A letter from Louis Leblanc (in french)

[HockeyDBspecialist]

Joel Bouchard would not have change any of that.

I beg to differ and to ask you, how would you know ?
Leblanc had the raw Talent but was destroyed mentally. Have you even read the article, a lot about Sylvain was true and he was a terrible coach for young aduluts ?

I have way more faith in the AHL system this year, and if you think Sylvain was good I suggest you look at our farm team since his hiring

 

[Naslund]

I beg to differ and to ask you, how would you know ?
Leblanc had the raw Talent but was destroyed mentally. Have you even read the article, a lot about Sylvain was true and he was a terrible coach for young aduluts ?

I have way more faith in the AHL system this year, and if you think Sylvain was good I suggest you look at our farm team since his hiring

The farm team still seems to me the same bottom-feeding team it was under Lefebvre. Although, I agree that's it's possible that the atmosphere is different. Bouchard seems to be a better communicator, which is important.

Regarding LeBlanc, no he did not have the raw talent. He had some talent, just not enough to make it. I think this should be pretty clear. Louis did not say that Lefebvre was a terrible coach in the article. He just said that the new coaching staff was colder with him than the previous one. I bet they were equally colder with all prospects on the team, that was their style. They probably felt that challenging LeBlanc a little bit needed to be done to see if he could find another gear required for him to become an NHL player. LeBlanc did not have another gear, and he busted. End of story.

 

[1909]

He writes that Anaheim and Buffalo had lots of interest in him. Not much discussions with the Habs. He was kind of puzzled when Buffalo took Kassian and Anaheim took Peter Holland.

 

[Gustave]

Did you read the article? Leblanc made no such statement.

À mon arrivée, j’ai ressenti immédiatement que quelque chose clochait. Il y avait un froid. Avec les entraîneurs, peut-être? Je ne le sais pas. Pourtant, je n’étais pas arrogant. Je n’avais jamais vécu ça. J’avais l’impression de ne pas être le bienvenue.

 

[FF de Mars]

The guy is intelligent, knows hockey from within, and has contacts, he'll probably end up getting hired in management by an nhl team.

 

[Kriss E]

This happened to Louis because he just was not good enough. Should he have receive special treatment because he was a first-round pick? He just was not good enough, that's why he fell down the totem pole.

Euh...ya, duh!
What kind of a moron GM is going to look at his list of drafted guys and then say ''let me invest as much energy and trust in that 200th we just grabbed vs the 18th''..

Leblanc ''wasn't good enough''...hmm, what period are you referring to? His potential was definitely good enough. His performance as a rookie, again, was definitely indictive of being good enough to become a 3rd-4th bottom liner, or at the very least, he could play in the AHL as a regular. That didn't even stick though.
I also love the argument about how a kid who's lost 3 good years of development is supposed to just shrug that away and start from scratch because he gets moved. Those wasted years make or break careers. Almost no prospect ever recovers from that.
None of that actually means Leblanc would have become a good NHLer, but to suggest Sly didn't completely mess up himself is just as nuts.
Both scenarios could still be true. Maybe Leblanc never makes it in the end, even if you gave him all the chances and opportunities with the best coach. It doesn't excuse the terrible job Sly did at handling this asset.
Same goes for Tinordi. Maybe he never makes it. Still doesn't make it okay how they tried to make or let him feel like he needs to fight every moron on the other side, even enforcers, until he got his clock ringed for good. Or that it was totally a-okay to keep him as a scratch for like 3 months in the NHL.

One thing doesn't excuse the other.

 

[HockeyDBspecialist]

He just said that the new coaching staff was colder with him than the previous one.

no he did not, read again.
"À mon arrivée, j’ai ressenti immédiatement que quelque chose clochait. Il y avait un froid. Avec les entraîneurs, peut-être? Je ne le sais pas. Pourtant, je n’étais pas arrogant. Je n’avais jamais vécu ça. J’avais l’impression de ne pas être le bienvenue."

traduction: " I was working hard and well, but I had never been so badly received in a team like I was with Sylvain" it's not just "old man being cold" he received a different look and they didnt want him THERE.

 

[Harry Kakalovich]

He had his chances. Maybe with his slight frame staying at Harvard longer would have been better for him.

 

[Number 57]

Reading the letter, it strikes me that LeBlanc still does not quite realize that he did not have it, that he was just not good enough to be a NHL player. He played in the NHL at 20, and he probably thought that he deserved to be there like many heralded young prospects. However, the organization rightly saw that this was not the case, and they decided to treat him like any other prospect in the organzization and let him earn a future call-up. It must have felt unjust for LeBlanc because all his hockey life he was the chosen one, but it was the right thing to do because he just was not as good as he thought he was. Lefebvre was probably tough but fair with him, and LeBlanc folded under the new reality.

I think LeBlanc busting is not that surprising. As an athlete, he looked very underwhelming. He was not really fast, nor strong. I don't remember him tearing the QMJHL at 19. I think he was probably a player that peaked early (Midget level) because of his smarts on the ice, but when the competition got more intense, his athleticism (or lack of) resulted in his demise. Also, I don't thing he was willing to "fight" for it. Average players like him only make it out of the large pool if they give it everything, and LeBlanc was not that guy.

He was just a bad pick. I think Timmins was on the fence with him and Kreider, and picked the wrong one. It happens to all scouts. I agree with Louis that it's time for people to move on.

Agreed

 

[MXD]

- Smart and skilled people can sometimes be perceived as arrogant if they happen to be aloof as well.
- I'm still convinced that, while it was obvious came, say, 2012 that Leblanc was no star in the making, that the injury he suffered while fighting Jesse Blacker brought some permanent damage.
- Leblanc might have felt entitled to something he did not quite deserve (a roster spot) by then. But he was also a very young man.

 

[Grate n Colorful Oz]

The story of Sly grows by the day. How a single man ruined more than ten careers, almost cost Timmins his job.

Development and coaching are overrated

 

[Grate n Colorful Oz]

Genetics over epigenetics, everyday of the week.

Do you even know what you are talking about?

Behavior (confidence) has much more to do with neuroplasticity than genes. Biological destiny and genetic determinism don't exist. You're stuck in the old millenium.

 

[Belial]

Coaches destroying careers is such a f***ing dumb logic! Geez...

If Leblanc was as good as he thought he was why couldn't he show something on a third line in the AHL and prove his stupid coach wrong?

He felt victimized and did f***all to prove anything! He just crumbled and went home with the idea that he was mistreated!?

No surprise this guy busted! Gimme a break...

 

[Darz]

Interesting and enjoyable read. Always like hearing some insight into stories, we think we know something about. Granted it is only one side of the story, but still.

I liked hearing that MB still is contact with him. If a smart, former player, Harvard grad, is thinking about getting into professional hockey management as a career, I'm glad to hear our GM is befriending him and keeping the lines of communications open. These are the type of things a GM does that can be very beneficial to a club that fans never hear about.

As far as the pick goes, the 2009 draft from Louis pick at 19 until the end of the 1st round wasnt exactly filled with future superstars. I think it was one of those swing for the fences type picks, that didn't work out. Swing for the fences picks tend to miss much more than they hit, but fans like to see the team take the swings, but then blame them for the misses.

 

[Milhouse40]

What i saw in Leblanc.....still see the same thing in his letter.
Of course, that's the job of coach and management to work those problems and develop the attitude of the kid, but at some point if you are not happy you have to take control of your own life.

"Poor me, i was on the 3rd line and not getting PP"
"Poor me, the organization put pressure on me to leave Harvard"
"Poor me, i felt unwelcome at training camp"
"Poor me, i have some injury"
"Poor me, i never felt this bad in my career and had a hard time"
"Poor me, i proved i could play at the NHL and AHL level"

The guy put up 10 points in 42 games in the NHL and thought he has earned PP time and top 6 minutes and even today, complained about it. Never even put up 30 points in the AHL but according to him he proved he was able to play in the NHL......and get PP time on top of that.

Sure the organization and Lefebvre didn't help....but i hate whiners and he sounds like one.

The tweets his girlfriend put up whinning because he was cut and wasn't been given what he thought he should have receive is another example.....just like retiring at 25 years old, not even trying to fight ffor it like guys like Martin St-Louis who step into the league at 25 or even little Desharnais shows that this kid wasn't ready to fight for what he wanted.

 

[Runner77]

Too bad we didn't get the acrimony directly from Leblanc when he was cut from the Habs's training camp in 2013:

Louis Leblanc didn’t address the media after the Montreal Canadiens sent him to the minors this week, but his girlfriend and tennis pro Aleksandra Wozniak had something to say about the demotion.

The Habs cut the centre Monday following the team’s defeat at the hands of the Boston Bruins, prompting angry tirades from Wozniak, who was once Canada’s top-ranked tennis player.

“He did everything the CH organization told him to do and what…got cut this early?!” Wozniak, now ranked 377th in the world, tweeted on Tuesday afternoon.

Leblanc was one of five forwards reassigned to the AHL’s Hamilton Bulldogs, and the Canadiens already had five centres in their rotation, but Wozniak still wasn’t impressed.

“A real joke with the worst excuse for cutting someone,” she wrote in a separate French tweet. “Really not a “fair shot”! Too much manipulation!”

The Montrealer later removed her tweets but not before they made national headlines.

Someone must have fed Wozniak the basis for the lack of a "fair shot" and "manipulation". It couldn't possibly have been Louis "I don't know what happened" Leblanc, right?

I don't know what the point of this piece is other than Leblanc trying to rehabilitate his public image and trying to make his way back into the pro hockey world in an executive capacity. Anyone knows that you're not going to get too far if in the process, you start naming names and settling accounts with perceived or actual offenders. So, Therrien, Lefebvre and MB are all off limits, all of them off the hook because of the oldest excuse in the book: not knowing what happened.

He damn well knows what happened. And he also knows better than to burn bridges. Good for him that he's got career options and has a strong connection with Harvard.

But this letter to "haters", I'm not moved by it. Why the incendiary reference? Why not simply a letter to fans. Or better still, no letter.

Who cares, so long as you're a remotely public figure or are on social media, you'll get your share of haters. Why give them any significance?

Leblanc is lucky that he has choices and didn't get out of it with a debilitating injury. Sometimes the less said, the less public waves, the better. Keep having your beers with MB, the rest doesn't do anything to shed light on the Lefebvre years or on anything else that is tangible for a Hab fan.

 

[Whitesnake]

This happened to Louis because he just was not good enough. Should he have receive special treatment because he was a first-round pick? He just was not good enough, that's why he fell down the totem pole.

People have some kind of trouble reading. This not good enough kid is talking during the lock out year. 12-13. That, is immediately after his first stint in the NHL when he did good. That followed a 1st season in Hamilton when he had 22 points in 31 games. So what you are telling me is that it made complete sense to f*** with a kid's mind because he wasn't good enough despite a 1st pro season with 22 points in 31 games and being good enough to be in the NHL the year after? All this at 21-22 years old????

 

[Whitesnake]

Who did Lefebvre killed? Beaulieu, LeBlanc, Tinordi, McCarron, Sherbak? The main reason why these guys are not NHL players is because they are not good enough to be NHL players. They were bad draft picks, that's what they were. Joel Bouchard would not have change any of that.

There is absolutely NO WAY for you to state this. No way at all. What we have to say that Lefebvre sucked as a develpment coach is all the reports that he wasn't acting the way he should, the fact that way too late...he ended up being fired.....the fact that most players never panned out. While what you have to proof that they were just bad picks that you couldn't develop is.....nothing.

I'm now in a camp that I would see Timmins being fired and if replaced accordingly, I wouldn't care. But to dismiss any wrongdoings from Lefebvre is laughable.

 

[scrubadam]

I hope people read the article to see he doesn't really say anything about Sly.

Anyways he was a bust, there are plenty of them every year. I mean he talks about Peter Holland being drafted before him. Where is he now? Busted too. Is he going to write a letter explaning how it was everyone else's fault.

Even reading it it sounds like he never had interest or desire really. He didn't know what he wanted to do and it sounds like he regrets going to JR but he didn't have the principals to stand up for his preferred choice. How many players stay in NCAA every year. The he has a few good games and it sounds like he felt a bit entitled and then mentions his injury which probably had a bigger effect then Sly on his career.

I don't think there needs to be any explanation why a player busts. 100's of players bust every year. Explaning why players make it is more interesting. You busted because you aren't as good as the top .1% of hockey players that can carve out a career playing in the best league in the world.

 

[Mrb1p]

Coaches destroying careers is such a ****ing dumb logic! Geez...

If Leblanc was as good as he thought he was why couldn't he show something on a third line in the AHL and prove his stupid coach wrong?

He felt victimized and did ****all to prove anything! He just crumbled and went home with the idea that he was mistreated!?

No surprise this guy busted! Gimme a break...

First off, he showed he belong in the NHL, so your point is moot.

Second off, why not work WITH players to see them succeed instead of having this hard ass mentality ?

 

[Belial]

First off, he showed he belong in the NHL, so your point is moot.

Second off, why not work WITH players to see them succeed instead of having this hard ass mentality ?

He showed shit my friend!

Agostino had 11 points in like 16 games played earlier in the season and then just disappeared because it was just a hot streak and some luck involved.

Is Hudon an NHLer in your opinion? He got 30 points in 72 games played last year!

Leblanc has 10 freaking points in 50 games and you think he proved he belongs in the NHL? Please...

 

[Mrb1p]

He showed **** my friend!

Agostino had 11 points in like 16 games played earlier in the season and then just disappeared because it was just a hot streak and some luck involved.

Is Hudon an NHLer in your opinion? He got 30 points in 72 games played last year!

Leblanc has 10 freaking points in 50 games and you think he proved he belongs in the NHL? Please...

Further than points, Leblanc looked really good when he played here. He was hustling hard, he won most of his battles and he produced a bit.

It's weird that he's getting blamed for not "working for it" when... he's basically one of the hardest worker on the ice...

 

[Habby4Life]

He showed **** my friend!

Agostino had 11 points in like 16 games played earlier in the season and then just disappeared because it was just a hot streak and some luck involved.

Is Hudon an NHLer in your opinion? He got 30 points in 72 games played last year!

Leblanc has 10 freaking points in 50 games and you think he proved he belongs in the NHL? Please...

If he showed he belonged in the NHL he would have stuck somewhere even if it was not MTL. He showed **** and was a bust period.

 

[LyricalLyricist]

The article doesn't really say much. I feel it's a lot of Leblanc just letting it off his chest and letting people know he tried and he's proud of it. He's a good kid, a smart one too. I guess he struggles with the notion he failed but at one point he was in the group of the best hockey players in the world, that's success. It's nice to see MB still talks to him and it's nice to see he's done his degree and has high ambitions as well.

In terms of why he didn't succeed, he doesn't know where to pin point it but I think he struggled with being sent back down. He says he was frustrated after working hard and getting sent down. He doesn't say much about the tactics itself, only that in NHL he played limited minutes and AHL he felt a vibe had changed under new management. I think this may just be the pressure was getting to him though and his passion wavered as everything started to weigh down on him.

Regardless, I hope the guy has success. With his degree at Harvard and background he may just end up very successful elsewhere anyway.

 

[scrubadam]

Even if Sly was a hard ass and MB and the staff didn't show him love, guess what they were correct.

at 25 when most NHL players should be hitting their stride and having their best seasons Leblanc is retired.

The ROI on Leblanc wasn't going to pay off. If the staff recognized that early then they had insight. His career went nowhere and in his prime he is sitting on his couch done with it. Why invest into something that is going to give you negative results.

I don't think they treated him badly on purpose. Either they were challanging him or playing him where he deserved to be, but clearly the results show that investing in the kid wasn't going to pay off.

Guys like Hudon and Ghetto managed to have good AHL seasons under Sly so I don't maybe he just hates harvard I guess.