Renaud Lavoie was indignant during his column on Jean-Charles Lajoie’s show, bluntly denouncing the gesture of Dan Bylsma, coach of the Kraken, against the Montreal Canadiens.
Lavoie, who has covered the NHL for decades, has never hidden his passion for the Habs, and this time, he judges that Bylsma crossed the line by acting with arrogance and a blatant lack of respect.
By sending his best players to the power play when the score was already 6-1, Bylsma, according to Lavoie, needlessly drove home the point in the Canadiens’ defeat.
Lavoie doesn’t just blame Bylsma for an over-the-top offensive strategy; he sees it as proof of contempt.
“Do you really need to put Montour, Jared McCann and Chandler Stephenson on ice?” he shouted, furious.
“It’s 6-1! I don’t know what more you want!”
For him, an experienced coach like Bylsma, Stanley Cup champion, should have had the decency to let this match end with dignity, especially since the Canadians had no chance of recovering from such a gap.
Lavoie also expressed frustration with the Kraken’s support players, who were left on the bench in a situation where they could have gained playing time experience.
For a youngster like Shane Wright, for example, this moment was ideal to contribute without the pressure of a close game.
Lavoie insisted on this lack of opportunity for the Kraken’s youngsters, calling Bylsma’s decision “cheap.”
He deplores that the coach preferred to “belittle” the opponent rather than promote his own hopes.
For his part, Jean-Charles Lajoie fueled the discussion by suggesting that Bylsma probably would not have acted in this way against a team from his own division.
According to Lajoie, it is obvious that this “little revenge” against the Canadiens would have been avoided if the Kraken faced a direct rival.
In this sense, Lajoie considers this gesture as a sort of provocation, and hopes that the CH will remember this humiliation during their next meeting on March 12.
To conclude, Lavoie, as furious as he was disappointed, made a direct appeal for respect.
According to him, the Canadians deserve better than to be ridiculed like this, especially when the game is already out of reach.
He hopes that this “mishap” will serve as a lesson, not only to the Canadiens, but also to other teams, who will be able to remember this moment of contempt and the way in which it was perceived by journalists and Montreal fans.
If the Kraken decided to align its best players to humiliate CH, it certainly did not find a big challenge in front of it.
Martin St-Louis, who tries to manage this team like a pee-wee coach, seems lost in the face of opposing strategies.
The 6-1 loss and St. Louis’ inability to fight back in any way cruelly demonstrates that it does not have the tools necessary to navigate the NHL.
Of course, one could have compassion for an inexperienced coach like St-Louis, but what is striking is that it almost seems as if he expects to be pitied every time he thaws.
His inability to adjust his game during the match, to pick up his players after thawing, in no way reflects what is expected of a coach of a professional team.
With such repeated humiliations, it’s hard not to think that St. Louis simply isn’t cut out for the task.
The National League is a ruthless environment, and opposing teams, like the Kraken, do not hesitate to drive home the point.
Are we supposed to feel sorry for an NHL coach.
Enough to fuel the bad tongues who continue to call him a pee-wee coach.
Ouch.
