When Pierre Gauthier took over as Canadiens general manager last season, he said his first goal was to have the team consistently placed among the top third of the league standings.
Earlier this season it looked as though this would be the first step towards achieving that goal, but a recent slump has mired the Canadiens into a fight to qualify for the playoffs.
The likelihood remains high that they'll make it, but the similarities to last year's finish to the season are truly remarkable.
Montreal won three of its final 11 games last season with three shootout losses and an overtime loss in the final game of the season to punch its ticket to the playoffs.
Heading into Saturday night's game in New Jersey, Montreal has won four of its past 11 games with no loser points along the way, a period that begins the game after Max Pacioretty became the latest member of the Canadiens injured reserve list.
The team still has four games left to try and right the ship and get some momentum going into the playoffs, but this latest slide appears to have galvanized the critics of Jacques Martin like never before.
He is clearly in the crosshairs of the court of public opinion right now, and if his players didn't know it, they surely do now after most were questioned on the subject at Friday's practice.
"It's not a popularity contest," Martin said Friday when asked about it, and it's a good thing it isn't, because it's one he's losing right now.
The funny thing is that some of the contempt has been triggered by comments made by Georges Laraque on the nightly sports panel television show he appears on, one that is struggling to get any traction, and one that previously made news because a panel member affirmed that after talking to Mathieu Darche he wouldn't be surprised if he would be out for the season. Darche skated in the following practice.
I'm not quite sure how anyone can put any merit in the comments of someone who was humiliated when he was jettisoned from the team last year, a directive that had its origins in the very same room that Laraque was claiming Martin has lost.
But in a sense, it's not that surprising that Laraque's comments were accepted as gospel, because it fit with a climate of disdain for Martin's methods that is building steam largely due to the fact the offence has completely dried up lately.
Martin is definitely a coach who focuses on his own end of the ice, there's no doubt about that, and it doesn't necessarily make for an entertaining brand of hockey. So when the offence goes cold, that emphasis on defence is a very easy target.
Except his players, practically to a man, constantly repeat how if they respect the system and do their jobs in their own end it will lead to opportunities at the other. Lately they haven't been getting it done defensively, spending long stretches pinned in their zone and allowing scoring chances in dangerous areas of the ice because of it.
But, aside from a miraculous playoff run last spring that appears to have been either forgotten or written off as a product of a goalie that left town, that system has not exactly made the Canadiens into world beaters.
It got me wondering as to where the Martin-led Canadiens rank in the NHL, so I decided to compile the records of each team from the last two seasons up to Friday night's games. Here's where they stand, ranked according to points percentage:
1. Washington – 99-37-24 = 222 points, .694
2. Vancouver – 101-45-14 = 216 points, .675
3. San Jose – 96-43-20 = 212 points, .666
4. Chicago – 94-49-16 = 204 points, .642
5. Phoenix – 92-50-19 = 203 points, .630
6. Detroit – 88-47-24 = 200 points, .629
7. Pittsburgh – 92-53-15 = 199 points, .622
8. Los Angeles – 90-54-15 = 195 points, .613
9. Nashville – 89-55-16 = 194 points, .606
10. Philadelphia – 87-57-16 = 190 points, .594
11. Buffalo – 84-56-19 = 187 points, .588
12. Boston – 81-53-24 = 186 points, .585
13. Anaheim – 83-60-16 = 182 points, .572
14. New Jersey – 84-63-12 = 180 points, .566
15. Calgary – 79-61-21 = 179 points, .562
NHL AVERAGE = .560
16. Dallas – 75-58-25 = 175 points, .554
17. Montreal – 80-63-17 = 177 points, .553
18. Tampa Bay – 76-60-23 = 175 points, .550
19. NY Rangers – 79-65-16 = 174 points, .544
20. St. Louis – 75-65-20 = 170 points, .531
21. Minnesota – 75-68-16 = 166 points, .522
22. Carolina – 72-67-20 = 164 points, .516
23. Ottawa – 74-70-16 = 164 points, .513
24. Atlanta – 68-66-25 = 161 points, .506
25. Colorado – 72-70-17 = 161 points, .506
26. Columbus – 66-66-28 = 160 points, .500
27. Toronto – 66-70-24 = 156 points, .488
28. Florida – 61-74-25 = 147 points, .459
29. NY Islanders – 64-73-16 = 144 points, .450
30. Edmonton – 50-90-19 = 119 points, .374
The Canadiens find themselves firmly ensconced in mediocrity, falling just shy of the NHL average for points percentage over the last two seasons.
Many excuses exist for a Canadiens team that is not good enough to absorb the injuries that have befallen it, but they are far from alone on that front with at least seven teams ahead of them on this list having been equally afflicted, if not more so.
So the fact remains that Gauthier's initial goal has not been met nearly 14 months later, and the team is not likely to undergo drastic changes in the offseason aside from players like Pacioretty, P.K. Subban, Lars Eller and David Desharnais having a greater impact with a year of experience under their belts.
Will Montreal fans be satisfied with this level of averageness? Surely not.
But the real question is where does the blame lie, with the men who assembled this team, or the man who runs it?
I have a feeling I know how most of you will answer that question, and the players now know it as well after fielding questions on the subject Friday.
Their level of intensity and competitiveness Saturday night in New Jersey should give us a good indication of how they would answer the same question.
