Marc Bergevin has broken silence on his future with the Montreal Canadiens
Marc Bergevin has finally spoken out on three very hot topics. Many were wondering when the Montreal Canadiens general manager was going to come out publicly to talk about the real deal.
He did not speak publicly, probably to avoid making himself vulnerable, but he did give a generous interview to Pierre LeBrun.
The first topic was the scandal surrounding the Chicago Blackhawks, Marc Bergevin's former organization. Bergevin tried to make it clear that he was not aware of what was going on with the Hawks at the time.
"They contacted me in July, I think, that was something that was important to know the truth," Bergevin told The Athletic.�"But as I told them, there's not much I knew. I was there at the time working for the Hawks, my role was player personnel, my job was to watch either our prospects, our high draft picks or even the prospects in Europe. It was to watch the players, how they played, report their performance to my superiors and that was it."
"I was not aware of any situation involving Kyle Beach or Brad Aldrich!"
"I feel bad for the kid. It's horrible," Bergevin said. "It's sad, it's something that should never have happened. We won the Stanley Cup and now you look back and you're like, 'God, this is like a dark cloud that's left over from that Stanley Cup win'."
Bergevin then elaborated on his team's rough start to the season.
"Part of a general manager's job is to find answers, to find out why you're successful and why you're losing!"
"And even though we lost in five to the Lightning, who I thought was the best team in the league last year, we still fought in the games we played against them; it's not like it was a blowout!"
"Now we're starting the season and you don't want to believe it's going to happen, but I knew the turnaround time was very short - usually you play until June 10 and we played until July 10 - that's four weeks the guys didn't have (to recover). You hate to include injuries, but we have key players who have been out since day one. I haven't seen the energy from the beginning of camp!"
Bergevin admitted that the loss from Thursday against the Penguins was difficult to watch from the bridge.
"(Thursday) night, for me, it was a tough performance to watch!"
"I just didn't like the effort from start to finish. And that's unacceptable. It's something that needs to be addressed."
He also mentioned that Dominique Ducharme's job is not in jeopardy at this time.
"Not at this point, but again, if you look at a few months ago, Dom took pretty much the same team to the Stanley Cup finals and he didn't become a bad coach in three months. It's not just one person. It's not just a problem!"
Now, the killer question. Does Marc Bergevin think he'll be back next year?
"It's hard to say. Honestly, it's a great question. But I try not to think about it. I take it one day at a time. Am I a perfect general manager? No. But as a group, have we done good things? I think we have."
"I'm very proud of what we did last year and I'm very disappointed in what we did this year. It's like a 360-degree turn. Sometimes you spend sleepless nights trying to figure out what went so wrong this season."
For those who thought the relationship between Marc Bergevin and Geoff Molson was at a crossroads, think again.
"Well, it's business as usual, Geoff and I have a good relationship. We communicate almost every day, I've always been upfront and transparent with him. And that's not going to change. That's part of the business. I'm okay with that. It is what it is. But it doesn't affect my day-to-day activities with the Montreal Canadiens."
One thing is 100% certain. Marc Bergevin will give his heart and soul to the Montreal Canadiens until the very last minute of his contract with the team.
"I'm an emotional guy, a passionate guy. I care about this organization. I've been working here for over nine years. It's something I take to heart. And until my last day, I will do the same."
