With the Montreal Canadiens not in the playoffs, Habs Twitter has turned into a tracker of former players creating more disputes on current management.
Angry words have been going back and forth among Montreal Canadiens fans. It started with tracking the success of former players currently in the playoffs, but the P.K. Subban Norris nomination kicked it up to the next gear. While some revisit past Marc Bergevin deals, others encourage fellow fans to let it go, and a small portion is nonchalant about the whole thing.
Here’s my take on it, it’s ok. It’s ok to focus on past players, especially if you were major fans of them while on the Montreal Canadiens. At the same time, a lot of the arguments are repeated ones, and they may not stop until Bergevin is let go. It’s tough to accept, but there’s nothing that anyone can do to reverse what happened unless you have an 80’s Delorean parked in your garage.
The fact of the matter is that Shea Weber has brought value to the Montreal Canadiens. His 17 goals in the 2016/17 season was a large boost to the team’s success. Seeing as how he was injured from game one, he was never 100% and an injury like that can greatly affect a defenceman’s game, and fans saw that.
His age is something that can’t be ignored, but an effective and healthy Weber will keep the Habs competitive. At the same time, there are players such as Zdeno Chara and Dustin Byfuglien who are still contributing to their team’s positively despite being in their 30’s.
Jonathan Drouin did what he could in his first year as a centre. The Montreal Canadiens didn’t do him any favours by playing him against the team’s best lines and pairings to start, but he found sparks of what he could be on a nightly basis at times. Was it enough? Probably not and Drouin needs to have everything firing on all cylinders for the team to succeed.
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There’s no question that Drouin was a part of the ‘attitude’ group in Bergevin’s comments, and if he wants to be part of the leadership group in Montreal, that needs to change.
It’s not easy to listen to someone say, “Turn forward and don’t look back,” but that’s the only way Habs fans will be able to keep their sanity through this. Whether it’s supported or not, Bergevin will be here on draft lottery night, in Dallas, for Free Agency, and the 2018/19 season with the hottest seat in the NHL.
It’s been speculated before, but the feeling around the management group seems a little different. This may, in fact, be Bergevin’s final chance and it may start with a big trade. That may scare some fans, but at this point, it seems like he’s willing to do whatever it takes to improve the team.
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So enjoy the playoffs because there’s been some fantastic hockey going on in the first round. Again, In no way am I saying that it’s wrong to be upset about what the Montreal Canadiens had. However, no one can change the past, all we can do is wait for a better and hopefully less painful future.