Weber perfect captain for Canadiens, Gill says
Former Predators teammate believes defenseman has presence, swagger to handle Montreal
But Gill has seen enough of Weber as an opponent and knows enough about the hockey cauldron in this city to believe that the Montreal Canadiens made the correct choice by naming Weber their 30th captain Monday.
"Shea has absolutely the perfect temperament to be captain," said Gill, who played 196 regular-season and 25 Stanley Cup Playoff games for the Canadiens between 2009-12. "He's a quiet leader but let's just say that he doesn't mince words. You know where he stands. He's not going to talk all the time, but you know what he's thinking. When he walks in the room, everyone respects him. Everyone knows he's got a presence. He's got a swagger and for the team, he's just the guy."
RELATED: [Weber named captain of Canadiens]
But the captaincy of the Canadiens, Gill also believes, is different than that of any other NHL team.
Gill signed with Montreal as a free agent on July 1, 2009 after winning the Stanley Cup with the Pittsburgh Penguins during the 2008-09 season. The retooled Canadiens played the 2009-10 season without a captain following the departure of Saku Koivu, who signed as a free agent with the Anaheim Ducks. Gill was named an alternate to Brian Gionta when the latter was selected as Canadiens captain for 2010-11, a role Gionta would fill for four seasons through his departure to the Buffalo Sabres as a free agent after the 2013-14 season.
Montreal's captaincy was vacant in 2014-15 before Max Pacioretty took over on Sept. 15, 2014, serving in that role until his trade to the Vegas Golden Knights on Sept. 10.
"Everything is blown up in Montreal, everything is bigger," said Gill, who played for the Boston Bruins, Toronto Maple Leafs, Penguins, Canadiens, Predators and Philadelphia Flyers in his 16 NHL seasons. "There aren't too many times when something can happen in that city and you can avoid facing the music. Most of it comes down to the media but there's a lot of pressure to succeed and as captain, you're the guy. I think in Montreal you have more responsibility than anywhere else in the NHL. Sometimes, in other cities, maybe you have a couple days to prepare an answer or a stance you want to take. In Montreal, it's usually right there and then and you've got to be able to face the music."
The music that Weber, 33, faced with the Predators, for whom he was captain from 2010-16 until his trade to the Canadiens on June 29, 2016 for defenseman P.K. Subban, was muted by comparison to what he'll hear now.
"Shea was dealing with a different beast in Nashville, he just had to focus on the team," said Gill, who is entering his second season in the radio booth for the Predators. "In Montreal, you have to worry about the whole city. It will be interesting to see how he handles the media up there. Shea can get heated. He can get passionate and that's what makes him so great. When it comes game time, you can see the laser focus. He's right on top of everything. He can play any role -- the finesse role, the physical role -- but he's going to have to come off the ice, take a second, regroup, then face the media and answer questions.
"He's going to have the big (media) scrums every day. Not just game day but after practice. It's a lot for a guy like him to handle, a guy who's so passionate about everything. But I think he's got a great temperament for it."
Complicating matters, at least a little, is that Weber likely will be out until at least December after having surgery on the torn meniscus in his right knee on June 19. But Gill sees the silver lining in that, saying that he expects Weber to use the season's first couple of months to "test the waters as captain of the team and slowly integrate himself into the locker room. He's going to be able to take that deep breath and survey the situation from up top without the heated passion of being in the game.
Weber is not the first Canadiens player to be out with an injury at the start of his tenure as captain. Jean Beliveau, who was voted to succeed traded defenseman Doug Harvey as captain on Oct. 11, 1961, tore ligaments in his knee during a preseason exhibition tour of Western Canada and didn't play his first game of the season until Dec. 7.
"Things seemed to work out all right for Jean," Gill said with a laugh.
Indeed, the late Beliveau, who was captain until his retirement in 1971, remains the longest-serving captain of the Canadiens. He would win four of his 10 Stanley Cup titles as captain and add seven more as a senior vice-president of the Canadiens through 1993.
Beliveau's quiet, poised leadership style, combined with a style of play he tuned to the occasion, had similarities to what Weber brings now.
"I don't necessarily look at one event or one thing to show me that Weber is a leader. It's more his body of work," Gill said. "His work ethic is awesome. He'll lift more weights than anyone else, he's a beast in the gym. Before the game he's very calm. He'll laugh, he'll joke, he can be a big kid at times, but it's a quiet intensity. Shea will have fun on the bench, tell a joke, then go out and smash someone against the glass and you'll say, 'OK, that's where we need to be -- light and loose with that intensity.'
"If the Canadiens can kind of take his mentality and go with it, it will be a lot of fun. Shea is just a guy you follow by nature. You look at him, you see the way he carries himself, and you know he's a leader."
