Archive for March 10th, 2009
TUESDAY’S GAMES AND PICKS
For in depth look into the NHL teams records and preview of tonight’s games please go back to the “Home Page” on Hockey God, at the bottom lower left hand side:
Click on “Scoreboard” and review every game by clicking in the individual games being played on Tuesday.
Tonight’s Picks
CGY @ NJD: Take DEVILS
BUF @ PHI: Take FLYERS
BOS @ CLB: Take BLUE JACKETS
NYI @ TOR: Take LEAFS
EDM @ MTL: Take CANADIENS
FLA @ PIT: Take PENGUINS
PHX @ DET: Take RED WINGS
WSH @ NSH: Take CAPITALS
SJS @ MIN: Take SHARKS
DAL @ STL: Take STARS
ATL @ COL: Take AVALANCHE
GAINEY TAKES OVER HABS . . . PATRICK ROY NEXT ?
I guess sitting in 5th place in a playoff position with a record of 35-24-7 good for 77 points clearly wasn’t good enough for General Manager Bob Gainey.
Gainey fired his good friend and hand picked coach Guy Carbonneau after grooming him to take over the team he had captained for five seasons.
Associate coach Doug Jarvis and assistants Kirk Muller and Roland Melanson will keep their jobs in Montreal. But oddly they’ll be joined by Don Lever, head coach of the Canadiens’ AHL affiliate in Hamilton, whom Gainey is bringing in for his “fresh voice and some fresh opinions.”
“I can’t say there could be anybody who follows our team who hasn’t had this (firing) in their mind at some point in the last month,” Gainey said during a news conference last night.
Carbonneau leaves with an overall record of 124-83-23 this after he went 5-7 in last season’s playoffs losing to the tougher Flyers.
Gainey wouldn’t say last night whether his friend will ever forgive him enough to stay on in another capacity. He was brought in as Gainey’s associate coach on Jan. 14, 2006 when the GM fired head coach Claude Julien and stepped behind the bench himself to finish out the 2006-07 season.
Gainey took the Habs to a 23-15-3 record after replacing Julien, which clearly has something to do with Mondays decision by Gainey. Although Montreal was punted in the first round of playoffs that season.
Gainey said that he began serious consideration of the move on Saturday before reaching his final decision Monday morning, first having spoken with Canadiens president Pierre Boivin, then cancelling plans to attend NHL GM meetings in Florida.
“The decision today can be seen as a contradiction to all of those things,” Gainey said. “But in the last eight weeks, our performance has been below average and I believe a change in the direction at ice level is necessary.
“My decision is based on my experience and my judgment where our team rests today … our performance not just in a specific game, but over a period of time. My response is my decision today, but the real answers will be the results 35 days, seven weeks, from now.”
Gainey must be hoping that his titles and position of power drive the players onto better on ice performances for the Habs.
“I saw nothing specific,” Gainey said in thought that players were behind Carbo’s dismissal- Gainey said that no veteran at any time had called for Carbonneau’s head.
“But there were certain games when I had real confusion with the overall (effort). There were games where our team was not emotionally engaged.”
CLEAR UP THE CRAP !
Okay so enough of the bullshit, Gainey obviously to fire his friend who is in 5th in the East has to believe in his heart that the team stopped listening to Carbo . . . flat out !
Gainey to make this drastic move must think that the players would have kept getting or playing worse even after the teams latest 3-1 win in Dallas where goalie Carey Price played much better.
Gainey had to have been tipped by either players or someone from the coaching staff to make this move or he just wouldn’t have done it. Tell me what the difference is going to be with the soft articulate spoken Gainey in the Habs room to that of Carbo ? Both these guys were buddies and they thought the same about the game in general. Or did they ?
Maybe something really came undone between the two in terms of how the team plays the game. Gainey and Carbo were defensive specialist in the NHL and for the Habs. So Gainey had finally decided that the players needed a fresh approach in term of style of play ? That would be music to the ears of some Habs players like whipping boy Alex Kovalev. Meaning the team may under Gainey be allowed to play some offense with just an eye on defence not an entire body.
This decision makes little sense really for Gainey at this point. It would have been much better to allow his friend who was in a playoff spot with the team to finish what he started in Montreal.
Now Gainey better well hope that he makes the playoffs and wins a round or two or I would think or hope that it would be his ass on the chopping block in the 100th year anniversary.
ROY TO THE RESCUE ?
ROY AT HIS HABS SWEATER RETIREMENT
If Gainey wanted to really make an impact none better would have been bringing in the flamboyant and very confidant former Hab goalie Patrick Roy to coach the team.
Patrick Roy is a helluva coach in his own right now a days in the Quebec Major Jr league running his own franchise successfully for years now. Roy develops players and is exactly the right guy to take the high pressure job in Montreal for next season.
Roy is the best goalie to ever play the game and certainly the cockiest Montreal Canadien player ever. Roy would walk the walk for the Habs and show the players and perhaps the most important young goalie Carey Price the way through the crazy landmine that is playing in Montreal.
Roy is not only the best choice in my mind he is the only choice for the job in Montreal. Roy will not fear the Montreal media, he speaks the all important french language necessary for Montreal coaches to have success. Roy knows the game and has become a student of what it takes for a coach & understands daily hockey players lives in Montreal as a former star Hab player.
Patrick Roy should be and I would imagine without a doubt will be Gainey’s choice to be the next head coach of the Montreal Canadiens this summer.
Roy is the right fit at the right time and anyone who has listened or watched Roy handle pressure knows that he could handle this job like no one else on earth for the Habs !
For Hockey God I’m Dave Frost
