(First published September 19, 2014)
'It was like men against boys' Michel Therrien notoriously lamented as
coach of the Pittsburgh Penguins. It was a cold January night in 2006
and his slumping team had just dropped a 3-1 stinker to the Edmonton
Oilers.
Therrien threw the entire team under the bus that night and perhaps
unwittingly, himself. He lambasted the player's soft defence and utter
lack of passion, then concluded his exasperated diatribe by wondering
aloud if he could possibly find a solution.
Despite the much publicized rant, Therrien managed to turn things around
for the Penguins, eventually leading the team to the Stanley Cup finals
in 2008. Though the Peguins lost to the Detroit Red Wings, the team
looked poised to become perennial cup contenders. But by February of the
following season it had all unravelled again and Therrien was sent
packing. It was an inglorious end to what had once seemed a storybook
tale for the former Habs coach. Adding insult to injury was his
replacement, Dan Bylsma, leading the team to their third Stanley Cup in
the same season, fulfilling a destiny Therrien surely felt he had
earned.
When Therrien returned as coach for the Canadiens in 2012, that rant
among other things, was firmly on the minds of fans. It was unsettling
to know that the organization had placed its trust in a man whose past
history included the most public display of losing a locker room in
living memory. Secondary to that, was a lingering concern about whether
Therrien was still capable of coaching at the professional level after a
three-year absence from the bench.
We got our answer in the shortened 2012-2013 season when the Habs showed
significant improvement. The mission was simple: make the playoffs. To
that end, Therrien delivered. But the first round loss to a truculent
Ottawa Senators team seemed to bring out a bit of the old, exasperated
Therrien, although his frustration was mercifully not directed at his
players.
Last season was something of a different story. Although Therrien more
than delivered on the goal of the post-season, it was during the regular
season when fans and pundits began to wonder which Michel Therrien was
behind the bench. There were moments of what some might label strategic
brilliance, like putting Peter Budaj between the pipes for a second time
in Boston, as a healthy Carey Price sat on the sidelines. Then there
were those head-scratching moments, such as stapling P.K. Subban to the
bench in critical 3rd period situations, or virtually any time he let
Douglas Murray on the ice.
As the season progressed, opinions in the Canadiens' fan-base and media
alternated between various levels of frustration, confusion, surprise
and muted admiration of Therrien's coaching abilities. When things went
bad, Therrien stood silently behind the bench, looking remarkably like
that bronze Rodin sculpture, while more than a few of us wondered if he
was thinking 'what is the solution?'
The Habs solid performance in the post-season seemed to erase much of
that doubt. Save for a couple of fumbles (see Douglas Murray again)
Therrien adjusted strategy, boosted minutes of his top performers and
most importantly, remained composed.
So the real question for the forthcoming season is: Which Michel
Therrien will show up? Will the old habits resurface, or has the
experience of the past two seasons become the wisdom that will take his
coaching abilities to the next level?
It could be argued that there is a similarity between the Pittsburgh
Penguins roster under Therrien and the 2014-15 Canadiens. Both are teams
well equipped with a core group of young players with the capacity of
becoming the league's best.
Similar too, is coaching a talented, but struggling team to a turnaround
that led deep into the post season. In 2009, Therrien failed to
capitalize on that past success, which ultimately led to his dismissal.
One hopes these similarities are not lost on Michel Therrien, and that
somewhere behind that distant thoughtful gaze lies a man with something
to prove.
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