from Brendan Kelly of the Montreal Gazettd,

The Canadiens are a wild-card team. Sorry to bring you all crashing down to Earth, but that’s the truth.

This is not about hating or trying to be negative. It’s about trying to be realistic. The Habs are better than last year’s bottom-feeder team, but that’s really not much of an achievement.

Is the future so bright you need to wear shades? Maybe. One of the things that disturbs me the most in the hockey culture ici is so many people buy into the Canadiens’ management spin. In case you missed the memo from the Habs’ PR bosses, here is the spin: General manager Marc Bergevin has turned this team around by focusing on character and bringing in a philosophy built on youth and speed, and it’s only going to get better with all the great prospects in the pipeline.

Let’s pick apart the Habs’ PR line piece by piece. As far as the character thing goes, I think that’s hogwash. The team with the best players wins. Of course hockey, possibly more than any sport, is reliant on chemistry among the players. But it’s not about character, or grit, which is Bergevin’s philosophy. What’s key is how the players work together on the ice.

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