Béliveau: Veterans, not rookies, must carry Habs

DAVE STUBBS
The Gazette

Don’t expect a 20-year-old rookie or a pair of farm-team imports to haul the Canadiens out of their rut, or otherwise save the club’s season.

That responsibility, says Canadiens icon Jean Béliveau, falls squarely on the shoulders of the team’s veterans.

And from where Béliveau sits – in his regular seats three rows behind the Canadiens bench, near enough to see the veins bulging on the neck of head coach Guy Carbonneau – the club no longer has a speed advantage in the NHL, and it could use a little more muscle.

“It’s unfair for anyone to think that the two young guys they’ve just brought up from Hamilton (defenceman Ryan O’Byrne and forward Maxim Lapierre) are going to save this team,” Béliveau said yesterday.

“They could be a big help, but they need the help of the veterans. You don’t bring in a young player and ask him to save the team for the veterans. It should be, and it’s always been, the other way around.”

Veterans should adjust for rookies

It’s the task of the team’s seasoned players, the Hall of Famer and 10-time Stanley Cup winner adds, to make adjustments to accommodate the younger talent.

“I remember (coach) Toe Blake one day told me, ‘Jean, I think I’ll put all the youngsters coming up with you,’ ” Béliveau said. “That was fine with me. I centred Gilles Tremblay, Fergy (John Ferguson), Bobby Rousseau, Yvan Cournoyer and *** Duff, who was a little older.

“Every time I had a new winger, I told him, ‘It’s not up to you to change your style, it’s up to me to adjust mine. I’m the veteran. Play your own style. That’s what brought you to the NHL.’ ”

For a feature eight Novembers ago, I sat with Béliveau in his seats to watch a game through his eyes. The Canadiens ended a nine-game winless skid that night with a 2-1 victory over Anaheim.

Behind the bench, Alain Vigneault exhaled a long sigh of relief at the final siren, and Béliveau remarked how the Canadiens head coach’s complexion turned a slightly warmer shade of chalk.

The win was one of the club’s 35 that season, to go with 34 losses, nine ties and four overtime defeats. The Canadiens missed the playoffs, and 20 games into 2000-01, at 5-13-2, Vigneault was fired and replaced by Michel Therrien.

Who surrendered the reins to Claude Julien, who yielded them to Bob Gainey, who turned them over to Carbonneau.

Names have changed, situation hasn't

“In the 1950s, the ’60s and the ’70s, we always had a great player,” Béliveau said that evening. “They don’t have that now, and they’re missing it. Now there’s no one so good you can use him to help the others, because they all need some help. ...

“I know what these guys are going through,” he added. “In my day, we had sessions like these and we suffered from the stress. So I can imagine what they’re feeling now. They’re probably hurting more emotionally than physically.”

Fast forward 97 months, and it’s clear that, while many of the names have changed, much of the situation has not.

To have the salvation of the Canadiens dropped in the crease of rookie goalie Carey Price is entirely unreasonable, Béliveau believes.

“The last time we were in the playoffs (in 2005-06), it was Cristobal Huet who put us there,” he said. “If you’re going to have problems with your goalies now (Huet is recovering from a groin injury and Price is playing like a promising rookie who’s learning on the job), it makes your position a lot worse.

“I’ve seen Price facing 35 to 40, sometimes more shots per game. I’ve said all along, ‘The poor kid, if he’s going to get that many, there are going to be nights when he won’t stop them all.”

No matter the Canadiens’ current skid, with five straight home losses heading into tonight’s game against Tampa Bay, Béliveau jokes that he hasn’t yet had to scalp his tickets; he still finds eternally grateful friends and guests to join he and his wife, Élise, in their four seats.

If asked, he’ll remark on the speed of the Canadiens, wondering whether it’s an optical illusion, and he’ll comment on the dart board that seemingly produces Carbonneau’s lines.

He’ll also question the depth of toughness on the team, which he says can ill afford to lose a pillar like defenceman Mike Komisarek for 17 minutes as happened during Saturday’s 5-1 drubbing by Carolina.

“I’ve always thought that one of the reasons for our success has been our speed, that we were a better skating team than most,” Béliveau said.

No longer have the skating edge

“I’m not going to talk about (last Tuesday’s) Detroit game. We were outplayed in every part of that. But Nashville (three nights earlier) was faster than we were, and most of the teams we play are at least as fast. We don’t have the skating edge on others that we once did.”

On line shuffling: “I suppose Carbonneau has just been trying to find the right combinations. You must ask, does he really have the players to stay with on one line for a longer time?”

On toughness: “On the whole, we look a little small. While I’ve respected Carbonneau’s philosophy about not having one or two big guys, it’s funny – I remember one of the reasons we lost the Cup from 1961-64 after having won five straight was because we were manhandled. So (GM) Frank Selke brought in Fergy and Ted Harris from the American league, and traded a little earlier for Lou Fontinato.”

The much more rugged Canadiens won the championship four times from 1965-69.

In theory, at least, Béliveau believes the team’s recent rough patch could be smoothed over with a few victories.

“We certainly can’t blame the fans (for their impatience), because they’ve been tremendous the past few years when all of them haven’t watched the greatest of games – myself included,” he said.

“A few wins would change everything, as it always has. That’s what I’ve been sweating and wishing for.”