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Canadiens general manager Marc Bergevin believes his team only needs a “reset” not a “rebuild”.

“That’s me,” Bergevin said in early January when the Canadiens had a 17-20-4 record. “You might not like it.”

The Canadiens have gone 9-12-8 since Bergevin said those words and Montreal fans definitely don’t like it, shown by the empty seats at the Bell Centre and a drop in TV ratings.

A reset is not going to be enough to fix a team that was 26th in the overall NHL standings with a 26-32-12 record after Tuesday night’s 4-2 win over the Dallas Stars and was ranked 29th in offence and 23rd in defence.

The Canadiens need a “Shanaplan” like the one Brendan Shanahan put in place in Toronto when he was named president of the Maple Leafs at the end of the 2013-14 season when the team finished 23rd in the overall standings with a 38-36-8 record. The Leafs finished 27th the next season in the first year of the “Shanaplan” with a 30-44-8 record, but the new team president was honest with Toronto fans, telling them they were in for a lot more losing before things got better, that it wouldn’t be easy and that it would require patience while they waited for young players to develop. Shanahan wasn’t building a team to simply make the playoffs and then see what happens — he was looking to bring Toronto its first Stanley Cup since 1967.