The End of the Affair
Now that Brian Gionta is likely out for the season, now that the Habs best playoff scorer has been dispatched to Calgary, it is time to throw in the cards on this miserable edition of the team. It’s time to sell, not buy, and it’s time for the most important Canadian sports organization ever to be honest and forthright to its tens of millions of fans around the world. Trust me, we can take it. The Canadiens need to start, today, on making sure its 2012-2013 squad is much more worthy than is the current one of wearing La Sainte-Flannelle. And if that means continuing to break up the core of this group then so be it.
Please let’s be honest with one another. If this edition of Les Glorieux were a horse, it would be declared lame and then mercifully put down. The team is far less than the sum of its parts, the failed creation of an inept and inapt general manager, and, perhaps worst of all, largely unwatchable on the ice. Everyone seems to be waiting for Andrei Markov to return, as if he were Larry Robinson or Chris Chelios, but that is like waiting for the Messiah, and, anyway, how much difference could a player like Markov make after having been out for nearly two seasons? I try to watch every game that is broadcast here in the United States. They are painful, boring affairs. I remember Canadiens’ teams which would come out on home ice and put the game away in the first period. Now we are thankful if we have a scoreless tie after one. Let me put it another way. The forgettable Habs team of 11 years ago, from the 2000-2001 season, with players like Craig Darby, Juha Lind and Patrick Traverse, were more fun to watch than the current team. And that team got 70 points.
It’s okay to be boring when you are winning. That was Jacques Martin’s professed thing, right? And, Good Lord, the New Jersey Devils won that way for years. But it’s another thing to be boring when you are losing. The Habs play like automatons. Their forwards are too small—Thursday’s trade was an acknowledgement– and they are not nearly gritty enough. The defense is too soft. They are too devoid of passionate players. And club management is only now coming to the realization that the National Hockey League is never going to favor a style that is more European than Canadian. For decades, the Canadiens have valued speed over size. This sorry team is further proof that the balance must be struck differently—look at the Bruins, heck, look at most consistently successful teams these days. Small teams don’t win the Stanley Cup anymore—if they ever did. The so-called “Flying Frenchmen” were protected by men like John Ferguson and Pierre Bouchard. This team has protection, too, but just too many little guys to protect.
Hey, Geoff Molson, I don’t yet follow you on Twitter but I still appreciate your passion. You aren’t that far from offering to your dogged fans a solid team, a team worthy of both wins and respect. But you need to move and move now if you want to expedite the return to glory we’ve been waiting for now for nearly two decades. Let’s not start with the head coach, poor Randy Cunneyworth, whom your general manager Pierre Gauthier threw into the lion’s den last month. Let’s start with the players. Let’s start with Scott Gomez. And let’s be blunt. The Canadiens will never compete for a Stanley Cup so long as they are paying an extraordinary amount of money (what is it, $7 million, which is more than ten times the amount an average Quebecois earns?) to Scott Gomez. He may be the nicest guy in the world. He may be “great in the room,” as the hockey saying goes. But the French journalists are right when they say he adds nothing to the team. Nothing worth that salary, anyway. No organization can succeed when its highest-salaried employee is one of its least efficient. It has nothing to do with Gomez’s personality. It’s just a fact of human nature. His presence on that team is corrosive. So was Cammalleri– and if the Habs had received only a second-round pick and that prospect the trade would have been a step in the right direction.
Continue to cut your losses, Mr. Molson. Get rid of Gomez—no one will care how you do it or what the team gets in return. And while you are at it make plans to move forward without Gauthier. He is not responsible for the horrible Gomez trade, the worst Canadiens’ trade since the Patrick Roy trade of 1995. That brick belongs to Bob Gainey. But Gauther is responsible for signing Andre Markov to a long-term deal without knowing more about how well (or how poorly) the player had recovered from his knee surgery. And Gauthier is responsible for dozens of smaller decisions (Chris Campoli, really?) that have shaped a team that proves weekly that it is going in the wrong direction. That is not good enough in any town which loves its team. It is certainly not good enough for Montreal and its Canadiens. Gauthier needs to go and the sooner the better. He made Jacques Martin pay for mistakes the coach didn’t make. Now it’s time for the Habs to make Gauthier pay for his own mistakes.
So Gomez needs to go. And so does Gauthier. And nice Hal Gill– to a playoff team. And maybe Tomas Kaberle, too, if he continues to play well enough to earn some interest at the deadline. And if the team ends up with one extra decent draft pick from the sale of these assets, or one tough young forward, it will still be better off than it was this year. I will welcome Brian Gionta back next October. I think he’s an important player. But I will look forward to him being supported by a team that can more meaningfully compete. And that brings me to the scouting department. When does Trevor Timmons get evaluated, I mean really challenged, for his work over the past decade? When he was hired, he was supposed to be the drafting “genius” who created the Senators. But he hasn’t been so great with the Canadiens, has he? Along the same lines, Mr. Molson, I would like to know who the person was, in the Canadiens organization, who said: “Oh, Ryan McDonagh, we can afford to include him in the Gomez trade because he’ll never amount to anything.” That person should be fired.
Which brings me, at last, to the coach. Poor Cunneyworth. A nice guy, by all accounts, but he never had a chance. In a perfect world, the Canadiens would be able to select a coach without regard to the language the coach spoke. In the real world, however, as even my 78-year-old former Montrealer mother said the other day, “the Canadiens ought to have a coach who can at least speak a little French.” Word. Let’s be honest with one another yet again. By embracing the notion that the head coach of the Montreal Canadiens ought to be able to speak French, the team embraces the notion of affirmative action and at the same time dramatically limits the pool of qualified candidates for the job. I am a big fan of affirmative action (really, you can look it up). But I want the coach of the team to be the best candidate regardless of the language of his birth. It’s sad that cannot happen. But there is a lot about the language debate in Quebec, and its history, that is sad. I hope Cunneyworth stays with the organization— that would send the right message, would it not?
The Canadiens need new management. They need to reshape the size and swagger of the team. Opponents ought to fear playing the Habs, or at least consider it an annoyance, which is another concept that seems to be lacking each time this team takes the ice. If the idiots who run the Boston Bruins could have achieved all this, and I say that with all due respect, there is no excuse for the Canadiens not to have done it now for nearly 20 years. That’s what Geoff Molson must contend with. That’s why it’s so apparent that this current team stinks. And it’s why big changes are going to have to take place, now, before long-time fans of the team can have their confidence restored. This team is unworthy of the playoffs and desperately in need of a top draft pick. We all know that. Now Molson and Company simply have to muster up the courage, creativity and vision to make it happen.
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Like others I wonder why anyone thought Andrew Cohen had anything enlightening to say? I think the pertinent comment is that attributed to Sam Pollack where he acknowledges fans are idiots as many of the post here indicate. Yet occasionally there are beams of lucidity as shown by the likes of Canuckbot and shilo. Look everyone can make themselves seems brilliant in hindsight. Let me put the record straight on a few things while many of you are leaping off ” Costa Canadiens” here everyday.
First, some years a team stinks it up for various reasons. This team is competitive in most every game it plays. Look up the scores. With a little luck five or six fewer screw ups at the right time and or a few extra goals and this team has ten more points. With the competitive level in the NHL these days the margin of victory every night is slight. That being said results are what matter and if you are a coach who emphasizes defense first and your team keeps blowing leads then eventually you have to be accountable for that. Only time (i.e. hindsight) will tell if firing Martin was a good idea). So while Cohen and many others seem determined to tell us how much this team sucks it really is just as good as a good majority of the teams in the eastern conference.
More importantly we need to look at the big picture. While Cohen and others are trying to paint the organizations leaders as “idiots” or worst sinister (a common tactic by those who don’t and never will hold management positions) the reality is they have made many good decisions but again in hindsight some that have turned out poorly. To understand this we need to look back a few years to the lock out. Bob Gainey made the prediction that the “new rules” would open up the game for smaller more skilled players (I.e. the signing of giants, gomezmand carmalerri) . He was wrong but it was probably a good assumption at the time. Unfortunately the new rules did not hold up and the game remains a bigger mans game and one where force and intimidation still rule. In hindsight the idea looks bad but at the time it looked like good risk to take. As a manager I know we make decisions based upon what we think the trends are and what likely outcomes and shifts will be. Although he was wrong Gainey should not be hung for this it was a reasonable risk to take. Gues what managers make mistakes all the time. If we are going to Run them out of town for every mistake now one will take risk and that is what breeds organization failure and unsuccessful organizations – the reluctance to take risks. Secondly as many of you have no doubt forgotten when Gainey took over players did not want to come here for a variety if reasons. To overcome that Gainely again had to take some risks. Although he was admittedly known to be overapaid at the time Gomez was also known to be a “good” player on ice and in the dressing room. Gainey had just cleared out a lot of bad eggs from the dressing room and wanted to get some character players which Gomez was known to be. Also Gomez was the key to getting Gionta ( also another known character player) and Gionta was the key to getting Cammy ( not unfortunately a charater player but one that seemed to bring an offensive upside which the team needed). That folks is the history that many of you seemed to have forgotten. Now in hindsight the price for Gomez was too high given his lack of production, the cost in cap space and the development of Ryan Mcdonaugh. Again what some of you have forgotten or don’t know is that while Mcdonaugh was a top pick, at the time the scouting report was that his stock had fallen and he did not look so good anymore. So again seems like a reasonable risk on Gaineys part to add him to the mix. Again that did not turn out in the Habs favor.
Now, we turn to Guathier. I’m not going to debate his every move here since he took over from Gainey. Again as a managersome have workd some have not. Thenmore imprtant thing in evaluating the abilities of a manger is why decisins are made not always how they turn out. I will say one thing about him and that is based upon one decision he made which tells me what kind of manager he is. Despite the ” voice” of fans he traded Halak and not Priace and as a manger I admirenthatbgreatly. At the time the popular thing would be to trade Price and he did not which told me he had guts and he uses th bst information he has to make decisions. That folks is a good manager. As for Trevor Timmins I think he’s done a good job. When her had thhighndraftvchoice in 2005 he made the bst selection – Price. H got thfranchisemplayertou need to get that that spot. Again the consensus at the time would have had him draft someone like Gilbert Brule who supposedly had the offensive upside that thenhabs needed and why draft Price if you have Theodore? Enough said about that I think. Finally, the is one area where Gauthier and Gainey do deserve some harsh criticism based upon the data they should have had – it took them “too long” to see that the game was not going to transform to be about speed and skill. Size still matters and they are not a big enough team. That was obvious at least a year ago if not sooner. Only now with the trade of Cammy for Bourque do them seem to havebadapted to this reality. Unfortunately with the contracts they have tooling may be difficult in the short term althought the Cammy deal is a step in the right direction. As for Markov, again given his upside you had to make that deal. And again it has not so far been a good outcome. So it’s been a perfect storm for the habs this year. If they don’ make the playoffs that’s ok becuase a higher draft everynnow and then is not such a bad thing. But their needs to be enough of the sky is falling mentality with Habs fans. Try your best to enjoy the games as I will. I have just explained to you why we are where we are. There has been no plot or conspiracy of stupidity at work against them. Luckily,management seems finally to have recognized the philosophical change required and is moving in the right direction. We have lots of great young players in place and some new pieces need to be found. A complete overhaul is not required. Moving forward the team faces these challenges to get back into contention:
- freeing up cap space to get the new pieces
- keeping the young talent we have in place wanting to stay in Mtl. given the media and fan over reaction and expectations ( lets not return to the Pre- Gainey days when no one wanted to play there)
- finding the right coach!!!!!
The last one is the one I am most concerned about because we don’t have a good record of identifying that person. And given how politicized it is I fear we will get a “fans” / media choice and not the “best” choice
Finally, results are ultimately what matters and if management cannot get the team back into contention (or in business speak make the profit and return in investment the shareholders – us fans – deserve) then yes it must change. But don’t try and paint the doom and gloom scenario I hear from Cohen and others. This team has been well served by the management team in place . The team has lots of cause for optimism, but yes management will have to produce results to remain in place. The weeks and months ahead will certainly be their judge.
Why all the hate towards this guy? It was well written and pretty much right on the money.
Blah,blah,blah,yadda,yadda,yadda…. He’s echoing the same old rhetoric all us passionate Habs fans have been saying for years …
What a waste of time article. Why is Andrew Cohen’s opinion so important? And how much does it differ from all the other fans posting here. I feel like I’ve been reading this article ever day of the season so far!
nothing keeps you here btw
That’s it. Keep it classy.
Go Habs Go!!
“Fans are great, but the quickest way to start losing is to listen to them.” – Sam Pollock
Just what we needed…another whiner on the site. Good riiddance.
It’s during the difficult times that we weed about the bandwagoners.
Go Habs Go!!
“Fans are great, but the quickest way to start losing is to listen to them.” – Sam Pollock
lol, I was thinking the same thing.
Thanks for pointing out the obvious Andrew, I’m pretty sure management knows about the problems and I’m sure they will fix it.
I am sure it will happen, and I am sure it won’t happen over night.
Yes Gomez deal NOW was a mistake (we lost a good defenseman, that’s it, nothing more, there are others in the organization). It was a quick fix that worked, and brought in a ton of cash in 2010 and entertained us that year to no end.
Andrew, you’re blaming moves that every single team in the NHL makes every year. Campoli? Really?
Markov? What did you want them to do? Not resign him? Just let him go like he’s trash? Yeah that would bring in players. Lets give my entire career to to a team that treats me like **** when I get hurt.
What ever you do, don’t point out the good things the organization has done. Price, Gorges, Subban, Kostitsyn, Plecs, Emelin, Gill, Kaberle, Yes, he’s been good Leblanc…..you get the point yet?
Hockey management is not easy. You depend on a whole bunch of people to give their best assessment and then you act on that advice, and try and build a winner.
You and a few others want the team to lose five or six years straight and build on those picks?
Well guess what,it has worked for two teams. Pittsburgh, and Chicago. And during those losing seasons, the fans were gone, or crying like little babies.
No thanks, I enjoy watching hockey in April. Even if it’s only one series or three rounds. It’s part of the excitement.
The Stanley Cup is the hardest trophy to win, and not just on the ice.
Some people just don’t get it.
Shane Oliver
http://www.Sholi2000.com Inc.
Custom Sports Figures
Brandon, MB,Canada
R7B 2R7
hockey@sholi2000.com
Ph- 204 724 8418
Awesome response. Good to read someone who gets it for a change.
@HR1: You say whiner. I say venting realist.
You probably call yourself a Real Fan™ too however you are just another dreamer, another supporter of perpetual mediocrity that tries to call it excellence.
@Sholi: You’re still trying to defend that brutal Kaberle deal. You give management too much credit. If you look at what Gauthier is trying to do now, in a sense back-pedalling from his and Gainey’s disastrous foray into smurf agency, is exactly what I have been clamouring for; more size and grit.
I have called this team peripheral for the past 2 1/2 seasons. Gauthier ssaid the exact same thing after the Cammy trade. You also said the most they’d get is a 2nd. Wrong again on that one.
Andrew Cohen gets it. Vinnie Damphousse gets it.
There is no dishonour in missing the play-offs for a few seasons if need be. If a proper rebuild is explained to the fans they will get it too.
Saying that the Stanley Cup is the hardest trophy to win is correct. The Habs do not have the team to go all the way so 1 or 2 rounds of play-off hockey might satisfy you but that isn’t the objective.
Look at the Sabres. They are exactly the type of team you don’t want to build. High priced and free agent heavy. They suck too. A carbon copy of the Gainey’s Habs.
Look at the Senators. They are top 10 now. They chose the correct route. Sell. They also have Zibanejad and Mark Stone in the pipes.
My argument, my Tanking™ doctrine, is not about throwing games. It is about accepting a lost season like this one and rather than make all the dismal little moves that give the illusion of play-off viability make the ones that allow the team to fight another day, as in next season.
The boys and I upstairs think that dude is the biggest tool on HIO bar none. Why even respond to him? A baby’s poop-filled diaper contains more brain cell than he possesses.
See my posting above. We’re headed in the right direction.
This is an actual serious article on here? This guy is not a journalist, he’s a typical frustrated Habs fan. The crap he’s spewing is a joke. Why even put it on this site?
“They don’t hang Conference Championship Banners from the rafters here”
Carey Price
Just look at all the thank-you’s below and read those who agree and maybe you’d realize why.
http://buzztap.com/link.jsp?id=7208297&cid=516&source=twitter
Video of boston talking about the PK hit, I’d poke fun at Jack Edwards but that vein on his neck is scary o.o
LMAO,what a bunch of douches. No mention of what should have been a 5 minute instigator on ference either.
PK puts his elbow to Krejci’s face — it’s a dirty hit. I hate Ference, but he did what we’d all want our team-mates to do. I HATE Jack Edwards, but that vein is popping for a reason: we scored on the ensuing powerplay and so profited from a dirty hit.
What kills is that Jack Edwards and NESN are cheerleaders for not only the league’s dirtiest team but also one that profited all the way to the Cup from avuncular help upstairs.
The hypocrisy of anyone connected to the Bruins lamenting how “the rats are winning” makes me retch.
Sorry but he did not “put his elbow to Krejci’s face”. Watch it again. His gorearms came up flailing, but they barely grazed the guy. That was a clean hip check. His arms were barely part of the hit.
We cannot take a great hit like that out of the game.
Go Habs Go!!
“Fans are great, but the quickest way to start losing is to listen to them.” – Sam Pollock
No Chance that it was an elbow, if you pause the video at the point of impact PK’s arm was at chest level and then he pushes off with the same arm and maybe grazed his chin. There is nothing wrong with this hit.
This NESN show is the worst sports show I have ever seen. Who’s the meat head that is quoting Burke, if the league started listening to Burke I would start watching the KHL instead.
“The Rats end up winning” What a joke!
The turtleing (however that’s spelled) has got to go, someone teach PK to man up and fight.
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Kiss my hAbSS!!!
Fair enough, if you and Habsrule are correct, I’d be relieved. Like Habsrule, I’d have no wish to take big (but clean) hits out of the game. I want opposing forwards to be aware of this when they approach our blue-line.
But I’m still not convinced about this one.
Cheers
Come on guys! Even if you look at the photo on Boone’s Sens preview above, there’s more than chin-grazing in it!
Then ask yourselves, if it were Lucic chin-grazing Cole, what would you be saying?!
Happily, we at least agree that Jack Edwards’ parents misspelled his name on his baptismal certificate (ie ‘ac’ was meant to be ‘er’).
Cheers
Rats? Look at your entire Boston line-up Jack. Marchand? Horton? Luchicken? Ferrence? Cambell? Mcquaid? They’ll only fight the guys they know they can beat. Real tough guys. Keep up the pure bias Jack! What was your thoughts on the cheap bridge that Marchand aka “The true rat” threw on Salo the other night?
Bravo. Excellent letter. Thanks for sharing!
Don’t know if this has been posted already but the first paragragh tells how some of the players felt about cammy.
http://www.hockeybuzz.com/blog/Eklund/Did-Montreal-Panic-On-Myers-for-Getzlaf-Schenn-for-JvR-Kane-for-Doan/1/41310
Eklund is the best hockey fiction journalist out there
Making up trade rumours is one thing,but making up quotes from former team mates would be quite another. I don’t put much stock in hockeybuzz trade rumours,i only go there to read the articles by eric engles. But i do have a hard time believing these quotes are fabricated.
Guess this Cohen guy read HH too many times and had his mind warped.
_______________________________________________
Tanking- The Losers way of winning.
The only language the Montreal Canadiens coach should speak is HOCKEY!
Darren Dreger explains the “technicalities” of the trade:
http://watch.tsn.ca/featured/clip600685#clip600685
Well lets get past the (supposedly) impressive fact that this guy is an editor for The Atlantic and legal analyst for CBS news, and deal with the substance of what he says. And just by way of credentials, I’m 58 and have been watching the Habs a hell of a lot longer than he has.
The first thing I’d take exception to his statement that we’re waiting for Markov as if he were Robinson or Chelios. Having watched all 3, I can say without reservation that Markov is 10 times the player that Chelios ever was. Chelios was without question the most over-rated D-man ever to wear the colors. Markov if he ever returns is one of the top 5 or 6 defenceman in the league.
I’m not a huge Gauthier fan at this time, but to suggest that he screwed up by signing Markov just goes to show how little Andrew Cohen knows about what’s going on. There was no way Gauthier could have signed Markov for less money or years than he did. Any team in the league would have given Markov more money and a longer contract if Gauthier had let him go.
He asks how much difference could Markov have made – he was the key to one of the best power plays in the league for a number of years. He cleared the zone every time. Think of him as Lidstrom-lite.
There was no way for the Habs to know that Markov would not return for the start of the season. And if he had, this would be a very different team.
He talks about boring hockey and then whines because the Habs favor speed over size. Detroit won with speed, finesse and “European” hockey and so did Montreal.
Then he dumps on Timmons for his picks. As far as I can see the Habs have done as well as anyone in the draft given the place they picked. Did they miss better players at times? Of course. So did every team in the league. But if you look at some of the players they did pick you’ll see that they’ve done very well with the picks they had.
Cohen would have the Habs emulate the Bruins. For starters, that isn’t possible for any other team. The way Boston wins is that they are allowed to play outside the rules because Jacobs is the chairman of the board of governors who just gave Bettman a huge new contract. Any other team pulling the crap that Boston does would get penalized into oblivion.
On top of that, what true Habs fan would want a team like the Bruins? Nasty, dirty, vicious thugs – Marchand, Lucic, Thornton, Campbell, Chara – I wouldn’t want any of them in a Habs jersey.
Do the Habs need to get bigger? Maybe. I’m still pretty happy with (arguably) their best forward prospect – Brendan Gallagher – even though he’s a midget. What can you say about a guy who scores 7 points in his first game back from the world junior? “Sorry you’re too small” seems kind of stupid.
I agree that Gauthier has to go. I’d say that firing Pearn was the beginning of the end for him. If coaching was the problem (and it was a huge part of it) you don’t solve it by firing the assistant coach. Then when he got around to firing Martin (which was way overdue) he has only 1 assistant coach and has to put his assistant general manager (who apparently has never coached) in as the new assistant coach – dumb.
For me, the nail in Gauthier’s coffin was trading Spacek for Kaberle. Last year I would have given Spacek away for a bag of pucks. This year he was playing very steady D. But more than that, he was at the end of his contract. Kaberle – aside from being soft, defensively useless and completely disinterested – has a long expensive contract. The reason Boston didn’t try to sign him is that he doesn’t bring anything to the game.
I was very surprised that Gauthier was allowed to make the last trade. I would have thought that Molson would have insisted that all trades be OK’ed by him. I don’t question that Cammallleri needed to be traded (selfish, unmotivated and divisive) but I can’t understand why he wasn’t shopped around. Why pick up Calgary’s 30 year old problem child, when what we really need is prospects or draft picks?
We all have our opinions but your credibility is shot when you state “Markov is 10 times the player that Chelios ever was”.
Sorry not even close.
In his prime Chelios was a goal-scoring, hard-hitting, team leader, tough, do what needs to be done, stud defender. He led his team in scoring once, was second in scoring once and third in scoring another time. Chelios has three Norris trophies for being the best defender in the league and you are blabbing about Markov being top 5 or 6?
~We all have our opinions but your credibility is shot when you state “Markov is 10 times the player that Chelios ever was”.
I have to admit, it was immediately after reading that line that I stopped reading the post and scrolled down to the next post (your’s) as well.
“Well lets get past the (supposedly) impressive fact that this guy is an editor for The Atlantic and legal analyst for CBS news, and deal with the substance of what he says. And just by way of credentials, I’m 58 and have been watching the Habs a hell of a lot longer than he has.”
64 yrs old here and got real interested in your ideas from above paragraph.
“The first thing I’d take exception to his statement that we’re waiting for Markov as if he were Robinson or Chelios. Having watched all 3, I can say without reservation that Markov is 10 times the player that Chelios ever was. Chelios was without question the most over-rated D-man ever to wear the colors. Markov if he ever returns is one of the top 5 or 6 defenceman in the league.”
Sorry after this paragraph I just moved on to the next post. Geez!!!!!
Andrei Markov is not ten times as good as Chris Chelios was. He’s not even as good as Chris was. No offence to Andrei, but Chris was so highly regarded by his peers and hockey experts that he won the Norris Trophy three times and is headed for the Hall of Fame. Mr. Markov’s career may have been marred by injury, but even when healthy his play does not reach the level of Mr. Chelios.
That’s the problem with hyperbole, you wrote this to add emphasis to your words without being really serious, but it robbed you of your credibility.
Unless you were serious, in which case we have an even bigger problem.
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How about it NHL? No fighting, just hockey?
http://relentlessineptitude.blogspot.com/
Errant!
Been looking for you (but I think there’s at least 8 hours between us).
I replied (next day) to your post after the Boston game. If you want to have a look, it’s on ALN and you’d have to scroll to the bottom and click older posts!
And btw, completely agree with you and others about Chelios.
Cheers
So the Habs need to get bigger (up front) and yet they trade or don’t re-sign Max Lapierre and Benoit Pouliot. On the back end they trade or don’t sign Ryan O’Byrne and James Wisniewski (not big but gritty). Will Bourque bring more grit than those four players?
You’re right TrueBlue. Where has Gauthier been the past 2 years? The Habs have been too small from the first day he was appointed GM. It’s absolutely ridiculous for him to finally “see” that the team lacks size after all this time. How often has he answered size and grit questions posed to him by reporters by saying things like “we may be small, but we don’t play small” or “we have adequate size to be successful if we play as a team”…. and so on, ad nauseum. All you have to do is go back to archived interviews to read statements that he has made on this subject in the past.
Where was Gauthier when we got physically beaten up by the Bruins in that game last year that Mike Boone termed the “Beantown Beatdown”, or what about when Max Pacioretty had his neck broken and career almost ended by Chara on that fateful night in Montreal? Gauthier didn’t have a damm thing to say then about “needing to get bigger up front”.
No wonder Cammalleri wanted out. In his next to last game as a Canadien, there was a 1st Period incident where Cammy and David Perron of the Blues were jostling and crosschecking back and forth with each other, until the 6’2″, 235 lb. Chris Stewart stepped in and cross-checked Cammalleri and knocked him off balance. Now Perron himself is bigger than Cammalleri, he certainly didn’t need Stewart to enter the fray. Did anybody on the Habs step in to defend Cammalleri? Who do the Habs have that could take on a guy like Stewart? This was a routine play, not unlike a thousand other such acts of intimidation against the smaller Habs for the entire time that Gauthier has been GM of the Montreal Canadiens.
So now Gauthier sees the light after 2 years, after his players have had to endure physical beatings in just about every game they play. Players like Cammalleri and Desharnais and Pleks and Gionta, even Subban and Gorjes, regularly targeted every game. These players have had to sacrifice their bodies because of the GM’s ignorance. Gauthier should truly be ashamed of himself.
Yappierre asked to get out and was obliged!
He wore out his welcome with the diving, turtle antics and Cheshire cat grinning. (sound vaguely familiar?)
Same as Lemieux same as Ribero. Who also were sent packing!
Strange how he only lasted a month in Aneheim too and it took his former Junior coach to convince him he needed to change his act or end up playing senior hockey in St. Louis de Ha Ha.
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What does the Commissioner of the NHL do?
In short, a league commissioner is the action man for the Board of Governors.
They tell him what they want done and he works to make it happen through his subordinates while making sure that individual franchises play by the rules.
******** Translated if you haven’t won the Stanley Cup in 40 years your NHL team is becoming irrelevant in a sports mad city long behind MLB, NFL and NBA teams, you just tell the commissioner(who you gave a new contract at 7 plus million per) to make it happen and the rules are bent sufficiently to action the command.
going into this season…the only thing i really put blame on management is not knowing Markov’s status to return. Originally he was only supposed to miss the first month or so. Campoli was a band-aid and so was kaberle. if markov had started this season, neither of those guys would have been aquired and we would still have spacek.
Gill, Subban,Spacek,Markov,Gorges, Diaz, and Emelin and cap space. Not too shabby IMO. we also wouldn’t have had to deal with as many Weber/Campoli/ Kaberle f**k ups often costing goals. Sure, PK may still have had a bad season ( so far ), but we would have a more stable defence with veterans to manage him better.
The way the habs finished last season i honestly thought we were going to be able to make some noise come playoffs. Maybe Markov would have been rusty, but he would still provide some valuable guidance to our younger D-men. I too have, scrath that HAD, a soft spot for Cammy myself living in Calgary. Flames fans here couldn’t stop bragging while he put up 39, and then we got him. But it had to be done. I also have soft spot for Bourque, getting a chance to watch him play often.
Alot of high hopes before this season, but politics and drama and losing has made it almost unbearable to watch now days. The worst part is they’re close in every game which keeps me hooked. Stop watching the habs ????? NEVER
GO HABS GO !!!!
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i don’t know why they keep comparing Carey Price to God………i mean he’s good, but he’s no Carey Price.
And yes Mr. Cohen, the person who included McDonaugh in the Gomez trade should be fired !
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i don’t know why they keep comparing Carey Price to God………i mean he’s good, but he’s no Carey Price.
Exaggerated long read of what I’ve said here umpteen times. Regardless it’s nice to see others are on the same page with the state of the canadiens. Team needs major changes.
double post
Why couldn’t he have put this much effort on the ice?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S7zWE7T7KFI
Nice article by Cohen. Couldn’t have said it better myself. I have been saying it for about 3 years. I saw Gainey and Gauthier were making one bonehead move after another. It was only a matter of time before the house of cards collapsed. It’s really a shame we had Gilette beforehand who was totally ignorant to hockey (as were most of the people on this board). Now Molson took over and has given the two most incompetent GMs in this club’s history (minus Houle of course) more than enough rope.
The team is in shambles and the the prospect cupboard is a joke. It’s a shame that we have wasted so many years with those bozos. The game has long passed them by. They completely failed with this team, who will miss the playoffs and be more or less in the same position they were in when Gainey first took over. A shame indeed.
I rarely comment (as evidenced by the fact that Cammy is still listed as one of my fav current players on my profile) but I’ve been feeling like a troll lately, commenting after our worst loses and the Kaberle trade. However, (this is coming a little late) I think the team held its own pretty well against a powerhouse (hate to admit it) like Boston. Apart from the bad bounce in the first period, it would’ve been a tie game by the time the horn sounded at the end of regulation. We competed, battled, and almost potted a couple, but not against Floppy.
Re. the Cammy trade, although he has been unproductive and a liability in our zone, I’ve always had a soft spot for him. He kills himself in the offseason, he’s (seems like) a good character, he’s half-Jewish, and he turns his game up come playoff time. It was saddening to see his picture with a Flames logo in the bottom right corner when SportsCentre did the story on him. I believe he could’ve scored at least 30 goals per season (maybe hit 40) with us. Unfortunately, he just hit rock bottom and his calling the team out to the media punched his ticket out of MTL.
In the end, the trade needed to be done. It was a step in the right direction and I hope Bourque plays with a LITTLE more effort than the previous Hab to wear #27. We also get significant cap relief, a 2nd round pick, and a potential sleeper prospect. I disagree with the manner in which the trade was done, but that’s another story.
Thank you for your time here Cammy!
Edit: Profile updated.
Mike – I had conflicting points of view on last night’s game. Part of me saw it exactly like you did. The other half thought that we could never win the game even though it was so close (and the two Bruins’ goals were semi flukes).
I had the gut feeling the Bruins could have revved up into the next gear if need be and still win the game.
BTW, I thought Subban’s hit was a semi head shot. A dumb play only compounded all the more by his assine smile that has totally worn thin not only with me, but also with the two teams on the ice. I’ve love to have ten minutes to chat with this guy to explain that’s there’s no place for a 2nd year player to act like a big fish in a small pond. Drop the Lapierre like smirk and start acting like a pro hockey player.
I have felt the same way about him as you do.
I like confidence, but I hate arrogance, and sometimes I feel PK’s head may cause him to float away on some nights.
‘Lapierre like smirk’ – exactly.
Yeah it was pretty dirty, and it was cowardly to cover up and just let Ference drag him down. I think PK is becoming less and less untradeable at this point. Perhaps he needs Gill to straighten him out again?
people won’t agree with me but the ducks need defense. I would be talking to them about PK subban for Getzlav or Ryan. Both would make our club better. PK is a good player and I don’t dispute that but I also think he is a bit of a head case type player
No way they part with those guys straight up. Geztlaf forget it, and Ryan is a proven 35 goal scorer. What has PK done? Nice offensive year last season, but a minus player. This year he’s not even close to an all star player. You would have to give up more than PK.
Good posts, especially because all the encouraging aspects of that close game against a contender were swamped by the trade story.
24, I’d reluctantly agree — retrospectively — that the Bruins could possibly have taken it up a gear. But during the game, which I was obliged to watch on NESN, I had the insufferable Jack Edwards waxing lyrical about what a bad game Boston was playing and yet still leading despite Montreal’s best efforts. (I am a peaceful fellow but by God, give me an AK47 and a clean shot at the broadcast booth and I take that smug, patronising jackass out!). So until the game ended, I was very much crediting the Habs with PREVENTING Boston from bringing their best game. But now, in the quiet, I’m thinking that perhaps your analysis is closer to the truth!
I also cringed at PK. Unfortunately, I reckon the problem starts with the fact that the hit was very nearly 100% clean and just a really good check. We want our D-men to do that, we want all opposing forwards to be wary of that when crossing our blue-line, and only PK and Emelin ever do it. But I don’t, and you don’t, want them to be Pronger out here, trying to hospitalise people.
But the hit was probably less than 100% clean, and Ference did what any of us would want a team-mate to do (Still don’t get why he wasn’t pinged for instigating).
And then the smirk. Is it usually as broad as that? And with the ref? I’m holding out that something else funny happened during the scrum (although no one else was laughing). There are way worse things you can do to irritate opponents (think Avery), but PK’s smirk made me cringe. Tell you what though, if he exits his sophomore slump, stops the cheap giveaways, and starts scoring on the PP and on some of his rushes, I’ll let him smirk all he wants. Talk of trading that much talent might be fair but I find scary. Why not try to fix him first? Captain, Gill, RC, or next coach?
I just found it funny that one of the good points you mentioned about Cammy is he’s half Jewish lol. Pretty irrelevant