Montreal Canadiens centre Tomas Plekanec skates off following a 4-1 loss against the Tampa Bay Lightning in Game 6 of the second round of the 2015 Stanley Cup Playoffs at Amalie Arena.Reinhold Matay
The concept of transition is forward-looking. It's meant to be a passage to something new or at least different.
It generally implies progress.
So can the label be properly applied to a hockey team whose season was one of fitful evolution and episodic regression? Debate it among yourselves.
Montreal Canadiens coach Michel Therrien and his boss, general-manager Marc Bergevin, have been adamant since last fall's annual charity golf tournament – the unofficial kickoff to the season – that 2014-15 would be a transition year.
Younger players thrust into prominent leadership roles, rookies integrated into the lineup, a brochette of new veterans brought in to putty over the cracks and holes in the roster.
But this is a transition toward what, exactly?
If the end goal is capturing the franchise's 25th Stanley Cup, the Habs aren't objectively closer than a year ago when they reached the Eastern Conference final.
Athletes aren't paid to be patient, and after the Habs' season ended with a whimper in Tampa Bay on Tuesday, fifth-year defenceman P.K. Subban made it plain how he feels about gradual evolution.
"I've got to be honest with you, [on Wednesday] I turn 26 and the years seem to fly by, so I don't look at a season as a transition season, I look at it as an opportunity to win a Cup," he said. "I can't focus on saying we need to wait a couple of years before we can contend. We need to contend now."
That's not as inflammatory a statement as it may appear.
Therrien and Bergevin are also in a hurry; it's just that despite improving their record the Habs – both personnel-wise and in terms of playing philosophy – haven't been able to overtake their main conference rivals.
Despite playing well against Tampa in a closer-than-it-looked series, the fact remains the Habs have lost nine of the past 12 games they've played against the Lightning, a younger, quicker, more talented team.
Montreal's 50-win regular season masked poor underlying possession numbers and an anemic offence (Carey Price's franchise-record 44 wins were more often than not because of his individual brilliance).
Therrien-coached teams generally aren't possession-stat behemoths, but the Habs' shot metrics have dipped steadily since he took over in 2013.
The Canadiens did score more goals this year than last – five more. And after three seasons at the helm, Therrien has surpassed the goal totals of the last year in the much unloved Jacques Martin defence-first era. By one. They had the 20th-best goal production in the NHL this past year, up one position from the previous year.
So, progress.
Coaches don't score goals, but they do devise tactics and decide line combinations (the line juggling in Montreal has become borderline compulsive).
The power-play, an area over which coaching can have a direct influence, has been abysmal for 18 months, and in the postseason the penalty kill – solid all year – fell apart.
Yes, the Habs are a better faceoff team than they were a year go. Certainly, they have the ingredients of a championship-winning core (Price, Subban, Max Pacioretty).
They have blossoming talent in winger Brendan Gallagher, who fell one goal short of the 25-goal plateau, and defenceman Nathan Beaulieu.
But exciting 21-year-old Alex Galchenyuk appears to have stalled despite hitting 20 goals for the first time in his career (he had only one goal in his final 18 games and two in his last 30). Defenceman Jarred Tinordi's season was derailed by injury, but he is developing more slowly than the team had hoped.
Development is AHL head coach Sylvain Lefebvre's bailiwick; it's an area that will probably get a hard look this summer.
Managing the transition to perennial contender status is Therrien's brief. Unsurprisingly, he sees positives from the season.
"I think we progressed as a team, honestly. We gave different roles to many players, we got younger, as a coach I think we progressed a lot this season," he said.
His detractors will take issue with that analysis, but Subban agrees – with a caveat.
"I think we accomplished a lot of things during the regular season that people are going to look at as a bright spot, but in my opinion the true reflection of a good season is how you do in the playoffs," he said. "And I think the expectations have risen for us and they're going to rise again next year. We've got to be prepared to take that next step forward."
The determination that Bergevin and his staff will need to make is whether this year's playoffs were more representative than last year's.
The GM said last fall that he was prepared for the team to take a step back this season if that meant making two next year.
If he reckons that's likely perhaps only minor alterations will be made.
It seems clear the Habs will have decisions to make at centre – fourth-liner Torrey Mitchell had more points than Lars Eller, David Desharnais and Tomas Plekanec.
Perhaps Galchenyuk is an in-house answer, and perhaps 19-year-old Nikita Scherbak, a 2014 first-round pick, will provide a dash of elite offensive skill on the wing when he turns pro this fall.
It's more likely Bergevin will need to make some more acquisitions.
This is a team that is in dire need of finishers. Pacioretty is an elite scorer, but all the other teams in the Habs' immediate playoff neighbourhood seem to have at least two or three of those.
It's likely Therrien will only be judged once that obvious weakness is addressed by Bergevin.
Only one Habs coach since Scotty Bowman – who happened to be in the building to watch Game 6 against the Lightning – has lasted more than four full seasons in the job.
That would be Hall of Famer Pat Burns.
Therrien, who is under contract for three more seasons, has been in situ for two full years and a lockout-shortened campaign in his second stint with the organization.
He won't hit the 300-game mark at the end of next season and there is no talk about making a change.
Although with Mike Babcock available, it's probably an option the front office should at least consider.
In any case, transitions must at some point end.
If it takes too long to reach the denouement, Therrien surely knows he won't be around to see it.