Montreal Canadiens: Senators Rebuild At Crisis Point As Kent Hughes Moves Forward
The Late 1990’s
With a gameplan that was essentially “hope the opposing team has an off night” Ottawa struggled early and often, while Montreal started reeling slowly from their 24th Stanley Cup title in the Sens first season.
While players like Norm Maciver, Randy Cunneyworth and Dave McLIwain benefited from the increased ice-time, it didn’t lead to wins on the ice, not at least until Jacques Martin took over as Ottawa’s head coach during the 1995-96 season. Martin’s defense-oriented system brought the Senators back from the brink, and with Ron Tugnutt, Damian Rhodes, Patrick LaLime, Dominik Hasek and Ray Emery leading the way in net at different points, Ottawa slowly went from a basement-dweller in 1993 to a Stanley Cup Finals appearance in 2007, where they would lose in five games to the Anaheim Ducks.
Meanwhile, Montreal fans and media alike had to deal with a panicked President in Ronald Corey completely losing any and all sensibility or logic or reason, firing head coach Jacques Demers and GM Serge Savard at the beginning of the 95-96 season in favor of Mario Tremblay and Rejean Houle, who had no experience in either position, and the rest is… well the rest.
Aside from Jaroslav Halak and Carey Price figuratively and well, literally, carrying mediocre Habs squads to the Conference Finals and Stanley Cup Final in 2009, 2014, and 2021 respectively, time generally hasn’t been kind to the Habs since ’93, and this is something the Senators, as we’ve shown, know all too well.
At this present moment though, Montreal and Ottawa, once again, find themselves as opposites, as much as fans and media alike would want you to believe otherwise. 2022-23 was supposed to be the year Ottawa returned to the playoffs, with a stacked offense, solid defense, and for once, solid goaltending tandem of Cam Talbot and Anton Forsberg in net.
Montreal had just come off one of the worst starts in team history in 2021-22 under former coach Dominque Ducharme and had nowhere to go but up. By season’s end however, both teams essentially found themselves in the same place, and the narrative had switched from that of “Ottawa is a playoff team” to “Both team’s are still rebuilding, give them some time, they’re still young and developing”, etc. etc.
While the 2022-23 season showed otherwise, at a make or break point in their rebuild, the Senators and Montreal Canadiens find themselves as opposites.
Aside from the obvious disparity between those two remarks, saying the Senators are still rebuilding kind of defeats the entire point of why a rebuild starts to begin with. To well, eventually stop rebuilding and become a contender once more. And, Ottawa hasn’t done that, and with most of their once-top prospects now fully developed, in my opinion it’s now or never, and that isn’t even mentioning the comparisons between them and the Canadiens.
I’m all for giving teams the benefit of the doubt with things that were out of their control (injuries, Covid, etc.) but even still, comparing the current Senators and the Canadiens as similar teams in any kind of context is just a complete joke at this point, and in my opinion, an insult to both Senators and Canadiens fans.
Ottawa has laid the groundwork for how to do a rebuild. Meaning, they are no longer in a rebuild. The rebuild is over, and the actual build hasn’t gotten off to the best of starts. Just for a bit of comparison here, Ottawa’s leading scorer (Tim Stutzle) had 39-51-90 totals over 78 games. Ottawa had two 80+ point producers and five 60+ point producers. Claude Giroux returned to form after a turbulent end in Philly, and the offense did as was expected of it. They had five guys play all 82 games.
Montreal had one 60+ point player (Nick Suzuki), no 40-point players, and Suzuki was the only player on the team to play in all 82 games. Even with injuries and Covid once again completely decimating Montreal’s depth, top scorers like Kirby Dach and Cole Caufield are still settling into top-six roles after having played mostly bottom-six in their rookie years (nice going there Ducharme). Montreal is still developing regarding both their individual players and the team as a whole. To say Ottawa is still rebuilding as a team is an insult to many people, but in particular, veterans like Giroux and defenseman Thomas Chabot.
Time For Senators To Show Rebuild Is Over
Just have a thought about this for a second. When Giroux signed in Ottawa, do you think management talked about this team as a rebuilding one who’s a few years from the playoffs let alone being a contender? Giroux left Philly because they were rebuilding.
There is absolutely no chance he signed in Ottawa for the same reason. The front office promised Giroux a competitive roster, and to say they’re on the same level as the Canadiens is, again, an insult to both parties, and a cop out for those who just can’t admit Ottawa has been grossly underperforming, especially when compared to the effort the Habs put in night after night last season with little to no help.
For most of their history, the Sens and the Habs have gone back and forth in terms of who is the better team, and from the Erik Karlsson days to the days of Dale Weise and P.K Subban running the show in Montreal, they’ve inspired fun rivalries and some great games.
At a certain point though, you have to face the music, and in this case, not only are Ottawa and Montreal polar opposites in terms of their goals for next season, but in my opinion, 2023-24 is do or die for this latest Senators rebuild.
As NHL training camps get underway and fans look forward to the start of a new season, there are still plenty of question marks left to be answered come the beginning of October, and one of many, revolves around whether this the year, for the Canadiens to move forward, and whether Ottawa, has what it takes, to exercise, their playoff demons.
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