Pierre Gervais has just confirmed a huge rumor circulating about the Canadiens

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MarcO
November 23, 2022 (9:17)

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For the past few days, the revelations that have come out of Mathias Brunet's book, Pierre Gervais, au coeur du vestiaire, have caused a stir within the hockey fraternity in Quebec.

For some journalists and former players, there is a law that what happens in the locker room must stay in the locker room. However, the former Habs equipment manager was only willing to tell the truth about what goes on in the organization, despite the fact that some not-so-flattering stories have come out about certain players.

By the way, in this regard, another anecdote told by Gervais was reported by Marco Normandin, from Habsolumentfan.com, and we now understand a little better the cleaning of the Russian players that Marc Bergevin had made in the summer of 2017.

However, this anecdote is not part of the book.

We remember that Andrei Markov, Alexander Radulov and Alexei Emelin had all left the CH after the 2016-2017 season and a rumor had circulated at the time that a card game had pushed Bergevin to get rid of all Russian players on the team.

Well Gervais confirmed this rumor during his appearance on 98.5 for the official launch of his book. He mentioned that after the Habs were eliminated against the New York Rangers in the spring of 2017, the Russian players on the team were taking it easy playing a game of cards on the plane and didn't seem to be affected at all by the Habs' elimination.

When Bergevin saw this scene, he simply didn't take it, deeming it an unacceptable attitude and even captain Max Pacioretty chimed in, saying that the season was over and the guys could now decompress from the series the Habs had just lost in six games.

When asked about this rumour, which is not part of his book I repeat, Pierre Gervais had this to say:

"I didn't just hear about it, I saw it. It's really true. It was a gang that was together and was less about the winning aspect. It wasn't that important. When you're an instructor, it's maddening. Even me and the staff, after a bad loss, there was no one who felt like laughing. I'm not saying you should mope around for two days, but at least make sure it doesn't look too bad. Here they had just lost one and it didn't matter, they were having fun and playing cards."

Let's say that this game of cards was the last for all Russian players together because a few weeks later, Andrei Markov returned to Russia to play in the KHL, Alexander Radulov accepted the offer of the Dallas Stars and Alexei Emelin was claimed by the Vegas Golden Knights in the expansion draft.

Not to mention that a certain Mikhail Sergachev, who was part of the trip, was sent to the Tampa Bay Lightning in exchange for Jonathan Drouin.

As for the captain, it is perhaps from this moment that friction was established between him and Marc Bergevin and, surprise, Max Pacioretty left the team a year later.

Even if this anecdote is not in the book, it confirms that there was indeed friction within the team at that time and that in the eyes of some players, Bergevin's attitude could be questionable at times.