Montreal Canadiens: No transparency in Marc Bergevin vs Mitch Melnick

The push for improved fan communication is in question after Montreal Canadiens general manager Marc Bergevin appeared on TSN 690’s Melnick in the Afternoon.

The Montreal Canadiens Attitude Era has started out strong, wasn’t it? Not only did fans get a declaration of the transition, but it’s already had a spicy main event match. It was not player vs. player, but instead general manager vs. radio host. All kidding aside, this Marc Bergevin hit on TSN 690 Tuesday afternoon has had fans frantically talking.

Bergevin and Geoff Molson’s final press conference at the end of the season saw many members of the media not hold back with any of their questions. Was it at times harsh? Maybe. But that’s what you need to face when in charge of a team in the Montreal Canadiens who had expectations to improve, and didn’t.

The list goes on, the defence wasn’t better, the team wasn’t deeper, and the only player who responded to Bergevin’s call for a bounce-back season was Brendan Gallagher. There were individual victories though especially when you look at the growth of Victor Mete, Alex Galchenyuk, Noah Juulsen, and Nikita Scherbak to name a few. Additionally, the Nicolas Deslauriers and Mike Reilly trades, as well as the Antti Niemi waiver claim, proved to be good moves for the Habs.

However, that’s not enough to justify the season.

It didn’t stop after that presser. You could consider that the first set of matches before the grand finale. That, of course, was Tuesday’s edition of Melnick in the Afternoon on TSN 690.

Mitch Melnick did not hold back on Bergevin. He put the heavy topics into the discussion including the continued focus on attitude (or character if you want to use it, they’re pretty much interchangeable here), the lack of trades, and the fan perception of the team.

No stone was left untouched in that radio hit. Bergevin brought up that top-two centres aren’t easy to acquire, but Melnick responded with Eric Staal who was signed out of free agency in 2016 at $3.5 million per season. Staal is on his second 60+ point season with the Wild as the team’s number one centre.

Karl Alzner was a big piece as well with Melnick mentioning that he looked slow this season. In response, Bergevin brought up Zdeno Chara and how slow he looked the year the Boston Bruins won the President’s Trophy but lost to the Habs in the second round. I’m sure it was a strictly foot speed comparison there. Bergevin did mention in the press conference in Montreal that he was overly optimistic about the team’s blueline this season so we’ll throw him a bone.