With the Montreal Canadians now officially eliminated from the playoffs I need you to consider this. Did an important off ice decision lead to their demise?
Should General Manager Marc Bergevin and Head Coach Claude Julien have let forward Paul Byron accept the challenge from Mackenzie Weegar to fight? The Canadians were in a playoff race with Columbus and Carolina. Byron is a key part of the offense and good on the PK, so why in the name of Sam Pollack did they let him accept the challenge? He should have been told do not fight, the team needs you score not fight. If you have to, do it another night. Two nights later the Canadians are playing Columbus without one of their best players and get beat 6-2. That loss but the team on life support. Montreal needs Byron in the line-up every night if they wanted to get to the post season. Instead, there was a gap in leadership of the Canadians. It came from the players and more importantly it came from the management. The leadership gap caused Byron to miss four very important games and put undue stress on a line-up that did not need it. Byron did return, but he was not 100%.
Just wondering if owner Geoff Molson happened to notice? I did and I am not even a Habs fan.
Until next time!
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