Many years of mediocrity to follow for the Canadiens
In one of his recent post game beats, The Montreal Canadiens beat writer for The Athletic, Arpon Basu, drew a parallel between the Canadiens and the Vancouver Canucks regarding the state of the organisation. He hinted at the possibility that the success curve of the Canadiens could be similar than the one of Vancouver. The Canucks, off course, were flying high in the 2014–15 season, but it has been a fast downhill from there. In the current season they are almost guaranteed to miss the playoffs. Some time after the downhill had started, they realized their position and started introducing younger players to the lineup. In other words, they started the rebuild, or something resembling one, at least. Basu maid the point that a similar faith could wait the Canadiens, since they too seem to be crashing down to earth this season. In my mind, it is unlikely that the they will follow a similar path than what the Canucks have. And that is not a good thing for them.
With the current Montreal team there is a strong sense of hope: “They are suppose to be better than this and probably are,” is the cry from people. And it is true. You didn’t get that with the Canucks. When they only gathered 31 wins in the 2015–16 season, the consensus around the team was more or less that the team is what it is, what we could have expected.
The Canadiens have their pieces, the hope drivers: Carey Price in net, Shea Weber in defense, Max Pacioretty in offense, you know the names. Because of them it is clear that the Canadiens can only head up in the standings. The Canucks didn’t have those kind of names. For them, it was clear that downhill was going to happen. This is where the roads split for these two teams. Vancouver had to resort to rebuilding once they discovered that there was no other way up. The Canadiens seem confident that there current group of players can lift them back into contention. There has been some whispers that the Canadiens should rebuild, but, in all honesty, this team is too good to rebuild. And that is the problem.
They are a good enough team that they should be at least competing from a playoff spot, if not being in those spots for most of the season. As long as that is the case, then those whispers to switch gears into a rebuild should be minimal and the GM Marc Bergevin would have piece and mind to work with. Also that sort of mediocrity would make sure that Bergevin keeps his job as the GM and that he won’t replaced by someone who would be more willing to rock the boat. Keeping in mind, GMs rarely get fired while they’re team is competing from a playoff spot.
The mediocrity will be the Canadiens calling in the upcoming years. Some pieces here and there to keep them competitive, but ultimately a combination not good enough to seriously compete from the Stanley Cup.