Remember When … the Canadiens turned the captaincy into a competition
The Montreal Canadiens has never been accused of being a boring franchise. This series is a look back at the moments that made you throw your hands up, lose your mind, ugly cry, hold your breath, scratch your head, and cheer so loudly you scared the dog…sometimes all at once. If you were there the first time around, you know. If you weren’t, hop in the DeLorean cause we’re going back in time.
C-less
Every summer, the Montreal Canadiens keep with the trend of giving their fanbase something to argue about, and the summer of 2014 was no exception. Then-captain Brian Gionta had signed with the Buffalo Sabres on July 1, with Josh Gorges being traded to the Sabres later that day after revising his no-trade clause to add Buffalo (“You jump, I jump, Jack.”). And just like that, Montreal was down a captain and a first mate. The “who should wear the C?” debate was the hot topic of the summer. Every time you swore you were over it someone brought it up at the barbecue and you were off and running again.
On September 15, three days before training camp was set to begin, general manager Marc Bergevin walked up to the microphone. With bated breath we waited to hear the final decision. Instead, we got a different surprise when Bergevin announced the next captain of the Canadiens would be … nobody.
His plan was to have four alternate captains: Andrei Markov, Tomas Plekanec, P.K. Subban and Max Pacioretty. Two grizzled vets versus two heirs apparent. “It’s not the end of the world,” Bergevin shrugged. “The way we’re going will be good for our team.”
This “roster decision” was clearly a leadership competition. Let the games begin!
Now, since the NHL only lets three players wear a letter in any given game, and Montreal had named four alternates, the Canadiens drew up a custody schedule. Veterans Markov and Plekanec would wear an “A” every single game. The two young guns had to share the third letter like siblings rotating who rides shotgun: Subban wore it at home, Pacioretty on the road for the first half of the season, then they swapped for the second half.
But there was actually a method to Bergevin’s madness. He didn’t want the captaincy hanging over training camp as a distraction. Naming four A’s was the diplomatic way to keep the peace while covertly auditioning the next generation.
It wasn’t unprecedented, mind you. Montreal had also gone captainless in 2009–10 after 10-year captain Saku Koivu left, letting Markov, Hal Gill and Brian Gionta share the load while they figured out the future. But the 2014–15 version was a more intriguing experiment: two names to steady the ship, and two names competing for the keys.
Meanwhile, in the crease
Funny thing about a season built around a leadership question: the biggest leader on the team wore neither a C nor an A, because the rules wouldn’t let him.
Carey Price sat in on those leadership meetings anyway, because everyone knew who the real straw that stirred the drink was. And in 2014–15, Price didn’t just have a good year, he had the year, one of the greatest goaltending seasons in NHL history. He went 44–16–6 with a 1.96 goals-against average and a .933 save percentage, becoming the first goalie to lead the league in wins, GAA, and save percentage since Ed Belfour did it with the Chicago Blackhawks in 1990-91.
Then he went to Vegas and cleaned out the trophy cabinet. Price took home the Hart, the Vezina, and the Ted Lindsay Award, plus a share of the Jennings Trophy with Chicago’s Corey Crawford, making him the first goalie to sweep all four in a single season. Four alternate captains, and the guy who couldn’t wear a letter walked off with the league MVP. Hockey really is a beautiful, ridiculous sport. But one could argue that if he’d had the weight of the C weighing him down, the season for the history books wouldn’t have come to be.
Behind Price, that 189-goals-against team rode its defence to a 50–22–10 record and the Atlantic Division title. The alternates did their part too, vying for the ultimate title. Pacioretty led the team with 37 goals and 67 points. Subban’s 45 assists paced the club. Markov, the supposed elder statesman of the group, put up 50 points from the back end. Plekanec had his best offensive season in years, racking up 26 goals and 60 points while suiting up for all 82 games. It was, by the standings, a resounding success, right up until the second round of the Stanley Cup playoffs, when the Tampa Bay Lightning (ugh) put an end to all the fun.
Whether four captains caused any of it, or Price simply strapped the team to his back and dragged everyone to the promised land, we’ll never know (my money’s on Price. Always Price. But you already knew that.)
And the winner is…
By the fall of 2015 — 444 days without a captain — Montreal was finally ready to crown it’s next official leader. After winning a majority vote from his teammates, Pacioretty received a phone call from Bergevin telling him to open his front door. When he did, there was nobody there. It turns out Bergevin and coach Michel Therrien had gone to the wrong house to deliver the news. Our fearless leaders, ladies and gentlemen. When they finally found him, Pacioretty was named the 29th captain in franchise history, with Brendan Gallagher joining Subban, Markov, and Plekanec as the newest alternate.
The Canadiens didn’t invent going captainless. They just found the most entertaining way possible to do it. For one gloriously over-engineered season, they turned the most sacred piece of felt in hockey into an open competition, both on the team and in the fanbase. Four alternates, the division title, a historic goalie season, and a coronation delivered to the wrong front door. While other teams were simply naming their next captain, Montreal made a whole saga out of not passing the torch. And you know we loved every minute of it.
