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The Canadiens face a leadership crisis

 Maxime Truman
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The Canadiens face a leadership crisis
Credit: Things are going badly at ‘shop. I’m not telling you anything new. The Canadiens are still 32nd and last in the overall standings. Monday afternoon’s win – after six consecutive losses – didn’t solve everything. But Monday gave us two answers. The first: this team has enough talent to win games in the best league […]

Things are going badly at ‘shop. I’m not telling you anything new.

The Canadiens are still 32nd and last in the overall standings. Monday afternoon’s win – after six consecutive losses – didn’t solve everything.

But Monday gave us two answers. The first: this team has enough talent to win games in the best league in the world.

The second: they don’t have a leader on par with Shea Weber, who was inducted into the Hall of Fame a few hours after the Habs game.

We’ve seen many rebuilds that have worked over the years… but we’ve also seen the Sabres, Oilers and a few other clubs go in circles during their rebuilds, because they didn’t surround their youngsters with good veterans to guide them.

A young team is cool, but it will always take good old hands to show them the way… and calm their anxiety(s). This advice could also apply to CF Montréal…

What to do?
There’s a lot of talk about bringing a strong forward, an experienced goalkeeper or a right-handed defender to Montreal…

But above all, we need to make sure we have the right mentors in the dressing room to guide the kids. We traded Jake Allen, even though he was an excellent mentor. The result: we lost leadership in the Montreal dressing room… and the Devils’ dressing room immediately gained it.

We also traded Johnathan Kovacevic (also to New Jersey) as well as Sean Monahan. When you replace all these guys with kids, you may end up lacking the experience in the dressing room to weather the storms.

When the Canadiens reached the Stanley Cup Final, they had Corey Perry, Eric Staal, Carey Price, Shea Weber, Joel Edmundson, Ben Chiarot, Jeff Petry and so on. To win, you need veterans… and to guide your youngsters to victory, you need them too. You know, the famous tree players who won’t be around to reap the rewards of the collective effort Martin St-Louis was talking about…

Are Josh Anderson, Brendan Gallagher, Mike Matheson, Christian Dvorak and Joel Armia really the veterans you want to show your youngsters the way? Apart from telling the youngsters not to talk to the media, what does a guy like Armia teach the young Swedes and Finns in the band?

You’d better think twice before trading David Savard for a distant deadline pick…

Another question: does Nick Suzuki really have what it takes to be captain of the Montreal Canadiens? Does his leadership style suit the current circumstances? I’m not saying he should be replaced at all costs… but is he really qualified to lead the current team? Is he vocal enough to rally everyone around him when the going gets tough?

And is he surrounded by enough people? We’re still a long way from Shea Weber, Guy Carbonneau and Vincent Damphousse when it comes to leadership…

He may have the same leadership style as Shea Weber, but he’s no Shea Weber.

We’re talking here… but could the coaches (all inexperienced) and the GM (inexperienced) use a little experience on their side, too?

Kent Hughes is a former agent and Martin St-Louis a former player; both think like players and tend to protect players. Hughes has Jeff Gorton on top of him, but St-Louis has no one. That’s why the rumours involving Gerard Gallant were so popular (even if probably untrue)…

Yes, Nick Suzuki is collecting points (17 in 16 games), but I’d like to see him be an even better leader. Why would I do that? Because the club is going through a leadership crisis. Certain people need to stand up and assert themselves; the captain is one of those people.

Secondly, I hope the management realizes that it will need to graft some good, experienced veterans onto its young group of players to ensure that the collective is heading in the right direction.

Since Sean Monahan was traded, the Habs have won just 11 of their 35 games. Yes, Monahan was a good player, but he was also the best leader in that locker room (along with Jake Allen).

More leadership would ensure a few more wins for the team, but more importantly, it would increase the likelihood that the organization’s young players would develop in the right way… imbued with a winning culture.

Right now, it seems as though no one is in a position to take courage and lead the way. Except perhaps David Savard…

But did he go and tell the captain that he stopped playing too early and gave the opposition a goal last week ?

In closing, no, the solution is not to give Lane Hutson the “C”. Just to make sure everyone understands me…


Overtime

– What do you think?

– Of note.

– Still.

This content was created with the help of AI.

This content was created with the help of AI.

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