Looking at how the sens handle adversity there's one thing i will say about MB and MT. While i don't like MT much the team is really really well managed outside the ice.
There's no wild stories like there used to be before MB. Like when Demers cried on the antechamber when the Kostitsyn where supposed to be arrested and sent in jail for the rest of their live or when O'byrne stolen a purses or when Kovalev had to have diner with Gainey 10 times a year and Gainey would let the journalists speculate about the purpose of said diner. You don't see that anymore with MB. The focus is 100% on the team and the game on the ice.
I'm sure our management would have handled the stone injury differently.
MT would have said that he thinks it deserves a suspension but it will be up to the league to decide.
And the official injury report would have been upper body injury and day to day.
Neil would not have been part of the lineup before the game probably someone able to "replace" stone like Bournival or something.
Any organization, companies, team, collectivity, family follow the image, the philosophy, the personality of the leader. A good leader will reflect a lot of his (good) values, images, belief and transmit it down the pipeline.
I had some doubt about Marc Bergevin at the beginning fearing he wanted the show instead of making the team the show. Some questionable decisions (any GMs will have questionable decisions) but he won me over. Marc Bergevin truly changed the behavior, the vibe of this organization and there's a lot of him in that.
MB was a player but a marginal player, not a star. He still managed to play over a 1000 games in the NHL with 36 goals and 145 pts. This is a pretty ordinary career or pretty extraordinary career depending on how you see it. He earned it for sure.
He was known to be loved by teammates, it means he has good human qualities, he's funny, he was the clown. This is very important, it means he doesn't take himself too seriously. It's not about him.
He worked his way up to the management position, he didn't get a free pass, he didn't use any of his 'prestige' ex player to get where he is. One more time, he earned it.
Marc Bergevin has a lot of qualities in what I consider a great leader. He put the team on top, it was about the team. He shows human quality, very humble, close to the public. His dancing was epic. At the same time, he showed that he possesses those qualities that made him special at his position.
1-His player, team, evaluation seems pretty good. He saw things that ordinary people don't. This is probably the most important quality needed from a GM job.
2-Excellent negotiator, evaluator of players market: Players he got from trade deadline are better than expected considering the paid price. He the only one I can tell that put a smile on my face on those trades he made. It was never seen from ex management as far as I remember. This is probably the second most important quality of a GM. Habs fans are so used of overpaying players to play in Montreal crab as the lame excuse from ex GMs. Habs fans are also used to the bad asset management so it's so refreshing to have someone with competent through action and not competent through image + perception.
3-He seems to recognize, accept and correct his errors quickly. This is a quality a lot of leaders can't/don't possess because it's could be a natural opposite character to another fundamental quality of leader: don't accept defeat, give up. It's the war that matter, not the battle. Way easier said than done.
NHL suffers a lot from this. A lot of country clubs, a lot of incompetent, unqualified people got the most important job of an organization based on....prestige and ran that organization to the ground for years.
Shanahan is the opposite of Marc Bergevin. Leafs fans are so happy because they don't have any choice other than feeding on hope.
Shanahan present all the traits of an exec who doesn't earn his right but rather using his influence, tricks, manipulation to obtain what he wants. He hasn't show anything remotely close to a leader quality, or a talent evaluator quality, or simply a sign of someone you can trust. He mostly showed that he wanted to run the show with the least responsibility or accountability possible. Leader on sunny days, Boss on rainy days.
If I am a soldier, I go to war with MB. Never, never with Shannahan.
