so what seems to be the problem after 1993?
For starters -- Here is a top ten:
1. At the time, a horrible Canadian exchange rate. A no salary cap 62 cent dollar era actually had people fearing the Habs might be moved in time to a place like Lexington, KY.
2. A love affair with french players, just because, as mediocre as some of them can be. The remarkably overt preferential treatment still exists today. Had Lapierre and Pouliot been on any other team, they'd be toast by now.
3. An outdated elitist scouting system which didn't feel the need to scout Europe and the USSR. Many great players slipped through their fingers.
4. Salaries were rising and players thought twice before playing in a city with the highest tax bracket. Who would want to lose literally millions of dollars in income taxes just to play for a team who might not even make the playoffs?
5. Bad trades -- Patrick Roy, John Leclair, Eric Dejardins, all of whom enjoyed excellent seasons elsewhere.
5b. - Trading Chris Chelios (who went on to win 2 more Norris trophies) for a finished Denis Savard because the Habs brass wanted a french star at any cost. Savard retired a few years later. Chelios went on to play another 17 years.
6. Horrendous drafting in general -- So few decent picks out of the 90s. Habs brass believed wearing the jersey was enough to create winners. Dreamers. Nobody cared about wearing the C anymore. It was about the money. When the Habs wanted to attract a loser like Samsonov, they had to pay him nearly double what he would have received elsewhere just to make up for the income taxes. What's sad is that at the time, this was considered a "great signing" because no big name players were in any way interested in playing in Mtl.
7. Constantly hiring rookie coaches and GMs, all of whom were French. A reluctance to hire the best coach or manager available -- only the best coach who speaks French. That's far too political for most people's tastes. It also limits the pool of available coaches in a big way. Did they not want to win?
8. A crazy media who make up half of what they write e.g., the "Kovalev-Russian reporter" tape which never seemed to exist after all.
9. Inability to keep players once they got good. Fans and media expected way too much from an average at best product on the ice.
10. Inability to attract players to a market which forbids them (yes, it is illegal) to send their kids to an English school, even if
their kids do not speak a word of French. Players had to jump all sorts of loops and hoops to get kids into the schools they wanted.
