We knew before the season, but we needed confirmation. The Canadian is ruled out of the playoffs after 75 games. Injury or not, that’s what awaited CH in this first season of recovery. Now for the killer question: How long before his next appearance at the Spring Tournament?
Kent Hughes spoke about two or three years in an interview with digital daily L’Athlétique last week.
Two years would be quite an achievement.
Unless the Habs win the Loto Bédard. But don’t bet your entire fortune on it.
Let’s take the count.
Three years yes, but under certain conditions.
It will make informed decisions from the leaders of the hockey sector and luck.
And the Stanley Cup, you ask?
Don’t rush into business!
No overnight cutting
Teams that have won multiple major trophy titles since the turn of the millennium haven’t made it there easily, whether we’re talking about the Chicago Blackhawks, Pittsburgh Penguins, and Tampa Bay Lightning.
The Edmonton Oilers and Buffalo Sabers, who have benefited from multiple first draft picks, are still waiting.
The Oilers have the best player in the world in Connor McDavid, but they’re 22nd in defense. They won’t take the trophy back to the Alberta capital until they improve at the net and on the blue line.
In the case of the Sabers, they would first have to qualify for the playoffs before dreaming of the trophy. They risk missing the playoffs for the 12th straight year.
You, supporters of Canadians, would you endure such a drought?
Impressive examples
Let’s take a look at how Lightning, Avalanche, and Blackhawks traveled to the Cup.
The Lightning acquired Steven Stamkos in 2008, Victor Hedman in 2009, Nikita Kucherov in 2011, and Andrei Vasilevskiy in 2012.
The Florida team reached the finals in 2015 and faced the Hawks, who still dominated as their ranks included players like Patrick Kane, Jonathan Toews, Marian Hossa and Duncan Keith.
The Lightning returned to the finals five years later, winning the first of two consecutive Holy Grail conquests.
The Colorado Avalanche’s victory over the Lightning last year came 11 years after the arrival of Gabriel Landeskog, nine years after Nathan MacKinnon, seven years after Mikko Rantanen and five years after Cale Makar.
These examples show that rebuilding a team is not easy. The exercise is tantamount to bringing together the right ingredients for a successful chemical formula.
It can blow your face multiple times before you find the right recipe!
A good start
Despite this, those in charge of the Canadian have done good for a year. Starting with Martin St-Louis, who knew how to bring the players together for his speech.
Hughes made some good acquisitions, enlisting the services of Mike Matheson and Kirby Dach.
To use a familiar phrase, rebuilding a hockey team starts from the back, and in that regard we can expect a bright future for defense.
Credit should be given here to Marc Bergevin and Trevor Timmins for selecting Kaiden Guhle, Jordan Harris, Logan Mailloux, Mattias Norlinder, William Trudeau and Jayden Struble, and signing Arber Xhekaj.
Adding to that list was little Lane Hutson, drafted last year by the duo of Martin Lapointe and Nick Bobrov.
No successor to Price
On the offensive side, Nick Suzuki and Cole Caufield are already well established. Rafaël Harvey-Pinard has found his place, but others are needed.
Let’s see what Joshua Roy, Owen Beck and Riley Kidney can do.
Let’s close with the big piece, the Carey Price estate.
Without comparison, Samuel Montembeault is doing well, but he still needs to develop more consistency.
The motto is: Be patient!
The coach didn’t like that
Martin St-Louis was clear when asked by reporters if Sean Ferrell was in the lineup for Tuesday’s game in Philadelphia.
“That’s a question for Kent,” he replied, referring to Kent Hughes.
We all understood that the decision wasn’t his.
The games mustn’t mean anything to the Canadian, the rule is that we don’t send a green rookie into the fray without that player taking part in a few training sessions.
Weak as reason
In Hughes’ absence, Jeff Gorton met with members of the media. He explained Ferrell’s use by saying that relatives and friends had traveled from Boston to see him play.
It’s weak as a reason.
That said, it’s not the end of the world, but we can speak of a first public divergence between St-Louis and its bosses.
The Habs trainer is outgoing, but I don’t think he likes being dictated to how he behaves.
Everyone knows his strength of character. This allowed him to make his way into the National League as a major and become a distinguished member of the Hockey Hall of Fame.
