Stu Cowan: This road to nowhere season continues for Canadians

Article content

Are Canadiens fans ready for another 63 games of this?

Article content

That’s a question many must ask themselves, if they are still watching the games, as this season continues on the road to nowhere.

The Canadiens are 4-13-2 heading into Saturday’s game at the Bell Center against the Nashville Predators. (7 pm, SNE, CITY, TVA Sports, TSN 690 Radio, 98.5 FM) and they have been outscored 67-38, scoring an average of just two goals per game.

Canadians are bad and boring.

Do that very bad, and the memories of last season’s trip to the Stanley Cup final have already faded, apparently years ago.

“I think everyone has high expectations for this team and when you are in this market you expect to win,” he said. Josh Anderson from Canadiens said after practice Friday at Brossard. “It is something that we are not doing at the moment. But the only way to find out is the guys in that locker room. We have to stop feeling sorry for ourselves and we have to dig deep and build this together. We have to get a couple of wins in a row just to feel good about ourselves right now. It’s just the inconsistency right now, it’s not okay. “

Article content

Canadians often watch lost and confused in the defensive zone and they have big problems hitting the net in the offensive zone.

Claude Julien was fired as head coach 18 games last season when the Canadiens had a 9-5-4 record. Players had trouble figuring out new coach Dominique Ducharme’s system and were 15-16-7 with him in charge during the regular season before things started to click in the playoffs with plenty of help from goalkeeper Carey Price.

No one knows when Price will return to action after spending 30 days in the NHL / NHLPA player assistance program dealing with substance use and many other key players from last season’s playoff career have also left. With fresh faces in the lineup, it certainly looks like the Canadiens are once again struggling with the Ducharme system.

Article content

“I don’t think so, to be honest,” Anderson said when asked if that was the case. “We played enough games during the season that we should all know our systems by now. We worked on that in the preseason, we worked on that at the beginning of the year, then we changed the systems a little bit in 10 games. We make enough videos, we do enough practice where we should all be on the same page and know what we are doing when we go out into the game. So I don’t think so. “

The Canadiens are 19-29-9 during the regular season since Ducharme took over as head coach.

Anderson was asked if there is a communication breakdown between the coaching staff and the players.

“I think there is good communication, yes, of course,” he said. “As I said a couple of weeks ago, we are always talking about the game, we do a lot of videos every day. Communication is there. It’s about going out and running and we’re not doing it now. I do not know why “.

Article content

It’s getting to the point where the media is running out of ways to rephrase the questions about why this team is so bad and the players are also running out of answers. Meanwhile, the silence of team owner / president Geoff Molson has become deafening with the shadow of GM Marc Bergevin’s plight looming over the future of this team in the final year of his contract.

As if things weren’t bad enough for the Canadiens, it was announced Friday afternoon that Bergevin had tested positive for COVID-19. The GM is being monitored by team medical personnel and will follow NHL protocols.

When Ducharme was asked earlier in the day if the uncertainty of the Bergevin situation is having an impact on the players, he said: “Not at all. He is always here. He’s doing the same thing he did last year, two years ago, three years ago. We step on the ice, we have things to work on, we prepare for the next game. I never knew about Marc’s situation among the players or in the dressing room, etc. So no “.

Article content

When Anderson was asked if Bergevin’s situation influences the team’s problems, he said: “Well, everyone is thinking about that, obviously. When you are in this situation, there may be some bad things, some movements may appear. I dont know? But it is our job as players. He set up this team the best he could and it’s our job to go out there and run it. We are not doing that for him right now. So it is up to us as players, not management. He built a team that believes it can win and we believed in that, but we are not doing it. We are not helping anyone at this time. “

There are only 63 more games left.

[email protected]

twitter.com/StuCowan1