Cowan: Canadiens seek sandpaper in building Stanley Cup contender

Montreal Gazette

a day ago

Montreal Canadiens
By
There's a big sign on a wall at the Toronto Maple Leafs' practice facility that reads, 'NO GRIT. NO GRIND. NO GREATNESS.'
It describes perfectly why the Maple Leafs continue to struggle in the playoffs, because their 'Core Four' players — Auston Matthews, Mitch Marner, William Nylander and John Tavares — seem to lack those first two traits once the regular season comes to an end. The Leafs have won only two playoff series in nine years since selecting Matthews with the No. 1 overall pick at the 2016 NHL Entry Draft and they haven't won a Stanley Cup since 1967.
The Florida Panthers are in the Stanley Cup final for the third straight year — looking to win their second straight championship — in large part because their best players have plenty of grit and grind. Sam Bennett scored two goals for the Panthers in a 4-3 overtime loss to the Oilers in Game 1 of the Stanley Cup final Wednesday in Edmonton. He leads the NHL with 12 playoff goals this year and also tops the Panthers in hits, with 87 in 18 games. Aleksander Barkov and Matthew Tkachuk are also full of grit and grind, and the Panthers added Brad Marchand this season to bring even more of those two things in a trade with the Boston Bruins.
Panthers head coach Paul Maurice had a classic quote earlier in the playoffs when asked about his team's humility off the ice and its ferociousness on it: 'Sometimes you say a prayer, sometimes you shotgun a beer. That's kind of like our team.'
These playoffs have shown just how far the Canadiens still have to go in their rebuilding process if management wants to reach its goal of becoming a legitimate Stanley Cup contender for several years. The Washington Capitals beat the Canadiens in five games in the first round, then lost to the Carolina Hurricanes in five games. The Hurricanes then lost to the Panthers in five games in the Eastern Conference final.
Jeff Gorton, the Canadiens' executive vice-president of hockey operations, and general manager Kent Hughes are well aware they still have much work to do.
'There's a lot of areas that we need to improve in to be a team that's still playing now,' Gorton said during a season-ending news conference. 'We could defend better. We need more scoring. We need to be bigger. We want to be more competitive. There's a lot there. We're far from a finished product.'
The Canadiens had problems matching the size and physicality of the Capitals, but Gorton noted that size won't be the main measuring stick for players moving forward.
'I think everyone's talking about size and Washington and the way they played,' Gorton said. 'Certainly, we're aware of that and as we move forward, Kent and I had a lot of discussions about this … size. Compete is really the biggest thing. Making sure we have people that are comfortable in a playoff environment to play in all situations.'
The compete level on the Panthers is a huge part of what makes them a special team. It's also why Florida GM Bill Zito acquired Marchand at the NHL trade deadline.
'Brad is one of the most battle-hardened forwards in NHL history and a veteran who displays a relentless compete level whenever he steps onto the ice,' Zito said after acquiring the 37-year-old Marchand in exchange for a conditional second-round pick at the 2027 NHL Entry Draft. 'A champion and a proven leader in the locker room, Brad is the right fit for our club to compete for a Stanley Cup once again.'
Marchand is only 5-foot-9 and 180 pounds, but plays much bigger than that. He scored in Game 1 vs. the Oilers and has 5-10-15 totals in 18 playoff games with the Panthers to go along with a plus-11 rating.
Seven years ago, the Players' Tribune published a fantastic first-person story by Marchand in which he talked about how he was never the best player on his team as a kid. He recalled a speech from his coach when he was 12 about the odds of making it to the NHL.
'There's thousands of kids like you in Canada,' the coach said. 'There's thousands more all over the world. You know what the statistics say? The statistics say that only 0.01 per cent of you will make it to the NHL.'
Marchand said: 'I just always remembered that stat, and I would think to myself, 'Man, if I'm not even the best kid on my peewee team … there's no chance. How could I ever get noticed?' '
Marchand ended up getting noticed because of his compete level and his willingness to, in his words, 'do anything — literally anything — in order to win. Even if that means being hated.'
'I don't care how fast your guys are or how good your system is,' added Marchand, who won the Stanley Cup with the Bruins in 2011. 'Everybody's guys are fast. Everybody's system is good. What you need is a room full of guys who are willing to do anything.'
That includes bringing lots of grit and grind.