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Recrutes: Hockey scouting from a professional perspective from Grant McCagg and Habs coverage from a 33 year veteran covering the NHL from Brian Wilde.

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Post Mortem On Camera

April 9, 2018

By Brian Wilde

Geoff Molson and Marc Bergevin met the media this afternoon but the answers weren’t what the fans were hoping for. Brian Wilde explains why.

About Brian Wilde

Brian Wilde has worked in hockey since he was 20. He was the rink side host for the Edmonton Oilers at CTV and Ottawa Senators for Sportsnet. He was also lead reporter on the Montreal Canadiens for 17 years at CTV Montreal.

View all posts by Brian Wilde

  • Sue Keeble says

    April 9, 2018 at 6:41 pm

    Well done as usual 👏

  • k3x says

    April 9, 2018 at 6:42 pm

    Brian, Chantal asked Marc straight up if Max figured in their plans for the Habs next year. He answered with one word…”Oui”…

    • gord harris says

      April 9, 2018 at 9:02 pm

      Of course he is in the plans….now whether he plays with the Habs next year is still very much up in the air….IMHO

  • Doug Camlin says

    April 9, 2018 at 6:48 pm

    Brian – you nailed it. We all want answers today but the answers will come slowly over the next 90 days …just another frustrating piece from a frustrating season.

  • habz24 says

    April 9, 2018 at 7:09 pm

    I luvd tonys question to bergy,the habs havent made the playoffs 2 of the last 3 years,why mark do you still think your the man for the job because most of the fan base doesnt,mark himmed,hawed.
    are you kidding mark,attitude,really!!!? Every player interviewed today knows it was a bad team going into game 1. Danault said today,yes we need a center.
    Me: come on bergy,you couldnt sign markov or radulov which left even more holes on the team,so you panicked,thru wet speggettii against the wall to see whatd stick with striet,hemsky,holland ,benn,schlemko,alzner. Nothing stuck all sucked.insted of fixing that,you just did puck all,sat in the bridge smokin a stoggy as the ship went down,no trades,no help.nothing.thats a fn useless gm. I could read that molson is fedup with bergy today,cut him off,corrected him,molson said we all need to be better,off the ice too meaning bergy for doing puck all as the ship sank.i get the feeling from this conference that molson said changes are comming,molson will fire bergy soon. Man i hope so. The last goal on price saturday where 31 flubs an easy clearing shot,then leafs takes the puck n scored was the straw that broke the camels back for carey in mtl. i mean imagine price now ok,hes getting lamb basted in social media,reg media,rumours,radio etc,bs storys or maybe not,who knows..so price must be fed up with this im mtl,then along comes an offer too good to pass up,he signs it..after realizes..ohhh shit 8 more yrs of the crazy shit.

  • Cj Angel says

    April 9, 2018 at 7:14 pm

    I’m going to miss you takes! Nobody sums it up better!

    Thanks!

    Cj

  • Darren Hunt says

    April 9, 2018 at 9:09 pm

    Great piece Brian!!

    Ok, so I get that fans are upset at MB, but to say he’s destroyed our team is greatly exaggerated. I’d like to know what all of the armchairs would say once MB was out…”Now we can get that #1C & #2D!”?!? It’s not easy for any team, but for Montreal to lure someone there when there is a warmer/richer option cannot be lost on people. And SO many redundant media questions today. Do we really think that they don’t have a plan?! Of course they do, but you don’t just blurt it out.

    As for the blockbusters, here are my thoughts: 1) What if PK was becoming unbearable in the dressing room, and he just had to go. No one talks about that. My point is, we don’t know. 2) He offered Radulov a rich contract, but AR chose to go elsewhere for basically the same amount. Is MB an idiot for this? I don’t think so. 3) He made Markov a respectable offer but AM wanted more. It likely got personal and Markov walked. Had he his own agent then #79 would prob be still with us. 4) He traded Sergachev for Drouin because imo he wanted offence, with the added bonus that JD was a young French kid who just might be a centre. JD has struggled to be consistent, taking on anew position, yet had his highest ppg season on one of the league’s worst offensive teams. All I’m saying is that the details/stories are so skewed. I feel MB was backed into a corner several times and ended up with little options. He has gambled and many haven’t paid off, but doesn’t this happen with all teams?! I’m willing to give him one more shot to infuse change and hopefully get the team back to a winning culture. As bad as this season has been on the ice I’m equally as tired of the whining, #FireBergevin, etc.

    Btw, I hope this doesn’t come off as whining… ; )

    • k3x says

      April 10, 2018 at 10:25 am

      Bergevin admitted that he had trouble talking to Markov. His job as GM is to sign players. He couldn’t sign Markov because he had trouble talking to him means he didn’t do his job. he should have found a way to have a proper, civilised, non confrontation, non “take it or leave it” manner. Like an actual decent human being who knew how to check that “fuck you I’m the boss” attitude at the door. Instead, he dealt with that and Radulov from a position of arrogance – yes AR accepted the same deal as the Habs offered but the thing everyone forgets is that they offered it to him AFTER Dallas offered it. Knowing the tax difference in the deals it fell on Bergevin to not only MATCH the deal but he needed to be a NEGOTIATOR and sweeten the deal to make it happen. Giving him a “take it or leave it”, or even worse “first one to bite wins” offer all but ensured that Radu would go to Dallas. As would any other decent human being that gets treated like something you found under your shoe…

  • Rick Lund says

    April 9, 2018 at 10:24 pm

    Well said. Excellent analysis. Nice to hear some common sense about what happened today , rather than the hyperbole from other media on Twitter. Thanks Brian.

  • Scott in Montreal says

    April 10, 2018 at 6:26 am

    I think it’s not that Max is emotional but how much he seems to feel sorry for himself. This is a Masterton winner who came back from a horrendous injury. Contrast with Gallagher, who never sulked for a second over his bad luck with two hand injuries, but roared back with a 30-goal season on a crap team.

  • k3x says

    April 10, 2018 at 10:15 am

    Hi Brian,

    I have had time to take all the happenings yesterday in – including your on camera take on the presser. All the commentators I follow regularly (yourself, Stu Cowan, Arpon specifically) have come back saying more or less the same thing – that there was more unsaid in that presser than said. Bergevin’s continual reference to “atitude” was probably key for me. Everyone speculates that his reference to “no one stepping up” when Weber went down was a dig at Patches, which might be true but I wonder if there might be an opportunity to, as you like saying “flip the coin” and look at it from the perspective of Bergevin’s golden child, Drouin not performing as he had hoped. He has the remainder of his contract riding on Drouin becoming a 30 goal scoring centreman, so this year’s performance won’t cut it again next season. He gave up too much and backed him too strongly for that to happen and for him to survive. I appreciate that the position needs to be learned but Drouin is clearly not a centreman. He is a winger. He loses a lot more faceoffs than he wins and he can’t be sent out with the game on the line with the coach confident he can win the draw. His insistance that Chucky is not a centre makes it easier for him to move him (especially when combined with the “atitiude” reference that he will inevitably put on every single comment Alex has made about not being 100% convinced his days at centre are over – “not a team player” -” wrong attitude”…will be what we hear when this happens. He can’t justify trading him for any other reason but make no mistake, he wants to move him. What do you think? Am I reading too much into it?

    • Brian Wilde says

      April 10, 2018 at 10:25 am

      Just a general reply to everyone if I may…. always so impressed with the comments from the subscribers here. We didn’t want to have to ever reject your comments as editors. That was our plan. And boy it feels great to report that we basically never held your thoughts back. They were always respectful to other people and didn’t denigrate anyone. Grant and I want to thank you for that. Super stuff everyone.

      • Grant McCagg says

        April 10, 2018 at 12:59 pm

        Agree one hundred percent.

      • Steve B. says

        April 10, 2018 at 8:45 pm

        I’m going to miss the respectful folks that participated in the comments through all your posts.

        Brian and Grant, despite the results of the Hans season, this has been such a fun time with Recrutes. Brian, I wish you all the best – I wish you did not have to move on. I need something to fill the COTW void!!

        • Brian Wilde says

          April 10, 2018 at 11:13 pm

          Thank you Steve. Very much. It has been one hell of a fun ride.

  • Andrew Hunter says

    April 10, 2018 at 5:57 pm

    What am i going to do next year? You are the only person in the Montreal media who looks at the big picture and speaks about things rationally and realistically. You don’t make things bigger than they really are.
    Thanks for the quality year Brian.

    • Brian Wilde says

      April 10, 2018 at 11:12 pm

      Thank you Andrew. That’s very kind.

  • Mike,p says

    April 11, 2018 at 9:44 am

    Bergy is blaming the players saying its thier fault THEY have a bad attitude. Seems the players and the rest of us all blame bergy for NOT putting the right team together.
    Bergy says oh we need character,need to build on character..ya yuh know why hes saying that? Because thats all he is able to get to come to mtl,is 3 or 4th line character players, insted of what is really needed ?
    Bergy has brainwashed or hipnotised molson into believing a teams built with character plumbers,not TALENT !! Cuz bergy knows he cant land talent and needs to con molson into keeping him, its working. Wake up geoff molson. Bergy is a BUM, 2 of the last 3 ssns not making the playoffs,never getting us a center.
    It seems that when nhl players are done in the league they are shipped out by rail,and that rail runs right thru montreal to the bell center,where bergy goes to the used bum auction and picks up some warm bodys to fill the holes he cant fill. Enough. Geoff plz hire a team president to take these decisions away from yourself.let a prez run the hockey operations!! Bergy is treading water,trying to con us character players over talent is how you build. Its not.byebye bergy.

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