Kukla's Korner Hockey

Kukla's Korner Hockey

Did The Players Want Michel Therrien Out?

02/17/2017 at 9:19am EST

from Brendan Kelly of the Montreal Gazette,

I’ll throw out another query at you. Did the players give up on Therrien? Is that what happened? Is that why the kindly ol’ coach was fired even though his record during the past five years was 194-121-37 and his team was still sitting in the No. 1 spot in the NHL’s Atlantic Division?

If the Habs players did indeed stop playing for their coach, then maybe all is right in the world for Canadiens fans and, beginning Saturday afternoon against the Winnipeg Jets, Nos Glorieux will go right back to their winning ways. But if in fact they didn’t give up, if au contraire they were still giving their 110 per cent for Mike T, then we — meaning Marc Bergevin, Julien, and all of us who care about the team — have a problem on our hands.

Because no players got fired this week — sadly enough. Phillip Danault is still your No. 1 centre — or maybe the No. 2 guy down the middle if the new bench boss decides Alex Galchenyuk gets the top-centre gig. Andrew Shaw presumably hasn’t become a smarter hockey player since Tuesday.

So which scenario is it? Were they throwing games to oust the coach or are they simply a not-very-good team? I know, neither scenario is particularly great.

read on

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About Kukla's Korner Hockey

Paul Kukla founded Kukla’s Korner in 2005 and the site has since become the must-read site on the ‘net for all the latest happenings around the NHL.

From breaking news to in-depth stories around the league, KK Hockey is updated with fresh stories all day long and will bring you the latest news as quickly as possible.

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