Jack Todd: Layoffs mark end of tumultuous 2021 for Canadiens

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Marc Bergevin, the lighthearted prankster who animated Canadian culture since the day he was hired in 2012, came in strong but left with a groan, a long-haired, tired individual whose sense of humor seemed to fade long before he did. . .

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Less than five months after his team was defeated by the Tampa Bay Lightning in the Stanley Cup final, Bergevin (who had been battling COVID-19) was out of a job.

Bergevin’s firing was announced Sunday afternoon, less than 24 hours after the resignation of his assistant general manager, Scott Mellanby, who resigned after being informed that he would not be hired as general manager or director of hockey operations. despite “extensive conversations” with the owner and team. President Geoff Molson.

Also gone are assistant GM Trevor Timmins, the club’s longtime head of amateur scout, and Paul Wilson, whose clumsy job as senior vice president of Public Affairs and Communications hasn’t won the organization many friends.

Enter Jeff Gorton, the former Boston Bruins and New York Rangers boss who was ousted in May. Gorton will be the club’s executive vice president of hockey operations and his first task, presumably, will be to appoint Bergevin’s replacement as general manager.

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The Bergevin and Timmins layoffs mark the end of a tumultuous 2021, even by the frequently melodramatic standards set by Canadians. Despite a poor performance during a regular season played entirely in Canada against the other six Canadian teams, the Canadians entered the playoffs, where they quickly fell behind the supposedly invincible Toronto Maple Leafs, three games to one.

But Montreal somehow rebounded from goalie Carey Price to win the next three games, then swept the Winnipeg Jets in four games and battled the mighty Los Vegas Golden Knights before losing in five games to the Lightning in the final.

That high water mark, the Canadiens’ best postseason achievement since their 1993 Stanley Cup, was followed in quick succession by a nearly uninterrupted streak of bad luck, poor judgment and poor play on ice.

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Two weeks after the playoffs, it was announced that Captain Shea Weber would be taking indefinite leave and may never return to action.

Then came the decision that shook the organization to the core. With the 31st pick in the first round of the NHL draft, the Canadiens took away Logan Mailloux, a defender involved in a case in Sweden in which he surreptitiously photographed a young woman performing a sexual act and shared the photos online.

However, the real body shot of the season came when Price, who was recovering from knee surgery, announced that he was entering the NHL player assistance program, as forward Jonathan Drouin had done before him.

After 30 days, Price left the program, but announced that he was dealing with a substance use problem and that he would put his health and the well-being of his family first as he continued his recovery. No timetable has been set for their return.

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Without Price and Weber, the Canadiens had a lot of trouble from the start of the season. Hours before Bergevin and Timmins were fired, they won their fifth game, 23 games in a season in which their hopes of making the playoffs are already slim and nil.

Bergevin, who replaced Pierre Gauthier as general manager in 2012, had a 344-265-81 record as general manager. His most notable successes were the playoff race in 2014 and last summer’s race within three wins of a championship.

Timmins was in his seventeenth season with the Canadiens, a period that saw him fully sniff out the talent-rich 2003 draft, but made up for it to some extent by selecting Subban, Max Pacioretty, Brendan Gallagher and Price.

Inevitably, the hiring of the highly respected Gorton, a monolingual American, triggered an instant language glitch on social media, but the Canadiens quickly made it clear that Gorton will be hiring a bilingual general manager.

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The pool of potential candidates includes former Canadian Mathieu Darche, an assistant to Julien BriseBois through two successful Stanley Cup campaigns in Tampa; Anaheim Ducks assistant general manager Martin Madden of Quebec City; and hockey luminaries like Martin Brodeur, Vincent Damphousse, Roberto Luongo and (if Canadians really want to stir up some excitement) Patrick Roy. My pick would be Darche, followed by Madden or the cool Luongo.

The new GM’s first problem will be coach Dominique Ducharme. Hired when Claude Julien was fired in the middle of the pandemic season, Ducharme showed very little until that successful run, and he has been an absolute disaster this season, with a complex system that has clearly left his players baffled and erratic handling of the players. youths. that represent the future of the organization.

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Even among Bergevin’s staunch supporters (and I was until the Mailloux draft), it was clear the man was tired and exhausted and it was time for a change. His tenure will be seen as a mixed bag, while Timmins did better than that and considerably better than many fans realize.

I will leave the final word to Bergevin himself, who said in a gracious parting statement on Sunday: “You will not be surprised to hear me say that it has not been a long, calm river and at times it felt like they were living on a TV show. “.

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