Marc Bergevin's year end press conference wasn't encouraging

If you missed Marc Bergevin's final press conference of the 2014-15 Montreal Canadiens season, you can catch the English parts all edited together at TSN. I would embed the video, but TSN doesn't allow that for whatever reason.

I'm not going to go over every point Bergevin made in the presser, but there are a few worth looking at. What struck me most was Bergevin's posture during the whole thing, which was combative and impatient. Several times he interrupted reporters before they were able to finish their questions, and he couldn't seem to hold still, it was weird. I'm not sure that means anything, maybe he really didn't want to be there today.

Galchenyuk at center

Bergevin was asked a couple times about his team down the middle, specifically about whether Alex Galchenyuk would make the transition to center. Bergevin's answer was very weird. Up until this season, Bergevin was always insistent that Galchenyuk would move to center, but today he repeatedly said Galchenyuk may never be a center.

John Lu speculated on twitter that this could be a negotiating tactic, something Bergevin did with P.K. Subban when he was up for contract as well, constantly playing down his abilities in the public, in spite of clear evidence to the contrary.

Both head coaches

Bergevin insisted very strongly that both Michel Therrien and Sylvain Lefebvre are safe and have done great jobs. It's unlikely that he would ever say anything else in this situation, however a decision on the coaching job in the AHL should already be made by now, and Lefebvre should be gone. That's an important job not just for developing players, but coaches as well. The future coach of the Canadiens should be coaching there, and Lefebvre has done absolutely nothing in three years to prove he should ever be given a hint of NHL action.

Older vets leaving

Bergevin said he informed Sergei Gonchar, Manny Malhotra, and Mike Weaver that they would not be back next year, which makes sense since none of them played down the stretch or in the playoffs.

Petry and Mitchell a focus

If it wasn't clear already, Bergevin mentioned that both Jeff Petry and Torrey Mitchell were priorities for him to bring back into the fold. Both impressed during the playoffs.

Excuses & dampening expectations

What has become a common theme for Bergevin press conferences, much of it was spent reiterating that the NHL is a tough league, and priority number one is just to make the playoffs. Bergevin highlighted the Boston Bruins, who put themselves in serious cap trouble and lost Zdeno Chara for part of the season, and the Los Angeles Kings, who had a defenseman show himself as scum of the earth and get arrested, and were woefully unlucky in one-goal games, as examples of good teams that missed the playoffs.

The tempering of expectations from this team needs to stop. They've won the division twice in three years, they have a top three player in the league at three different positions in P.K. Subban, Max Pacioretty, and Carey Price, they're all in their primes. The constant attempts to wag the dog on the Canadiens always being "two years away" reeks of complacency.

Bergevin believes that managing expectations is part of his job, but his job is to put together a team that wins Stanley Cups, not public relations. It's time for the Canadiens to make a push to that next level, and a lot has to change in order to do that.