A total of 46 different players would lace up their skates for the Montreal Canadiens this season, including 16 defensemen. After the trade deadline had come and gone, it was clear that head coach Michel Therrien would have to hold auditions in order to help the organization establish who could be a part of next year’s lineup. In doing so, acquisitions and AHL call-ups would also shine a light as to the depth within and progress that the Habs and St. John’s Ice Caps are making. In all, it was a trying year for the organization that’s been run by general manager Marc Bergevin for a little over 4 years now, and you’d have to think that there are a lot of lessons to be learned heading into the offseason.

Unfortunately, as much as I’d like to think that Bergevin and Therrien could potentially grow from the 2015-2016 season, I can’t shake the bad taste that’s been left in my mouth thanks to shoddy public relations and marketing ploys that have set the most storied franchise in the NHL back a few years. The team became the laughing stock of the league, going from the strongest group 2 months into the calendar year to the absolute worst until its conclusion last week.

We’ve already established that the combined loss of the quiet leadership of Carey Price and the lead-by-example energy provided by Brendan Gallagher were grossly missed and ignited the downward spiral that will forever be etched in history as quite possibly the worst collapse in the 107 years of this once-glorious franchise. Moreover, the offense dried up despite managing to score the same amount of goals (221) as it did last year. Defensemen dropped like flies and forwards lost their will to perform, as rookies and veterans alike were bounced around the lineup if they weren’t spending games on end at the clinic. Controversies surrounding the players’ capacity to lead came into play and continue to make headlines across our beautiful city, and newly-appointed captain Max Pacioretty was the subject of never-ending criticism that won’t die down anytime soon.

The worst part of this debacle that has us all rolling our eyes and cursing our beloved is perhaps the stand-pat, don’t react and maintain-the-status-quo management exercised by Bergevin. Before I continue, I’d like to point out that firing Therrien is not the best solution, in my opinion. Can this team use an injection of varying strategies that don’t solely rely on the dump and chase? Most definitely. However, I’m not interested in entertaining the notion of handing Therrien a pink slip until 25-50% through next season. He played the hands he was dealt and got virtually no help from his buddy Marc, and that’s where I’d like to turn my attention shortly.

For those of you who managed to take in the final nail in the coffin of a press conference held earlier this week by owner Geoff Molson, Bergevin and Therrien simultaneously, perhaps you are of the same opinion as me: it was another failed attempt at shutting out the very passionate and loyal fans who spend an average of approximately 250$ per ticket to attend disgraceful displays of boring, identity-less brands of hockey. By sitting in on the press conference, Molson demonstrated that he’s an absolute control freak who doesn’t care what the fans think. This is a cautious approach in that he shouldn’t pay too much attention to the charged, logically fallible rhetoric that often characterizes Montreal hockey lovers. But to raise two middle fingers to the ones who have lived and died with this team, many of whom have done so for over 30 or 40 years, by not holding any of his staff accountable for the 2015-2016 catastrophe goes to show just how disenchanted they’ve become. By sitting in on the press conference, Molson proved to me that he has a one-track mind and wants to uphold his image. He clearly has no issues with micromanagement, and wanted to ensure that his “employees” didn’t stumble during their speeches while fielding questions from a visibly frustrated media scrum.

(My mistake- Craig Ramsay’s contract will not be renewed next season. I apologize- I didn’t acknowledge how drastic of an impact that was going to have on the Habs’ special teams… and their goaltending… and their scoring… and their durability…)


I’m not sure how many fans felt reassured that this organization is headed in the right direction, especially after a year veiled in secrecy and political manipulations of the masses.

From what I gather, the instant Carey Price was injured the second time around, they shut him down for the season. They told him to stay home and care for his pregnant wife, and to fully rehabilitate his knee in order to ready himself for the kind of glory he’ll taste as the potential MVP of the World Cup of Hockey- the kind of glory that, as many of you have heard me say countless times, Price will surely never taste as a Montreal Canadien. His presence on the Canadian national team will make him realize, if he hasn’t already, that he doesn’t need Montreal. He cannot continue to carry an entire team on his shoulders and should find himself a home with an NHL team that sees him as the final piece required to win championships. He needs to don the jersey of a club that’s already competitive, thus making him a part of the solution as opposed to being the solution itself (as is the case in Montreal). Most of all, allowing his teammates to piggyback ride him has taken its toll on his body, figuratively speaking, especially his cursed right knee.

Why the team never disclosed the specific injury is quite simple. An MCL sprain takes the average joe 6 weeks to recover from. Bit by bit, doctors recommend doing very minimal movements in order to regain full mobility. In the case of Price, who had injured that same knee more than once, it was a miracle that he didn’t require surgery. However, being adept at the butterfly style of goaltending that is exceptionally taxing on your knees, you’d have to multiply his recovery time on a nagging and recurring injury by two to three times the regular period. Therefore, the reason they didn’t disclose the precise nature of his injury was because fans like you and I would’ve put a proverbial “X” on the season sooner than later.

In short, somebody lied in order to keep selling tickets, disgustingly overpriced concessions and cheap but perfectly-branded Habs memorabilia. To me, that was despicable and unacceptable, and that is why I vow to never attend another game at the Bell Centre again. This organization will never see a single penny of my hard-earned money.

With the passing of the great and legendary Jean Beliveau, all of the class that this franchise once had was buried along with him when he was laid to rest. The ownership doesn’t care about its fans and they’ve made that clear in 2015-2016. They don’t care about you and they sure as hell couldn’t care less about how much the lower-to-middle class income families had to scrape together to offer what’s supposed to be an experience of a lifetime to their children by bringing them to attend a game at the Bell Centre.

We’ll never recover time, money and emotions lost during this season to forget, and the frustrating part is that the team will not make any drastic changes this offseason in order to fix glaring holes in the squad and at the coaching level. We know this for a fact, because that’s what we’ve been publicly told, but perhaps we’re being lied to once again…

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