Sorry Jacques, It’s Time To Go

It’s easy to say now, but I can honestly say that I never liked the Jacques Martin hire for the Montreal Canadiens. Perhaps no coach has ever done less with more in NHL history than Martin did in his coaching stints in St. Louis, Ottawa, Florida and now Montreal.

In St. Louis, he won a division title in 1986-87 only to lose in the first round of the playoffs. The next year, the Blues finished second in the division, but were bounced in the second round. Fast forward nearly ten years later, another similar story. Martin headed a Senators team that brought in a serious influx of talent over the years he was there – think Daniel Alfredsson, Wade Redden before he (allegedly) developed a drug problem, Marian Hossa, Zdeno Chara, Alexei Yashin before he (truly and honestly) was one of the biggest wastes of talent in NHL history, Martin Havlat, Jason Spezza and the list goes on – only to come up way, way short of expectations.

Now, Martin took a Montreal Canadiens team – a significantly average one, at that – to the playoffs in his first two seasons at the helm and even reached the conference finals two years ago by riding Jaroslav Halak’s hot hand past heavily-favored Washington and Pittsburgh. Strong defensive play, a goaltender to bail the team out and occasional scoring seems to suit Martin just fine, almost like he’s trying to turn the Canadiens into a mid-90s New Jersey Devils team.

Unfortunately, that’s just not possible anymore. Scoring is, unfortunately for Martin, necessary. Le systeme ne fonctionne plus, mon ami. The Habs can’t reasonably expected to win every single game 2-1. It puts too much pressure on a perilously thin defensive corps and, while they do boast one of the NHL’s best netminders in Carey Price, wears down a goaltender. Sure, it’s true that many of the shots come from the outside and are thus low-percentage chances. However, the Habs allowed 31 shots per game last season and finished tied for No. 22 in the league with a scant 2.6 goals per game with the likes of powerhouse offenses Nashville and Toronto.
Now, Montreal is 1-5-2 in its first eight games of the season and as the old saying goes, while you can’t win the division in October, you sure as hell can lose it. Boston is suffering through a bit of a Stanley Cup hangover (hey, remember who was up 2-0 on the Bruins before gagging the series away, including three home games?), but Phil Kessel apparently decided that he’s going to try to take out Wayne Gretzky’s record of 92 goals this year and has Toronto on a roll, including two victories over Montreal. New-look Buffalo is 5-2 and nipping at the Leafs’ heels. Even Ottawa, who all but decided that this year would be a fine year to tank for a shot at the No. 1 pick, is ahead of the winningest hockey team in history. That’s simply unacceptable. Martin must go.

Erik Cole was brought in this offseason to help that woeful Montreal attack. On opening night, he was on the third line. THIRD LINE! That’s a four-time 20-goal scorer coming off a 26-26-52 year whom Martin feels is a better fit on his checking line while Scott Gomez sucks away the life and cap space of the team on the top line. Cole should be a great mentor for a guy like Max Pacioretty – both are big, strong, American power forwards, even though Pacioretty is apparently made of glass – but he’s relegated to averaging 15 minutes per game. Cole would be a perfect fit on the power play – ironically enough, that’s where he notched his first goal of the year Monday night in a 2-1 loss to the Florida Panthers – but Martin, as has been the custom since the beginning of his time in Montreal prefers to let fourth liners operate on the man advantage. Mathieu Darche has nearly as much power play time this year as Cole does. I like Darche, but he’s not a better player than Cole. Gomez has more power play time than Cole and Andrei Kostitsyn. David Desharnais, another decent player, is No. 5 on the team in power play time. That’s laughable, ridiculous and absurd.

It’s not Martin’s fault that the roster is so thoroughly mediocre – Bob Gainey saddled the team with big contracts when he inexplicably traded Ryan McDonogh, one of his best prospects, and a bag of pucks for the privilege of taking on Gomez’s albatross of a contract. Brian Gionta was another big-money guy who’s completely underwhelmed in Montreal. The list truly goes on and on. Some of it has been bad luck. Andrei Markov, one of the NHL’s most underappreciated defensemen, struggled with injuries. Josh Gorges fell victim to a torn ACL a year ago. As exciting as P.K. Subban is, he’s still a developing young defenseman who can forget his defensive responsibilities at times when he’s not too busy pissing off for such outlandish things as celebrating goals and a never-clearly-defined “lack of respect for the game”. However, it’s a coach’s job to make the team overcome things like this, and a system that bogs down offensive creativity, terrible line combinations and no particular interest in scoring goals isn’t the way to do so.

In my opinion, the Canadiens would be in much better hands if they turned the reins over to someone who isn’t so defensively-focused. It’s always important to keep the puck out of the net, as Mighty Ducks III taught us, but scoring them is also as important. Look at Pittsburgh, for example. The Penguins are led by Dan Bylsma, a guy who was a lot better at keeping goals off the board than at making the red light go on, but he’s been able to find a balance both offensively and defensively despite missing two of the world’s top players in Sidney Crosby and Evgeni Malkin. I’m not the first to consider him as a possible replacement for Martin, nor will I be the last, but Kirk Muller has to be an attractive candidate for the Habs job if and when they should choose to replace Martin. Muller has Milwaukee of the AHL off to a 4-0-1 start and what he lacks for in coaching experience, he more than makes up for with his ability to relate to players, his balanced philosophy and his experience of being a player and an assistant coach in Montreal. Much to the chagrin of old-time Quebecers who want to know why the Habs can’t simply swoop in, snag the best Francophone hockey players and the best Francophone coach and win dozens of Stanley Cups like the old days (ostie!), being able to properly pronounce poutine and speaking in broken English is no longer the only thing a coach needs to be successful on Avenue des Canadiens. The Habs need balance, an infusion of offense and creativity and a young coach who can relate to the players and doesn’t have a history of choking when the chips are down. The Habs aren’t more talented than Washington, Pittsburgh, Philadelphia, Boston and maybe a few more Eastern Conference teams, but they’re certainly better than 1-5-2. After no Stanley Cup wins with very few elite players to speak of since that magical run to the 1993 Cup, it’s time for a change. No longer should second-line players like Mark Recchi, Brian Savage, Saku Koivu and Brian Gionta be expected to carry the team. It’s time for a change in philosophy, and what better time to start than after a disastrous sequence that includes five home losses to start the year?