Montreal Canadiens ice a new cast of characters, but will fans like what they see?

The chemistry in the Montreal Canadiens dressing room disintegrated under the weight of last season's collapse, and Marc Bergevin set out to fix it this off-season.

His plan included shipping out players such as P.K. Subban and Lars Eller and replacing them with guys like Shea Weber and Andrew Shaw.

• NHL suspends Canadiens' Andrew Shaw for 3 pre-season games
• P.K. Subban already making big impression in Music City

When the puck dropped, the Habs dressing room contained sevennew players and a whole new feeling.

It also rocked the foundations of the fan base.

Yawning chasm of opinion over Subban-Webertrade

Without a doubt, the biggest move the franchise has made in decades was trading P.K. Subban to Nashville in exchange forShea Weber.

It was a hugely controversial move that'sleft the Montreal club's supporters on either side of a yawning chasmof divided opinion.

• Montreal Canadiens fan takes out full page ad to express 'anger' over Subban trade

You have the "Habs are dead to me" people who are steadfast in their dedication to Subban.

In their anger over the trade, these fans are either actively rooting against the Habs now or feigning indifference tohockey altogether.

They talk about the team management and how they don't trust them:"Too much of an ol'boys club,"they say."Take all the fun out of the game,"they add.

Fans in this camp tendto see watching hockey as pure entertainment, and for them, what the Habs did this off-season made the team a whole lot less appealing.

On the other side of the spectrum is the "get over it" fans.

These people tend to believe they have a much more refined knowledge of the business side of sports.

And since it's business, often fans in this camp don't have time for those other fans who are whipped up into a tizzy over a trade.

"The Subban trade was a hockey trade,"they'll remindyou.

"It's part of the game,"they'll add.

"You need to get over it,"they conclude.

Arguments between these two camps go about as well as you'd expect when one side argues, "You're no fun,"and the other argues, "You're too emotional."

Stuck in the middle is Shea Weber who never asked for any of this.

Added character? Or another character?

Marc Bergevin has proudly talked about how he "added character" to the dressing room this off-season, and while Weber is the centrepiece of that, Andrew Shaw was also part of the equation.

In Shaw, Bergevin got a guy who hates to lose and knows what it takes to win a championship.

But does he really have the character that fans will embrace?

The strikes of badbehaviour against Shaw's character are adding up quickly.

Strike one happened before the Habs traded for him. Shaw was caught using a homophobic slur during a playoff game.

He was suspended and apologized, saying, "That's not the type of guy I am."

Strike two came in his first pre-season game at the Bell Centre when, after being tripped, he recklessly responded by hitting Capitals' prospect Connor Hobbs dangerously into the boards.

Shaw was suspended and apologized, saying he's"not the type of player to go out and throw dirty hits like that."

Then another strike in the season opener when Shaw earned himself a matchpenalty for slew-footing Buffalo's Johan Larsson at the end of the game.

It was adangerous play and completely unnecessary,with only seconds remaining in the game with his team leading 4-1.

Habs fans have complained for years that their team doesn't make it hard on opponents,but while Shaw might have elements of that in his game, the growing list of cheap shots is becoming harder and harder to justify as "added character."

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Max the leader

No one is questioning the integrity of Max Pacioretty,yet the captain was the target of a lot of mud this off-season.

Because he was in a leadership position when it all went to pot last season, some of the criticism isfair.

However,one year is far from long enoughto judge his captaincy in terms of "worst" or "best" ever.

At this point, putting Pacioretty in that conversation is similar to trying to include George Lazenby into the "best/worstBond"debate. (He is clearly disqualified because he only made one movie!)

Pacioretty's captaincy needs a bit more on the resume before it can truly be judged.

He has a new room to manage this year, and how he handles it may end up saying a lot more about him as a leader than all of last year did.