The Montreal Canadiens, the big and beautiful – could you say the biggest and the most beautiful in the world of hockey. Far away is the glory of greatness in these times.
The lead in the third set was not enough this time either. The loss on home ice to Calgary marked the team’s fourth consecutive loss. Eight of the ten previous matches have ended in defeat.
The wins came from Philadelphia and St. Louis, the tail end teams that won’t be seen in the playoffs.
Of course, there is nothing new in any of the above. The Montreal Canadiens have been turned into a forever project that will never come to an end.
Montreal is a dynasty of the past decades and a big club with a wonderful history, which has been driven to the bottom a long time ago.
After winning Canada’s last Stanley Cup in the summer of 1993, it has won twelve straight playoff games in thirty years.
Three of them also became in the fairy tale story of the corona bubble in the summer of 2021.
Water has practically not flowed in Montreal for decades. No, even though there should be a new upstart with a young team. Of course, the club has reserved moderately and there are many of its own reserves playing in its ranks, but does the team really have the ingredients for tomorrow’s greatness?
Looks really weak.
In the decades of its greatness, Les Habintants represented the ultimate skill and culture of winning. Now, the talented and youthful core represents something completely different.
The legendary club represents a losing culture in the NHL of the new era, where individualism and habits that lead to constant losing are rampant in a community that oozes with a glaring lack of leadership.
The head coach, a former top player, has not been able to fill this leadership gap Martin St. Louis.
Known as the player’s coach, St. Louis has been praised by both the players and the media for three years. Besides the beautiful words, nothing else has been offered.
Only throwing bags and Anaheim, Chicago and San Jose, which practically went down on purpose, have been weaker than Montreal in the previous three years.
The performance is classless considering Montreal is no longer a rebuilding project.
This season too, it was supposed to be – it remains a dream
At the latest this season, the Canadiens should have started to really fight for a spot in the playoffs. The season is only in its early stages, but nothing seems to have changed in the game culture.
The team is at its worst in its indiscipline and carelessness, like an A-junior league team galloping headlong into the rink.
And this Montreal is no longer a young team, although it is often called that.
The change in culture should also start from the dressing room. No Nick Suzuki25, or Cole Caufield23, you don’t have to worry anymore. Suzuki is playing in the series for the sixth time, Caufield in his fifth year.
You should be able to bring more than garbage time power points to the culture. The gaze also turns By David Savard, by Mike Matheson, by Brendan Gallagher, Christian Dvorak too and if Joel Armian in the direction of.
How can it be that under the eyes of veterans who have played in the series for a long time, the same losing habits are repeated year after year?
The Canadiens are a losing orchestra from top to bottom. There is a lot of talk about young talent and individual individual performances are admired, but in a long run game, playing while running and pissing leads to constant losing.
In the current season, for example, the team has lost 60 percent of the goals from the first sector.
A year ago, 54 percent came into the jacket, and the season before that, 58 percent.
The responsibilities of the club management should not be forgotten either. Although he has reserved moderately, it is appropriate to ask whether Suzuki, Caufield and Juraj Slakofsky – as examples – the spearhead of a team fighting for the Stanley Cup at one time? I dare to doubt it. Defender Lane Hutson may be at some point in his career.
Was it precisely for this whole thing and the screaming lack of leadership Patrick Laine With an $8.7 million contract, the right acquisition? Time will tell. I doubt it.
The club has spent twenty million on Brendan Gallahger, to Christian Dvorak, to Josh Anderson and Joel Armiaan.
The truth is that this foursome does not bring enough to the table relative to the money. Last season, the best of the four was Gallagher with 31 power points. On top of all that, Gallagher and Anderson’s expensive contracts last until the summer of 2027.
Montreal is a jumbled soup with neither head nor tail as a whole. It’s as if something is being built, but nothing is being built and the culture is crooked in a harsh way.
And the club’s management has not been able to bring leadership to the club with the help of which the culture could be built, even with big money.
Bad culture poisons
This mixed chaos had to be saved at least for this season Oliver Kapanen21.
Kapanen, booked by Montreal, undoubtedly earned his place in the NHL after a great training camp, but considering the whole, it didn’t make sense to stay in a ship that was once again going to the bottom. Especially not during eight-minute ice times.
Kapase has a contract with Olli Jokinen’s Timrå, and returning to the SHL serves the development of the attacker from Kuopio best at this stage.
In the NHL, there would be little operation with the puck, just because of the minimal role. In Sweden, the role of a top center is available and a lot of minutes.
I don’t think living in the midst of a losing culture will do any young player any good. Equipped with a sharp game head, Kapase has a lot of elements of winning play in what he does, but a bad culture poisons unnoticed and quickly.
There are elements in Kapanen’s player profile that Montreal really needs in the future, but in terms of player development, the best thing was to jump off the train as quickly as possible, which is once again running at full speed towards the wall.