Pierre Gauthier, Bob Gainey Fired!!!

In that broken sentence I Put those exclamation points.  In true excitement and joy to say:

 

"YES THANK YOU, OH MY GOODNESS ABOUT TIME!!!"

Don't get me wrong, I love our Canadiens, they do no wrong and yet do so much wrong.   Did that make sense for you?   Let me reiterate in this long process of a story.

The Canadiens have been struggling, I say since 1995 when Rejean Houle took over.   Yeah I went there, that’s the year Patrick Roy went to his new home in Colorado to win two more cups, that’s when the team started getting torn down and torn down when being brought halfway up.  Finally Ownership had enough of this guy.  A has been who was trying to make us believe he could produce like the teams He played for but failed on talent and nothing alone.  Save for a few bright sides that didn’t pan out too much, if at all!  The team went from winning to being a joke.  But they kept selling games, it's the Canadiens after all so what do you expect?  Look at Toronto, same issue.

Then the dark years continued to hit like a Hits CD. We all remember how bad those times were, no playoffs, losing streaks.  The bright spots however with Theodore starting to come up and show some quality goaltending and making the playoffs, beating the Bruins and being the little underdog team.

Seriously we went from being the top dog to now being the underdog team. 

Then came new ownership and a new regime, this time taken over by Bob Gainey.  Everyone loves and loved Bob Gainey, I didn’t (I live in the west so I saw the Stars games often), I saw the holes he left for Dallas that took them a while to shake out of, the shoddy drafting and trades, quick success now by brokering the future.   You can't win like that, I mean he got a cup, but once all those players got old and he was removed from the stars they struggled to get back up and finally have after all these years of mistakes.

So Gainey takes over the team and begins Drafting if you read my Article on the Gainey years of drafting, well read here (PLUG THE DRAFTING ARTICLE HERE).   Then begins trading and bringing in players.  Some draft picks were complete flops; some were steals like Plekanec and others.  But overall not too great here with the ability to draft great players like Getzlaf and Perry they drafted Kostitsyn, sweet. 

Gainey begins trading for players like Kovalev who brought some superstardom to Montreal when he wasn’t coasting.  There were a few good ones like Signing Gionta and Cammalleri but letting Koivu go?  Highly questionable!  Please don't try to say its their fault with the Gomez contract, Gomez was signed by Glen Sather with his shit history of bad contracts with the Rangers, he just found a sucker in Gainey to hustle him for some great prospects for two nothings.

Then of course Gainey decides he needs to step down which is fine because the team looked like it was built to overachieve in the 2010 playoff run and then falter after that which it has.  Gainey Hires Pierre Gauthier who did a shoddy job with the Nordiques and the Senators and apparently that qualified him for this job too.

Here is where the party began.  Signing Andrei Markov who had just checked in for surgery (Again!) on his knee to a two year 5+ million dollar contract.  Year one? WASTED SALARY.  Year two, "complications" up until a few weeks ago and we have now an aging defenseman who is talented but not a game breaker and is much slower than before.  The Cammalleri trade who was traded for telling the truth, the team is/was/has been playing like losers and losing, morale is low.   So you trade him in the middle of a game. PULL him from the game in the second period throw him in a cab and tell him to wait in his hotel room until you decide to tell him where he is going to now.   

THIS IS NOT ETHICAL, even when it comes to millionaire players who are fan favorites this is not the way to treat someone for speaking the truth.  Absolutely shameful. The return in the trade, Rene Bourque who is a sizeable forward that can hit and shoot but isn’t a natural sniper like Cammalleri.  The prospects in return, that’s still up in the air for anyone to judge.  Acquiring Tomas Kaberle, the ultimate Albatross contract.  We won't touch this one.  The return in many trades has been an utter joke.

So far the only good acquisition by this guy was the Erik Cole signing.

Hanging a noose on a team you're supposed to be the Brain to the operation for is a terrible thing to do.  Wasting the Cap space to sign better quality players or giving a raise to those already in the system who have earned it is like slapping someone in the face for their hard work.  "I know you've done some great work, worked really hard to get this far and get this good, but we're going to award a better contract to someone else that has played less than you."

If this sounds familiar I’m talking about the Gorges extension he deserved after seeing them give an extension to Markov instead.  Shameful.   Glad they righted that but 1.5 years too late.

Is there a big upside?  ABSOLUTELY, But Please, Please be aware as any Montreal Fan that you are just like me a well aware of what’s going on and down to earth about it, not you delusional ones.   It will take a while, at least 5 years, there’s a reason GM’s have a 5-year plan.   Be patient everyone!!!

                               Be Patient.