Article content continued

Maybe the five-day break will give the team a chance to clear its collective head and get back on track. Maybe acquiring a player like Matt Duchene at the upcoming March 1 trade deadline will make things right. But that’s nearly three weeks away.

By then, the Habs, who have played five more games than the second-place Senators and four more than the fourth-place Leafs in the Atlantic Division standings, could be out of a playoff spot.

Besides, the Habs don’t really need to make a trade. They just need a jolt in the same way that the Bruins, Blues and Islanders needed one.

In other words, they need to fire head coach Michel Therrien.

When the Blues fired Ken Hitchcock on Feb. 1, the team had lost five of its last six games and was clinging to the final wild card spot. Today, they are 5-1-0 under Mike Yeo and in third place in the Central Division. The Islanders are 8-2-2 since firing Jack Capuano, having climbed from last in the Eastern Conference to 10th place, just one point out of the wildcard spot.

Even the Florida Panthers, who fired Gerard Gallant in November, have shown a slight improvement since then.

It’s not about Xs and Os. A new coach might assign new roles to players and devise different power play schemes. But mostly it’s a wake-up call to the rest of the team. Trades are harder and harder to execute in today’s NHL, but firing the head coach is an easy way for a GM to get the message across that things need to change.

After that, it’s up to the players.