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Dream Weaver's Interview, by Andrew Saadalla

April 28, 2016, 11:16 PM ET [246 Comments]
Habs Talk
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Former Montreal Canadiens’ defenseman Mike Weaver took to the radio airwaves with the city’s beloved Tony Marinaro in an interview that raised a lot of very interesting points.

They talked about Weaver’s life after hockey, including his real estate purchase in Toronto, and the hockey school that he runs named Defense First.

They discussed playoff preparation in the greatest hockey town in the world. Weaver mentioned how he did his best to stay away from social media during the Spring dance in order to avoid being “obliterated” on Twitter after a bad play. Outside of the arena, he took hockey off of his mind completely to focus on his family and hobbies.
Interestingly, he also discussed how the coaching staff in Montreal would hand its players 20 to 30-page booklets breaking down every potential playoff opponent’s year with an emphasis on the last month heading into the postseason. While most teams do this, he claimed that Montreal’s personnel worked harder than any organization he’s ever played for by reviewing countless hours of video as well as the aforementioned scouting reports that also cover team structures and styles of play as the seasons progressed.

Tomas Plekanec would be the only player to ever show up earlier to the rink than Weaver during the playoffs, who stated that he’d personally arrive almost 2 hours sooner than any of his other teammates. He saw this as an opportunity to build a stronger camaraderie amongst his peers and a lighter atmosphere definitely went a long way towards jumping onto the ice with a lot more confidence.

Marinaro then asked him how he would’ve reacted had the former told him last summer that the Habs were going to be the worst team in the league from December through to April. Evidently, he would’ve scoffed at the idea, but added that had Tony made that same prediction as soon as Carey Price went down to an injury, he would’ve had no problems saying “yes”. He went on to preach about the transcendence of Price both on and off the ice and even in the locker room. It was clear that the goalie that he referred to as “Jesus” and “G-d” was going to be sorely missed.

I know what you’re probably thinking: “we already know all of this”. Perhaps, but to hear from a retired player who really has no agenda or incentive to lie regarding just how much this team depends on #31 goes to show that we had merely an idea of just how important he is to this organization as a whole.

What I personally loved hearing the most is when Weaver critiqued Marc Bergevin’s work last summer. He said that “Band-Aid” solutions were applied to a team in desperate need of a top-3 player, which proved that the reliance on Price is even stronger than anticipated. He was “very shocked” when they traded Brandon Prust because it’s hard to replace a “well-respected, character guy”. He added that bringing in a player with a history – Zack Kassian – was a bad move overall.

Nevertheless, he sang Bergevin’s praises for his intentions and willingness to ignore all of the pressure that everybody in Montreal places on him. It’s important to let him do his job because, according to Weaver, he’s an amazing and passionate general manager who’s got all the right tools to succeed. Seemingly, Bergevin would reportedly occasionally ask him his opinion about certain trade options or players of interest, something Weaver claimed general managers never do.

Finally, the only untouchable on this team is Carey Price. Marinaro played back a sound clip from Bergevin’s press conference, where he cunningly stated that he has no “intention of trading P.K. Subban” but that he’ll have to listen to offers that could potentially make his team better. While I understand that Marinaro is obsessed with the idea of trading the star defenseman, I’m starting to think that he personally wants to see Subban leave town. He made a big deal out of Bergevin not unequivocally saying that he will not trade #76, although I must admit that I was a fan of how the GM handled that question every time it was asked during the presser.

It’s always interesting to hear what retired players have to say about their careers and the organizations they played for. While they touched on it briefly, I wish they would’ve further discussed Michel Therrien being the type of coach who didn’t communicate enough with his players outside of the leadership core. I’m not sure that’s the worst thing I’ve heard, as many could see it as a means for the head coach to further reinforce the credibility of the appointed leaders.

Maybe Therrien isn’t so bad, after all…
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