Montreal Canadiens

Every team approaches the new season differently. With All-Star festivities wrapping up last weekend, the NHL season is now well past its half-way point—many teams who were picked for great things before the first game have failed to live up to expectations.

In a year in which seemingly every team can make a run for a play-off spot, there are a handful of teams who have managed to anchor themselves in the bottom-feeder club.

Here's a look at the NHL's most poorly managed franchises:   

The Montreal Canadiens are 47 games into the 2011-12 NHL season and their record has suffered drastically. With a 17-21-9 record and currently sitting 12th in the Eastern Conference, one point ahead of the last place Carolina Hurricanes (17-24-8), the team is on pace for their worst season since the 2002-03 NHL season.

The Montreal Canadiens fired head coach Jacques Martin on Saturday, according to the team's official web site.

Randy Cunneyworth will take over the team as interim coach for the remainder of the season, and Larry Carrière will be one of his assistant coaches.

According to Pat Hickey of the Montreal Gazette, Geoff Molson has described his ownership of the Montreal Canadiens as a sacred public trust.

As a member of the public, I currently don’t trust Geoff Molson as far as I can throw him. That’s how little confidence I have left in the team this year.

Sure, the Habs are completely capable of, and perhaps even likely to, scrape into the bottom rung of the playoff ladder.

The Montreal Canadiens traded for defenseman Tomas Kaberle Friday in a foolish move that will hurt their team now and in the near future.

The Sporting News is reporting that Kaberle was acquired from Carolina for defenseman Jaroslav Spacek.

The Montreal Canadiens in their 100 years of history have produced some of the greatest snipers to ever play the game. Maurice "The Rocket" Richard and Guy Lafleur are two of the most famous. That league best setup man has been rarer for them.

In the NHL, it seems as though coaches come and go as often as rule changes. 

Coaching changes offer a much-needed jolt to the team and sometimes even a change in identity. 

A perfect example of this is Pittsburgh Penguins head coach Dan Bylsma, who was hired because the team needed a different look. This change was an instant success, and the team went on to win the Stanley Cup that season.

Boston Bruins forward Brad Marchand and Montreal Canadiens defenseman PK Subban tried to fight twice on Thursday night but the officials broke it up each time, and on the third time they finally got to dance.

The fans wanted the two young stars to fight, and they got their wish.

Marchand explained after the game what led to the fight:

These two NHL dynasties separated by a decade seem more alike than different. They were two of the most offensively talented teams ever.

Yet despite their similarities and their closeness in time, they still represent two different eras of NHL hockey and two different types of teams. 

For the better part of the decade, the Montreal Canadiens have lacked a big-body presence up front that can wreak havoc in front of the opponent's net and can also bury scoring opportunities. This has become a well known fact that opposing teams have often taken advantage of, especially in the postseason.