Oh Lord, the insufferable bore that is Jacques Martin has rubbed off on his players. Simple, it's called imprinting. When baby geese are born they mimic their mother goose.
Kirk Muller, the charismatic voice of the room, the mentor, the rallying point, the bridge between the bland blandness of coach Martin and his players - gone. Is the room affected by the void? No clue. It's all speculation, but hell it's staring to look as if this coach can't find the chemistry in the room or behind the bench to whip the boys into form.
A loss to the Leafs tonight and you've got to start believing that the countdown begins somewhere in Pierre Gauthier's mind - even though he may also be part of the bland equation. Missing playoffs, firing coaches, this is the banter you begin to hear when you begin the season with the first 10 games being a write off.
We're almost there, serious questions time. Imagine what a 2-10-1 record would look like. It's a huge mountain to climb and trend to reverse. Maybe the blessing in this is the 2-4 week absence of Scott Gomez. Maybe Lars Eller finds the promotion he deserves and the team responds to the annoitment of a new important centre. Maybe that spells the end of Gomez on the top 2 lines, and inevitably of Gomer in Montreal. But with that contract, how do you move him? Buyout, minors, whatever it is, it's going to be ugly.
Tonight, they HAVE to win. The season is 7 games old and they have to win. Scary.
