TSN 690 interview with Marc Bergevin

[Filthy Dangles]

haha what a tool.

 

[LastWordArmy]

Appreciate this post - I won't pretend to know all the ins-ands-outs of the Montreal media, so I'll definitely defer to you. It's interesting that it's worse with Bergevin.

Is it with good reason though? Or is it all over the top? It's been a really poor 12 months for that organization and he's at the top

Bergevin is letting the game pass him by... he's fixated on character, grit, leadership and attitude while the rest of the league is being built on speed.

Traded Subban for Weber
2017 Deadline, picks up Steve Ott, Dwight King, Andreas Martinsen, and Jordie Benn.... these are the four additions he makes to a team that can't score enough goals.
2017 summer... lets Markov and Radulov walk... keeps 8 million in cap space, and replaces Markov with karl Alzner on a long term deal.

Most of his season ending pressers talk about character and grit, and attitude, and all the things old-school people talk about. Never talks about injection of skill for a low scoring team.

He knew on day 1 that his biggest issue was centre.

He thought he drafted one in 2012.

He entered the 2012-13 season with Desharnais Plekanec and Eller down the middle.... Galchenyuk played wing
He entered the 2013-14 season with Desharnais Plekanec and Eller down the middle.... Galchenyuk played wing
HWe entered the 2014-15 season with Desharnais Plekanec and Eller down the middle.... Galchenyuk played wing
He entered the 2015-16 season with Desharnais Plekanec and Eller down the middle.... Galchenyuk played wing, but moved to centre as the season was lost.
He entered the 2016-17 season with Galchenyuk Desharnais and Plekanec down the middle.... He ended it with Danault, Plekanec, and Andrew Shaw at Centre... we were told Galchenyuk would never play centre the next year, despite the fact he had 43 points in 45 games between his move to centre in 2016, and the start of this season (before his knee injury in december. He was a PPG in 2015-16 after moving to c, and 23 in 25 games to start the 2016-17 season. When he came back he was tried at centre, his skating wasn't there yet and he moved to wing. He was told the next season he wouldn't be tried at centre.).

We entered the 2017-18 season with Drouin, Danault, Plekanec down the middle. It ended with Drouin, De la Rose and Logan Shaw (Pleks was traded, Danault injured). Alex Galchenyuk again didn't play centre. Some players used at centre over the course of the season were natural wingers Charles Hudon, Paul Byron, Daniel Carr, and Andrew Shaw. All took priority over Galchenyuk.

Now this isn't a critique of the Galchenyuk situation (though it can be read that way).

The critique really is how have you not addressed the position in 6 years?

In 6 years, you managed to shuffle a bunch of fourth line centres.... acquire a 2nd/3rd line tweener in Danault... acquire a winger in Drouin and force him to play centre with disastrous results. Thats the extent of the attempts to solve the problem which was the team's biggest issue on the day you were hired. In the meantime, the legit top 6 centre you had in Tomas Plekanec, is now 6 years older, and is no longer a top 6 and you traded him (and rightfully so in the circumstances).

On the other end, you did nothing to address LHD, with a puck moving defender to replace Markov. He was a stud when you came in, but everyone could see he was aging. When he finally left the solution was Karl Alzner and Mark Streit.

 

[chaosrevolver]

I personally think it's long overdue. Bergevin made a good first impression because he had some charisma and looked a lot more genuine than Gauthier who looked borderline creepy before him. It was a breath of fresh air, and even among fans he was one of the top candidate for the GM job at the time, so it was sort of an unanimous call. He seemed confident and he was coming out of Chicago, so people just figured he knew what he was doing.

But the more the pressure has built on, the less he could keep up the façade. The first time I recall he was at odds with a large portion of the fan base was the first contractual dispute with Subban where he forced him into a bridge deal which eventually came back to bite him in the ass - to no one's surprise.

But what really made him fall out of favor with the fan base is his over-commitment to Therrien, and by repercussion the fact the organization as a whole decided to favor a guy like Desharnais on the organizational depth chart instead of developing guys like Galchenyuk and Eller. That was the first big crack in the foundation. The Subban trade is what made a lot of people completely jump ship. That's when a lot of people realized he had no idea what he was doing. Not long before that you had the Shaw trade in spite of the fact he claimed multiple times he wanted to build this team through the draft, and the contract that followed shortly after was even worst than the trade in and of itself. And as people started calling him out, you quickly say the charisma and the confidence fade, and we were left with some kind of insecure narcissist that never really managed to own his mistakes. How ironic that this team's motto used to be "no excuses" when Therrien first came on board. The fact they started to pull excuses one after the other to explain whatever would ill the team at a given time ended up being such a comedy source that they had to get rid of the motto altogether. No joke, that actually happened.

The end result being, you have a guy here that took a team that had a 25 years old Carey Price, 23 years old Subban, Pacioretty and Eller, 20 years old Gallagher, 19 years old Beaulieu, a 3rd overall pick, and a decent amount of solid players in their prime like Plekanec, Markov, Cole, Gionta. The mission at that point was a fairly simple one. Find/develop a #1 center and surround your three young studs so that 5 years down the line you have a team that can hope to compete for a cup. Bergevin however never really had anything close to a long term plan and we find ourselves in the situation we're in today. We should be peaking right now and instead we're looking at a second lottery pick in 3 years. Our then young core is now in its 30s and won't hold up forever and after saying all these years he wanted us to build through the draft, we're currently sitting with one of the absolute worst prospect pool in the entire league.

So yeah, I do think it's with good reason. He managed to spoil the best young core this team had to work with in years, and he can thank Price for keeping up the appearances that this was a solid team for even a couple years, because even when we were winning division titles, everyone knew the team as a whole didn't play at that level. Bergevin didn't, though.

This..literally exactly this. Perfectly said.

 

[Belial]

Basically, Mitch Melnick absolutely roasted Marc Bergevin in their interview the other day and now the clip has mysteriously disappeared from their website. Rod Francis' (the show's producer) tweet made it very clear that they were forced to remove it.



This isn't the first time that the Habs pull a stunt like this but what makes it even more pathetic is that this comes just days after Geoff Molson promised the fans and media that they'd be more transparent and open with everyone.

The interview can still be heard here:

[

I'd recommend listening to it ASAP before the Habs get to it.

[mod]

The segment is on the tsn website! I just listened to it.

 

[LastWordArmy]

It was down for several hours. It is now back up.

Why.

and why couldn't they tell us why it was down?

If its something like a tech issue why wouldn't francis say that. Why is he all, oh i'm not allowed to talk about it...

 

[Peasy]

I thought some of the questions were quite ridiculous.

Why in the world are you comparing Washington to Montreal?

 

[Gurilla]

He ripped into him. I love it.

 

[Kranix]

The Canadiens probably just said if you don't take that down we won't give you media access. Sports "Journalism"

 

[BLONG7]

What's that old saying about controlling the media and having power or something? I don't remember. But this is some silly drama here.

Just two days after saying they will be more transparent...? WTF?

 

[Perrah]

I thought some of the questions were quite ridiculous.

Why in the world are you comparing Washington to Montreal?

Pretty simple. Holtby also had a shitty year yet his record is still 34-16-4 and washington still made the playoffs with 105 points. Bergevin when asked why the habs were 29th in the league in scoring said it all starts with Carey Price, meaning his bad year. The guy got asked a f***ing question about his offense in the end of the year press conference and blamed the goalie. Why can the caps have their goalie put up similar numbers and make the playoffs and the habs cant contend for a spot the whole year?

 

[Filthy Dangles]

I personally think it's long overdue. Bergevin made a good first impression because he had some charisma and looked a lot more genuine than Gauthier who looked borderline creepy before him. It was a breath of fresh air, and even among fans he was one of the top candidate for the GM job at the time, so it was sort of an unanimous call. He seemed confident and he was coming out of Chicago, so people just figured he knew what he was doing.

But the more the pressure has built on, the less he could keep up the façade. The first time I recall he was at odds with a large portion of the fan base was the first contractual dispute with Subban where he forced him into a bridge deal which eventually came back to bite him in the ass - to no one's surprise.

But what really made him fall out of favor with the fan base is his over-commitment to Therrien, and by repercussion the fact the organization as a whole decided to favor a guy like Desharnais on the organizational depth chart instead of developing guys like Galchenyuk and Eller. That was the first big crack in the foundation. The Subban trade is what made a lot of people completely jump ship. That's when a lot of people realized he had no idea what he was doing. Not long before that you had the Shaw trade in spite of the fact he claimed multiple times he wanted to build this team through the draft, and the contract that followed shortly after was even worst than the trade in and of itself. And as people started calling him out, you quickly say the charisma and the confidence fade, and we were left with some kind of insecure narcissist that never really managed to own his mistakes. How ironic that this team's motto used to be "no excuses" when Therrien first came on board. The fact they started to pull excuses one after the other to explain whatever would ill the team at a given time ended up being such a comedy source that they had to get rid of the motto altogether. No joke, that actually happened.

The end result being, you have a guy here that took a team that had a 25 years old Carey Price, 23 years old Subban, Pacioretty and Eller, 20 years old Gallagher, 19 years old Beaulieu, a 3rd overall pick, and a decent amount of solid players in their prime like Plekanec, Markov, Cole, Gionta. The mission at that point was a fairly simple one. Find/develop a #1 center and surround your three young studs so that 5 years down the line you have a team that can hope to compete for a cup. Bergevin however never really had anything close to a long term plan and we find ourselves in the situation we're in today. We should be peaking right now and instead we're looking at a second lottery pick in 3 years. Our then young core is now in its 30s and won't hold up forever and after saying all these years he wanted us to build through the draft, we're currently sitting with one of the absolute worst prospect pool in the entire league.

So yeah, I do think it's with good reason. He managed to spoil the best young core this team had to work with in years, and he can thank Price for keeping up the appearances that this was a solid team for even a couple years, because even when we were winning division titles, everyone knew the team as a whole didn't play at that level. Bergevin didn't, though.

This needs more recognition. Also MB and the Canadian media need to see this.

 

[Daisy Jane]

You have to know your market.

It used to be very similar here in Toronto - the Leafs and their media used to have a very antagonistic relationship with one another.

But that's changed recently - you don't get the flaming come backs or the sarcastic questions or the harsh tones anymore, because it's all managed far more professionally.

I would say Shanahan's "i'm going to be honest and transparent as much as I can" policy, something that's filtered through to Lou (to a point) and Babcock made a big difference too. When we weren't good (and then when we really weren't good), Shanahan didn't mince words. at all. (now i haven't heard the interview, but if the argument is "it's hard to find centres" i bring up this post.

What? Nobody guessed on Staal, Turris and Karlsson? Minnesota, Nashville and LVGK did! That's why they are in the playoffs and the Montreal Canadiens are one of the worst teams in the league. Bergevin has not been able to get this team a SINGLE centerman in SIX YEARS! Nashville got 3 in one year. That's what good teams do. No excuses.

and so did Dallas (like Spezza and Seguin).
and you can't really argue that it all was inter-divisional so that wouldn't work out. that didn't stop Bergevin from trading his only trade chip for someone who doesn't help the situation. at all, and all he does is blame it on 'attitude' and and other stuff, instead of saying "you know, i have to do better. i done goofed up."

 

[Sol]

The only reason people are saying Bergevin sounds reasonable or whatever right now is because they're listening to this without context.


He literally said that he has zero insight on how players operate because he constantly gives up on players or doesn't go the extra mile to get them.. Look at his roster from before to now. Tell me how that person shouldn't get raked over the coals. He then tries to throw Price under the bus and then get the video removed?

He tried to play the sympathy card Oh boo hoo. I can't believe people feel like he got blindsided.


No crystal ball? Sure. But zero foresight as a GM? Get out of here with your bs

 

[filthyMitz]

Did he say he picked Galchenyuk at #20 or did I mishear?

 

[PuckSeparator]

Marc Bergevin is the worst GM in Canadiens history and probably the dumbest GM in NHL history. It's incomprehensible how this man has a job running a billion dollar organization when you listen to him talk. He has no education, no knowledge (he constantly looks dumb, he just recently said that Real Madrid weren't going to the World Cup...), terrible decision-making (PK bridge deal, Price mega extension, etc...) and is fixated on dated principles. He's also stubborn as an ox and refuses to learn from his mistakes. I honestly can't remember another GM fraud of the same magnitude as Marc Bergevin... he really should be flipping burgers at the local poutine shop instead of being paid millions to wear purple pants.

 

[TOGuy14]

I laughed at the part where he had to ask the guys if Grubauer had a good year or not and what his stats were.

How do you now know the goaltending situation of a conference rival, even at a high level?

 

[Dongstoppable]

Wow what a defensive asshole. Melnick absolutely nails him, he's right about everything, and he gets non-answers and defensive bullshit. Terrible look for the Montreal organization and I see why they're trying to cover it up. Hope this blows up on Twitter and contributes to getting Bergevin out, because it's clear from this interview and every other one that he has absolutely no idea why the team sucked this year, and what to do about it.

 

[eddie416]

Not trying to defend MG here (he's made a lot of bad decisions), but the interviewers giving MG shit about centremen such as Staal, Johansen, etc is crap. Montreal would've had his head if they signed Staal after what he did with NYR. Just because he wasn't able to trade for one of those top centremen, doesn't mean it was possible in the first place.

Did he have a Seth Jones to trade? Maybe Bonino didn't want to play in Montreal. Maybe they didn't have enough to get Turris. They seem to be just attacking him for things that may not have been in his control.

Attacking him for things like trading Subban for Weber is reasonable.

 

[PuckSeparator]

Not trying to defend MG here (he's made a lot of bad decisions), but the interviewers giving MG **** about centremen such as Staal, Johansen, etc is crap. Montreal would've had his head if they signed Staal after what he did with NYR. Just because he wasn't able to trade for one of those top centremen, doesn't mean it was possible in the first place.

Did he have a Seth Jones to trade? Maybe Bonino didn't want to play in Montreal. Maybe they didn't have enough to get Turris. They seem to be just attacking him for things that may not have been in his control.

Attacking him for things like trading Subban for Weber is reasonable.

He's had 6 years to find a decent top 6 centerman, the only thing we have to show for it these days is a square peg (Drouin) that he's trying to fit into a round hole (#1C). At his most recent presser where he got roasted pretty good, he was wishy washy about a lot of things besides one: that Galchenyuk is not a C. The same Galchenyuk that played the best hockey of his life at that position and that's clearly a better fit there than his golden boy Drouin that he acquired for a king's ransom last year.

I have my doubts that Julien is that stupid or that blind as a coach, so the only obvious explanation in all of this is that Marc Bergevin has become a serious nuisance to the Habs' success by meddling into things he has no business meddling in.

 

[LeafFever]

That press conference was pretty shocking. He would not accept any blame and tried to say it was all "Attitude" so he could not get blamed. You built the team!

 

[dukeofjive]

The good thing i got from the year end presser is that molson looked pissed at some of bergevins answers, heres hoping he can get ride of him before he dammages the team even more.

Bergevin goin from its a character issue to an attitude issue is a joke.

 

[playasRus]

I thought some of the questions were quite ridiculous.

Why in the world are you comparing Washington to Montreal?

It's funny because Melnick completely ignores Bergevin's answer. I agree that MB has done a shitty job as GM, but "Washington is in the playoffs without their #1 goalie, why can't Montreal do the same?" is ridiculous. Maybe because their backup is having a career year that rivals both Price and Holtby's career averages? Maybe because Washington's forward group is one of the best in the league, backed up with great goaltending and a young D man having a vezina worthy season?

 

[Godzilla]

Did they talk about the Sergachev trade in there at all?

And do you think Sergachev would have had the same numbers had he stayed in Montreal? Im so tired about hearing about this trade as a flop, because God knows that Drouin would have had a much better year had he been with Tampa. We traded for a top six winger and expected him to be our first line center. What kind of success did you expect him to have? Sergachev played sheltered minutes on a loaded defense corps where he didn't have to face the best of the best every night. With Montreal, he would have been in a top 4 position playing against the toughest players on each team on a nightly basis, exactly like Mete was who was not ready for that either and struggled.

 

[beowulf]

Nothing surprises me anymore with the clowns in charge. Sad time for my hometown team that I've followed my whole life.

 

[Price is Wright]

Not trying to defend MG here (he's made a lot of bad decisions), but the interviewers giving MG **** about centremen such as Staal, Johansen, etc is crap. Montreal would've had his head if they signed Staal after what he did with NYR. Just because he wasn't able to trade for one of those top centremen, doesn't mean it was possible in the first place.

He's made moves in the past he got trashed for that everyone credited him after. The best examples being Diaz for Weise and picking up Byron on waivers. If the Drouin experiment worked nobody would be trashing him for it. It didn't though. He's forcing a natural winger to play centre. I say force because he admitted he should be on the wing.