Islanders-Canadiens: Price Steals a Point, Habs Lose in OT

Montreal 2 New York Islanders 3 OT (Bell Centre)

posted by Rocket
theRocketSports.blogspot.com

This was one of the games on the home stand that made me nervous. Apparently, I had good reason. The Islanders came into Montreal as one of the league's hottest teams over the past ten games at 6-2-2.

It also marked the return of Yann Danis to the Bell Centre facing his former team. As it turned out, the Isles wouldn't need Danis to be the difference in the game.

The Canadiens started well. Price made some early saves. The forwards were being aggressive. Habs were getting pucks to the net but without players in front to deflect or cash rebounds. And there were a lot of rebounds. Danis was a little shaky to start.

It was a rebound deflected up by Danis that Tomas Plekanec knocked in for what could have been the game's first goal. After review, it was determined that Plekanec's stick was too high and the goal was disallowed.




Plekanec would get that goal back a few minutes later on the power-play. Max Pacioretty provided a perfect screen in front and Danis never saw the shot.

The Islanders tied it up on a missed defensive assignment by Matt D'Agostini. Mike Iggulden's goal extended his four game points streak.

Following the goal, the Habs seemed to stop skating. The period ended with the Canadiens up in shots 12-7.

The second period began with a very passive penalty kill by the Canadiens. The Islanders played an aggressive period and used their speed. Carey Price kept his team in the game. At one point the shots were 10-1 for the Isles with Price making at least six huge saves.

The Canadiens had stopped skating, their passing was erratic and they were losing battles for the puck. Bell Centre fans started getting restless. With about 7 minutes left the Habs started getting some offensive chances to make the shot total a little more respectable at a 12-7 advantage for the Islanders.

The Isles scored a power-play goal in the first minute of the third period. A point shot was tipped by Frans Nielson with Josh Bailey left alone to screen Price

Kostopoulos scored at the mid mark of the period on a perfect feed from Andrei Markov. But the failure of the power-play to score on a full two-minute 5 on 3 would prove to be costly for the Canadiens. The power-play would finish 1 for 6 for the game.

Carey Price was the story of the third period with one spectacular save after another. The Islanders would take 17 shots in the period with most of them being very difficult saves. The Bell Centre fans chanted CA-REY! CA-REY!

The Isles' pressure continued in overtime. They got the winner as Mathieu Schneider could not handle Kyle Okposo in front.

The Canadiens got one very important point. But this was the Islanders, the worst team in the league, and winners of only seven road games this season. With the line-up they iced, a case could be made to call them the Bridgeport Sound Tigers.

Carey Price was far and away the best player on the ice. He made numerous amazing saves, many with his glove hand. As Kostopoulos said "If it wasn't for Carey, we would have lost two points."

Kostopoulos had a goal and a fight. Both Kostopoulos and Gregory Stewart tried to jump start their team in separate fights. They both should be given credit for going up against much bigger, heavier guys.

Defensive zone coverage was a problem again tonight. Gainey has identified some areas for improvement. It will take practise and trust. Koivu said "Our confidence is not as high as it should be. We need to keep working at the little details."

One Habs fan put it another way, "It will take some time for the team to shake the effects of Carbitis."


Game note

The camera work on RDS was behind the play several times during the game tonight.


Pre-game

Starting lineup: Lapierre, Higgins, Kostopoulos, Markov, Komisarek

Carey Price and Yann Danis started in goal.

Brisebois and Latendresse were scratched from the line-up. Kovalev was ill with the flu. Laraque, Bouillon, and Lang were out with injuries.

Lines:

Plekanec-D'Agostini-Pacioretty
Koivu-Tanguay-Andrei Kostitsyn
Lapierre-Higgins-Kostopoulos
Metropolit-Stewart-Dandenault


Rocket's 3 stars:

1. Carey Price
2. Frans Nielsen
3. Tom Kostopoulos

(photo credit: AP)

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Guy Carbonneau: The Weakest Link...The Final Chapter

posted by Rocket
theRocketSports.blogspot.com


This is the third and final article in the weakest link series. The first appeared last April as Guy Carbonneau stumbled through his rookie playoff appearance as a coach.

Without rehashing everything from the two previous articles, it was for some, the first time that Guy Carbonneau's coaching deficiencies set off alarm bells. After coasting through a season under the radar and benefiting from a roster relatively free of injuries, Carbonneau's coaching abilities were tested. The rookie playoff coach failed miserably.


When opposition coaches dissected and defended Carbonneau's feared power-play, the coach did not respond. When his pet fourth line center bobbled an exchange, he threw his rookie goaltender to the media wolves.

Carbonneau who had been successful coaching from the gut was left exposed as he had nothing to draw upon. Old wounds were re-opened and exploited: his feud with Kovalev; his disappointment when Huet was traded. As the Canadiens floundered, Carbonneau scuttled the ship but made sure that the media sights were set on Kovalev and Price as the scapegoats.

In truth, the Canadiens were unprepared -- Carbonneau went golfing before the Canadiens final playoff game. The Habs were outcoached in every playoff game. When other teams countered their system, the Canadiens' coaches were slow to make any pre-game or in-game adjustments.

During the playoffs, we did not see the coach as a tactician nor someone who came well-prepared nor someone with the coaching experience to draw upon. Carbonneau isn't a motivator nor a coach who could communicate with his players. Instead, we saw his well documented traits of bitterness and stubbornness.

This season has been a huge disappointment. Carbonneau was given a roster that was significantly better than last year. But, by November, it was already clear that he had lost the team. The team, as a whole, has been under performing.

The Canadiens have lost more man-games to injury this season. Injuries require the coach to make decisions.

The 'how-to-defend-the-Canadiens'-power-play' manual used by Boston and Philadelphia during the playoffs last Spring was copied throughout the league. Devising a new power-play strategy requires coaching skill.

Given their performance last year and publicity of the centennial celebrations, the Canadiens could no longer fly under the radar this season. The team needed to be well prepared for each game with focused practices. An intelligent game plan was required from the coaching staff.

As the team struggled, the players needed a good communicator and motivator. They needed their coach to be a leader who inspired confidence and stability.

Guy Carbonneau did not have the skill, aptitude, experience or interest to be effective in any of those areas. Motivation, communication, preparation were all areas of weakness. Carbonneau's team was unprepared for games because he was unprepared to be a head coach.

When communication with his players was required, Carbonneau painted a bullseye on his players to focus media attention. When he should have been doing an analysis of his opponent and preparing game strategy, he used a roulette wheel to form line combinations. When players needed to trust in the skills of their teammates, he took them bowling. When he realized that his coaching cupboard was bare, Carbonneau turned to a lucky tie.

As a result of Carbonneau's mismanagement, the Montreal Canadiens are now a very fragile team with razor-thin confidence. It has produced inconsistent performances. The players were given a confused set of expectations. Good play often meant a trip to the press box and poor play was rewarded with extra shifts. Third line players were given first line minutes. Fourth line players found themselves on the power-play.

It is clear that Guy Carbonneau had very little respect for his players and vice-versa.

Throughout his coaching tenure, Carbonneau was blessed with a smart and loyal general manager who intervened to clean up his messes. Carbonneau blamed players for the conflicts but there was a such long list: Kovalev, Higgins, Ryder, Price, O'Byrne, Kostitsyn, Dandenault, Begin, Laraque, and others. Finally, it became clear to Gainey that the players had not been the problem.

Guy Carbonneau will likely move on to a front office position with another team. Carbonneau craves the attention and the media spotlight. His cozy relationship and reliance on the Montreal media did not serve him well. One would hope that he has realized that he cannot simply rely on the skills that made him such a successful and adored player. He should be willing to work hard to learn a new craft rather than simply coast on his name.

Carbonneau's coaching legacy should be separated from the greatness that he achieved as a player. He will benefit from a 2007-08 team who surprised people (without the need for a great deal of coaching intervention). He may not be put in the Mario Tremblay category of coaches but his negative effect on the team will take quite some time to reverse.


Related articles:

The Weakest Link...So Far

The Weakest Link...Redux

While Rome Burns...Carbo Plays Golf

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Oilers-Canadiens: Koivu & Price Lead Gainey's Habs to Overtime Win

Montreal 4 Edmonton 3 OT (Bell Centre)

posted by Rocket
theRocketSports.blogspot.com

Did the Canadiens look like a different team tonight? Certainly most of the Bell Centre fans thought so. It was an exciting game with a playoff atmosphere at times.

The Habs played like an abused dog who is finally released from its shackles (not too far from the truth). The first period, they came out flying, full of energy and life. They took a nap in the second, and were ready to play hard again in the third.

The 'Gainey effect' was quickly apparent: shorter shifts, quick outs, and players using the boards. As the game went on, rather than the repetitive rolling of four lines, we were treated to smart deployment of personnel.


Gainey agrees with what has been said on this page many times. The Canadiens have been spending too much time in their own zone. Being more aggressive pressuring the Oiler puck carrier was effective in the first.

Saku Koivu described it this way "We played more with the puck. We're learning to trust each other."

Alex Tanguay gave the Canadiens a 1-0 lead after he buried the rebound of a Mathieu Schneider point shot. Given his long injury absence, it was Tanguay's first goal since December 20th.

Carey Price made four great saves in the first period alone. The Habs took a one goal lead to the dressing room after the first.

Edmonton scored three times in the second period outshooting the Habs 17-2. A Josh Gorges stumble allowed Andrew Cogliano to go around him easily for the first goal. The second Oiler goal was scored by Sheldon Souray after his shot deflected off Tomas Plekanec's foot. Two goals, one for each team, near the end of the second period made the score 3-2 Edmonton.

Koivu said "I thought that we played a really strong first period but then really lost our legs in the second and they took over." He added "We had a good intermission and talked about settling things down".

Gainey felt that the players' timing was off in the second period. He said, "We just weren't in synch with each other and the play on the ice." Gainey simply told his team to focus on making better changes to allow them to get into the play in better position. And it worked!

The Canadiens dominated for most of the third period. Koivu scored the tying goal as he knocked in a puck fed by Andrei Kostitsyn. The play was started by a great pass from Roman Hamrlik to Tanguay.

Price made several huge saves as the period ended with frantic action at both ends.

In overtime, Patrick O'Sullivan was assessed a penalty for slashing Andrei Markov. After going 0 for its last 15 power-play opportunities, Koivu tipped a Schneider point shot for the winning goal.

It was a big night for Koivu who led the Canadiens with both the tying and winning goal. Koivu won 73% of his faceoffs. Tanguay had a goal and an assist. Schneider had two assists and was much less exposed playing with Gorges as the third defense pair.

Price had another solid game with several spectacular saves to keep his team in it.

The penalty killing forwards looked a little different: Higgins and Lapierre followed by Dandenault and Metropolis. Both units including the defense played very well. The Oiler power-play was 0 for 3. Higgins also had 6 shots on goal.

Dandenault had one of his best games of the season. He is one of many players who is thrilled that Carbo is gone. He really likes & respects Gainey.

This is still a very fragile Canadiens team after being mishandled for most of the season. Gainey will build team confidence by encouraging them to make the pass that is available. He wants to see players start to trust each other. Gainey feels that confidence will improve execution over time.

Koivu agreed, "You're not going to see all the changes and everything happen in one game or one period and we have to be patient."

It will take some time for Gainey to repair the damage to the team's psyche caused by the previous coach. Tonight's game was a step in the right direction and it showed that the players are fully on board.


Pre-game
Starting lineup: Lapierre, Higgins, Kostopoulos, Markov, Komisarek
Carey Price and Dwayne Roloson started in goal.

New assistant coach Don Lever was upstairs for part of the game. He came down in the third period to join Gainey, Jarvis and Muller behind the bench.

Brisebois and Pacioretty were scratched from the line-up. Laraque, Bouillon, Latendresse, and Lang were out with injuries.

Lines:

Plekanec-Kovalev-D'Agostini
Koivu-Tanguay-Andrei Kostitsyn
Lapierre-Higgins-Kostopoulos
Metropolit-Stewart-Dandenault

Defense pairings:

Markov-Komisarek
Hamrlik-O'Byrne
Schneider-Gorges


Rocket's 3 stars:

1. Saku Koivu
2. Carey Price
3. Sheldon Souray

(photo credit:AP)

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Don Lever joins Habs' coaching staff

Don Lever joins Habs' coaching staff
Montreal Canadiens
Mar 10, 2009, 10:18 AM EDT
PRESS RELEASE

MONTREAL -- Canadiens General Manager Bob Gainey announced that Don Lever will be joining the Canadiens coaching staff as an assistant coach.

A native of South Porcupine, Ontario, the 56-year old Lever has been Head Coach of the Hamilton Bulldogs since the 2005-06 season. A 17-season NHL player, Lever began his coaching career in the Buffalo Sabres organization back in 1987-88. After two seasons as an assistant to Sabres head coach Ted Sator, Lever was hired to coach the Sabres' farm team in Rochester. In his first season as Head Coach of the Rochester Americans in 1990-91, Lever led his team to the Calder Cup final and was voted AHL Coach-of-the-Year with a regular-season record of 45 wins, 26 losses and 9 ties.

Before taking on the head coaching job of the Hamilton Bulldogs, Lever had spent 14 seasons (1,154 games) as an assistant coach in the NHL with the Buffalo Sabres and the St. Louis Blues. The longest serving coach in Bulldogs history (305 games) has a record of 235 wins, 184 losses, 21 ties and 25 overtime/shootout losses in 465 regular-season games in the AHL.

Since he first stepped behind the Bulldogs bench, Lever has coached 305 games winning 154, losing 127 in regulation and 25 in overtime/shootout. In 2006-07, his second season as head coach of the Bulldogs, he led the Canadiens’ main affiliate to the Calder Cup.

From 1972 to 1987, Lever played in the NHL after being selected third overall by the Vancouver Canucks in the 1972 NHL Entry Draft. Lever would end up playing for six teams with four NHL franchises and was the first-ever captain of the New Jersey Devils after filling the same leadership role with the Vancouver Canucks. In his 17 NHL seasons as a player, he skated in 1,020 games, recording 680 points, including 313 goals.

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Canadiens fire Carbonneau, Gainey takes over as coach

TSN.ca Staff

3/9/2009 8:19:33 PM

The Montreal Canadiens fired head coach Guy Carbonneau on Monday and replaced him behind the bench with general manager Bob Gainey. Carbonneau, a finalist for the Jack Adams Award last year, was let go after nearly three seasons as Montreal's head coach.

Gainey first appearance behind the bench will be on Tuesday night when the Canadiens host the Edmonton Oilers.

"The last eight weeks of performance have been below average, and I believe a change in the direction at ice level is necessary," Gainey said Monday in a news conference.

"There were certain games when I had a real confusion about the overall ... it showed up as effort, but I felt like it was emotional engagement to a game," said Gainey. "Our team (did) not seem to be emotionally engaged."

After finishing first in the Eastern Conference last year, the Canadiens' 100th anniversary season in 2008-09 has been anything but smooth. Controversy has followed the team throughout the year and they have dealt with several on and off-ice issues.

The team got off to a very strong start, but lately have had their struggles. The team was comfortably in playoff position until the All-Star game in Montreal on Jan. 25, after which they won just three of 15 games to fall back into a group of six teams that are fighting for four playoff spots. Montreal is currently fifth in the Eastern Conference standings, just one point ahead of Florida, the Rangers, and Pittsburgh.

"(Carbonneau) took a very difficult job (as coach) and tried his best to advance the team," said Gainey. "It's never an easy message to deliver to anyone, but it was at a point where I felt it was needed."

"I'm not going to make black-and-white changes, but we need to move toward being a better, stronger, more consistent team defensively and an offensive team that takes advantage of our opportunities," added Gainey.

Associate coach Doug Jarvis, along with assistant coaches Kirk Muller and Roland Melanson will all be staying with the club. In addition, the Canadiens have added Hamilton Bulldogs head coach Don Lever to their staff. Hamilton assistant coach Ron Wilson will take over as bench boss of the AHL club.

This will be Gainey's second stint as head coach of the Canadiens. He previously took over following the dismissal of Claude Julien during the 2005-06 season. He guided the club to a 23-15-3-0 record after the team went 19-16-6-0 under Julien. The Canadiens lost in the first round of the playoffs that season.

Carbonneau originally replaced Gainey as head coach of the Canadiens on May 5, 2006. He had spent part of the season prior to that as an associate coach with the Habs, and was hired to Gainey's staff with the intention that he would become head coach in time for the 2006-07 season.

Carbonneau's coaching record with Montreal was a combined 124-83-23. Montreal missed the playoffs in his first season, and last year were eliminated in five games by the Philadelphia Flyers in the second round. He becomes the seventh NHL head coach to be fired this season.

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Canadiens-Stars: Price Leads Penalty-Killers to Extinguish Stars

Montreal 3 Dallas 1 (American Airlines Center)

posted by Rocket
theRocketSports.blogspot.com

How did that happen? The Canadiens played one of their worst periods of the year yet turned it around for a huge victory in Dallas. Excellent goaltending, solid penalty-killing and opportunistic goals led the way for the comeback.

The entire first period was played in the Canadiens zone. For the first three minutes, the Stars pressured the Habs like they were on a power-play. Then Max Pacioretty took the first of the Canadiens' nine penalties that they would be assessed in the period.

Halfway through the first period, the shots were 8 to 1 for Dallas while they enjoyed a 7 - 0 advantage in scoring chances.

Dallas scored on a five on three advantage. A shot deflected off Mike Komisarek's skate right to Eriksson who buried it. It was an unfortunate bounce for Komisarek but Mike would soon contribute in another way to turn the game around.

Komisarek delivered a big hit on Mike Modano. Steve Ott, looking for retaliation, abused Saku Koivu and Josh Gorges. 'Team toughness' then stepped up. Andrei Kostitsyn hit Ott. Greg Stewart nailed Ott with a big hit (albeit when Ott didn't have the puck.) Stewart grabbed Ott and began landing punches. Ott turtled.

Dallas supporters defended Ott saying that he is suffering from a broken hand. However, that shouldn't give him free rein to take cheap shots and then pull out his ready-made excuse for not being accountable.

'Team toughness' sent a message to Ott and the Stars even though it added to the Canadiens' lengthy list of penalties. And it worked!


One can imagine what may have happened with Georges Laraque in the line-up. Laraque would have politely invited Ott to fight. Ott would have shown Laraque the band-aid on his hand. As per 'the code', Laraque would have suggested that Ott meet him for coffee after the game so that they could discuss scheduling a fight when Ott's hand was feeling better.

Stewart and the rest of the Canadiens handled the situation much more effectively

The Canadiens ended the first period with a total of 3 shots with one coming on a power-play and the remaining two on dump-ins from the neutral zone.

So how did the Canadiens avoid their patented second period collapse? I suppose that they got it over with in the first period.

The second period began with Dallas enjoying a two-man advantage for more than three minutes. Dallas managed only one shot on goal.

With newly found life, the Andrei Kostitsyn tied the game as Marty Turco over-played the puck. Alex Kovalev would put the Canadiens up by a goal with a tremendous wrist shot shortly after their power-play expired.

Carey Price made a huge save to end the second period, and surprisingly, the Canadiens had a lead going into the third period.

The Canadiens were outshot 14 to 7 in the third, but Price came up with big saves. Chris Higgins scored into an open net when Turco couldn't handle Ryan O'Byrne's shootaround to give the Habs a 3-1 lead.

The game star was Carey Price. The Canadiens were outshot 31-19 but Price was brilliant. Price's control of rebounds was crucial to the success of the penalty killers. Price has not allowed an even strength goal in 7 1/2 periods of play. In the last three games, Price has only allowed two even strength goals. After playing well, but being abandoned by his team the past two games, Price was rewarded with a win tonight.

The Canadiens' special teams have not been very good on the road trip. The power-play continued to struggle tonight going 0 for 3. However, the penalty-killing unit was very impressive. The Stars had ten opportunities, going 0 for 6 with one man advantage and 1 for 4 with a two man advantage. They even enjoyed a rare but brief three man advantage (with the goalie pulled). Loui Eriksson had more than ten minutes of ice-time, on the power-play alone!

Tomas Plekanec was a defensive force in short-handed situations. He worked hard on every shift and was the Canadiens leader on faceoffs.

Andrei Kostitsyn played well. Not only did he score, but he was physical and hustled to beat out a key icing call. Credit goes to Carbonneau for moving Andrei to the Koivu line (although that one seemed obvious to many).

Mike Komisarek led the team in hits and was effective in blocking shots.

Ryan O'Byrne is making it hard for the coach to take him out of the line-up. He was very physical, blocked three shots, got an assist and coolly made smart passes to clear the zone.

Max Lapierre has been MIA. Lapierre was having a very good season but he has been invisible for the last month or so coinciding with the injury to Latendresse.

Greg Stewart continues to prove his value to this team. Once Gui Latendresse returns from injury, he will be hard pressed to displace Stewart from the line-up.

To say that this was a must-game for the Canadiens is cliche, but very true. The pressure was intense on Carey Price who played well again, but won tonight. The Habs' scorers who had only one goal in nine periods of play finally gave him some support.

Guy Carbonneau will survive to coach another game behind the Canadiens bench. Carbonneau has never been shy about publicly throwing his players under the bus, but tonight, when they had the chance to return the favor, they bailed him out instead. We will never know what another loss would have meant for Carbonneau, but many in the media were predicting that Carbonneau's coaching tenure in Montreal would not survive it.

The Canadiens now play the next nine of ten games at the Bell Centre. It is a case of the Habs not 'counting their chickens' as none of the games will be easy.


Pre-game

Starting lineup:

Price and Turco started in goal.

Carbonneau cancelled the Sunday morning skate in Dallas.

Brisebois and Dandenault scratched. Laraque, Bouillon, Latendresse, and Lang were out with injuries.

New lines (again):

Plekanec-Kovalev-Pacioretty
Koivu-Tanguay-Andrei Kostitsyn
Lapierre-Higgins-Kostopoulos
Metropolit-Stewart-D'Agostini


Rocket's 3 stars:

1. Carey Price
2. Tomas Plekanec
3. Loui Eriksson

(photo credit: AP)

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Carbonneau: Should He Stay or Should He Go?

I received a comment on the Canadiens-Thrashers game review that was beyond the normal...in a good way! I thought that it was important to move the comment to the main page to allow everyone a chance to read and react to it.

KyleRoussel has taken a good deal of time to share his thoughts and to make his argument. I want to publicly thank him for his contribution to All Habs and for engaging in this debate.

In a point-counterpoint format, we will discuss the merit of the Canadiens ending the coaching tenure of Guy Carbonneau.



POINT: Hold on to him...for now.
by KyleRoussel

I think the time to face facts has just about arrived...Carbo has pretty much lost this team, or so it seems.

They don't respond to line changes, many players (including veterans) have regressed since last season, punishing practices are responded to by getting shut out, days off for team-bonding bowling games are met with another ass-kicking...I don't think we need any more evidence.

So what's the answer at this point? Is it as simple as turfing Carbonneau? Has it come to this point?

When you fire a coach, especially this late in the year, you'd better know that the replacement will have an immediate impact. At this point I think only Gainey can take over the team. And then what? Who is a better replacement? Who's better qualified, given the realities of the Montreal marketplace? I think the only real candidate with the experience, and "requirements" is Bob Hartley. But I don't know if he's open to the opportunity. There's also ramifications for Gainey. He's got a lot of personnel issues to take care of, nevermind the on-ice circus. And how does Gillet factor in to this? Is he paying close attention? Will he have a problem if Gainey fires Carbo? My sense is that he gives Gainey free reign over players and coaching staff, but Gainey can't have a infinite leash can he? I don't know the answer to this, but if Carbo's on a long-term deal, will the organization be willing to pay him to stay home? I'm not so sure, especially given the economy we're mired in.

In the end, I think Gainey has enough faith and friendship with Carbo that he will give him until the end of the year (and playoffs?) to get this back on track. But I think Carbo also has to see this team through at least 1 playoff round if he wants to save his job.

As for the GM, he needs to look at himself in the mirror too. Was letting 10 guys enter this season on the last year of a contract the best idea? The assumed play there was that guys would go all out to post a great season and receive lucrative contract offers. In just about every case, that has not happened. He has to shoulder blame for this too. Could he sleep at night knowing he turfed a friend when he's plenty at fault?

If you dig even deeper, what does firing Carbo send as a message to the rest of the league? For would-be coaches, it says that you are walking in to a pressure cooker with unbelievably high expectations, and should you fail, your leash is so short that you can be out on your rear again in no time flat. For players, and particularly free agents it can say that the franchise is once again in a state of flux and lacks stability. Free agents don't want that, especially in Montreal when there's already enough shit to put up with.

Every coach deserves the chance to coach his way out of a bad situation. This is the worst stretch he's had as coach of the Habs. It would be unfair, and it speaks to the point I made earlier about messages to other coaches: you only get one chance. Don't fall in to a slump because you won't be allowed to see it through.

In Carbo's case, I don't think 20 games can be considered a "fair chance" to fix it, unless the players have truly quit on him. But who really knows the answer to that question? We speculate, but none of us can claim to know for sure.

I think Gainey is going to let it ride and hope that there's enough talent behind and on the bench that they will put it back together before season's end.

So I've waffled a bit in this post, but what I can't stand is a knee-jerk reaction. Does Carbonneau really deserve to be fired? How much of this mess is the players fault? They are pros afterall. They ought to act like it, and this year they have not.

What's my official position right now? Every day I have less faith in the team as a whole, but I have NO faith in knee-jerk moves and firings just for the sake of doing something. If you KNOW that there's a better replacement out there, go for it. If you're doing it because you're trying to squeeze in to the playoffs...the ensuing chaos may not be worth it. This Habs team won't go all the way whether Carbo is behind the bench or Scotty Bowman.

For now I say see the season through, I think elimination is inevitable anyway. But unless some miracle occurs, Carbonneau is on a very, very short leash for '09-'10 regardless of the new faces he gets to coach.

COUNTERPOINT: The clock struck midnight...long ago.
by Rocket

I agree completely with your first two paragraphs. Guy Carbonneau has definitely lost his players. As you say, no further evidence it needed. It is abundantly clear.

There is no mutual respect. Carbo has lost the ability to communicate and motivate the team (if it ever existed at all).

I suppose that we only disagree in the remedy. You list in detail the reasons why it is not the right time to replace Carbonneau. Let me take issue with some of those.

It seems that the biggest objection is that you feel that this is a "knee-jerk reaction" to a recent minor slump. The most disappointing results on the recent road trip are the second major slump of the year. The first was in November which resulted in a myriad of line combinations to know avail. The Canadiens only broke out of that slump when Carbonneau reverted back to the original lines.

The Habs have been inconsistent all season. I think it is fair to say that they have been underperforming as a team. Coaches have been fired already this season for less. I think that Carbonneau has been given more opportunities than most to turn this around given his friendship with Bob Gainey. Carbonneau has had 65 games already to prove himself, and it clearly isn't working. Also, Guy Carbonneau has been outcoached almost every game since he took the reins in Montreal.

The root of the problems are not new. Carbonneau has limited experience and few tools to motivate players. In addition, there are a three seasons of personality clashes to examine: Alex Kovalev (several times), Michael Ryder, Carey Price, Saku Koivu, Chris Higgins, etc. Bob Gainey has intervened in some way to resolve the issues. Communication with players is not Carbo's strength. Even Steve Begin, Mathieu Dandenault and Georges Laraque have complained about that.

I really don't think that there is an economic argument to be made. If the Canadiens play to their potential under a replacement coach, the revenue from one or two playoff rounds will eclipse any salary losses. Having said that, Carbonneau would likely be retained in the organization in another capacity. Guy doesn't have the aptitude nor the experience to coach but neither does he have an interest. He has admitted that it is only the means to an end of a front office job.

There is already many impediments to bringing free agents to Montreal as you suggest: high taxes, education policy, and bigoted media. I don't think that firing Carbonneau would add to that list in a negative way. If anything, I understand it would be seen as a positive thing to rid the team who doesn't always make coaching, line-up or icetime decisions based on merit.

As far as 'turfing a friend'? Frankly I am a little tired of friendship coming before team priorities. Carbonneau has choreographed his lineup so that he could help his friend Brisebois achieve the 1000 game mark while sacrificing points in the standings. Brise has been a huge liability in the line-up.

I'm not so sure that you must have a permanent replacement in hand before the coach is fired. Bob Gainey has gone behind the bench before. He can do it again. Alternatively, Don Lever would be a great choice as an interim coach. He knows how to communicate with and motivate many of these players.

Gainey could take some time to find the best qualified replacement. I advocated some time ago that the Canadiens hire Joel Quenneville when he was available. Quenneville has been good this season at changing the performance of an underachieving team.

Don Lever will certainly be a candidate but there are a number of good unemployed coaches who should be considered: Pat Quinn, Bob Hartley, Tom Renney, Peter Laviolette. Coaches who have positions and have connections to the team could also be considered: Andy Murray and Ken Hitchcock. Whoever is chosen, it is clear that the former-star-player-with-no-coaching-experience experiment is over. The Habs could even look at a young career coach like Pete DeBoer. He has done an amazing job with the Panthers.

But we are getting ahead of ourselves. A permanent head coach is a topic for the off-season.

I still think that an interim coach can have an impact for the rest of the season. Having said that, Bob Gainey is far more deliberate in his decision-making (usually to positive results). So I will agree with you that it is unlikely that Gainey will make a move at this time. But that doesn't mean he shouldn't.

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