What is a myth?
Myth is a more or less rational and coherent fabulous tale, often featuring supernatural characters or objects capable of fantastic acts. It aims to answer complex questions in a simple way, by telling a story that we often come to believe, more or less consciously, by dint of repetition.
It fills the void, unencumbered by realism.
Pandora’s box. Genesis. Etc.
Or more recently, in advertising and politics, through the slogans “Open Happiness” by Coca-cola or ” Make America Great Again ” by Trump.
That sort of thing.
How do you find happiness? Drink Coke, a seemingly magical sweet brown liquid.
How to fix America’s problems? Vote for Trump, a kind of new god.
Easy, simple answers to complex problems.
A strategy that’s worked for millennia. Man abhors a vacuum.
That’s why debunking myths is a titanic task!
The mythical
of the Habs, the media and the NHL
The question “Where do we stand with the rebuilding of the Habs?” also seems to be part of a mythical universe.
The answer is simple, magical and, for some, strangely reassuring: “We’re in year two!
All you have to do is repeat it a few times, and everyone ends up believing it!
And if you ask, what is a reconstruction?
Another simple answer found everywhere: “It’s tearing down everything and starting again from scratch!”
Just a moment!
Can’t you see that it’s not working to say that the Habs are in year two of their rebuild?
Basically, according to this definition, the Habs wouldn’t even be rebuilding and never would have been!
Hughes and Gorton didn’t demolish everything!
So many people contradict themselves without realizing it when they say that the Habs have been rebuilding for two years, discrediting all of Bergevin’s work!
The Habs and/or their many media outlets, whether traditional or “social”, are excellent at creating and maintaining, more or less deliberately, mythical discourses, full of simple answers and contradictions, in which we immerse ourselves on a daily basis, without really realizing it.
Following my last text, the title of which provoked the ire of many on Facebook (!), I thought I’d use a little analogy (not very original, I admit!) of renovations to make it clearer that the idea repeated ad nauseam that the “rebuilding” of the Habs is only two years old is a myth, pure and simple. Two myths, in fact.
We’ll start by debunking those two before tackling the myth of the “best player available” at the draft.
These rebuilds… that aren’t rebuilds!
Let’s start by debunking the myth of “reconstruction” as such.
99% of the time, NHL “rebuilds” are actually ” major renovations “, often quite complex.
Sometimes for reasons of “organizational culture”, sometimes for complicated contractual reasons, sometimes for both, in reality almost no administration ” throws everything away” and starts from scratch.
For every house demolished and then rebuilt from scratch, you have 99 that will only undergo varying degrees of renovation.
It’s the same with NHL clubs.
The cliché or myth of “total reconstruction” is a fantasy, a hallucination, an intellectual shortcut, a commonplace repeated by parrots in the public square but which, in fact, has no objective reality to back it up.
Even the Blackhawks, in the most aggressive “rebuild” in recent history, had to keep Seth Jones!
The Avalanche, Sabres, Sens, Red Wings, etc. all retained some key elements of the previous regime.
That’s only to be expected, given the complexity of the task!
Unsurprisingly, in its recent history, the Habs have done the same in two-phase “major renovations”.
That’s why, in reality, the Habs are more or less in year seven (remove 2021 if you insist!) of their “major renovation” process … and that’s a damn good thing!
This means that, despite this year’s misleading appearances (Dach’s injury…), they’re pretty far along in their process, and there may be less to do than meets the eye!
When you consider, along with experienced Coyotes GM Bill Armstrong, that a normal “rebuilding” process takes about 10 years, that should be reassuring, don’t you think?
So, for all those who, against all objective reality, persist in believing that the Habs have only been rebuilding for two years and that, at the end of a five- or six-year process, they’d have a chance of winning the Cup, here’s a simple analogy I’m going to use as a last resort!
A hockey team is like a house!
Let’s say that, in 2018, the previous owner of your home began a major renovation phase.
Over the course of three years, he carried out some major renovations to the basement, which was a bit faded and maganized (Plekanec and Pacioretty were traded, Kotkaniemi, Harris, Suzuki, Romanov, Caufield, Struble, Guhle arrived).
Then, in the fall of 2020, he said to himself “ok, the renovations look great!”
He was sick of the dust, and having just realized that he might not have much longer to live, he decided to buy some nice deluxe stock to treat himself.
A nice $3,000 coffee machine, a beautiful $18,000 Harley-Davidson, a 75′ TV, a killer sound system, etc. (Anderson, Toffoli, Chiarot, Edmundsson, Perry, Staal, Merill, Gustafsson)
When he died a few months later, he left his entire stock behind (Bergevin was fired, but not without having added Hoffman and Savard and drafted Mailloux and Roy a few months earlier…).
(Credit: Screenshot)
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So you buy the house in November 2021 (Gorton’s arrival), full of all kinds of junk , with some parts freshly renovated, others faded, some out of use and a few odd ideas.
Very early in 2022, you talk to Tendre Moitié (Hughes’ arrival!) and agree that the previous owner didn’t just make bad moves, that many of his renovations from 2018 to 2020-2021 are likely to serve you well for a long time!
That said, we’re going to have to sell quite a few things (Lehkonen, Toffoli, Chiarot, Edmundsson trades, etc.) and make other major repairs to the basement and first floor.
We’ll have to renovate foundation walls that have fallen into disrepair (Weber, Price), change a stud’s place (replace Romanov with Dach) and buy a lot of new construction equipment that we’ll use in due course (arrivals of Barron, Slafkovsky, Beck, Mesar, Hutson, Engstrom, Reinbacher, Fowler, Newhook, 2 first-round picks in 2024, etc.).
You know you’re in for a few years, but at least part of the job was already done and well done!
So, in all lucidity and honesty, are you going to tell your neighbors, over a little back-alley beer, that the “rebuild”, or more precisely, the major renovations to your home began in 2022 or 2018?
Gorton and Hughes were the first to recognize that they weren’t starting from scratch! Bergevin’s little ” break “, his last-ditch attempt for the 2021 season, doesn’t change the overall story.
In short, whether we attribute the work to Bergevin between 2018 and 2020 or to Hughes/Gorton starting in 2022, we’re talking about major renovations to the SAME HOUSE!
So, instead of being in year 2, they’re in year 6-7 of this new major renovation plan for the 115-year-old Montreal Canadiens!
It’s that simple.
And it’s already becoming a lot more realistic to think of the Cup in 2027-2028 this way!
Another myth: “Draft the “best player available!”
Complex question: Who should we draft?
Simple answer: “The best player available. Period.”
(Credit: screenshot)
We also need to put an end, once and for all, to this other mythical idea, a bit silly and repeated by everyone! Enough is enough!
Except for generationalists and other sure shot superstars, chanting “the best player available” taken out of context is like choosing the “best idea” taken out of context: it doesn ‘t mean a thing!
It’s a great idea to become an astronaut, isn’t it?
But is it the “best idea” if I didn’t do my “strong math” in high school? Does it meet my aspirations? My needs?
As with any human decision, there’s always a context and a need for NHL teams.
And, please, let’s stop harping on the magical idea that ” all we have to do is swap surplus players at strength positions” and treat the whole thing as if it were as simple as swapping hockey cards we have in triplicate.
You never know who will be available in the next few years! Nobody has a crystal ball!
What we do know, however, is that teams rarely offer their best players to help out the others.
We also know that profound organizational needs often take several years to be met.
These are facts.
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That’s why at the draft, when the cream of the crop is gone or when the gap between the players still available is highly debatable, teams generally make the choice that’s most optimal for their organization , and pick the player who seems to best suit their well-documented organizational needs for free .
Teams would simply be irrational to do otherwise!
This is exactly what the Canadiens did with Slafkovsky and Reinbacher in 2022 and 2023. Both met obvious organizational needs, needs that have yet to be fully met…
Last year, the Coyotes clearly did the same with defenseman Dmitry Simashev (6th) and the Caps with feisty power forward Ryan Leonard (8th).
Even the Flyers, when they drafted Matvei Michkov 7th, didn’t just think in terms of “absolute best player available”. They considered their glaring lack of raw talent, no matter the player’s size or reputation.
The nuance is important.