Still can't figure how Burningbin skipped over Robinson. That is fire able right there. Its rare to have a great player go on to be a great coach. Yet somehow mediocre JJD Dman becomes and even worse D coach. Staggeringly bad results.
"So sorry about dat personal issue you have Larry, I certainly can't wait around for you more than a day. I guess my childhood friend gets the job because 'merit'???"
Rejean Houle as President of the Canadiens Alumni Association is the only "old guard" Hab involved in the organization since Bergevin took office. When it comes to the 80s and 90s teams, the only ones would be Muller, Daignault, Bordeleau, and Ramage (at least two of them have personal history with Bergevin). Audette and Bouillon would be 00s guys. Every other former player didn't play in Montreal (Bergevin, Mellanby, Lapointe, Burke, Churla, Lefebvre) and as you can see there's a lot of them.
It really makes you wonder if Bergevin wanted to avoid having a person from the 70s dynasty involved, since it would be hard to win a political battle with a guy like Larry Robinson on what direction the team should go. Much easier to win that argument if it's an old buddy like J.J.
I'm not saying having someone formerly from the club is an automatic advantage. It's just interesting that even when you look at the resumes of the former players, the only guy with some real credibility was Kirk Muller, and he was here prior to Bergevin with the Gainey organization. When they need a skills consultant they don't goto Alex Kovalev or Pierre Turgeon, they goto Sebastien Bordeleau? When they need guys for player development they goto Rampage Ramage and Cube? Why is Guy Lapointe working for the Minnesota Wild and Larry Robinson working with the St. Louis Blues? Why when Mike Komisarek and Blake Geoffrion were looking for jobs, they stayed away from Montreal?
I can't be the only one realizing that former Habs stay away from the team these days, and the closest they get to it is a media job. Doesn't feel like a coincidence.