You can read the digital version here.
Accepting
A Team’s Present by Not Living in the Past
By
Avi Goldberg
We’ve all heard people say that fans don’t come
to the games for the coaches or the general managers. The accuracy of this
sentiment is highlighted by the painful absence of NHL competition and player
storylines during the lockout, yet at times like the trade deadline, the free
agency period, and the firing and hiring of a coach, fans give their rapt
attention to the GMs. Following hockey through the intrigue of coaching and
managing can also be compelling when these positions are held by former players
who are adored for their on-ice careers. As we wait and wonder if the players
and games will return in time for the holidays, this is a tale of the
consequences of investing emotionally in management and coaching with the hope
that a team’s success will be delivered by its playing heroes of the past.
Born in Montreal but raised in Edmonton, I have
always split my team loyalties between the Habs and the Oilers. After early
family training in obsessing over the Canadiens during playoff games, I spent
my teenage years with the Oilers dynasty serving as the religion that tied me
to my friends and city. Though I idolized the play of Robinson, Naslund,
Messier, Fuhr, and Tikkanen, the Oilers and the Habs drew additional loyalty
from me by bringing some of my other favourite former players into professional
positions. In both team success and my resulting sentiments as a fan, the
parallels are uncanny.
As it addresses the curious post-playing
professional careers of Bob Gainey and Guy Carbonneau with the Canadiens, my
first story is undoubtedly recognizable to Habs fans.
In awe of his five Stanley Cups as a player with
Montreal, his experience as captain, and his performance as the top defensive player
of his day, I felt an awakening of real optimism when Gainey was hired to be GM
in 2003. And though the circumstances surrounding his appointment as head coach
were not outlined in the GM’s five-year plan, the fact that Carbonneau was
brought in strengthened the legitimacy of team management in my eyes. With two
revered former players at the helm, I believed that the dark years of Alain
Vigneault, Michel Therrien 1.0, and Andre Savard were starting to fade in the
rear-view mirror.
As almost everything about team affairs was
wildly inconsistent under the Gainey-Carbonneau regime, my warm feelings
quickly cooled. Aside from the heights achieved during a strong regular season
in 2007-2008, dysfunction prevailed. Between intimate old port walks
shared by the GM and the team’s enigmatic star player, the coach’s inability to explain his squad’s indifferent play, and endless
debates about goaltending and the organization’s inability to develop and look after
its young prospects, I felt I was following a soap opera, not the systematic
renewal of a once proud hockey power.
The Habs limped into the playoffs during their
highly promoted centennial season and were swept by the hated Bruins in four
games. My suspicion that the team was organizationally rudderless was
practically confirmed when Gainey resigned as GM in 2010, less than one year
after showing Carbonneau the door. Notwithstanding the tantalizing run to the
conference finals overseen by Jacques Martin and Pierre Gauthier, to me, Gainey’s
final organizational hires merely capped off a managerial track record marked
by mediocrity and drama.
The Gainey-Carbonneau duo did not live up to the
expectations I projected on them based on their collective past.
Possibly less familiar to Canadiens fans, my
Oilers story centres on another former playing duo for which I had great
admiration, that of Kevin Lowe and Craig MacTavish.
The Oilers first ever draft choice, winner of
five Stanley Cups with the team, and steadiest of defenseman, Lowe spent one
season as Edmonton’s head coach before being named GM to replace Glen Sather in
2000. Meanwhile, after a year in prison for having committed vehicular
homicide, MacTavish joined the Oilers in 1985 and, unexpectedly, helped the
team win three championships as a pre-eminent shut down third line centre.
After two years coaching with the New York Rangers, MacTavish returned to
Edmonton as assistant coach in 1999 and was named head coach upon Lowe’s
promotion to GM. With both men experienced as on-ice captains, and with each
regarded as a winner, I saw the Lowe-MacTavish team as the perfect leadership
scenario for the twenty-first century Oilers.
The Oilers did ice some gritty teams under Lowe
and MacTavish. Notably, my heart raced through highly competitive playoff
series against the much deeper Dallas Stars and Colorado Avalanche during which
leaders like Ryan Smyth, Doug Weight, and Todd Marchant put in heart and soul
performances. The pinnacle, however, came in 2005-2006. That’s when Lowe
astonished Oilers fans by acquiring Chris Pronger and Mike Pecca prior to the regular
season and MacTavish deftly rode the hot goaltending of another late season
pick up, Dwayne Roloson, to a trip to the finals that ended honourably in a
seventh game loss to Carolina. Although the surprise run stirred up magic and
joy I had not felt since the early-1990s, my belief in MacTavish and Lowe’s
potential to do it again evaporated the moment Pronger told the world he wanted
out of Edmonton. Oilers fans are still waiting for the team to recover.
So, due to my indelible net memories of
management conflicts with players, oddly timed trades
of valuable players, desperate efforts
to lure free agents that ended in failure and league ridicule, and of a battle
between a hapless coach and an arch rival’s team mascot, I view the 2006 as an
accidental happenstance rather than an outcome of the deliberate workings of a
competent regime.
The Lowe-MacTavish duo did not live up to the
expectations I projected on them based on their collective past.
From two organizations that share having glory
days in the ever distant past, recent levels of mediocrity, and whose
coaching-managerial compositions have been eerily similar in their playing
pedigrees, I now know better how to be a fan today.
From the underwhelming records of my teams in
general, I know that championships of the past are not only hard to repeat but
also set the bar of my expectations impossibly high. Both Habs and Oilers are
in the middle of organizational transitions but I will forever refrain from expecting
the accomplishments of the past to portend success in the future.
From seeing the painful struggles of my dream
managements teams, I also know that the hometown players who were superhuman on
the ice may not be well-suited to lead from the bench or from the front office.
By comparing successful mangers like Kenny Holland, Peter Chiarelli, and Dean
Lombardi, and in thinking about accomplished coaches like Claude Julien, Joel
Quenneville, and Darryl Sutter, it’s hard to identify the factors that make it
work. I have my doubts about the potentials of both current regimes in both Montreal
and Edmonton, but I also know now to look beyond local heroes when my teams are
seeking new coaching and management personnel.
Finally, from having sufficient time to heal
from the coaching-management experiments in which I invested so heavily, I also
know not to allow the non-playing parts of my playing heroes’ careers to erase
the memories of what they did on the ice. Whether it was a resounding hit, a
spirited penalty kill, or a timely and team-inspiring goal, my favourite
players performed at the highest possible level when it counted the most. Yes,
they gave me little to cheer for when they donned the suits and ties, and they
also failed to prepare their clubs to be competitive today, but I have chosen
to separate these unfortunate facts from what I saw them do a long time before.
Following favourite teams through the ups and
downs of their coaches and managers can be fun. When it comes to a favourite
team’s former playing heroes, however, it might be best for everyone to leave
the glory in the past.
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