Yes & no. Habs fans & french sports media have also been tough on some french-speaking coaches in the past. Mario Tremblay, Jacques Martin, Claude Julien & even Michel Therrien didn’t have it easy. Pat Burns was well-liked. Guy Carbonneau & Jacques Lemaire had their moments. Martin St-Louis seems to be getting a pass because he literally came out of nowhere, he speaks extremely well & the fact they were expected to lose for a few years surely helped. The gact he was a french-speaking NHL superstar from Quebec of course is a huge reason why the other guys i mentioned didn’t get the same red carpet treatmemt. But now people are starting to wonder if the organization isn’t taking advantage of their patience. Fans are finally realizing that a rebuild doesn’t automatically mean that you’ll be a contending team in a few years. As i mentioned the Sabres are a dozen years into their rebuild & are still a bad team. The Sens look promising but past results haven’t turned out as successful as fans expected. Maybe this is finally the year they’ll return to the playoffs but if they do it will likely be in the final playoffs spot ajead of either the Islanders or the Bruins, who have equally been surprisingly awful. Will Pittsburgh make the playoffs with its aging lineup of past superstars? Goaltending seems to be a big problem there. The Oilers finally made a good playoffs run last season after a dozen or more years of sucking but lucky for them the likely best hockey player to ever play hockey was on their team. And his linemate Leon Draisaitl is a likely top 5 player in the league.
Indeed rebuilds can work. Chicago & Pittsburgh have shown you can win a Cup by rebuilding. Toronto & the Rangers have shown you can contend for a Cup for a few years after rebuilding. But often there are no guarantees. A team must draft properly & a lot of luck is also needed such as being able to draft high (top 3) and draft a generational player (Mario Lemieux,, Sidney Crosby, Connor Mcdavid, Alex Ovechkin, Auston Matthews, etc). Adding franchise players like Patrick Kane, Evgeni Malkin, Leon Draisatl, Steven Stamkos & Nikita Kucherov also is a key to success. Finding a great franchise goaltender is often a key: M-A Fleury, Vasilevski, Shesterkin, Martin Brodeur, Patrick Roy, etc.
Anyways i’m off to watch my favorite AHL team (Laval Rocket) who are facing Providence (Bruins AHL team) tonight at the beautiful Place Bell which is in my opinion the top arena in the AHL. The Rocket is playing great under a real NHL-calibre coach like Pascal Vincent, the top coach in the entire Habs organization. The Rocket is an extremely well-coached team & have a strong goaltending tandem. Go Rocket!
