Remembering Past Glories: Bringing Back Sam Pollock

Before I lead you all in a short salutation on the highs, lows, and legends of General Managers past, and present, I wanted to thank Louis and Kamal on the opportunity to join a great team of Montréal Canadiens fans, and an even greater team of writers that hope to give you, the loyal fans of les glorieux, a voice on all things Habs.

With that said, despite my age — 22 — my passion for the Canadiens began with the cup win in 1993, and was cemented by former Habs Captain, and current Anaheim Duck, Saku Koivu. Despite the muddy atmosphere of the late ‘90s and early ‘00s, Saku’s dedication to the game, his battle with cancer and his return to the ice on April 9th, 2002, epitomizes the spirit and history of the Canadiens: winning, respect, determination and dedication. It is these four qualities that I hope to elaborate on, using the history of franchise to demonstrate a definitive winning culture in Montréal.

Considering the way Pierre Gauthier finished his tenure as the General Manager of the Montréal Canadiens, it seemed fairly easy for new hire Marc Bergevin to outshine his ill-equipped predecessor. It’s easy to retrospectively analyze Gauthier’s oft-criticized regime, yet when Habs fans were taken on a whirlwind tour of the 2010 Stanley Cup playoffs, Bob Gainey and his then Assistant General Manager and Director of Professional Scouting were mildly heralded for bringing in a ‘wealth’ of undersized offensive talent in Scott Gomez, Brian Gionta and Michael Cammalleri.

These acquisitions, as well as the heroic netminding of Jaroslav Halak, enabled Gainey and Gauthier’s creation to exceed expectations and battle through the Washington Capitals and Pittsburgh Penguins in a David vs. Goliath fashion.

However, despite the magic of the 2010 playoff run, their lack of size and strength down the middle proved vital in their demise; the same, of course, could be said of their heartbreaking game seven loss to the Boston Bruins the following Spring. Nevertheless, both Gainey and Gauthier  only momentarily adjusted the fate of Québec’s storied institution.

Gauthier and Gainey were the masters of the quick-fix: ‘improvements’ that would allow their club to venture into the post-season and collect the extra revenue that forever accompanies playoff home games at the Bell Centre. And, though a fair share of their acquisitions allowed the Canadiens to temporarily avoid the basement of the Eastern Conference, the 2011-2012 season proved to finally reveal the deteriorating state of the Canadiens’ upper management team. In no particular order of ridiculousness, the Kaberle trade, the Cammalleri situation, the coaching firings and the ‘apology’ by Geoff Molson. Each separate event demonstrated how disorganized and out-of-sync the once perceived “classiest organization in the NHL” actually was.

On March 29, 2012, Molson made an announcement that shook Montréal.

Though Canadiens fans fathomed a release of Pierre Gauthier, when Molson officially announced the decision — pardon my eloquent wordiness — he sparked a cosmic and euphoric eruption in Montréal. The boo-birds were back in their nests, and hopeful sentiments began to resurface outside the Bell Centre. In the weeks following, rumours of the next Canadiens GM ran rampant: names like Patrick Roy, Jim Nill, Claude Loiselle, Pierre Mcguire, and even Scotty Bowman were making rounds. Yet, in the end, it was a former Chicago Blackhawk and Montréal native that outshined the other candidates, and on May 2, 2012, Bergevin was named General Manager and Executive Vice President of the Montréal Canadiens.

This decision alone began a new era of the Canadiens. Not only did Bergevin bring a certain aura of respectability and swagger to Montréal, but he also brought a breath of fresh air that settled the stench of Gauthier’s previous regime.

Communication. Communication. Communication.

That’s the main difference between Montréal’s former and current General Manager. It is this sense of communication with the media and fans that allowed the franchise’s loyal followers to sigh a sense of relief that the rebuilding management team would put enormous stock in player development and pro scouting.

And it’s at this time that my drawn out analysis of the Bergevin hire turns to a Canadiens legend, a regime that culminated in a dynastic and heroic representation of the NHL’s most storied franchise. Before the dark days of the late ‘90s and early ‘00s, and before rookie Patrick Roy took the Canadiens on his back for a momentous Stanley Cup Victory in 1986, Sam Pollock was appointed General Manager of the Montréal Canadiens, effortlessly succeeding the late and great, Frank J. Selke.

Before I get into the first of a three part series on Pollock, my interest in the Hall of Famer was sparked by reading D’arcy Jenish’s The Montréal Canadiens: 100 Years of Glory. Ironically, though including an introduction by former Canadiens Captain and General Manager Bob Gainey, the book delves into a myriad of issues that have both plagued and glorified the franchise. In respect to Pollock, Jenish’s notes on the former GM paved way for a mildly seamless association with Bergevin.

Though it’s premature to anoint Bergevin as the saviour of Les Glorieux, it’s easy to estimate where he’ll excel with the Canadiens: communication and player development. The latter of which is only further solidified through head amateur scout Trevor Timmins, who, if you haven’t already realized, took the NHL by storm on June 23rd with his selections in the 2012 NHL Draft. Though the Bergevin and Timmins selections were great, for this first article I want to introduce the partial similarities that Bergevin and the late Sam Pollock share regarding communication and loyalty.

In Jenish’s book, Jacques Lapperiere describes the extent at which Pollock initiated a sense of team unity and full-disclosure: “[He] demanded of each of one us that we always give the best of ourselves. But he was at the same time a man who knew how to be understanding and fatherly. When it wasn’t going well, he would come and see us in our rooms or sit beside us on the bus or train and give us advice and encouragement” (180). It seems, then, that permeating from Pollock’s management techniques is an affable quality of communication; a sense of team unity that not only encompasses the players on the ice, but also reflects the way management interacts.

Sound familiar?

“It takes everything to make a winning team. It takes a team effort, a team identity, everyone has to contribute and put everything on the table. You have a lot of little pieces working together to make a winning team.”—Marc Bergevin (May 2, 2012)

It is that sense of unity and communication that allowed Pollock — as well as his monumental trading techniques — to reach such a high level of success in Montréal. For Pollock, he had only one objective: victory. For Bergevin, building a foundation of a winning culture starts at the top; it not only seeps into the mindset of the players and fans, but it also helps establish a certain swagger that’s been lacking since Pollock took charge in ’63.

“My vision is to put the right people in place. The goal is winning, we will do the best we can for the fans.”—Bergevin (May 2, 2012)

There will never be another Sam Pollock, but if Bergevin can resurrect parts of the Hall of Famer’s philosophy to reinstate a winning culture in Montréal, then his and Molson’s effort to restore the class and respectability of the Canadiens will be in full motion.

Next up: Player development and maintaining young assets


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Derek is a Queen’s University student, and contributing writer for OTwinner, and HabsAddict.com. His passion for the Canadiens was solidified on April 9, 2002, when Saku Koivu returned from Burkitt’s lymphoma and became an emblem of perseverance and strength.

Follow Derek on Twitter
Sources:

Jenish, D’Arcy. The Montréal Canadiens: 100 Years of Glory. Canada: Anchor Canada, 2009. Print.

(Photo by Richard Wolowicz/Getty Images North America)

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Montreal Canadiens' Bob Gainey Made Mistakes: Will Pierre Gauthier Be Better?

Over the last few months, there has been a lot of talk in the city of Montreal about Bob Gainey's failings as a GM. Not about him as a person, mind you, as Gainey is a classy, respectful individual through and through. No, talk has been more of an indictment of his professional skills. So yesterday, when news broke that he was stepping aside, the Canadiens fan base was energized with the thought of heading in a new direction.

It had become clear, over the last few years, that Gainey was a man who's management style was more in line with the pre-lockout NHL than the current version of the game.

In the pre-lockout days, if your owner's pockets were deep enough and his mind was willing enough, you could pretty much buy a contending team. Now, money doesn't guarantee success—as the New York Rangers have seen year after year—but it does give a lot more flexibility to the management team.

In the old days, a GM could throw as much money as possible at top players in an effort to acquire a great collection of talent. If the player didn't work out with the team, the GM could just buy them out at the end of the season without blinking an eye.

As such, GM's were able to walk away from erroneous player acquisitions and just go fishing for new ones in the free agent or trade markets. If the owner had the means, money wasn't an obstacle to success.

In Montreal, however, Gainey's old strategies have not worked out as well. In the post-lockout, salary capped-NHL, you can't just throw money at a problem and hope it works out. Free agent mistakes can severely handicap a team, as they can be stuck with an albatross of a contract for years.

The Scott Gomez contract, for example, is the perfect illustration of this problem. Gomez, who is a talented player, is not worth anywhere near his $7.357 million cap hit. In reality, he is likely worth about half of that. The problem now is that unless they can convince some other sucker GM to take him off of their hands, the Habs are stuck with his contract for the next four years.

In the old NHL, GMs could just buyout his contract without having to worry about any salary cap ramifications. Now, however, buying out his contract will result in a substantial cap hit for the next eight years—double his remaining term—and as such, Gomez is largely untradeable.

A second glaring mistake that Gainey has made year after year, was to let valuable assets walk away from the team without getting anything in return.

Komisarek, Souray, Streit, Koivu, Tanguay, Kovalev just to name a few players, could have netted the Canadiens a bunch of draft picks and/or prospects and/or roster players. Instead, one-by-one, Gainey chose to let them walk away with no compensation. This is a strategy that can cripple a team and has done major damage to the depth of the Montreal Canadiens organization.

Another mistake that Gainey made was to thrust Price into the spotlight too soon and then keep him there despite his struggles. While I, personally, feel that Price does have the potential to become an elite goaltender in this league, I think that Gainey should have shown more patience with him.

Rather than keeping Price with the team when he was struggling early on, they should have sent him back to Hamilton to get his game up to speed. Conversely, if Gainey was hell-bent on keeping Price in Montreal, he should have better insulated his star prodigy. The best way to do that would have been to go out and get a veteran backup to help guide and mold Price.

Gainey's best chance to insulate Price was when he traded Huet. It was at that time that he should have brought in a veteran backup to help Price. Unfortunately, Gainey did not do this and Price, and the team, have suffered for it ever since.

Another huge failing of the Bob Gainey era is that his professional scouting department has been weak. This is the department that was headed up by now Habs GM, Pierre Gauthier. Gauthier, so you know, is the man under who's watch both Teemu Selanne and Paul Kariya left the team, when he was in Anaheim. He was also the guy who told Gainey that Gill and Mara would make excellent additions to the Habs roster. Gauthier convinced Gainey that Spacek was still at the top of his game, when he signed him this summer as well as telling him that Streit was a one-hit wonder.

All of this to say that it is a generally accepted notion that Gauthier's track record for pro scouting is poor, to say the least. Despite this undeniable truth, Gainey chose to make Gauthier the head of that very important hockey department and this move too, has caused the Habs a lot of problems.

With Gainey's announcement that he was stepping aside, the Habs had a great opportunity to make a departure from the management group that has led them for the last seven years. Given that the Habs have never made it past the second round of the playoffs during Gainey's tenure, you would think that they would want to try something different.

Perhaps with the timing of Gainey's resignation—just before the two week Olympic break—the Canadiens brass would slap an "interim" tag at the front of Pierre Gauthier's GM title, and do an exhaustive search to determine who would be best suited to the position.

Who knows, maybe after the search they would have determined that Gauthier was still the best candidate for the job. But to outright name him THE guy, without considering any other candidates makes me scratch my head and wonder why.

Judging from the largely negative reaction of people on Twitter and fan boards across the city, it seems like the Habs fan base is also upset about this move.

My problem is not so much with Gauthier but more with the Habs' rush to name him as GM. What was the rush? Why didn't the Habs name him as interim GM, if only until the end of the season, in order to see what options were out there?

But alas, the deed has been done. Gainey is gone and his right-hand man, Gauthier, is here to take over. I think, out of fairness to the man, we have to reserve judgment until we see what Gauthier can do. He has a lot of pressure on his shoulders and some very important decisions to make.

On the more immediate horizon, Gauthier has to tackle the Olympic trade deadline, the March 3rd NHL trade deadline, Plekanec's contract and Halak and Price's contract renewals and/or trades.

With all of these balls up in that air at the same time, we have to hope that Gauthier knows how to juggle. To his credit, there were some encouraging signs from his press conference, as Gauthier explained that the Habs have already started talking with Plekanec's agent. He also explained that he was happy with the goaltending situation and that Halak was not being traded.

Nice words, but let's not forget that he said the same thing about Kariya, in Anaheim, the week before he traded him. So hold on to your hats, ladies and gentleman, because this ride might get a little bumpy.

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Captain Cammalleri?

Hey all, I know I said my next blog was going to be about Sergei Kostitsyn, but I saw a video yesterday that bumped Sergei down a rung. Sorry Sergei, looks like you'll have to wait one more week!

Ok, so down to business...well, believe it or not, training camp is now less than two months away and it is looking, and sounding more and more like the Montreal Canadiens will skate with three assistant captains this year rather than naming a captain outright. Personally, I think that this is a great idea. The Montreal Canadiens are a prestigious organization and as such, being the captain of this organization is not something to be taken lightly. By that I mean that I, as a fan, would rather see them wait to see who emerges as a leader, rather than having a captain just for the sake of having a captain. The 2010 Habs are a drastically made-over team who's on-ice identity remains to be seen, and who have a clear leadership void. That being said, I believe that there are some great players on this team that are ready to step into that void.

Until recently, I thought that Markov was the frontrunner to become the team captain. But the more I think about it, the more I think he might not be the best choice. The problem with Markov is that he is not very comfortable in front of the cameras and media hordes. There is no question that Markov let's his playing do his talking, but being the captain of the Habs means that there are a lot of off-ice responsibilities too. With Markov's tendancy to shy away from attention, and his tenuous grasp on the English language (not to mention his non-existant grip on French), he seems like he might be better suited to the assistant captain position instead.

One name that I never thought of for the captaincy position, but who I now believe has a great chance of becoming that team leader, is Mike Cammalleri. My opinion on Mike developed the other day, when I saw an interview with him that is posted on the Hockey News web site. Here, take a look for yourself:

http://www.thehockeynews.com/articles/27309-VIDEO-Oneonone-with-Habs-sniper-Mike-Cammalleri.html

After watching this interview and listening to Mike speak, I realized that he is first of all a smart, well-spoken individual, but more importantly he doesn't give the same, tired responses that most hockey players do. He actually has something to say. Instead of the standard "...I'm going to give it my 110%..." cliches that we are so used to hearing, Mike actually talks about what he feels, how he sees thing, who he'd like to play with, without over promising and without overextending himself. I find him to be a breathe of fresh air.

The second thing that I think Cammalleri has going for him, is that he spent the last season playing with Jarome Iginla, captain of the Calgary flames. You'll notice, in his interview, that Cammalleri mentions that he learned a lot from playing with Iginla. I think that in addition to learning a lot about the hockey side of things, from Iginla, that Cammalleri perhaps learned what it takes to be a true leader - which Iginla definitely is.

I could be wrong, but I get a sense, from his interview, that Cammalleri knows there is an opportunity for him to become a leader, and maybe even captain, on this team. Watching the interview, you hear him sounding like a leader, sounding like a guy would could become the voice of a dressing room. That plus his 5 year deal, make me think that this is a man who is committed to making things happen in Montreal, and maybe also committed to making a push to fill those big shoes that Saku left behind.

Thoughts?

K.

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Habs 2009-2010 NHL Schedule: Lots of storylines....

So the 2009-2010 NHL schedule has been released and all the happenings in Montreal, over the last 12 months, mean that there are a ton of games to look forward to and a ton of story lines to follow. All of the games, listed below, are ones where the storyline exists due to the presence of one player. Here is my take on a few games that stand out:

Thurs, Oct. 1, 2009 - Montreal at Toronto - Komisarek.In the opening game of the season for both teams, Mike Komisarek and the Leafs receive the Habs, in Toronto. Not only do we get our first regular season look at the Habs, but we also get our first sickening look at Komisarek, in a Leafs' uniform.

Sat, Oct. 17, 2009 - Montreal vs. Ottawa - Kovalev - the prodigal son returns.In their first matchup of the season, the Ottawa Senators, with their spiffy new right-winger, Kovalev, come to town. Kovalev is sure to get some kind of appreciation from his adoring Montreal fans. Here's hoping he doesn't totally bury us each time we face Ottawa this year!

Sat, Oct. 24, 2009 - Montreal vs. NY Rangers - Higgins.Montreal fans get their first look at Higgins in a NYR uniform. Something tells me that Chris will be motivated to show us that we made a mistake trading him.

Sat, Oct. 31, 2009 - Montreal Vs. Toronto - Komisarek returns.Habs fans get their first chance to see Komisarek, in Montreal, wearing a Leafs jersey. I wonder who gets the bigger boo's out of him and Grabovski. Something tells me that the hate directed at Komi will be fierce!

Thurs, Nov 5, 2009 - Montreal at Boston - Begin - the rivalry continues.The ever present, ever growing hatred between Boston and Montreal might take an early season step back just by virtue of all the new players in Montreal. That being said, I am certain it will only take a period or two for the new players to become acquainted with the rivalry. Not to mention that Paul Mara AND Hal Gill both used to play for Boston, so there will be no love loss there. Also, keep in mind that Steve Begin signed with Boston during the off season, meaning he will get his first shot at his old team. Something tells me that he will be VERY motivated.

I am eager to see how the new-look, bigger, stronger, bulkier Habs fair against the Big Bad Bruins. Something tells me that George Laraque and Shawn Thornton won't be the only ones scrapping. I get the feeling that Travis Moen will quickly become public enemy #1 against Boston!

Sat, Nov. 7, 2009 - Montreal Vs. Tampa Bay - Lecavalier et al.After all the trade speculation swirling around Vinny, over the last 6 months or so, he makes his 2009 Montreal debut, STILL wearing a Tampa jersey. I wonder if he'll gets cheers or boo's. I know that if Brian Lawton was on the ice, he would get boo'd!

Fri, Dec 4, 2009 - Montreal Vs. Boston - Begin returns - the centennial celebration.This day in history marks the offical 100th birthday day of the Montreal Canadiens organization. This game is sure to be kicked off with celebrations and fanfare that the Habs have become well known for. On top of that, Montreal fans will be treated to a classic Montreal/Boston match up. Any bad blood that was accumulated during the first game in Boston will surely continue to boil in Montreal. Begin makes his debut in Montreal, wearing a Boston jersey.

Sun, Mar. 7, 2009 - Montreal at Anaheim - Koivu - oh Captain, my Captain...Montreal play the Ducks and gets their first look at Koivu in an Anaheim uniform. I feel sick just thinking about it. I am sure there will be some real emotion for Koivu on that night. Just wait till the Ducks play IN Montreal (maybe next season, if Koivu is still there)....that will be one hell of a reception.

Sat, Mar. 13, 2009 - Montreal Vs. Boston - Last call...The final game of the season, versus Boston, in Montreal. This should be a heated game as the NHL is in the home strecth and every point in the standings counts that much more. Where will these two teams be, relative to each other, in the standings? Only time will tell...

Sat, Apr. 10, 2009 - Montreal Vs. Toronto - Stick a fork in me, I'm done...As poetically as it all started, with Montreal in Toronto, the season will end with Toronto as the visiting sqaud, in Montreal. The Komisarek storyline, will now be 5 games deep, and this will be a great way to cap off the season. How much will those final two points mean to each team? Where will each be in the standings? What will the future hold? With either the playoffs or the golf course loomin, the whole season ends on this night....let's hope it was a good one!

What about you, what games are you looking forward to?

K.

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