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Habs Report Cards: Head Coach Michel Therrien |
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Season review - Montreal Canadiens Head Coach Michel Therrien
Grade: D
The year began with such promise for Canadiens head coach Michel Therrien. The 9 consecutive wins to start the regular season exceeded everyone’s expectations. Alex Galchenyuk became the 2nd line center and David Desharnais shifted down to the third line. The Canadiens had a balanced attack despite Alex Semin’s struggles. Forwards were supporting the defencemen in breakouts from their own end and the defencemen were stepping up and contributing on offence. Through those 9 games the Canadiens had scored at least 3 goals in each game and did not allow a first period goal and only trailed in a game for less than 3 minutes. Oh, and they had a lad named Carey Price between the pipes holding down the fort while rookie backup Mike Condon shone in his first two starts. Therrien was looking like he had evolved as a coach and learnt lessons from the previous playoffs when the Canadiens offence had dried up against the Tampa Bay Lightning.
When Carey Price injured himself for the first time this season on the Western Canada road trip, it was assumed that the Canadiens would falter. However, Therrien was able to keep his players focused and Condon stepped up and performed better than expected for those 3 weeks. When Therrien took Semin out of the lineup, he eventually replaced him with Sven Andrighetto who clicked with Galchenyuk and Lars Eller. He put Andrighetto in a position to succeed rather than put a 3rd or 4th line player there.
Unfortunately, losing Carey Price and Brendan Gallagher the same night to long-term injuries in late November against the New York Rangers proved to be too much for Therrien to handle. While the Canadiens tried hard, played well and dominated most possession statistics in December, wins were elusive. Therrien’s blender went into overdrive and lines were not given a chance to find their rhythm and succeed. For one game against Boston Therrien had Galchenyuk as the #1 center between Max Pacioretty and Andrighetto. Therrien did the young man no favours as he did not even attempt to shield him from Patrice Bergeron and Boston’s best defenders. That was it, after one “tough night” and Therrien decided that Galchenyuk and Pacioretty had “zero chemistry” and should not play together. However, it was okay to play Desharnais with Pacioretty and Dale Weise for many games together with no success.
By breaking up the Canadiens third line of Tomas Fleischmann, Desharnais and Weise, Therrien broke the whole flow of the Canadiens lineup. Desharnais and Pacioretty could not recapture their past chemistry and Weise is certainly not a first line NHL player, just ask the Blackhawks. Therrien was no longer putting his players in a position to succeed. Tomas Plekanec had stability playing with Pacioretty and Gallagher but then was back to a revolving door of wingers. Galchenyuk was deemed not ready to play center and moved to wing. Andrighetto bounced up and down the lines while Daniel Carr shone as one of the Canadiens most consistent players for the month of December but was not given an opportunity to play on one of the top lines. Even Charles Hudon looked excellent in limited minutes during a two game call-up but again was not given an opportunity to truly show his skills. While Weise and Paul Byron are NHL players, they do not have the skillset of Hudon, Carr and Andrighetto. Therrien waited too long to give his young players a true chance in the top six.
The distribution of playing time amongst the Canadiens defencemen was also baffling throughout the year. Through those first 9 games everything was more or less ok. Andrei Markov was playing slightly more than 23 minutes a night, Jeff Petry was stepping up and playing like a true #3 and Nathan Beaulieu and Tom Gilbert were playing excellent as a 3rd pairing. Then old habits continued to creep up as Therrien leaned too much on Markov and played him in 3 on 3 overtime when he did not have the speed to keep up, costing the Canadiens a couple of losses. It got so bad with Markov that towards the end of December Nathan Beaulieu had replaced him on the top pairing with P.K. Subban.
The rocky relationship between Subban and his kindly ‘ol coach has been well documented. The double standards that Therrien has for his star defenceman baffles the mind. Yes, some players can handle the tough love but in Montreal this should not be playing out in the public’s eye. Therrien and Bergevin like to take credit for nurturing Subban into becoming a Norris winning defenceman, a complete defenceman. I don’t take too much stock in that. Former head coach Jacques Martin had no problem using Subban on the penalty kill or in important situations as a rookie. The idea that Subban could not be defensively responsible was always absurd. Yes he takes risks but the good far outweighs the bad. Therrien is very reluctant to accept that. At the beginning of the season, Canadiens general manager Marc Bergevin said:
“I believe P.K. is an outstanding defenseman. I think his game has gotten better every year since we’ve been in Montreal. I think there’s another layer that he could achieve. That’s our goal, that’s his goal. P.K. is a very fierce competitor, he’s a very proud player, and I think the best of P.K. is to come.”
I agree that we still have not seen Subban at his absolute best. There is almost certainly another level that he can achieve but that will not happen with Therrien and/or J.J. Daigneault behind the bench.
Later in the season when Desharnais got injured, Therrien still stubbornly refused to promote Galchenyuk to the #1 center position until Galchenyuk’s strong play gave him no choice but to give him another try. Surprise, surprise, given the opportunity Galchenyuk and Pacioretty displayed chemistry and we’re allowed to work through the rough shifts and nights. Not only did they have success with Gallagher but Andrighetto also managed to chip in when Gallagher was out. Now the Canadiens can be optimistic about having a true #1 centerman and line for next season.
Yes, the Canadiens had an absurd amount of injuries this past season. Not having Carey Price for the bulk of the year was brutal and exposed the Canadiens weaknesses. Unfortunately, Therrien stayed the course with his veterans for far too long and was reluctant to make changes. When the offence dried up Therrien did not change strategy. He stopped putting his players in a position to succeed. He stopped coaching. Therrien is fortunate to have Bergevin in his corner and is willing to give him another chance with hopefully a healthy lineup next season. The pressure has never been higher for Therrien…
Cheers & follow along!
Montreal Canadiens Blogger • 
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