Tuesday, March 10, 2009

Old "Hab"-it - Gainey Takes Over As Coach


There have been some big moves of late in the sporting world. Over the course of the NHL year 7 coaches have been fired already. 1 in the Western Conference and 6 in the East. The most recent is Guy Carbonneau in Montreal. It was believed that with the personal relationships and ties to to team that he would be difficult to fire him and the only way that he would leave if he stepped down. Not so much and now he is gone and Bob Gainey has taken over the team.

"Not long ago, I responded to a question: What was the best decision I made as (Canadiens) GM? And hiring Guy was my best decision," Gainey said Monday at a news conference. "Today this decision might seem contradictory, but in the last eight weeks our performance has been below average, and I believe that a change of the direction at ice level was necessary. With 16 games left in the season, I believe that the change was necessary to maximize our chances of being one of the teams to participate in the playoffs this spring." Gainey said

The Canadiens have been a struggling team of late and are now in a very dangerous area in the standings. They are in 5th place but only 2 points up on 9th. Any slip up and they could fall further then the Ottawa Senators did last year and manage to become bigger choke artists then the Mets in their epic collaps.

It will be interesting to see if Gainey can right the ship in the few games that are left and get the Habs playoff bound, because if he doesn’t this will be a VERY different looking team next year with nearly half the roster left unsigned next season. Jobs are on the line and there are a lot of prospects in Hamilton that are very close to making the team and many veterans who may not be welcome back. The 5 year plan might have to start from ground zero if things don’t go as planned.

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