“I know everyone would love to hear us say the P-word…”
Jeff Gorton, vice-president of hockey operations for the Montreal Canadiens, quickly set the table. The “P word” is “playoffs”, or playoffs, in French. From the second minute of his speech on Monday morning, on the occasion of the traditional golf tournament launching the new season, he made it clear that he would not say it.
And he kept his promise, never again blowing the hated new term in almost 14 minutes on the microphone. Club owner and president Geoff Molson, general manager Kent Hughes and head coach Martin St-Louis have maintained the same reserve, escaping here and there but never committing to making it a goal.
The overall message, however, could not be clearer. The 2023-2024 campaign will take place under the sign of “growth”, a word which had obviously been chosen to explain (or not) where the Habs are in their reconstruction process. For another season, at least, we are calling on the “patience” of the fans.
“We will try to improve every day, explained Jeff Gorton. I know it’s cliché, and I’m sorry about that, but that’s how we move forward. That’s what we want. »
During his end-of-season review last April, Kent Hughes explicitly indicated that his “expectations” were going to be raised for this fall.
We can understand why. The CH has just finished at 32e then at 28e rank in the general classification. The reconstruction process has been clearly named – more than ever before, underlined Geoff Molson -, so much so that the Gorton-Hughes duo has been carrying out a cleaning from the cellar to the attic for a year and a half, both among the players and within franchise staff.
Nevertheless, the notion of expectations remains abstract.
Geoff Molson: “Our team will be young, fast, and very talented. I want to see it grow even more. When they [les joueurs] will be ready, we are going to have a very exciting team. »
Kent Hughes : « Je ne peux pas donner de sens concret. J’ai dit, à la fin de la saison dernière, qu’on n’arriverait pas ici en disant qu’on ratera les séries, que c’est déjà réglé et qu’on jouera sans compétitionner. Les joueurs ont des attentes envers eux-mêmes. Moi, je m’attends à ce qu’ils se présentent chaque match pour gagner. »
Le DG a nuancé son discours en concédant que les victoires et défaites ne pouvaient être complètement évacuées de l’équation. Or, il se garde d’établir des objectifs qui deviendraient un « fardeau » pour les joueurs, qui leur enlèverait toute marge de manœuvre. « Les matchs sont joués pour une raison. On va voir où ça va nous mener. »
Reprenant un credo bien rodé, Martin St-Louis a pour sa part rappelé que « le succès, c’est tous les jours ». « Il faut gagner la journée, a-t-il dit. Quand tu gagnes un match, tu penses que tu as gagné la journée, mais parfois, cette petite victoire-là, c’est un [mirage], since you may not have played your best match. It’s a band-aid when you need an operation. »
By approaching situations with “honesty” and focusing on player development, “success will be a side effect,” he believes.
Youth
The posture of the Habs staff obviously makes sense in the context in which the team operates. In a ruthless Atlantic division, the idea of reaching the playoffs is almost utopian, barring extraordinary performances from the Canadian combined with a simultaneous collapse of all his opponents.
“Most of our players are under 25 and have not reached their full potential,” recalled Kent Hughes. This youth, above all, appears in key positions. Let’s think about the club’s three best attackers, Nick Suzuki, Cole Caufield and Kirby Dach. To Juraj Slafkovsky, youngest player in the league last year at 18 years old. To the attackers Alex Newhook, acquired during the summer, and Rafaël Harvey-Pinard, a revelation in the second half of the season. Or to defenders Kaiden Guhle, Jordan Harris, Justin Barron and Arber Xhekaj, who have all been part of the regular rotation in 2022-2023.
All these young people arrive with a heavier baggage of experience than last year, noted Martin St-Louis. And all will be given more responsibilities than before, confirmed Kent Hughes. The latter acknowledged that asking players at the start of their career to put collective interests almost exclusively before their individual interests was part of the challenge.
Jeff Gorton nevertheless expressed a wish. In training camp as during the season, “we have to have players who push, push, push.” “We have to be competitive every night,” he said.
All the leaders also underlined their amazement at having seen around forty players converge on the Brossard training center in August, without the organization having forced them to return to town. If the players did it discreetly, it’s pretty obvious that their bosses wanted it known.
“It shows their enthusiasm and their commitment,” analyzed Gorton.
“Enthusiasm can take us far,” added Hughes.
But how much? “The answer is on the ice,” concluded Geoff Molson.