Fortunes change with seasons
There is panic in both Montreal and Toronto over the state of a pro sports team. The obvious “solutions” are the same in both situations.
Fire the coach, of course. Barring that, make a big trade, the kind that is nearly impossible to pull off at this time of year.
Which brings us back to Solution No. 1.
In Montreal, the Canadiens don’t play again until Saturday, and the week will seem more like a month for general manager Marc Bergevin and head coach Michel Therrien, with calls for Therrien’s ouster likely to escalate in volume ten-fold by the time the Winnipeg Jets roll into town Saturday.
The Canadiens are in freefall, and the emotional reaction to that tends to envelope the whole town.
The saving grace in Toronto, by comparison, is that unlike Montreal, there are multiple pro teams here. People can fret most about the team they love most. While the Habs get most of the attention of the city and much of the province, in Toronto there’s enough focus on the surprising Maple Leafs and uncertainty about the Blue Jays as they head into spring training that the worry over the sorry state of the NBA Raptors is diffused.
More to the point, the Raptors are not to Toronto what the Canadiens are to Montreal, and never will be. So the griddle isn’t quite as hot.
But that doesn’t mean there’s not deep concern over Dwane Casey’s basketball squad, and a few voices wondering whether Casey, who got a three-year contract extension last summer, has lost the ability to make the Raptors close to as good as they were last season.
Great starts by both the Canadiens and the Raptors set the stage for the current sense of unhappiness by the fan bases of both teams.
Montreal got out of the gate 13-1-1 last fall and, just like the year before, looked almost unbeatable. With a healthy Carey Price, who we had come to believe was the best goalie on the planet, the Canadiens rolled early. Those who suggested that Price seemed really about all the Habs had going for them were dismissed as non-believers.
Who needs possession when Price is in net?
Well, Price has now allowed four or more goals in seven of his last 13 starts and is unlikely to even be a consideration for the Vezina Trophy this season. That dazzling team start has wilted into a winter malaise, and the numbers are adding up in a very different way for Montreal. The Canadiens, still first in their division, have won 18 of their last 42 games, undone in part for the second straight year by the injury absence of fireball Brendan Gallagher.
There are options out there for Bergevin should he choose to pull the plug on Therrien, including Claude Julien, who like Therrien, would be doing his second tour of duty in Montreal if he were to get the call. Ken Hitchcock is out there, too, and Patrick Roy’s name is never far from the conversation.
The Canadiens have been eyeballing Colorado forward Matt Duchene for weeks, according to the rumour mill, which certainly adds a wrinkle. But unless Montreal is willing to include Alex Galchenyuk in a deal, it’s hard to think what they could entice the Avalanche. Perhaps something involving one or both of defence prospects Mikhail Sergachev or Noah Juulsen, but the Habs are already less than sturdy and aging on the back end.
In November, the Canadiens looked like they might win the Stanley Cup. Now, they’re in some danger of being caught by a pack of teams and, in an extreme situation, left on the sidelines in the spring.
Also in November, the Raptors looked like they’d be at least good enough to challenge Cleveland again in the Eastern Conference. Who knows, the thinking went, perhaps a tweak here or there might allow the them to beat the Cavaliers.
There seemed to be all kinds of reason for optimism, what with the early season scoring exploits of DeMar Derozan and the development of several young players, notably Pascal Siakam, a late firstround pick last summer, and the improved Lucas Nogueira. But the Raptors locomotive stalled about 25 games ago, and since then there have been more losses than wins.
Last week, as the Canadiens were struggling on a western road trip, the Raptors were blowing large fourth-quarter leads to Minnesota and Detroit, teams they were handling with relative ease last fall.
It seems very unlikely Casey is going anywhere, although his defence-first, second and third approach seems to be falling on deaf ears these days. Toronto’s offence in the final minutes, meanwhile, seems to be about DeRozan or Kyle Lowry bouncing the ball interminably before trying some solo move. With 13.2 seconds left in the fourth quarter against Detroit on Sunday and a one-point deficit, the Raptors had the ball but never did get a clean shot off. DeRozan ended the game playing one-on-one, trying to convince the officials he had been fouled.
There are all kinds of big trade ideas out there — Demarcus Cousins, Danilo Gallinari, Anthony Davis — but those seem more fanciful than rooted in reality. Team president Masai Ujiri hasn’t made a major move since dealing Rudy Gay to Sacramento three years and two months ago.
The frustration for fans in both the salary-capped NHL and NBA is that rules and regulations basically tie the hands of management. Gone are the days when you could substantively change a team in mid-season. Now, you live with what you’ve got.
The successes of October and November were misleading for both the Canadiens and the Raptors. But it was then that expectations were set.
Winter for both has now brought mostly discontent. Damien Cox is the co-host of Prime Time Sports on Sportsnet 590 The FAN. He spent nearly 30 years covering a variety of sports for The Star. Follow him @DamoSpin. His column appears Tuesday and Saturday.