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A Legend's Perspective, by Andrew Saadalla |
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With 10 Stanley Cup rings to his name including 8 as a player and 2 as a general manager in the NHL, the legendary Serge Savard knows a thing or two about hockey. He was the last GM to bring home a championship to Montreal in 1993 and played an instrumental role in the hiring of Marc Bergevin in 2012.
While many have questioned the organization’s decision not to hire him as a consultant over the course of the past 4 seasons, he has nevertheless often offered up his opinion in terms of certain improvements that could be made to the Montreal Canadiens. During the 2015-2016 season, he most notably went on the record to discuss the downfall of the team as well as admittedly giving P.K. Subban advice.
Firstly, and as many of you have proclaimed endlessly, he couldn’t understand how a team could blame its downward spiral almost entirely on the loss of a single player. Despite how amazing Carey Price is, Savard felt as though his injury inadvertently served as a means of exposing a clear lack of organizational depth and coaching structure. He finds it inexcusable to pin it on Price, and stated that doing so places an immense amount of pressure on #31 while also exaggerating his importance.
While listening to TSN690 as I regularly do (even if I’ll never agree with everything the hosts say), the “Twitter Question of the Day” two weeks ago was:
Surprisingly, not a single person who called in or tweeted Marinaro said that the Habs have a long way to go in terms of being a competitive playoff team. Nobody mentioned that the “dump and chase” style of play is starting to get old and tiring really quickly. Most of all, nobody made mention of the success the Tampa Bay Lightning had been having without Steven Stamkos, one of the greatest players in the NHL and by far the Bolts’ best and most prolific goal-scorer. In short, there’s no arguing that Stamkos is the most useful element on that team, similarly to Price’s role with the Habs. The Lightning did away with Detroit and are favorites to take the series against the New York Islanders – (strictly my opinion, but I believe they’re overall better especially at the goaltending position despite Ben Bishop’s relatively ordinary play of late). Yet, good hockey clubs such as Tampa’s have proven over and over that reliance on an individual is obviously foolish, and so I’ll have to agree with Savard’s statements regarding those kinds of excuses. My loyal readers know that I’ve maintained that stance all season long, and as Tampa continues to perform well, it only further reinforces my opinion that Bergevin dropped the ball this year.
The interesting dilemma that Bergevin surely finds himself in is just what exactly he should do with Subban. He’s definitely received calls concerning the defenseman’s services, with a no-trade clause set to come into play on July 1st. There’s a little window of opportunity that will close in approximately two months, yet it will be hard to replace Subban with someone capable of holding a candle to his skill on the backend. Yes, he’s given away quite a few pucks last year, but it’s unfair to call him a defensive liability. The 4-6 points the team lost in the standings over his rare mindless turnovers weren’t going to get this mediocre team into the playoffs either way.
However, Serge Savard’s interviews take an interesting turn when asked about the conversations he’s had with P.K. Subban. While Savard apparently didn’t want anyone to know that they had spoken and quickly mentioned that it’s obvious Subban was behind the public finding out, he had no issues revealing the nature of their conversation.
Simply put, Subban would ask him for tips on how to improve his overall game and Savard told him that he had to learn to start playing as a teammate and not as an individual. He reminded Subban that hockey is a team sport and that trying to perform a spin-o-rama in order to deke defenders is a selfish play.
Now, there are two ways that you can interpret these statements.
Firstly, you can give into the hype about Subban being individualistic and self-centered, as his reputation seemingly states, and take Savard’s word for it even if he might not know #76 personally.
Otherwise, you can simply refuse to entertain notions of a lack of leadership and communal understanding on his part and accept his performances for what they’re worth.
Either way, the rumors of where Subban belongs will not go away anytime soon. Savard’s declarations might’ve added fuel to the fire, and I’m certain that if upper management has been trying to keep Subban’s value high in the eyes of other general managers, Savard might have slightly complicated his pupil’s task.
Montreal Canadiens Blogger • 
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