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I still hate Houle for what he did


PMAC

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Eric Engels via Twitter reminded me today why I still hate poor old Reggie Houle after all these years:

 

Read about the time when Habs were going to claim Briere off waivers but didn’t because they wanted to protect Juha Lind. JUHA LIND?!?!?

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3 hours ago, Metallica said:

Wait you mean the years of losing and bad drafting and running the team down to the ground, didn't make you hate him??

Well, that was just an example of the mindset that decimated the Houle era Habs. We went from cup winners to laughingstock in 3 seasons and some might argue that the organization has still not fully recovered from his reign of error. 

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20 minutes ago, PMAC said:

Well, that was just an example of the mindset that decimated the Houle era Habs. We went from cup winners to laughingstock in 3 seasons and some might argue that the organization has still not fully recovered from his reign of error. 

 

Houle's incompetence was truly breathtaking, but I'm not sure we can in any way relate the past 15 years of mediocrity to him. Between Savard (who began the mop-up job) and Gainey, who completed a total rebuild and, indeed, a second one after the Great Purge of '09, I think the organization's woes have other roots. (More specifically, player development seemed to be an issue under Bob, along with some rotten luck and some costly mistakes; Goat was a decent hockey mind but a terrible manager of human beings and the organization imploded under him as a result; and MB's ineptitude, while not quite of Houle proportions, has been sufficiently documented that I won't bother reiterating it).

 

Whether there is a deeper explanation underlying these years of futility - some common problem running through the two owners and three GMs since Houle - is much trickier to discern. It could be as simple as saying that Montreal is a guaranteed profit-machine and that this means managerial people can afford to protect their bum-buddies and their own backsides rather than be absolutely ruthless in seeking a championship. Or maybe it's the opposite problem, i.e., a 'failure' to ever truly tank for multiple years because of a constant hunger to make the playoffs. (Then again, being satisfied with making the playoffs might be a *symptom* of complacency - 'well, if we make the dance, I know I won't get fired, so that's the main thing'). Or something else.  But it surely can't still be Reggie's legacy at this point.

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33 minutes ago, The Chicoutimi Cucumber said:

 

Houle's incompetence was truly breathtaking, but I'm not sure we can in any way relate the past 15 years of mediocrity to him. Between Savard (who began the mop-up job) and Gainey, who completed a total rebuild and, indeed, a second one after the Great Purge of '09, I think the organization's woes have other roots. (More specifically, player development seemed to be an issue under Bob, along with some rotten luck and some costly mistakes; Goat was a decent hockey mind but a terrible manager of human beings and the organization imploded under him as a result; and MB's ineptitude, while not quite of Houle proportions, has been sufficiently documented that I won't bother reiterating it).

 

Whether there is a deeper explanation underlying these years of futility - some common problem running through the two owners and three GMs since Houle - is much trickier to discern. It could be as simple as saying that Montreal is a guaranteed profit-machine and that this means managerial people can afford to protect their bum-buddies and their own backsides rather than be absolutely ruthless in seeking a championship. Or maybe it's the opposite problem, i.e., a 'failure' to ever truly tank for multiple years because of a constant hunger to make the playoffs. (Then again, being satisfied with making the playoffs might be a *symptom* of complacency - 'well, if we make the dance, I know I won't get fired, so that's the main thing'). Or something else.  But it surely can't still be Reggie's legacy at this point.

I think the issue was that once our core group of players became our core group of players, we stop the drafting and development of players. 

 

We became contenders, and buyers. We depleted the system because we never added to the system just kept  taking way from it. We are now seeing the results of that mistake.

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I'm a bad person.  I participate in a keeper death pool (celebrities only, of course).


Last draft, I used my  last 3 picks to secure  Corey, Houle and Tremblay so I could enjoy a bit more getting points later on.

 

I'm a really bad person. 

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13 hours ago, Machine of Loving Grace said:

Houle was blindly loyal.

 

If he was truly loyal to the Habs he would have said no to the job.

 

Instead he was blind in his loyalty, and accepted not what was best for the team, but whatever the team wanted.

That's a good way to put it 

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23 minutes ago, alfredoh2009 said:

That's a good way to put it 

 

There's a small tragedy in Houle's failure. In The Game, Dryden gives a very warm portrait of Houle as a kid from a hardscrabble background who had to battle against long odds and personal insecurities; and Dryden concludes his portrait by saying, in effect, that Rejean Houle has made it, and has begun to internalize that he is, indeed, a successful person.

 

It must have been exquisitely painful, then, to reach the apogee of his career and fail so appallingly and totally. Based on Dryden's portrait, he's not a Trump or a Tremblay, sufficiently brash and arrogant as to ignore his own failures or blame others for them or just doggedly plough forward; nor is he a Gainey, who always seemed so self-contained that he'd deal with failure philosophically. It's probably been really, really hard for Houle to come to terms with the disaster of his GMship. This was brought home to me when he was reported as being very worried that he would be booed when he skated out onto the ice for the 100th anniversary spectacle in 2009. We seem to have here a very decent man who desperately wants to do well and be accepted. Now his legacy is one of destroying the organization that defined him and that he loved. It's a sad tale.

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20 minutes ago, The Chicoutimi Cucumber said:

 

There's a small tragedy in Houle's failure. In The Game, Dryden gives a very warm portrait of Houle as a kid from a hardscrabble background who had to battle against long odds and personal insecurities; and Dryden concludes his portrait by saying, in effect, that Rejean Houle has made it, and has begun to internalize that he is, indeed, a successful person.

 

It must have been exquisitely painful, then, to reach the apogee of his career and fail so appallingly and totally. Based on Dryden's portrait, he's not a Trump or a Tremblay, sufficiently brash and arrogant as to ignore his own failures or blame others for them or just doggedly plough forward; nor is he a Gainey, who always seemed so self-contained that he'd deal with failure philosophically. It's probably been really, really hard for Houle to come to terms with the disaster of his GMship. This was brought home to me when he was reported as being very worried that he would be booed when he skated out onto the ice for the 100th anniversary spectacle in 2009. We seem to have here a very decent man who desperately wants to do well and be accepted. Now his legacy is one of destroying the organization that defined him and that he loved. It's a sad tale.

Despite his idiotic deals - I don’t blame Houle for the mess he created as much as the architect (Corey), or the narcissist (Tremblay).

 

houle was a beer salesman and had no business being in that role. He also knows he screwed up and probably regrets his decisions- unlike that SOB Tremblay, who should have his bl name erased from every cup he won as a hab, for the damage he inflicted on the franchise.  Houle seems more humbled by  and is aware of his failure. If you asked Tremblay that prick would probably still say he’d do the things the same way. We was a prick then and is still a prick today. 

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19 minutes ago, hab29RETIRED said:

Despite his idiotic deals - I don’t blame Houle for the mess he created as much as the architect (Corey), or the narcissist (Tremblay).

 

houle was a beer salesman and had no business being in that role. He also knows he screwed up and probably regrets his decisions- unlike that SOB Tremblay, who should have his bl name erased from every cup he won as a hab, for the damage he inflicted on the franchise.  Houle seems more humbled by  and is aware of his failure. If you asked Tremblay that prick would probably still say he’d do the things the same way. We was a prick then and is still a prick today. 

 

Yeah. I guess I'd say I hate what Houle did, but don't really hate the guy himself, in that he doesn't seem to be a loathsome human being like Tremblay, or an arrogant, self-aggrandising pri*k in clown's disguise, like Bergevin. Its that arrogance and narcissism that really put one off.

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1 hour ago, The Chicoutimi Cucumber said:

 Its that arrogance and narcissism that really put one off.

How the f88k are you in the Subban fan club then? Holy hypocritical Batman!:wacko:

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1 hour ago, DON said:

How the f88k are you in the Subban fan club then? Holy hypocritical Batman!:wacko:

 

It's one thing to be cocky and excellent at what you do. (I never saw Subban as "arrogant" per se, but cocky? You bet).

 

It's quite another to be arrogant AND inept, useless as boobs on a bull. That's what is so egregious about people like Bergevin, Tremblay, and Trump: arrogant narcissism indexed to incompetence. Patrick Roy was as arrogant as they come and I've got no beef with him, because he backed it up. Unlike those human turds.

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1 hour ago, The Chicoutimi Cucumber said:

 

It's one thing to be cocky and excellent at what you do. (I never saw Subban as "arrogant" per se, but cocky? You bet).

 

It's quite another to be arrogant AND inept, useless as boobs on a bull. That's what is so egregious about people like Bergevin, Tremblay, and Trump: arrogant narcissism indexed to incompetence. Patrick Roy was as arrogant as they come and I've got no beef with him, because he backed it up. Unlike those human turds.

Bergevin's reg season record is frickin awesome and if his top forwards played like such in playoffs or best player dosent get knocked out of playoffs, his playoff record might be good as well...so you are going off deepend lumping Bergevin in with others who didn't have a good track record. But, about what I expected when criticize your mancrush on  that ex-hab. But, my fault for egging you on I suppose.:D

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Bergevin's best wingers get shut down in the playoffs cause he has never provided them with adequate help at centre.  When a team gets many days to prepare for a team with few threats and playing them a few times in a row with a number of days off before the end of the season and the start of the playoffs, thats an issue. 

 

It took him 5 years to address the issue, and even now, he's probably one centre short.... as Plekanec shouldn't be here much longer. 

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5 hours ago, The Chicoutimi Cucumber said:

 

There's a small tragedy in Houle's failure. In The Game, Dryden gives a very warm portrait of Houle as a kid from a hardscrabble background who had to battle against long odds and personal insecurities; and Dryden concludes his portrait by saying, in effect, that Rejean Houle has made it, and has begun to internalize that he is, indeed, a successful person.

 

It must have been exquisitely painful, then, to reach the apogee of his career and fail so appallingly and totally. Based on Dryden's portrait, he's not a Trump or a Tremblay, sufficiently brash and arrogant as to ignore his own failures or blame others for them or just doggedly plough forward; nor is he a Gainey, who always seemed so self-contained that he'd deal with failure philosophically. It's probably been really, really hard for Houle to come to terms with the disaster of his GMship. This was brought home to me when he was reported as being very worried that he would be booed when he skated out onto the ice for the 100th anniversary spectacle in 2009. We seem to have here a very decent man who desperately wants to do well and be accepted. Now his legacy is one of destroying the organization that defined him and that he loved. It's a sad tale.

Very well said, that is what I was alluding to in much less erudite way when I said poor, old Reggie Houle. Annd, Habs 29 is right Corey really to blame

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1 hour ago, DON said:

Bergevin's reg season record is frickin awesome and if his top forwards played like such in playoffs or best player dosent get knocked out of playoffs, his playoff record might be good as well...so you are going off deepend lumping Bergevin in with others who didn't have a good track record. But, about what I expected when criticize your mancrush on  that ex-hab. But, my fault for egging you on I suppose.:D

 

Gainey inherited piss-all. He had to build it from scratch.

 

Houle inherited a good team and disintegrated it.

 

MB inherited a good team and has been comically incompetent in his attempts to improve upon the core he inherited, while gutting the system. He is closer to Houle than Gainey. But, in DON Land, mediocrity is A-OK, so MB is a super-genius.

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I wasn't around for the Houle years.  Before Subban was traded, the move I most rued was losing McDonagh.  Truly believe we would have been a juggernaut with Subban-McDonagh-Markov in front of Price, even with a ragtag group of forwards lacking a true superstar (like Nashville last year).  It really taints Gainey's legacy in my eyes.

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On 12/5/2017 at 1:27 PM, The Chicoutimi Cucumber said:

 

There's a small tragedy in Houle's failure. In The Game, Dryden gives a very warm portrait of Houle as a kid from a hardscrabble background who had to battle against long odds and personal insecurities; and Dryden concludes his portrait by saying, in effect, that Rejean Houle has made it, and has begun to internalize that he is, indeed, a successful person.

 

It must have been exquisitely painful, then, to reach the apogee of his career and fail so appallingly and totally. Based on Dryden's portrait, he's not a Trump or a Tremblay, sufficiently brash and arrogant as to ignore his own failures or blame others for them or just doggedly plough forward; nor is he a Gainey, who always seemed so self-contained that he'd deal with failure philosophically. It's probably been really, really hard for Houle to come to terms with the disaster of his GMship. This was brought home to me when he was reported as being very worried that he would be booed when he skated out onto the ice for the 100th anniversary spectacle in 2009. We seem to have here a very decent man who desperately wants to do well and be accepted. Now his legacy is one of destroying the organization that defined him and that he loved. It's a sad tale.

 

What's interesting to me is that he was President of the Alumni basically from his retirement to the day he was told to become GM. Once fired, he went back to that role.

 

It's the role he was made for, which probably didn't pay much in the 80s which is why he also worked for the Brewery. He's been in the President since 2000. He didn't go for any other job. Just took his old job back. 

 

It's why I don't hate him. I recognize he was blind in his loyalty, but guys like that you get the feeling they just don't know any better. Some fans will never get over it, but even Roy speaks positively about him when writing about le trade. He said when Houle told him he was getting traded no matter what when Roy came to apologize and try to work things out, he knew that Houle wasn't speaking from the heart. He had his orders. Houle should be remembered less for those five years and more for the 30 years as President of the Habs Alumni. 

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