Michel Therrien, the Montreal Canadiens and Alexander Semin seems like a match made in heaven ... for people who enjoy chaos.
OK, that’s an exaggeration, but many anticipated high drama between the hard-driving coach and a winger who may be the poster child for talk of being “enigmatic” and “polarizing.”
Let’s face it: they’ll probably clash at times, maybe even spectacularly.
Still, Therrien seemed pretty positive about taking on a “nice challenge” in Semin and others. He even seems to acknowledge that communication is key:
NHL.com’s Arpon Basu transcribed some of Therrien’s most relevant quotes, comments that hint at a kinder and gentler Habs head coach:
“These days it’s not like the old days that it’s my way or the highway, it doesn’t work like that,” Therrien said. “You need to try to first of all build a relationship with players, communicate a lot. I truly believe in those things, in teaching [them] the way you want them to play, the way you want them to compete. And our young leaders are really buying into that. This is a group that competes a lot and they work hard. I’ve got a lot of respect for my players.”
Of course, it’s easy to say all the right things at a press conference, especially one in mid-August.
It remains to be seen how well these two will work together in practice. Some might even get a little popcorn ready for the show.