Marc Bergevin responds to questions about tanking the season.

You hear it every time a team has a poor start to the season in any sport that has a draft weighted in favor of teams that underperform, the inevitable talk of tanking the season.

This time around in the National Hockey League there are unfortunately a number of teams that might be looking at themselves and thinking about the future, and among that group has to be the Montreal Canadiens. After advancing to the Stanley Cup Final in 2021, the Habs have looked like anything but a contender this season. They are currently losers of 4 straight and although they have played in 19 games this season, they have managed to collect just 4 wins.

There are other factors that have some thinking the Canadiens would be better suited looking towards the future. Most notably, star goaltender Carey Price has been on a leave of absence and there is still no indication of when he might return to the team.

When things are this grim it's no surprise that questions surrounding a tank come up, especially in a market like Montreal, and recently Canadiens general manager Marc Bergevin was asked about exactly that. After stating that his team needed to win games, Bergevin was asked why winning would be the best thing for the Canadiens given how poorly things have gone this season.

"Players have pride, you don’t go out there just to blow up games," said Bergevin as per Habs insider Eric Engels.

"That’s insane to think that way. If I go out there and manage like a GM that wants to lose games, I should be let go right away. That’s just not right."

"That’s just not the way it is, and it’s just not in our DNA."

The Canadiens would need an inspired stretch of hockey to climb their way back into relevancy this season, currently sitting ahead of only the Ottawa Senators in the Atlantic Division. Even the Senators are only 1 point behind the Habs in the standings and, after having their season shut down this week due to Covid, they currently have 4 games in hand.