CrashingTheGoalie

by Ron Spence

Bob Gainey is looking in the wrong direction. He’s trying to blame people on the outside, when the problem’s on the inside of his organization.

“The second half of our season was when things started to go off course,” Gainey said, “and I felt the first place was when we had discussions with Tampa Bay.”

“I got a call in January from them,” he continued, “with a list of names that they wanted to talk about and those (names) ended up in public because they used those names to take them to other teams to see if they could create a different trade for Vincent Lecavalier. I think it was disgraceful that (Montreal players) Josh Gorges, Tomas Plekanec and Chris Higgins had to read that stuff.”

Many players around the NHL heard rumours that they were about to be traded and they didn’t tank their season.

The Habs’ problems – half way through the season – were evident when they revolted against their coach.

Renaud Lavoie of RDS – who was tight with Steve Bégin – said that the former Hab had told him the players had been waiting for the axe to fall on their coach.

Luc Gelinas reported – and the GM acknowledged – that several players complained to Gainey about Carbonneau’s coaching methods and poor communications.

Their captain could have been one of these players.

“I didn’t feel that the players weren’t there for (Carbonneau),” Koivu said, “or weren’t playing for him — that’s not true. But sometimes things aren’t going the way you want and ultimately, he’s our boss and he’s responsible to get results and together we failed to deliver … that probably wasn’t the strong point of his coaching — communicating. But we all have our weaknesses.”

Carbonneau had put the onus on the players, saying that his office door was always open. Koivu conceded that some players believed that Carbonneau didn’t talk enough, while others were happy with his approach.

“When you have 25 guys on your team, you’re trying to run it as a team and not individuals,” Koivu admitted. “One coach’s style is not necessarily going to fit everyone, and not everybody is going to like it. But as long as you get the results, then everybody’s happy.”

“I feel very sad for Guy . . . but at the same time, things couldn’t continue with the way the team is playing,” former coach Jacques Demers added. “The players would never say it out loud, but the way they played said they wanted him out.”

The Habs – it seems – played badly to get their coach fired and then couldn’t improve their play.

They had learned to lose.

They had also learned to tune out their coach and continued to tune out Gainey after he took over.

So, Carbonneau became the fall guy and the players weren’t addressed.

Had Gainey addressed the problem on his team, he could have made some trades to improve Montreal’s chemistry.

Also, Gainey put too much pressure on his young goalie. It was like he expected Carey Price to be the next Ken Dryden.

He should have signed a proven veteran to work with the kid.

Two other factors can’t be ignored as well: there were the distractions of the 100 year celebration and the pressure of playing in Montreal.

Bob Gainey is one of my favourite people in hockey, but I think that the Canadiens should start rebuilding with a new GM and a new coach.

Jacques Lemaire would be my first choice if I was making the  coaching decision.

The Habs’ new ownership group will probably start from scratch and I wouldn’t be surprised if Pierre Lacroix was named Montreal’s next  GM.

We know that it won’t be Brian Lawton.