They must be doomed, seeing as the mastermind of any degree of success the Canadiens have had since the beginning of last season is apparently ready to jump ship, and the lone cause of any of their defects will remain behind.

Almost everyone assumed that Kirk Muller would be leaving his job as an assistant coach at some point, probably next season, but no one has reported it as definitively as Francois Gagnon did in La Presse Tuesday.

How will the team survive this death blow? Because it's so abundantly obvious that Jacques Martin has absolutely no sense for the game whatsoever, based on what I hear and read on a near daily basis on the radio airwaves and on Twitter, that the Canadiens may as well just write off next season.

If you haven't caught on to my sarcasm by now, shame on you.

I don't want to belittle Muller's importance to the Canadiens, because that would be thoroughly unfair. He plays a key role on the team as a conduit between Martin and the players, he's often seen drawing up plays on the bench during timeouts, he's a key motivator because the players relate to him and he relates to them.

All of that, and more, makes Muller a key member of the coaching staff, which is why he was the only one who survived the firing of Guy Carbonneau and why he will surely find work as an NHL head coach next season.

But his departure will undoubtedly get the chorus started again from people who believe Muller singlehandedly took over the coaching in last season's playoffs, that because he is the one drawing up the plays behind the bench he must be the one actually running the team.

That is not only ridiculous; it does a great disservice to a coach who has actually produced some pretty impressive results in the face of trying circumstances.

How many hurdles must he clear?

First off, let's start with the fact the Canadiens turned over literally half their roster last season. Martin showed up to a new team without a single established forward line or defence pairing intact, and there were massive question marks surrounding his goaltending situation as well.

It took him some time, but I would say Martin – surely with the input of Muller – managed to get some cohesion going on this team in pretty short order, considering the size of the task at hand.

In the meantime, while trying to figure this jigsaw puzzle out, the team played well enough to keep its head above water so that once it figured things out – sometime around the Olympic break – they were still in a position to make a run to the playoffs.

Then there's the fact that Martin has coached far more games without Andrei Markov than he has with his best player in the lineup.

Tuesday night, Martin will coach his 151st game as coach of the Canadiens, including last season's 19 playoff games, and Markov has played in only 60 of them. In spite of that, Martin has a 75-60-15 record through his first 150 games as coach of the Canadiens, winning half his games even though his best player's been injured 60 per cent of the time.

That's not even taking into account serious injuries to Hal Gill, Brian Gionta, Michael Cammalleri (twice), Josh Gorges and others over the past two seasons, but that's something every team goes through. Losing your best player for a good chunk of two seasons in a row is not nearly as common.

There's also a lot of people out there who feel last year's playoff run was not only orchestrated by Muller, but that it was done solely on the back of Jaroslav Halak.

Again, Muller had a big impact in last season's playoffs – there's no denying that – and without Halak the Canadiens would have probably lost in six games to the Capitals.

But isn't it also possible that Martin's playoff philosophy was built around his knowledge that he had a goalie who would make the first save, something he lacked through all those playoff disappointments in Ottawa? Isn't it possible that a game plan that two of the best teams in the NHL fell victim to – neither realizing it until it was too late – may have come from the mind of the head coach?

Benefit of the doubt

I'm not professing to know just how much of an impact Muller has had as an assistant, because only the players know that. The people I've spoken to about this have said that Muller was an integral part of last season's playoff success and in getting the team to buy into what the coaching staff was selling them.

Which means, essentially, Muller does an excellent job as an assistant coach, because that's what assistant coaches do.

I also don't know how well Muller will do once he's the boss somewhere else either, but I'd be willing to speculate that he'll do pretty well wherever he lands.

That doesn't necessarily mean that Martin will fall flat on his face without Muller, or that the players will revolt from his authoritarian rule, or that the team is doomed to fail.

Martin definitely has his failings – a rigid emphasis on defensive hockey, which in turn can hamper the development of young offensive talents, being chief among them.

But after leading a ship that has sailed in spite of numerous leaks being sprung along the way, I would think Martin has earned the right to be given the benefit of the doubt.

At least until next Christmas.