Stu Cowan: Canadian fans yearning for a tank job take heed

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Tuesday night’s game between the Canadiens and Arizona Coyotes at the Bell Center could have been called the Tank Bowl.

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The Canadiens went into the game in last place in the overall NHL standings, two points behind the Coyotes and the expansion Seattle Kraken.

Some Canadiens fans are hoping the team loses as many games a possible for the remainder of the season, improving the chances of getting the No. 1 overall pick at the NHL Draft on July 7 at the Bell Centre.

The game between the Canadiens and Coyotes reminded me of one between the Coyotes and Sabers on March 26, 2015, in Buffalo. A loss by Buffalo to the 29th-place Coyotes in what was a 30-team league at the time with only eight more games left in the regular season would help secure a last-place finish for the Sabers and the best odds of getting the No 1 draft pick to select Connor McDavid or Jack Eichel — the highest-rated prospects.

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The Sabers attracted a sellout crowd of 19,070, but many of the fans were cheering for the Coyotes while embracing a tank job. There was a sign in the arena that read “Pray for McDavid” and another with a blue and gold tank and “McEichel” written on it.

When Sam Gagner scored a power-play goal for the Coyotes 56 seconds into overtime for a 4-3 victory, there was a roar in the arena. After the game, Sabers defenseman Mike Weber was upset.

“I’ve always spoken extremely highly of our fans,” he said. “I don’t even know if disappointed is the word. They scored the first one, our fans are cheering. Late penalty, they cheer. They cheer when they score to win the game. I don’t even know what to say. It’s extremely frustrating for us.

“We don’t want to be here (in this position),” Weber added. “We understand where we are. But I’ve never been a part of something like that, where the away team comes into a home building, they’re cheering for them.”

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The Buffalo fans who were cheering for the Coyotes were happy when the Sabers finished last in the overall standings, two points behind the Coyotes. But the Edmonton Oilers, who finished in 28th place, won the draft lottery and took McDavid with the No. 1 pick. The Sabers took Eichel at No. 2 and the Coyotes selected Dylan Strome with the third pick.

Eichel ended up being unhappy in Buffalo and was traded to the Vegas Golden Knights in November.

Since drafting Eichel, the Sabers have finished last in the overall NHL standings two more times — in 2018 and 2021 — and won the draft lottery on both of those occasions, selecting Rasmus Dahlin and Owen Power. The Sabers are still one of the worst teams in the NHL, sitting in 27th place overall before Tuesday’s games.

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The Sabers are an example of how tanking doesn’t necessarily work.

So are the Oilers, who finished last in the overall standings in 2009-10 and 2010-11 and won the draft lottery in both of those years, selecting Taylor Hall and Ryan Nugent-Hopkins with the No. 1 picks. Hall now plays for the Boston Bruins, while the Oilers were in seventh place in the Western Conference through Monday’s games and battling for a playoff spot.

After drafting Hall in 2010, the Oilers missed the playoffs for six straight years and they have made the playoffs only twice in the last 11 years.

In the last 10 years, only three times has the team that finished last won the draft lottery — the Toronto Maple Leafs in 2016 and the Sabers in 2018 and 2021. The Leafs selected Auston Matthews with the No. 1 pick at the 2016 NHL Draft and haven’t won a playoff series since.

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The NHL started the draft lottery in 1995, 11 years after the Pittsburgh Penguins tanked their way to 16-58-6 record in order to get Mario Lemieux with the No. 1 overall pick at the 1984 draft. It was seven years later that the Penguins were able to win their first of back-to-back Stanley Cups with Super Mario.

I asked the Canadiens’ Paul Byron after Tuesday’s morning skate in Brossard if the players are still looking at the NHL standings to see where they are.

“You look at the standings — not for the same reasons the fans do,” he said.

“Something like that is so far beyond your control as a player,” Byron added about the possibility of the Canadiens getting the No. 1 draft pick. “You don’t even know if you could be on the team the next year. You’re just focusing on doing everything you can day by day, being a good player, playing as well as you can for the team and showing that you’re going to be part of the solution. Show that you want to be here or, if you’re someone who might be moving somewhere else, you want to show that you’re a great player that could help another team. In terms of the losing stuff, that’s not something that any player ever thinks about.”

Just the way it should be.

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