If Therrien was my direct boss for years and I couldn't just quit, I too would turn to alcohol and drugs.
It's not managements fault because they didn't manage young millionaires properly it's their fault because they created an environment where many players didn't enjoy coming to the rink everyday. In that environment things go bad and the specifics of which player(s) maybe would've still had other issues is irrelevant.
EDIT: To get this a bit back on topic I'll add that this is exactly why Hughes ended up firing Ducharme after saying he would finish the season. It wasn't the losing it was that the environment was becoming toxic and you can't just leave guys like Caufield and Suzuki in a toxic environment and pretend it won't have a negative impact.
No one is absolving management from their responsibility on that matter.
It’s easy to point the finger on Therrien, but Galchenyuk was better under him than anywhere else. Therrien did overstay his welcome and his techniques probably weren’t sitting well with most players by the end of his tenure.
You could do everything right and people will still find things to blame other than the players themselves. We all wanted to see Galchenyuk play center but the truth is he wasn’t good enough to play that position.
After his first season out of Montreal, he was never able to establish himself. He should have been at least a solid player contributing offensively, he wasn’t 18 years old anymore and had 296 pts in 490 games at that point.
Yet, he can’t even find a role in the NHL and has to accept ptos every year. Clearly, he was part of the problem. He played for 6 different teams, are we blaming the environment and how hard it is to go to the rink in all those markets ?
For a player to reach his potential you need a few things. First, is to adequately evaluate that potential. What we think is the ceiling for a player might be lower than what it is in reality. After that, you need an environment that’s favourable to the growth of the player and then you need the player himself to put in the work to achieve that potential.
Clearly, there was a lot lacking in Montreal in regards to that aspect, but those players themselves didn’t work on themselves enough.
And yes, you’re right about Ducharme. They wanted to keep him to end the season and then bring in someone new. Problem is, they we’re losing so hard (I think there was a stretch of 5 games where they had to pull the goalie 4 times). They couldn’t keep him anymore because clearly player had quit and a change of culture and attitude was needed for everyone in the locker room (especially young players on the team).
Nobody’s denying the effect of a toxic environment, just that some factors are inherent to the players themselves. And what is sometimes perceived from the outside is not always reality, we all operate with a small percentage of facts, when most of it is known only by those in the organization.
Re: Therrien and prospects
Whoever says that morale has little or no impact on performance, results, and professional development should be ignored and anything they have to say be challenged.
I appreciate that Adam Nicholas brings something to the Habs that we haven’t had — and presumably he is an upbeat, “modern” (loathsome word in this context, but necessary), and proactive coach. I don’t like how he talks and misuses words but I believe he will be more beneficial to our organization’s youngsters than, say, Michel Therrien or Claude Julien.
It’s true that some aspects might have been ignored or undervalued by the last management group. Clearly Nicholas brings something to the table, and having a team specifically focusing on making players better by reviewing their play and teaching them some areas of the game (working their skills but also their iq for the game) is a net positive.
You keep hearing prospects talk about Ramage and how much he’s in contact with them. The constant failures at developing players or just at picking the right ones at the draft were rightfully a cause for concern.
Seems like they are on a better path now, but you’ll still see people blame development as soon as some players will fail to achieve their perceived potential. Sometimes, those people will be right, but other times it will just be because it was a bad pick or because that player never really had that ceiling to begin with, or it will be because that player didn’t have it in him and didn’t put enough work into getting better. Other times, it will be for reasons out of everyone’s control like injuries.
going on and on and on about their perceived notion that Slaf has no hockey IQ. I can assure you he didn't get drafted 1st overall. Or dominate at international tournaments, Because he has no IQ. Maybe his IQ isn't that of a traditional 1st overall selection. But neither were any of the "cerebral" players taken after him. You guys learn your debaiting skills from Trudeau? Just keep repeating the same thing over and hoping the masses pick it up? Lmao "trust the science"
