NHL What-If is a series that looks at big moments in NHL history and wonders what might have happened had things played out slightly differently. The series is a focus on moments that impacted major games and franchises. The next moment to be examined is Ronald Corey firing Serge Savard in 1995.
NHL What If… Montreal Canadiens Fire Serge Savard
History
The Montreal Canadiens are the most storied franchise in the NHL. With the most Stanley Cups in NHL history, the Habs are one of the cornerstone franchises of the league. Coming out of the ’70s, the Habs were in a bit of a transition. The architect of the great Habs teams of the ’60s and ’70s, Sam Pollock had retired. Head coach Scotty Bowman also left the team. While the Habs remained relevant, they were no longer the great team that won eight Cups in 12 seasons (from 1968-1979). Star players were aging and retiring and the Habs slipped behind teams like the New York Islanders and Edmonton Oilers as the dominant force in the league.
Serge Savard
In 1982 the Habs hired Ronald Corey as the new team president. Following the 1983 season, Corey hired former Hab Serge Savard as the new general manager. It was a curious hire at the time. Savard had just retired from playing and had no front office experience. The Habs had a mediocre season in the 1983-84 campaign, but went on a run to the Wales Conference Final. Under Savard’s management, the Habs once again became a top contending team. They won the Stanley Cup in 1986. Between 1984-89 the Habs made two Cup finals and four conference finals. Savard had excelled in building competitive teams.
Entering the ’90s the Habs were competitive but not quite elite. Still, head coach Pat Burns had the Habs playing well but could not get over the playoff hump. After another premature playoff exit in 1992 and increasing media criticism, Burns resigned. Savard hired Jacques Demers as the Habs new coach. While the Habs were quite competitive, in Montreal the expectation is high. Success is measured by Stanley Cups.
Jacques Demers
The hire of Demers became a masterstroke. Through the first 30 games, the Habs were 18-8-4. As of March first, the Habs had a 40-19-9 record. They were cruising to the playoffs and sitting comfortably atop the Adams Division. However, the Habs slumped very badly down the stretch. They would go 7-11 and slip to third place in the Adams. Still, the Habs posted a 48-30-6 record and 102 points. The slump seemed to make the Habs an afterthought heading into the playoffs.
On a side note, Habs goaltender Patrick Roy became the spokesperson for Upper Deck trading cards. The campaign around Roy was “Trade Roy”. Billboards appeared in Montreal with the slogan, which prompted a poll from Le Journal de Montreal which 57% of fans would support a Roy trade. Roy, being an extremely proud person took the results to hart.
The playoffs started bad for the Habs. They lost the first two games to provincial rival Quebec Nordiques, in Quebec City. Back in Montreal, the Habs would win game three, in overtime to get back into the series. The win galvanized the Habs and they won their next 11 games in a row. The Habs were a team of destiny in the ’93 playoffs and won their 24th Cup. After dropping the first two games to Quebec, the Habs only lost two more games for the rest of the playoffs. Also, the Habs won an incredible 10 overtime games in a row as well. The Habs seemed poised to continue to be a competitive team.
What Happened
In the 1993-94 season, the Habs again finished third in their division, with a six-point drop-off. Still, entering the playoffs the Habs were expected to go on another run. Unfortunately, the Boston Bruins had other plans. The Habs lost their first-round series to the B’s in seven games.
In 1994-95 the season was abbreviated because of a lockout. Teams played a 48 game schedule. In the off-season, Savard traded Habs captain Guy Carbonneau to the St. Louis Blues. Montreal got off to a sluggish start and never recovered. February 9, Savard, looking to jumpstart the Habs, traded John LeClair, Eric Desjardins, and Gilbert Dionne to the Philadelphia Flyers for Mark Recchi and a third-round pick. Then on April 5, Savard traded Kirk Muller, Mathieu Schneider, and Craig Darby to the Islanders for Pierre Turgeon and Vladimir Malakhov. While Recchi and Turgeon were good players for the Habs, the trades were unmitigated disasters. Mostly because Savard traded away the Habs top defensive pair. The listless Habs failed to make the playoffs for the first time in 25 years. The fans and media reacted as calmly and rationally as one might expect.
The pressure was on to fire Jacques Demers. Canadiens president Ronald Corey wanted there to be a coaching change, but Savard preached patience.
1995
The Habs listless play dragged into the start of the 1995-96 season. The Habs dropped their first four games, being outscored 20-4 in the process. The offense was ice cold. Again, calls for Demers to be fired were being made in the media and from Corey. Savard was still unwilling to make the change. So, Corey feeling the pressure from the media and fans acted. He fired both Savard and Demers on October 17. He replaced them with former Habs Rejean Houle (as GM) and Mario Tremblay (Head Coach). Neither had any experience at their position. Still, Corey had success when hiring a former Hab with no experience in Savard so went back to that well.
The Habs responded with a 2-0 loss, their fifth in a row. Then the offense came alive and the Habs ripped off a six-game win streak and a 12-2 run overall. While everything seemed positive, the bottom was about to fall out. Bubbling under the surface was rising tension between the new coach Tremblay and star goalie, Roy. The issues go back to Roy’s rookie season in 1986. The two never got along so it was not a great situation.
The Habs then went winless in the next four games, which brings us to December 2nd, 1995.
Trades, Trades Trades…
Mario Tremblay left Patrick Roy in net for nine goals against the Detroit Red Wings. The fiery competitor Roy did not like being embarrassed by his new rookie coach and was fuming. To boot, Tremblay decided to glare at Roy as he passed to take his place on the bench. Roy then doubled back to president Ronald Corey and said this was his last game in Montreal – as long as Tremblay was the coach.
Four days later, Roy was traded with Mike Keane to Colorado for Jocelyn Thibault, Martin Rucinsky and Andrei Kovalenko. It is one of the most lopsided trades in NHL history. It’s a trade that set the Habs back a long way. Houle’s inexperience was on full display during this tenure. He made several other bad trades, that set the Habs back. Houle was prone to quick reactions based on public pressure. Houle would trade marquee players like Mark Recchi, Pierre Turgeon, and Vincent Damphousse in exchange for players of little value.
Struggling with trades, Houle failed to sign any significant free agents as well. The Habs continued to miss out on to tier free agents, while Houle would offer bloated contracts to marginal players.
Drafting
Even worse than his pro-management, was Houle’s drafting record. His picks Matt Higgins, Jason Ward, Eric Chouinard, and Marcel Hossa were widely criticized. None of these players became regular NHL players. In 1999 Houle traded a top 10 pick for an aging Trevor Linden. It was clear he was in over his head in all phases of being an NHL general manager.
Dark Days
While the Habs made the playoffs for three straight seasons, they only won one series. The Habs missed the playoffs the following three seasons (from 1999-2001). Tremblay would be fired following the 1996-97 season. Houle would stay on as GM until 2001. The Houle/Tremblay tenure would be one of the darkest periods in Habs’ history.
Corey’s gamble on inexperienced former players completely backfired. The Habs have still not completely revered from this period, struggling to consistently ice a competitive team.
What If…
So, what if Corey doesn’t fire both Serge Savard and Jacques Demers? The reality is this, after missing the playoffs in 1994-95, the leash was going to be very short for Demers. One thing he did have going for him was that he had a great relationship with Roy. He knew Roy was the Canadiens meal ticket and treated him as such. He would protect him and always had his back. While Serge Savard preached patience something had to be done to shake up the Habs to start the 1995-96 season.
A trade was unlikely after making two desperate trades the year before that didn’t work out as planned. So a coaching shakeup was probably the logical step. Still, three of the Habs losses came to the best team in the East (Flyers), the eventual Stanley Cup runner up (Panthers) and defending Cup champions (Devils). The truth is, several issues played a part in the Habs sluggish start.
The trades made by Savard to improve the offense has severely weakened the Habs defense. It forced players into roles that they were not suited for. Also, Roy was not playing up to his standards to start the season. Finally, the offense completely disappeared in the first five games. While an 0-5 start is never in the plans, especially coming off a disappointing season, two of the issues would self-correct. The offense would come alive and Roy would return to form. These things happened in reality (after the firings) and the Habs were a playoff team (even after Le Trade). If only anyone had patience.
So Really, What If…
Despite the team on the cusp of turning it around, Demers gets fired. While Serge Savard preaches patience, he understands that if he wants to stay on, Demers needs to go. Savard would find a replacement that did not already have a strained relationship with Roy. Some names mentioned at the time were Dave King and Guy Charron. Still, the move further upsets Roy, however. By 1995 Roy’s relationship with Habs management was beginning to sour and there was growing friction with some teammates. Roy’s time with the Habs was nearing an end.
With a steady hand behind the bench, the Habs turn it around and get back into playoff contention. With Savard still the GM, the Habs also no longer get fleeced in trades. While Savard’s trading record is far from perfect, he rarely managed to completely drop the ball.
December 2 still happens. However, an experienced coach does not send Roy back on the ice in the second period. While the game is an embarrassment, Roy feels protected and does not request a trade. The Habs continue to get better throughout the season, despite their obvious weakness on defense. Nevertheless, the Habs, still with Roy, finish second in their division and hold the fourth seed in the conference. No completely blind to the defensive issues, Savard acquires Darryl Sydor from the Los Angeles Kings (who was moved in February 1996) to bolster the blueline.
In the new seeding, Montreal has home-ice advantage against the Panthers in the first round. The Habs take care of the Panthers in the first round but are eliminated by the Flyers in the second round. Still, with the steady Savard at the helm, the team does not go on a downward spiral and the team stays relevant. In ’97 he acquires the maligned Larry Murphy from Toronto to bolster the defense even more. The Canadiens become a Cup contender.
Butterfly Effect
With Roy staying in Montreal, Colorado does not win the cup in ’96. The conference finals are Detroit playing Chicago in the West and Pittsburgh and Philadelphia in the East. Chicago bests the Penguins to win the Cup.
Bigger still, with Roy not in Colorado, the Avs don’t become a Western powerhouse on the level of the Wings or Stars The Detroit-Colorado rivalry never happens because the teams don’t meet in the 1996 Western Conference Final, so Claude Lemieux never hits Kris Draper from behind to spark the whole thing.
The Avalanche, needing a goalie make a move for Roberto Luongo after the Islanders select Rick DiPietro in the 1999 draft. With Luongo in net, the Avs rise up to become one of the Western powerhouses. Colorado wins three cups between 2001-2004 with Luongo in net.
The effect of the Habs firing Serge Savard was felt league-wide. Had the Canadiens shown some more patients, the landscape of the NHL would look much much different.
