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Marc Bergevin walks with a swagger, talks a tough game with the media but, oddly enough, runs the Montreal Canadiens in a curiously timid fashion.

Listening to his first major public declarations since the Habs officially established squatting rights near the bottom of the NHL standings this season, I was struck by how his discourse was all about excuses, all about blaming others and all about justifying why he isn’t going to step up to the plate and do something about this mess.

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I agree with those who say he shouldn’t hit the panic button. He shouldn’t. At the end of the Bob Gainey era as general manager and all through the nightmare that was the Pierre Gauthier era, Canadiens management was all-panic, all-the-time and that is an insane way to run a business.

But on the other hand, if you’re the head of a company and your company is taking a nose dive, you need to take full responsibility for that collapse and explain how you’re going to right the ship. Bergevin didn’t do that Wednesday.