The Brain Drain

For Christmas I was given a copy of Jean Beliveau's memoirs. I have been reading the book and am only pages from finished now.

What strikes the reader of this book, other than the fact that Beliveau just seems like a genuinely down-to-earth, nice guy, is how the Habs have changed since he came and left the team. Beliveau speaks about it a bit, but is too generous to indict anyone too much.

The Canadiens, as we know from their record, dominated the NHL from the mid-50s to the 1980s. Their success is gauged by Stanley Cups and other trophies, but it was built with amazing strategy and foresight. While the slow down in Cups is an obvious red flag for this organization, it is perhaps the dissociation with the latter that is more significant.

The Canadiens of the 1930s by all accounts were a good team, but by the late part of the decade, it was clear they weren't the pace setters in the league. That honour, on examination, must by rights go to the Toronto Maple Leafs who had the championships and the strategic minds to go with. Someone at this critical juncture recognized enough was enough and plucked a towering hockey mind (Tommy Gorman) to steer the club. He in turn found his man in Dick Irvin and did what it took to secure his service. Then, when Gorman left and somewhere along the way, and I won't get into the intrigue, Conn Smythe and Frank Selke split company and Selke arrived in Montreal. Beliveau doesn't go into all that much about Selke himself, but there are a few interesting snippets that point to the kind of manager he was.

First and foremost, it seems that Selke was an excellent (if not infallible) evaluator of talent. But being sensible, he also knew not to rely completely on his eye, and he probably realized that his rivals were pretty good too. He knew quantity of talent would likely yield better quality and so he set out creating teams and leagues to feed the Canadiens. The 1950s Habs were a big product of the seeds he had sown in his earlier tenure with the Habs and by the time the Canadiens were ready to start winning Cups they had too much talent to be stopped.

We predictably focus on the on-ice talent, but I think Selke knew the importance of off-ice talent as well. The advisors he kept around him and the apprentices he developed were just as important as those players. When Dick Irvin left as coach, Selke (according to Beliveau) wanted to replace his friend with an old acquaintance from Toronto. But it's a testament to the man that he was obviously open to collaboration as Ken Reardon was able to convince him of the case for Toe Blake. Greatness was retained in the organization in that instance, because greatness was recognized.

While players would change and Cups would come and go, the commitment to quality people in the front office was clearly there long after Selke. On his retirement, his replacement was a well-groomed candidate from within the organization, Sam Pollock. Pollock was to take the team into a much less stable era (with expansion, a draft and a rival league) and duplicate, if even exceed what Selke had done.


Their legacy
The legacy of Irvin and Selke was passed to Blake and Pollock and Bowman. From there it was absorbed no doubt by some in the organization, both on (Lemaire, Robinson, Gainey, Dryden, Savard) and off the ice (Cliff Fletcher, Caron, etc.)

Following Pollock's decision to retire, he apparently struggled with the naming of a replacement. Though he clearly recognized in Scotty Bowman a unique talent, he also recognized a fiery temper that might befit a GM of a team with other egos.

Some point to the selection of Irving Grundman as the beginning of the end for the Canadiens dominance, and perhaps it was. But at this stage, the Habs still had a bevy of learned people in their employ who knew the ways of Selke and Pollock.

Perhaps it's not important where the chain was broken, only that we know it was. Somehow the team that provided the model for both management and coaching for many decades ended up with Rejean Houle guiding Mario Tremblay. Somewhere along the line the braintrust filtered down the drain.

How it happened is not something that can be treated in one blog post, but there's little question that it did. With the braintrust gone, so was the culture of patientce and the feeling that the management held the upper hand over the always braying Montreal media.

That was ages ago now.

The attempt to restore the line was made in 2003 when Bob Gainey was headhunted for a return. Gainey, a 1970s Canadien himself must have learned a thing or two from Pollock and from Selke.


Restoring the tradition

What is missed by people that believed Gainey was just another in the line of graduates from the Montreal school is critical review of what he actually did. A review suggests there was some conviction, but perhaps not enough patience, and certainly not enough examination of what can be done under the current regulations to push an advantage over opponents to the extremes that Selke and Pollock once did.

I write this piece in the shadow of the Mike Cammalleri trade, and so it may seem like a criticism. Perhaps it should be. But I could have written it without that particular trade.

Gauthier himself is clearly an intelligent man and a thinker who puts care into his work. Yet he's no Selke. This would perhaps not be so important were there no mirrors of the great GM ion the modern game, but that doesn't appear to be so. With the Red Wings topping the West for yet another season, their management team shines above all. But there are examples of much more clever manoeuvring than that accomplished by Gauthier (and indeed Gainey) in San Jose, Philadelphia, Boston and other places.

As a Habs fan, I have to ask why.

Why should an organization that learned time and time again the importance of quality running through every vein (on or off ice) be so content to fill its ranks so? Why should all the organizational currency in managers and coaches be allowed to filter out only to come back and haunt the team?

In its longest ever Cup drought, the Canadiens need a Tommy Gorman moment. An admission that better people exist somewhere and that finding them should become a priority. Because Gorman doesn't become Irvin to Selke to Blake to Pollock to Bowman without that moment of truth.

I wish this team of owners would stop hoping they'll luck into something and put some of the Markov profits into some serious recruiting efforts. And for me this doesn't mean Gauthier needs to go, just that he has to be surrounded and fed by the best budgets will allow. And that in moments of pause, assistant coaches, 16 months into their time with the organization won't have to be the lone available option.

M. Jean Beliveau is far too much of a gentleman to ever say it, but every line between the lines in his memoir spoke of quality. I can't see how he wouldn't be with us on this.

Spacek For The Norris Trophy

Now that the Habs have clinched a playoff berth and got a virtual by to the Conference final, it's only natural that we Canadiens fans start talking trophies.

Between the obvious bids: Price for Vezina and Jennings, Plekanec for Selke, Martin for Jack Adams; I feel some deserving members of the team have fallen through the cracks.

Take Jaroslav Spacek.

He plays on the team that has allowed the least goals per game in the NHL. He is the #1 in all but name (and minutes played). He frequently lines up against the other team's top lines and makes them shoot from the outside. How else to explain Montreal's suddenly impervious net?

Against those top lines, Spacek is an impressive +4, and that doesn't account for his penalty killing excellence.

He has an incredible 15 takeaways already, easily outnumbering his 14 giveaways. that puts him 10th in the league. And only Lidstrom of those ahead of him can boast fewer giveaways. But Jaro has hit and blocked more shots than that pretender.

Realistically, the best defender in the league should come from one of the best defensive teams. And what better defensive team than the Habs? Sure, you could say the Bruins, but they are only riding two goalies who for consecutive years posted league best numbers, and following the orders of a coach who is afraid to attack.

Spacek, as a member of the top pair on the top team, and with better looking stats than Hamrlik deserves full consideration for the Norris trophy. And what better time to start lobbying than in November, now that most stats have been compiled?


Tom Pyatt, gentleman

While we're about it. How has Tom Pyatt been in the league so long without gaining recognition?

Here we are talking a bout a guy that has played in every game (well nearly) for the best defensive team in the East. He's played against the Bruins, the Flyers, the Leafs, the Panthers, his enormous brother and plenty of other goons and yet continually upholds the values of sportsmanship.

Even his obvious frustration built form the inability to direct shots within 45 degrees of his desired target hasn't come to the boil.

At this critical juncture in the deciding who will and won't win trophies this season, it shouldn't be forgotten that Tom Pyatt has only visited the penalty box a single time, and that was a misunderstanding (hooking) in the very first contest of the season.

He's a virtual lock for the Lady Byng trophy to anyone with a serious interest in that trophy.

"We used to wait for it.
We used to wait for it.
Now we're screaming sing the chorus again..."

Patience good fans, the awards will be awarded when they are awarded. The playoff teams will be known after Game 82. The Cup will be won in June.

24 games does not a season make.

2nd Montrealer Named To NHL GM Post

On Monday, Michel Bergeron ran a piece reminding us all to be very proud of Jacques Lemaire and Mario Tremblay for keeping their jobs in the NHL.


When the news arrived today for me, I dug through a piece on Dale Tallon's failings to learn that Stan Bowman was to be named GM of the Chicago Blackhawks. While, I'm sure Michel's article is well in the works celebrating the Montrealers able to climb the GM rankings, I decided I couldn't wait any longer.


Quebec GMs were going out of style like Russian wingers

When Steve Tambellini took over from Kevin Lowe as the GM for the Oilers, the number of Quebec-born GMs fell to a mere four (Cliff Fletcher, Bryan Murray, Francois Giguere and Dale Tallon; Jacques Martin born in an Ottawa suburb, of course). The news got worse when Fletcher was asked to step aside for a louder alternative and Giguere was let go to be replaced by someone from Scranton, PA – a city more renowned for being mocked as dull on TV sitcoms than for raising hockey masterminds.

The Montreal numbers looked worse, where Cliff Fletcher was the last remnant.

All the while, Ontario was plowing along with 11 GMs; there were an embarrassing (to Montreal anyway) 5 GMs from New England, 5 others from the US and a handful from Western Canada. The way Quebec was faring, you'd have thought Trevor Timmins was the leaguewide consultant on GM hirings.

But in late May, the tides began to turn. Doug Riseborough (a man with good Montreal links himself) was let go. He was replaced by Chuck Fletcher, the son of the aforementioned Silver Fox, who himself was born in Montreal way back when his Dad worked for the Habs in the 1960s.

Today, we get news that one Quebec-born GM will be replaced by another as Rouyn-Noranda's (and Toronto's) Dale Tallon will be replaced by Stan Bowman, the son of Montreal Canadiens legend Scotty. His connection to Montreal is even stronger than Chuck's since his days in town went beyond his third birthday – right from 1973 up until the time Irving Grundman took over from Sam Pollock following the 1979 season.

From no Montreal sons running NHL teams to two in a matter of 2 months. It's quite a turn around and one worth sounding the trumpet for.


Frank Selke's heirs

Geographic origins aside, these two appointments are very interesting for other reasons. Both these GMs are young and both are the sons of men who have shaped the NHL for the past four decades or more.

Scotty Bowman needs no introduction to fans of the Canadiens. He is our legendary coach at the NHL level, of course, winning a number of Cups in the 1970s. However, it is often forgot that he also played the part of prospect, scout and minor league coach for the Habs. His first coaching job was beside Sam Pollock with the 56-57 and 57-58 editions of the Ottawa Junior Canadiens. Next he coached the Petereborough Petes (Montreal-affiliated, of course). Finally, he jumped at the chance to make it in the NHL when the St. Louis Blues came calling following expansion. A few Stanley Cup finals later, he was back in Montreal coaching the Habs and naming his son after the trophies he was winning.

Cliff Fletcher was a Montreal boy as well, though his story is less well known in Canadiens lore (probably because his biggest successes came in winning a Cup in Montreal for the opposition and setting up a Maple Leafs team that would overshadow the Habs for most of the late 1990s). His career, though had strange parallels with Scotty's, though not on the ice where he never attained the top junior ranks. Like Scotty, his first coaching assignment came under the watchful eye of Sam Pollock in the late 1950s (then the overseer of all minor league and junior operations for the Canadiens). His duties expanded over the years to scouting, coaching and other player development tasks. By the time expansion came around, Cliff was mature enough and ready to take on bigger roles. His first step was to go to St. Louis like Scotty. And his first promotion was to become assistant GM to Scotty himself – the Montreal Canadiens tandem to outwork the other expansion franchises in those early years to a significant degree. Unlike Scotty, he never returned to Montreal, but instead took his own GM post with the expansion Atlanta Flames in 1971.

So Chuck and Stan not only trace shallow roots to the city of Montreal (like say Bryan Murray who went to school in Ste. Anne-de-Bellevue), but also back to the Montreal Canadiens themselves. Specifically, these two appointments can trace their hockey know how right back to the greatest GM of all time (Frank Selke) and his greatest rival for the title (Sam Pollock). Both sons of Selke employees and Pollock proteges.

It's an interesting development that comes at a time when the NHL needs new ideas and new minds to spice things up a bit. If they've retained even an iota of the wisdom their fathers must have soaked up from the "How to totally outwork and outperform the other NHL GMs" academy they attended in the 1950s and 60s, they'll be in good stead. One can only hope that their experience goes a little bit smoother than that of the man who in a way laid a path for them and all 30-something aspiring GMs – son of former Canadiens player, John Ferguson, Jr.



As for RDS's version of this piece, trust me I'll eagerly await Bergeron's parallel take on Stan Bowman and Chuck Fletcher. I'm sure he'll say something like he did regarding the coaches.

Oh, what the heck, in case he doesn't. We should all be proud of Chuck and Stan, Quebecois and Montrealais. With the departures of Francois Gigere, Kevin Lowe and Cliff Fletcher from the management reins of NHL teams, it's important that some Quebecers hang on and carry the torch for the rest of us.

And long live the Selke line...

Former Habs TussleBowman Gets His Man In Chicago

Inevitably, the shock about the firing of Denis Savard. Especially in his hometown.

I like Denis. Loved him as a player. Loved him behind the bench with Demers in 1993. I was as a happy as anyone when he was the one chosen to hoist that Cup above his head.


But, if I was a Blackhawks fan, I wouldn't be too upset. In matters of winning hockey games, I'd defer to a certain William Scott Bowman.

The hiring of Scotty Bowman was a masterstroke from Chicago after years of bobbing around the bottom of the standings. The subsequent hiring of Joel Quenneville and his 438-283-118 caching record was another move of brilliance considering they didn't even have an opening at the time.

The thinking man's analysis of this firing goes beyond a slow start and examines the complete organizational restructuring that's occurring in Chicago. Renaud Lavoie at RDS looked beyond Maxime Talbot and Jacques Demers's knee jerk reactions, and Steve Rosenbloom of the Chicago Tribune gives the most proximal and telling account of the situation.

These analysts were listening when the important man off to the side of Quenneville and Tallon spoke:

"With a young team, that's [ultra-experienced coaches in the Central division] tough to deal with," Bowman said. "This was not done on a whim."

To be frank, I think the rest of the league may have something to fear in Chicago with Scotty in a greater position of control (as it clearly seems he is). I don't think he'll necessarily coach, but then again we saw that didn't matter in Detroit.

The thing to be learned from this situation, I think, is that sentimentality has no place in winning. Though it may be brutal, a certain cut-throat commitment to success must be taken with every decision. Take it from the man who is still the only heir apparent to the masters Selke and Pollock.

I've never though that Gainey lacks much. He certainly does have a ruthless streak (see Theodore, Julien, Huet, Ribeiro, etc.), but he has not shown he can distance himself from sentiment to the degree Mr. Bowman can yet (see Brisebois).

It'll be interesting to see what Scotty does next, particularly with the goalies. I hope Bob's watching...