Ann 2GM Bob Gainey Fires Guy Carbonneau, Steps Behind Bench
March 10th 2009 05:22
Foreshadowing at the Dallas game?
With the New York Rangers firing Tom Renney and the Pittsburgh Penguins firing Michel Therrien, everybody was in some way glad that Gainey had decided to stick with his man. Montreal has seen its fair share of coach get fired an then find success with another team. Claude Julien is the perfect example. The trade deadline came and went yet the team's performance didn't improve one bit while both the Rangers and Penguins, who were sliding out of a playoff picture, started picking up steam to the point where they're now breathing down the Canadiens' neck.
Yesterday, the axe finally (?) fell down on Carbo's head, and even though it is what some of us wanted, the shock isn't any less greater. We realize that maybe we didn't mean it, we just got carried away because deep down, we knew Gainey was going to keep him no matter what. Just two months ago, the GM was saying that Carbonneau was his best acquisition. As a matter of fact, I am more shocked that he got fired than if Gainey had decided to finish the season with him even though I felt that he wasn't properly using his players.
Most news outlets here in the city blame the players two of them to be more precise captain Saku Koivu, and veteran Alex Kovalev. The former has been captain of this team for nine years and has seen seven coaches come and go while the latter never seemed to gel much with Carbonneau despite last year's success. If I had to blame one of those two, my pick would be Koivu. I love the man, I really do, but he strikes me as the guy who lays it all on the ice, and doesn't say much in the locker room. Koivu leads by example. No one can fault him for that. Problem is, no one wants to follow, and he's not the kind who's gonna jump in your face like a Brendan Morrow, or Jarome Iginla. As for Kovalev, he's an artist, he always does his own thing, and always will; that's what makes him special. Unfortunately, Bob Gainey seems to be the only one willing to see that and listen to the Magician to get him going. You can tell that the relationship between Kovalev and Gainey is the complete opposite of the one between Kovalev and Carbonneau, and that is a problem. Last year, Kovy carried the team on his back after a summer walk with Gainey while Saku stayed in the background. This year, he was forced into a defensive system that is not his game and doesn't even work in the first place.
It's easy to blame your veterans for your team's poor performance but that doesn't excuse the fact that your fourth-liners are playing first-line minutes. It doesn't excuse the fact that when you're down a goal, you send grinders out in the final minute of the game. It doesn't excuse the fact that you put a guy who's never seen any powerplay time in his career on a 5-on-3 in favor of your time. It doesn't excuse the fact that such a promising team has sunk into indifference (the Kostitsyn brothers) and downright suckiness (Komisarek, Price, Gorges, O'Byrne, Plekanec (until the last couple of games), Hamrlik, Higgins, even D'Agostini). It doesn't excuse the fact that the players never know on which line they'll be on until game-time and even then, the lines don't make sense (Begin with Kovalev? Koivu with Kostopoulos? Seriously!!) It doesn't excuse the fact that players are shuffled in and out of the line-up without any good reason (the mess between Halak and Price, Dandenault, Begin, Laraque, Brisebois, O'Byrne, D'Agostini (who is the only offensive right-handed shot on the team)). Finally, it doesn't excuse the fact that you're out of answers after a loss and grin smugly after a win as if it was all your doing.
A coach is not only there to win games, the team also has to improve year-to-year so that veterans can be replaced with up-and-comers. The Canadiens have one of the most promising (if not sometimes overrated) youth core in the league. Plekanec is supposed to be Koivu 2.0, Andrei Kostitsyn is supposed to be the next Kovalev only more physical, Sergei Kostitsyn is supposed to be the next Tanguay with a physical edge, Matt D'Agostini is supposed to be the next Ryder, Gregory Stewart is supposed to be the next Begin, Max Pacioretty is supposed to be a better version of Higgins, and Ryan O'Byrne is supposed to be the next Komisarek. That is what the normal progression of the team should be like. Instead, everyone took a step backwards this year even the already-established players. Plekanec and Andrei Kostitsyn seem to have found their groove, but Sergei was returned to the minors, D'Agostini has considerably cooled down to the point where he's become a defensive liability, O'Byrne took a huge step backwards at the start of the season but is slowly coming back. Let's not even talk about Carey Price's post All-Star game meltdown. Meanwhile, Komisarek looks like the hesitant mistake-prone giant that he was at the beginning of his career in Montreal. Josh Gorges, a promising defenseman, is looking more and more like the bad version of Patrice Brisebois. And through all of this, the veterans' play has also declined, leaving the team in shambles. Pacioretty and Stewart are the only ones living up to their names but they're grinders. It doesn't take much to impress the gallery when all you have to do is forecheck relentlessly and tire the opposition. If you can go backwards from there, then you simply don't have a future in the NHL period.
On paper, the team is much better than last year. Injuries alone cannot explain the disaster that is the Centennial season. With 16 games left to play, we'll see how the team reacts in Gainey's second stint behind the bench. He brought Don Lever (the Bulldogs' coach) with him. To me, that is a sign that most veterans won't be back next year, so the kids have to step up, or else the Habs, at the end of a five-year plan, are back at square one.
This news screwed up all my writing once again. I am three games behind recap-wise, and I'm pretty those three games played a huge role in Gainey's decision. So, check back during the week, I might be up to speed, but incoming exams are making that possibility extremely slim. I'll do my best though.
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