Welcome to 2010-2011: The Make or Break Season
Pierre Gauthier’s press conference this week highlighted “team stability” and the “core strengths” of the Montreal Canadiens. Gauthier is telling the media that the current roster, which looks a lot like last year’s roster, will be the same roster for the foreseeable future. Yet there a number of players who, if they don’t play to expectations, will likely not return. It’s a long enough list that the entire organization may undergo a large overhaul in the summer of 2011. Perhaps not as big as the one the Canadiens underwent in 2009, but an overhaul nonetheless.
For instance, take Andrei Kostitsyn, Benoit Pouiliot, Ryan O’Byrne, Maxim Lapierre and Mathieu Darche: It is IMPOSSIBLE to see how any of these players come back next year if they do not produce this year.
