With 33 games in the books, the Montreal Canadiens have not won two games in a row all season.
With almost three quarters of the roster on the COVID-19 protocol list, Montreal is not expected to challenge that ignominious record any time soon. Montreal and Dallas are the most virus-impacted teams in the NHL fielding more AHL players then NHL ones, yet onward we go in this bizarre season.
The Hurricanes rolled to an easy 4-0 win.
Wilde Horses
With the Laval Rocket not able to create much against a loaded Carolina squad, it’s an opportunity instead to address the general manager’s job that will be filled in early 2022. Rumours have it that the announcement is imminent, but that is not the case. It is more likely to be a decision made in late January or beyond.
However, it was leaked by the organization to the media who the Canadiens are looking at to be the partner of Jeff Gorton in the front office. It’s a terrific list of candidates: Patrick Roy, Daniel Brière, Mathieu Darche, Marc Denis, Kent Hughes, Stéphane Quintal, Danièle Sauvageau and Émilie Castonguay. The Canadiens have also said that they may add names to this interview list of eight.
The name that stood out immediately was former NHL goalie Marc Denis who now works on RDS broadcasts of the Canadiens. Critics will say that Denis does not have experience in managing at the NHL level, but any shortcomings in that area are irrelevant, because Gorton can tutor him in the clerical specifics.
Let’s be honest about what the job entails. Experience is only relevant, if the new GM has to learn everything on the fly, such as salary cap issues and contract details. However, the Canadiens have staff for those type of details. Gorton is very experienced in this area and the team’s capologist as well can handle any money issue as John Sedgwick has been around for a decade doing just that. There are no concerns on any financial issue whatsoever with the experienced help that the club has.
So what exactly is the club looking for then in a GM in a partnership situation with Gorton? It’s simple. The new GM needs to be able to evaluate talent. That’s it. That’s the job.
The GM needs to know players at every level understand the modern game and how to construct a winning team. The next GM needs to be perfectly bilingual, and it sure does not hurt if he or she is local.
We have all heard Denis evaluate talent on the Canadiens. We have all heard his ideas about hockey. He’s extremely intelligent and he wants the Canadiens to play the modern NHL game.
When I imagine what I want in the next GM, I think of only one thing: I want him to construct a modern team with puck-moving defenders and strength down the middle of the ice. I want him to build a team. Marc Bergevin was excellent at winning trades, but he was not good at building an actual team.
A winning NHL team has two dominant 30-minute puck-moving defenders and two centres who can control the middle of the ice as the foundation. Bergevin was strong down the middle one season only and he made it to the Stanley Cup finals. He then lost two of his top three centres in the off-season choosing to strengthen the wing again.
Cups are not won on the wing. Support is found on the wing.
I know Marc Denis thinks like this. I’ve known him a long time. I’ve heard him a lot. Now, hearing that he is in the running for the job as GM of the Canadiens makes me want him to win the posting. He would be an outstanding partner for Jeff Gorton.
Wilde Goats
Jonathan Drouin was a last-minute scratch for the Canadiens in this one. Drouin was feeling ill just before game time. The club says it is not COVID-19 related, but 13 Canadiens were out of the lineup with COVID-related issues.
With basically one line intact and one defensive pair, it’s not at all proper to fill this section with mistakes made by an overmatched club. The only NHL line intact didn’t even make it through the contest as Brendan Gallagher did not play the second half of the game with an undisclosed difficulty. One assumes injury, but it couldn’t be found. In this bizarre season, don’t even try to guess.
The youngsters tried hard, but they were unable to compete with one of the best teams in the NHL in Carolina. This is not a surprise and it is not necessary to fill the space with why the night went as it did. It was a miracle they took Tampa to overtime on Tuesday There was no hint of a miracle Thursday.
Wilde Cards
With 13 Canadiens players on the COVID-19 protocol list, it was a bit surprising that the game went on in Raleigh, N.C., on Thursday night. The attitude in the U.S. is dramatically different than Canada. The Americans are going through the same level of case explosion per capita as Quebec and the rest of Canada is, but they are mostly just continuing their lives through it.
Quebec calls for a curfew to begin tomorrow, stopping its citizens from even going outdoors after 10 pm, while in Raleigh Thursday night, over 15,000 were in a parking lot at 10 p.m. after gathering for a Hurricanes hockey game. It’s just a different way of life. One enjoying a hockey game, the other not allowed out.
The fact that it is so different is not lost on the owners of the National Hockey League and they’re going to do their best to make sure that the Canadian owners don’t take a bath financially in comparison to American owners welcoming full houses to their arenas.
Across Canada, premiers are making announcements about attendance limits. The premier of Ontario, Doug Ford, said that maximum capacity is 1,000 people for Maple Leafs games until further notice. That won’t cut it for the Leafs, and the league knows it. Similar situations are taking place across Canada. Montreal has already had a home date with no fans against the Flyers before Christmas. That was about a $2.5-million financial hit to Owner Geoff Molson.
To ensure that does not happen again, the Canadian owners along with the NHL are making contingency plans for the upcoming schedule until the Omicron wave abates. For starters, the Canadian teams have had their home dates postponed for the first two weeks of January. This could just be the start of the changes.
It may be that the schedule is altered significantly with Canadian teams playing road dates as long as it takes for the Omicron wave to settle. Imagine a scenario where the Canadiens play only road dates until the third week of February, then they play all home dates until the end of the season. This is possible.
Clever designs and innovative thinking are going to be the only way that the Canadian teams survive this financially like the American teams will.
No judgment made at all who has the better idea here how to withstand a pandemic, just an understanding that the nations are different, and using those differences could be absolutely vital to getting a full season in of the NHL.
The South Africans were the first to experience the Omicron variant. They had an elevator ride up cases and then one down in the span of five weeks. If North America mirrors South Africa, we will get out of this in time to get the full season in, but with some adjustments.
Stay tuned. It’s going to get interesting and could get bizarre — as bizarre as a Montreal 18-game home stand, perhaps.
Brian Wilde, a Montreal-based sports writer, brings you Call of the Wilde on globalnews.ca after each Canadiens game.
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