York Rangers on Saturday, a new winning streak to get started. But every player on this team has bought into a concept for the good of the whole, which you couldn’t have said last season.
If they keep playing as they have, how would Canadiens fans feel about some hockey in May?