Montreal's poor perception may cost Demers his job

Sporting News, The, Oct 23, 1995 by Larry Wigge

The Montreal Canadiens have learned a valuable lesson: Never let the luster of a shiny, new toy distort your perception of a bad situation.

With just over a month left in the lockout-shortened 1994-95 season, a good source told me, "If the Canadiens miss the playoffs, either Serge Savard, Jacques Demers or Patrick Roy will not be back next season. Maybe all three."

Instead, the Canadiens traded for French star Pierre Turgeon, who combined with Vincent Damphousse and Mark Recchi to excite the hockey-crazed Montreal fans. The Canadiens still missed the playoffs, but there was a feeling of enthusiasm over the team's newfound offense.

The shiny, new Canadiens were exciting, yes. But they wen 6-7-2 in the 15 games after Turgeon was obtained from the Islanders. Management was counting on this up-tempo offense to cover up for the team's weak defense. But that's like trying to hide your worst fielder in right field. The opposition will find that weakness and capitalize.

When they had Eric Desjardins and Mathieu Schneider back there on defense, the rest of their defensemen looked OK," says Devils right wing Stephane Richer, naming off J.J. Daigneault, Patrice Brisebois, Lyle Odelein. "But without Desjardins and Schneider, they can be exploited - big time. They make a lot of mistakes in the own zone."

The Canadiens outshot the Devils, 41-17, last Saturday but lost, 4-1. It was Montreal's fourth consecutive defeat - the team's worst start since the Canadiens began the 1938-39 season 0-7.

Savard was met at Dorval Airport by more than 20 reporters last Friday after the team had scored just one goal in each of its first three games and lost to the Flyers, Panthers and Lightning by a combined score of 17-3. They weren't there to congratulate him for putting together another SUM Cup team, either.

"Hockey is like a religion in Montreal, you're either a saint or a sinner, there's no in between," Roy says. "I thought we'd be sky high to play the Devils, but there was no feeling or pride."

Demers couldn't persuade his team to play with pride late last season, when the Canadiens missed the playoffs for the first time in 25 years, and the same symptoms are present this season. That's why he is about to become the first coaching victim this season. Islanders assistant coach Guy Charron and former Flames coach Dave King are potential replacements.

"I got home the other day and my little boy called me to ask if it was true I was getting fired," Demers says. "I didn't know what to say."

The trades that sent Desjardins and John LeClair to the Flyers for Recchi and shipped Kirk Muller and Schneider to the Islanders for Turgeon and Vladimir Malakhov were unmitigated disasters last season. They not only stripped the Canadiens of their two best defensemen, but the heart and soul of the team, too. No coach would be able to fix this mess.

But listless play on the ice always spells the end for the coach. And the next phone call Demers gets from the Canadiens likely will be his last as coach of Montreal.

Second opinions

The Flyers could have made it to the Stanley Cup finals, the Rangers could have made it to the conference finals and the Bruins and Blues could have avoided first-round elimination. It was all possible last season, had each club possessed a productive second scoring line. Each of those teams has found that depth and should be considered threats to win the Cup.

A new line of Rod Brind'Amour, Brent Fedyk and Patrik Juhlin combined for five of the Flyers' first 12 goals, relieving the burden of producing all the scoring off the Legion of Doom fine that features Eric Lindros, John LeClair and Mikael Renberg.

Luc Robitaille, Ray Ferraro and Alexei Kovalev combined for nine points in the Rangers' 6-4 home-opening victory over the Jets, making the No. 1 line of Mark Messier, Adam Graves and Pat Verbeek more effective.

The Bruins added Kevin Stevens to their No. 1 line with Adam Oates and Cam Neely and brought in Joey Mullen, Todd Elik and Shawn McEachern to round out their scoring attack.

And the Blues signed Dale Hawerchuk to center Brett Huff and added Shayne Corson, Brian Noonan and Geoff Courtnall to even out the scoring.

"With the inordinate amount of penalties being called so far this season, the teams that have two strong lines are at an advantage," Blues G.M.-Coach Mike Keenan says. "The third- and fourth-line players don't get much ice time because we always seem to be on the power play or killing penalties - and the star players today all seem to do both."

Hang 'em high

Canadiens goaltender Patrick Roy started it with his butterfly style of fanning his legs to cover the entire lower portion of the net. Now all the good goal-tenders concentrate on cutting off the lower half of the net.

Flyers Coach Terry Murray has proof ifs a good strategy. "I did a study a few years ago and determined that 83 percent of all goals were scored in the lower 18 inches of the net," he says. "It takes a great shooter to be able to lift the puck over the goalie and not miss the net If s a real talent."