There’s no denying the Canadiens excel at marketing and branding their team.
The Habs are in the midst of the first genuine rebuild in their storied history and the team’s notoriously impatient fans have been remarkably tolerant even though the strategy involves a few years of languishing at the bottom of the standings. That’s mostly because the CH management has done a great job of selling the concept of the rebuild. Heck, they even have a TV series called The Rebuild, which just premiered on Crave.
At last year’s golf tournament, the traditional media launch pad for the season, the mantra was — don’t mention the P word, as in P for playoffs. This year, management is still not promising a playoff berth, but there is more optimism.
The catchphrase of the season for the Montreal Canadiens is “in the mix” and, no, the team has not suddenly become obsessed with DJ culture.
At this year’s team golf tournament Monday, management and players kept mentioning that they expected and hoped that the team would be in the mix this coming season, basically meaning that the CH would still be in the hunt for a playoff berth late in the season.
“I think there’s every reason to believe that we would be in the mix and competing for a playoff spot,” Canadiens president and CEO Geoff Molson said.
The Habs’ executive vice-president of hockey operations weighed in on what he thought “in the mix” meant.
“I think that as the season progresses and it gets after the trade deadline, we’re still in there, playing meaningful games, competing for a spot,” Jeff Gorton said.
Captain Nick Suzuki took the optimism even further, suggesting that many are maybe under-evaluating his team.
“I think our forward group is super deep from top to bottom and I think we’re going to surprise a lot of people in that way,” Suzuki said.
As readers of this column know, I am fairly upbeat about this squad, but let’s just say “super deep” are not the first words that come to mind when describing Montreal’s four forward lines. Last year, the team had only one effective line and the good news is that with the arrival of Patrik Laine and the return of a healthy Kirby Dach, now they might have two. The Florida Panthers are super deep upfront. Montreal is moving in the right direction. The only thing super deep about the Habs right now is coach Martin St. Louis’s way with pithy sports-philosophy quotes.
And like any brilliant marketing campaign, the result was all of sudden everyone was talking about the buzz words. I knew the CH branding wizards had hit pay dirt when I walked into my beer-league dressing room Wednesday night and the first question thrown my way by our scoring star Michel was — “So Brendan, do you think the Habs will be in the mix?” Boom. Mission accomplished.
So will the Canadiens be in the mix come next spring? Maybe. I think they could still be in the wild-card conversation come the final weeks of the season, but for that to happen, every single thing will have to go right. Laine will have to regain his scoring touch and show that his underperforming years with the Columbus Blue Jackets were an aberration.
The first-liners — Suzuki, Cole Caufield, and Juraj Slafkovsky — will all have to continue their progression. Dach has to stay healthy for a change. And the team’s Achilles heel, the super young defence corps, has to take a great leap forward. Oh and Samuel Montembeault, in his first year as the undisputed No. 1 netminder, has to be very good. If he isn’t, this is going to be one really lousy sounding remix.
In honour of the Habs golf tournament, I headed to Golf Dorval Wednesday to see if golfers in the West Island think Montreal is going to be in the playoff conversation late in the season.
Irwin Belitsky, who’s been a fan for decades, said he thinks Montreal will finish in the bottom eight of the league.
“After watching the playoffs last year, we saw the weakness of the Canadiens’ team in terms of size and speed,” Belitsky said. “There’s a religion in Montreal about hockey, but the other teams are also building. So I don’t think they’ll be a playoff contender … it’s a tough division. They won’t be at the bottom, but I don’t think they’ll be much above the bottom three.”
Michael McCrory grew up watching them go deep in the playoffs every year, so he’d love to see them do better, just for the spirit of the city.
“When the Canadiens are in the playoffs, the city is on fire, so let’s hope they get there,” McCrory said.
Robert Craft questioned the idea of the rebuild.
“To me that whole concept of ‘I tank to get a better draft pick’ is a little bit weird,” Craft said. “I don’t know what it does to the mentality of the players.”
Ben Mosher remains optimistic.
“I think they could definitely be in the mix,” Mosher said. “They probably won’t go too far in the playoffs if they make it, but they might be on the cusp.”
Réjean Grenier also thinks they could be in the playoff conversation.
“They should be more competitive this year, there’s lots of young prospects and injured players like Kirby Dach are coming back,” Grenier said. “And (Patrick) Laine is a major addition.”