Calling Dr. Rick & This Is Getting Fun
Parentamorphosis
The longer I have been a parent, the more I hear my father’s words come out of my mouth and the more I feel myself morphing into him. This is part of our natural development called parental introjection. It is the absorption of the traits of adults that we are first and most frequently around. It is why I find myself chuckling nervously when I see the Progressive Dr. Rick “don’t-become-your-parents” ad campaign.
When my wife was pregnant with our older son, I swore to myself that I would not become a stereotypical parent. I would not emasculate myself by buying a minivan, and I would try not to be an embarrassing when my sons grew out of adolescence. I avoided the minivan, but as my sons moved into pre-teens and my older son became a teenager, I learned the only way I could avoid embarrassing my sons was to keep my mouth shut. I have lost count of the number of eyerolls in response to something I have said.
Fortunately, my sons spend more time watching their phones than television. Coming of age in a streaming world, the boys avoid shows with ads other than sports like the plague. Otherwise, I would be subject to Dr. Rick ridicule.
A Fleeting Parental Triumph
As iPhones and YouTube dominate my sons’ viewing, they increasingly tell me which movies and programs are coming out. With that in mind, it was a small triumph approximately two weeks ago when I happened upon the Obi-Wan Kenobi trailer for Disney+, which had just dropped and had about 10,000 views. Today, the same trailer has more than 15 million views. I texted them the link while they were headed home from school.
My triumph was fleeting as I watched the trailer. As the images flashed across my screen, I knew I was in a stereotypical parent moment. My knowledge of Star Wars, formed in movie theaters going back to the original trilogy and seeing all nine films, was not going to be enough to understand all the characters and plotlines in the new series.
The boys have seen the films, but they have also watched Star Wars: Clone Wars and Rebels cartoons. Disney sneakily incorporated characters and plotlines from the cartoons into the streaming series The Mandalorian and The Book of Boba Fett. It will be the same with Obi-Wan Kenobi. My parental paradox will be that when I watch the series, I have to either ask one of my sons for an explanation or I will have to go on YouTube and depressingly watch a Star Wars nerd explanation video. Complaining about the forced consumption of Star Wars cartoons would be a Dr. Rick moment.
Out of the Abyss
Optimism abounds HabsLand. The arrival of Martin St. Louis (MSL) as interim coach roughly six weeks or 21 games ago is now acknowledged as a key pivot point in the team’s fortunes. He has instilled the hard-working, never-give-up attitude that epitomized his hall-of-fame playing career. Last-minute game-tying and winning goal scoring has moved from possible to probable for a team with an injury-riddled and trade-depleted lineup. His under-manned team is 10-7-4 with 24 points and a.571 percentage under his leadership.
This stands in stark contrast to his predecessor, ¯\_(ツ)_/¯, who in 83 regular season games also with an injury-riddle line-up was 23-46-14 with 60 points and a .361 percentage. The one tip of the hat ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ deserves is for the unlikely playoff run last season. This is especially true for the Canadiens first-round playoff comeback win over the Maple Leafs, now referred to by one Toronto sports columnist as “the unspeakable horror.” He now believes the Leafs have a “Montreal problem” which of course, is good.
Fun Re-Enters the Habs Lexicon
Under Bluto’s (see post for explanation) regime, the communications strategy was reminiscent of the 1980’s Wendy’s Soviet Fashion Show Ad. It was bland and boring. Any real or interesting information was treated like a state secret. Other than his introductory press conference where he cracked jokes, Bluto’s gave the impression that he would rather have his fingernails removed with pliers than fully answer a question. While the players tended to rely on tired clichés and platitudes when speaking to the media.
Since her hiring, Chantal Machabée has revamped the communication strategy. She understands the importance of media and fan accessibility. After all, the Habs are in the entertainment business. Now, after key developments, Kent Hughes is available for multiple interviews instead of a one-and-done press conference.
The day after the trade deadline, Jeff Gorton and Hughes participated in a roundtable answering fan questions. It was nice to see them comfortably and joking with each other. Their banter showed how they were having fun which is important because it sets the tone for the organization. Kent Hughes has consistently said since his hiring that he wants the players to play their best and have fun. And this syncs with players who have said that it is fun playing under MSL.
It is also nice to see Marc Dumont, one of my favorite hockey columnists who joined the organization a few years ago, is now writing again.
The Kulak Observation
During his time with the Canadiens, Brett Kulak was an analytics darling who ended up in the line-up more because of Bluto’s poor roster construction than endorsement. His last media availability before the trade deadline is a window into the e differences in organization culture under Hughes and Gorton versus Bluto.
“We love Brett Kulak as a player,” was a comment Kent Hughes made after the Ben Chiarot trade. When asked about the it, Kulak said, “it’s nice to be in a place where they value you and like you as a player. It helps my personal confidence and I think it just makes you want to play harder for them. Prepare and be at your best for the team. When people like you and they’re giving you opportunity and saying nice things like that it motivates you to play even harder.”
Later Kulak was asked about having new management look at his play. He response provided a window into what it was like playing for Bluto. “They see you just different then sometimes from the old management where have been around for a few years. You go through a tough stretch, then it is hard for them to erase that tough stretch out of the mind when you start playing good. Then if you have an off night, there is that player again or whatever.”
Kulak’s comments about the attitudes of old management strike a chord to the comments said last December by former Habs goaltender Charlie Lindgren who backstopped the Blues to a 4-1 win over the Canadiens. “I felt [that in] my last five years there ― there was some frustration. That game was pretty personal to me. Being able to beat them ― that ‘Frickin’ A, right’ – that was just right from the heart. That win meant a lot to me and my family.”
Was It Good For You?
The Canadiens received almost universal praise for their moves at the trade deadline. Mistakenly listening to some pundits, I believed the Canadiens would have a quiet deadline or be disappointed with the return on the trades. The opposite was true.
The team was able to extract good value for its available players. Picks, prospects, and a few warm bodies were a nice bounty. The Canadiens now have 14 picks in the for the 2022 NHL Draft. The team also has 9 picks respectively in the 2023 and 2024 drafts including two first round picks in 2023 and two second round picks in 2024.
Slicing Through the Noise
Kent Hughes clearly understands the team’s situation. In two comments, he was able to summarize the trade deadline. He stated that buyers typically do not have a lot of salary cap space, so moving contracts with term is challenging. And he also observed the plight of the team by pointing out that the Habs are at the bottom of the standings but at the top of CapFriendly.
Since starting the blog, a consistent them has been the dire salary cap position of the team. Looking at websites like CapFriendly can be eye watering or like reading the fine print of a power or phone bill. But those numbers are how the team manages the roster. I have read and heard too often sports pundits just wave away the idea of the team’s salary cap situation. The idea that a team with more cap space is going to take on an aging player with an expensive contract in a flat cap environment assumes that acquiror is hebetudinous.
The Challenge Is Real
And that is the challenge facing him and Scott Gorton—how to fix the roster and clear salary cap space with bad contracts. Bluto gave out bad contracts to his favored players, handcuffing the team. It is that simple. There is a mismatch with older players are on longer term contracts, taking up an excessive amount of cap space versus the younger players that are nearing the end of their entry level contracts who deserve higher compensation.
The last HabsVantage post went into detail about the cap situation, and the obvious players to move are Brendan Gallagher and Jeff Petry. Of the two, trading Jeff Petry is more likely given the comments by Kent Hughes during his interview on TSN during the first intermission of the Canadiens-Panthers game on March 24th, where he said that there had been discussions with a group of teams with one in particular that might make sense but did not materialize. Some of the picks and prospects may end up being used to entice a team to take on one of the Canadiens’ bad contracts.
A Different Possibility
One of the tools on the CapFriendly website is the buyout calculator. Jonathan Drouin is the one contract where a buyout makes some economic sense. The tone around Drouin seems more of resignation to his long-term viability with the team.
Even some in the local French-language media recognize that it is time for the team to do him a favor and move on, even if it requires a buyout. He has one season left on his contract with a $5.5 million cap hit. If he is bought out on June 15, 2022, there would be a $3.6 million savings with the team taking on a $1.8 million cap hit for the 2002-23 and 2023-24 seasons.
The Sky Is Now Blue And A Different “R” Word
During the past decade, following the team has been an exercise in boredom and frustration. It seemed to never end, moving from endless debates about whether Alex Galchenyuk is a real center, to the bitterness of the PK Subban trade; the health of Carey Price’s knee; the unhappiness of Max Pacioretty as captain; and the poor development of prospects highlighted by the failed Jesperi Kotkaniemi experiment and, penultimately, the disastrous Logan Mailloux draft pick.
The Canadiens, now led by Jeff Gorton and Kent Hughes, are moving in the right direction. The media continues to be obsessed with trying to label what the new management team is doing between rebuilding and renovating. Based on how MSL has the team playing and with Hughes’s saying that the goal is a sustainable, competitive team, from this perch, the appropriate “R” word is “reload.” Watching the blossoming of young players like Nick Suzuki, Cole Caufield, and Alexander Romanov, with the unexpected emergence of Rem Pitlick and Corey Schueneman, coupled with the arrival of Jordan Harris and Caiden Guhle next season, it sure feels like a reload.
And yes, it is fun to watch.
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