Montreal Canadiens: Looking Back at Michel Therrien’s Second Stint With Habs
Quick turnaround in Therrien’s first season
Therrien didn’t turn the team into a contender immediately, but they were much improved under his watch. The team went from allowing 2.76 goals against per game to 2.63 in Therrien’s first season. They went from winning 31 of 82 games to being on the right side of 29 in just 48 games during that lockout shortened year.
David Desharnais took a bit of a step back offensively, but Brendan Gallagher and Alex Galchenyuk had great rookie seasons, P.K. Subban immediately turned into a terrific top pairing defender, Max Pacioretty’s two-way game reached a whole new level and veterans like Andrei Markov, Brian Gionta and Tomas Plekanec were pegged perfectly into roles that fit their game.
All of the Habs success at that time was often attributed to Carey Price, but the team went from the worst team in the Eastern Conference to the second best in one season. Price was on both of those teams, but the one with Therrien calling the shots looked a lot better defensively and more organized as a group.
If it was all a fluke, things would have collapsed in 2013-14, but the team was just as good. It was Therrien’s first 82 game season back behind the bench and the team looked sluggish late in the shortened season. Could they keep it up for six months?
Yes. Yes, they could. There was not a lot of flash and star power on this lineup, and it looked pretty similar to the one’s that came before it, but they finished with 100 points in the regular season. Pacioretty led the way with 39 goals, but his supporting cast of Desharnais, Gionta, Gallagher, Plekanec, Daniel Briere, Rene Bourque, Lars Eller and Galchenyuk didn’t provide a ton of firepower.
Again, their defence carried them as only two teams in the Eastern Conference allowed less than the Habs 204 goals against. The biggest “problem” with Therrien among fans at this time was he didn’t play Nathan Beaulieu and Jarred Tinordi enough, instead electing to use veterans like Francis Bouillon and Doug Murray.
It is six years later and the Winnipeg Jets and Nashville Predators are still waiting for Beaulieu and Tinordi to break out.
The Canadiens looked great in the postseason, dispatching the Tampa Bay Lightning in four straight games before outlasting the heavily favoured Boston Bruins in a thrilling Game 7 victory in the second round.
This set up a semi-final matchup with the New York Rangers who were a deep team, but not as strong as the Bruins. The Habs were thrashed in Game 1, but more importantly, lost Price for the rest of the series when Chris Kreider crashed the net. The team that solely relied on Price should have been finished, especially being down 1-0 in the series.
They did lose, but they showed some resolve after losing 3-1 in Game 2 with Dustin Tokarski in goal. The Habs won the next game 3-2 in overtime, before losing Game 4 by the same score on a Martin St. Louis OT winner. Montreal won a wild Game 5 by a 7-4 score before bowing out in Game 6 with a 1-0 heartbreaking loss.
The team that “only” had Carey Price stayed close in a tight series without their main man in goal. They won two of the five games played without Price in net and lost one in overtime and lost the last one 1-0. With a lack of star power and deadline pickup Thomas Vanek not being impactful, you would have to give some credit for that run to the coach.