By Rick Stephens, Editor-in-Chief, All Habs Hockey Magazine

MONTREAL, QC. — The Stanley Cup finals are underway. Habs fans seem split on their choice of team to support to win the Stanley Cup. Truth is, it’s begrudging support anyway.

‘When will it be our turn?’ they wonder.

‘Wondering’ is just so passive. Shouldn’t fans be demanding a championship?

Something has happened to supporters of the Canadiens. Following their Game 6 playoff exit to the Tampa Bay Lightning, most of the criticism on social media was directed at fans and writers who were critical of the team.

Gazette columnist Brendan Kelly penned an article titled “Habs fans are allowed to be upset” on his hockey blog.

“But my real beef tonight is with all of you who refuse to allow any criticism of the Habs. Like what the hell is up with that? Fans are allowed to be upset. Fans are allowed to want it all. To want to win the Cup. Fans are allowed to be upset that the greatest goalie in the world might not win that trophy he wants so badly because he doesn’t have enough talent in front of him.” — Brendan Kelly

He’s right. Something has changed within the Canadiens fanbase. What happened to the organization who proudly proclaimed ‘We don’t hang conference championship banners from the rafters here?’

Following the end of the Habs season, the most liked comments on the All Habs fan page on Facebook embodied the view that a pretty good season was good enough.

Robert Ilkiw: “Look at the bright side……. 24 other teams wish their season lasted as long……….. Can’t wait for Training Camp!!!!! Forever, GO HABS GO!!!!”

Will Beirness: “Excellent season boys Lets get ramped up for next year.”

Gerald Walters: “We lost…but we are still HABBY…..great season! Lets do it again next year!”

Jonah Pittman: “Thanks for an incredible season Habs! We’ll answer back even stronger next season!”

Those who dared to be critical of the team, the coach or underachieving players were denounced. Rare was the comment from a fan who held the view that a Cup win was the only measure of success.

Guy Neff: “Anything less than the Cup is failure…..I have been a Habs fan for over 40 years, and last night showed a total lack of effort and intensity on Montreal’s part. There is talent on this team, but not enough to bring the Cup that has been absent from Montreal since 1993. I really thought that this was finally the year. See you in the fall, with renewed hopes that the Championship drought will finally end!”

Or as Kelly wrote, “Real fans feel like crap right now. Yeah of course it was never that likely that the Good Guys would go the distance this playoff but you should be disappointed when your team loses.”

Has the Canadiens organization successfully indoctrinated a new breed of fan who is just happy with a competitive team? A new threshold has been crossed: children being born to Habs fans who have never experienced a Stanley Cup win in their lifetime: Dads and Moms who can’t pass on to their kids, stories about their joy in watching the Canadiens win the ultimate prize.

It’s significant because a second generation of Habs fans can only point to cloth banners in the rafters of the Bell Centre for evidence of their team’s commitment to excellence. None can speak from personal experience.

Two generations are a trend. Not winning a Stanley Cup for this storied franchise is starting to become the norm. And perhaps, most disturbing of all, large chunks of the fanbase are just fine with that.

How did this happen?

“This team has for far too long aimed for mediocrity and no more,” wrote Kelly. Is he right?

You would be hard pressed to find a knowledgeable fan who thinks that Carey Price is satisfied with the outcome of the season despite all of his personal accomplishments. For the players who matter on this team, a second place finish during the regular season is not nearly enough.

In his exit interview, Lars Eller confirmed the sentiment saying, “Everytime you don’t win the Cup, you are disappointed. We were disappointed last year, we are disappointed this year.”

Disappointed. That’s the same word Kelly used to describe the feelings of real Habs fans when their team doesn’t go all the way.

And then, most importantly, Eller added, “I’m still hungry to improve.”

We know that Eller and Price are hungry for a Cup. That same word was used by Karl Subban in an interview by AP earlier this year to describe his son’s passion for hockey as a youngster saying, “And P.K., he was so hungry for [the chance to skate.] He would say, ‘Daddy, I want to stay and play.”

Hunger.

And what about the guy described as the kindly old coach? For a man who so often speaks about the compete level of his players, do we honestly get the feeling that Michel Therrien is hungry to win a Stanley Cup?

One gets the sense that while Therrien certainly wouldn’t mind adding a Stanley Cup to his coaching resume, that he has achieved the pinnacle of his hockey career when he mounts the pedestal behind the bench of the Montreal Canadiens each game. He may not have appreciated it the first time around, but now, Therrien is quite comfortable in his position.

Strategy and game prep are not his forte. Neither is his ability to make in-game adjustments. Therrien stubbornly sticks with a system that doesn’t fit with the strengths of his team nor fits the style of play in the current NHL.

I’m not alone in my criticism. Ken Campbell of The Hockey News wrote,

“Therrien has been criticized as a pedestrian coach when it comes to playing style and strategy. He steadfastly refused to stay with Alex Galchenyuk at center and is blamed for a style that focuses on dump and chase with a team that isn’t physically suited to playing that style. The Canadiens play without the puck an awful lot and P.K. Subban was bang on when he suggested the Canadiens have made goalie Carey Price’s job more difficult, not easier.”

But in Quebec, Therrien is adored. And he certainly has enthusiastic cheerleaders along media row.

Marc Bergevin has found new ways to define success for his coaching staff. Bergevin said, “Michel Therrien and his group of coaches have taken part in 29 playoff games over the last two seasons. That’s the second-highest total in the League. They’ve picked up 16 playoff wins during that time. That’s good for third in the League right now. We’ve also played in five series in two years. The only teams better than us there are Chicago and the New York Rangers.”

“Taken part in 29 playoff games.” That’s it, the post-season participation badge for M. Therrien and crew! Rejoice Habs fans!

But wait, as Kelly asked, aren’t fans entitled to want more? Want to win the Cup? Apparently not.

Instead, let’s all celebrate the success of being part of a pretty good team. It’s greedy to want more. Please don’t criticize the coach who has delivered this passable result say the folks from traditional media. And don’t, under any circumstances, wistfully wonder how this roster could have performed with better direction.

In what can only be described as an embarrassingly moronic defense of Therrien, Hockey Inside Out blogger Mike Boone chastised fans for even breathing the name of the best coach in hockey.

Boone wrote:

“Can we stop with the crazy Mike Babcock madness, svp?
The kindly old coach got everything ANYONE could possibly wring out of the 2014-’15 Montreal Canadiens.
Do you really believe Mike Babock could have done more with a team on which:
• David Desharnais and Tomas Plekanec are the top two centres?
• A 36-year-old defenceman with 66-year-old knees plays 25 minutes a game on the first pairing and the power play?
• Dale Weise plays in the Top 6?
• The most dangerous forward in the playoffs is 5’9″ and was drafted in the fifth round?”

So list the decisions made by coach Therrien, assume that a better coach would make the same mistakes and conclude that the Canadiens would have the same result. I understand that HIO’s chosen role as Pravda mean a certain level of protection and propoganda for the team but this was way over the top.

Speaking of Mike Babcock, the new bench boss of the Toronto Maple Leafs ruffled feathers across the country when he called the Leafs “Canada’s team.” For fans of a struggling franchise, it must have been uplifting to hear the head coach announce his intention “to put Canada’s team back on the map.”

But with all the fuss about just which team represents Canada, most missed far more important comments by Babcock even though he repeated the phrase twice during his 35-minute press conference.

“I have a burning desire to win,” said Babcock. Okay, he didn’t use the word ‘hunger’ but close enough.

Babcock specified that he wasn’t going to be satisfied by making the playoffs, saying “I came here to be involved in a Cup process.” Can we imagine Therrien saying something similar?

Geoff Molson did.

On March 29, 2012, on the occasion of firing GM Pierre Gauthier, Molson said, “Just qualifying for the playoffs cannot be our goal or our standard. Not for our team, not for this organization. This organization going forward must set its sights on competing for the game’s ultimate prize every season. No lesser standard should be accepted. Our fans and our tradition demand nothing less than this.”

Molson added, “We need to remember that our fans want us to win — period. Our organizational culture needs to support and adopt this passion for victory. Nothing else matters.”

The ultimate prize. Nothing else matters. A hunger for the Cup.

They were strong words from the man who sets the tone for the organization. But were they words to guide the direction of a sports franchise or was Molson simply saying the things that fans so desperately wanted to hear?

The problem is that the organization’s hunger has often been trumped by its thirst. When push has come to shove, business interests of a brewery will always trump the needs of a hockey team.

Remember Randy Cunneyworth? Whether Cunneyworth had the coaching gravitas to be successful as the full-time bench boss of the Canadiens is irrelevant. It was a normal hockey decision to appoint a qualified, experienced assistant as the interim head coach when Jacques Martin was fired in December 2011.

Apologizing for Cunneyworth’s promotion was a business decision after extremist group Imperatif Francais, had called for a boycott of all Molson products. Undermining the credibility of a decent coach sent the team on a death spiral to the bottom of the standings. The hockey team be damned, the sacrifice was necessary to protect the business.

Interestingly, it was something that Babcock identified as a deal-breaker in his negotiations with the Maple Leafs. He said that the task ahead “is going to be a massive, massive challenge.” Babcock asked Larry Tanenbaum, minority owner in Maple Leaf Sports & Entertainment, “Are you willing to stick with [the plan] when it’s hard, when it’s really hard?”

Clearly, Mr. Molson and his partners were not. Not even to face the ‘threat’ from a handful of radicals.

But even if the Canadiens had pursued the best coach in the game and had an owner with an unwavering goal, could they compete for the Stanley Cup? According to Boone, “Mike Babcock could not have coached this roster to a Stanley Cup. Neither could Scotty Bowman. Or Toe Blake.”

For the time being, let’s set aside any arguments about the lack of preparation, ill-matched system, in-game adjustments, personnel choices and power-play tactics to focus on the roster. It certainly was the focus of Bergevin’s season-ending news conference.

When asked about trading for a big, skilled centre, Bergevin, basically said, that in the real world, it is a next to impossible task. “Do you want me to trade Carey Price? That’s what it costs to get a big centre,” he said.

With humour, Bergevin then took a veiled shot at all of the amateur GMs saying, “My reality, it might not be the same as the PlayStation I play at night. I played last night and I made a trade. I called that GM this morning and he hung up (the phone) on me. I’d love to get [a No.1 centre], but I don’t see that happening. I think the last one was probably Joe Thornton. Ryan Kesler was able to choose where he wanted to go. It’s difficult to work because the reality is that everyone is looking for the same thing. They’re just not available. The teams that have big centermen keep them, maybe they’re at the tail end of their careers and they’re slowing down. Do you really want that? We’re going to keep our eyes open.”

If a big, skilled forward is difficult to acquire, what about one who in addition to being big and skilled is the fastest player on the team and plays with a physical edge? He is the same player who had seven goals in this year’s playoffs, more than any Canadien, and is presently tied with Steven Stamkos in goal scoring.

With his seven playoff goals, Chris Kreider ranked second this post-season on the New York Rangers, ahead of Rick Nash, Derek Stepan and Martin St. Louis. According to Elias Sports Bureau, Kreider’s 18 career playoff markers rank second on the all-time list of most playoff goals by Ranger players aged 24 or younger behind Ron Duguay and just ahead of Alex Kovalev.

So perhaps Bergevin is correct in saying that the asking price for a young, talented, accomplished forward like Kreider who physically dominates opponents would be astronomical. Or perhaps, it simply would have required the Canadiens to be more hungry than thirsty.

In June 2009, just a week after announcing an agreement in principle to buy controlling interest in the Montreal Canadiens, Geoff Molson made one of those business decisions with the Habs choosing to draft local product Louis Leblanc over the big, skilled centre they had been coveting so long. Leblanc went to the Canadiens with the 18th selection overall while Kreider was quickly snapped up with the 19th pick.

Leblanc is a member of the Norfolk Admirals, and likely will never be more than a mediocre AHL player and Kreider is tearing it up as a top-6 power-forward for the Rangers.

Trevor Timmins confirmed that even though his staff closely scouted Kreider, the organizational “pressure to choose a player from Quebec was strong” and Leblanc “was the best hope of Quebec for his age group.”

The Canadiens and its new owner were very aware of fan reaction with the draft being held in Montreal. They wanted a splash. Timmins told La Presse, “If we opted again for an American in the first round, we probably would have left the Bell Centre in plastic bags!” Ryan McDonagh and Max Pacioretty, both Americans, were selected in the first round in 2007. (The Canadiens traded away their first round pick in 2008.)

If Kreider was part of the Canadiens organization in 2013-14, would a healthy Carey Price have led the Habs to a Stanley Cup final matchup with the Los Angeles Kings? Who knows for certain? Winning a Cup is hard. It requires superb talent, effective direction and a bit of luck.

You would be incorrect to assume that a case is being made that the Habs were just one decision away from competing for their 25th championship. The example above is representative of a systemic,  long-standing issue. We outlined the Canadiens’ business model to focus on creating emotional bonds to the past as their formula for success in a previous piece titled What If the Boston Bruins Had Won the Stanley Cup?

This much is clear. Every time business considerations take priority over hockey decisions, playing for the Stanley Cup becomes a much greater challenge for the Montreal Canadiens. Fans must ask themselves: is being better than most good enough or does this franchise still fully embrace the unequivocal goal of doing whatever it takes to win a Cup?