Here's a good article on how mismanagement can kill a franchise. And at the time, no franchise in all of sports sat as high as the Montreal Canadiens.
When it fell apart, it fell a long, long way.
I have some things to say about all that though:
1) Mark Recchi for Eric Desjardins and John Leclair wasn't as bad as it seems. Leclair did nothing apart from Eric Lindros to compare with how he played with Eric Lindros. He was big and could finish. Mark Recchi might have been in the low 120s during those same seasons with Lindros. Eric Desjardins was the true loss there. Very solid d-man for the Flyers. Not replaced on that Habs team until maybe now.
2) Patrick Roy crumbled that season with Montreal. He was often shell-shocked and out-of-place. His aggressive style and Montreal's lack of depth in a poorly executed system left him looking no better that Jocelyn Thibault, really. Roy went on to a powerhouse team in the making. Roy was able to play loosely and aggressively there. Them winning two cups might have been two fewer than Domick Hasek could have won there. Roy played on ONE bad team - it was that Canadien team of between the 95 and 96 seasons - and Roy looked adequate at best.
3) Losing Desjardins and then Muller and Schneider after already losing your captain Guy Carbonneau is what killed this team. Those guys weren't replaced, even closely. Turgeon could score, Recchi could score, Malakhov was nut-case. No leadership and no solid defensemen makes for a pretty bad goalie experience. And Patrick Roy was the first indicator, not reason, of their demise.
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