Now that the regular season is over, the bulk of the attention is being given to the captaincy void of the Montreal Canadiens.
Whether it be Guy Lafleur or countless blogs, voices in the hockey community are tripping over themselves to proclaim certain players as the best candidate.
By naming a captain you would immediately create some controversy, since you’d have to strip one of current the alternate captains of their letter. Worse yet, if a player like Brendan Gallagher is named as the captain, the Habs would be forced to strip two players of their current letters. That’s not to say that Gallagher isn’t deserving of the honour; he is, as are plenty of players on the current roster.
It’s hard to justify removing a letter from anybody’s sweater, seeing as how all four of the current alternate captains serve a purpose on the team.
Andrei Markov and Tomas Plekanec are the club veterans, offering a calming presence both on and off the ice.
Max Pacioretty and P.K. Subban are the young leaders, holding court during every post-game scrum. They’re the first to face the cameras and media scrutiny.
Essentially, they all provide an important aspect to the Canadiens leadership, and stripping any of them of their letter would create more problems than it would solve.
Besides, what would naming a captain accomplish? The Habs have plenty of leaders capable of addressing the referees, and I struggle to find any valid reason why the Canadiens should rush to add the “C” on someone’s sweater.
#Habs Bergevin: ” I don’t think (not having a captain) hurt us this year.”
— John Lu (@JohnLuTSNMtl) May 15, 2015
Truth be told, the Canadiens already have a captain, but he doesn’t wear a letter on his jersey. I’m of course speaking about Carey Price, the undisputed leader of the team. He’s the man everyone else in the locker room looks towards for leadership, since he naturally commands it.
The Habs may name a captain, and we certainly shouldn’t be surprised if they do, but as it stands there’s no real need, and the negatives seem to outweigh the positives in this particular case.
