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Gauthier Fired


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Agreed, it didn't work out with Cunnyworth, but something had to be done imo. JM obviously was at odds with the players and the season was going no where. We are in a better position being lower in the standings anyway, this offers a perfect chance for us to re-frame our organization.

Plus Gauthier throwing Cunny under the bus couldn't have helped his confidence as a coach.

There are very valid reasons to explain that Cunnyworth was poorly managed properly in Montreal.

That said, he isn't a good coach and will likely only find himself an assistant coaching position elsewhere. This isn't Alain Vigneault coaching an impossibly bad Canadiens team.

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I still say that with JM, we had a disasterous start and were 1 game above 500 and only 4 pts out of a playoff spot in early December when he was fired. No reason to believe we didn't have a legit shot at a playoff spot with him. The team was trending up with pts in 6 of the last 7 games under Martin.

It really was a baffling move by Gauthier and one of the reasons why he's fired today.

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I still say that with JM, we had a disasterous start and were 1 game above 500 and only 4 pts out of a playoff spot in early December when he was fired. No reason to believe we didn't have a legit shot at a playoff spot with him. The team was trending up with pts in 6 of the last 7 games under Martin.

It really was a baffling move by Gauthier and one of the reasons why he's fired today.

While that's accurate. I think in the long run we may be better off because of this "mistake".

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It really was a baffling move by Gauthier and one of the reasons why he's fired today.

Agreed. Just seeing how they dropped the ball on announcing an interim coach was proof they really had no plan going forward.

While that's accurate. I think in the long run we may be better off because of this "mistake".

I agree. We may have turned into Calgary being weaker than the rest of our division/conference but still going on runs to struggle for eighth.

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While that's accurate. I think in the long run we may be better off because of this "mistake".

That also is probably true long term. But the characterization of Martin as a poor coach and a poor hockey man are quite simply not true.

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That also is probably true long term. But the characterization of Martin as a poor coach and a poor hockey man are quite simply not true.

bout Martin,

How many too many men penalties have we had since he was axed?

I love the treatment of the players by the 2 Randy's and the constant communication during games (Subban, Eller and Leblanc really seem to be getting coaching and looking very good).

I dont miss the dogs breakfast of lines Martin would toss out, especially when behind.

Nor the confused look and actions he had behind the bench, pulling out his little notepad only to put it away and then pull it out again, used to be funny to see, but not a confidence builder.

Also his inability to be the least bit candid, nor have intelligent nor witty answers to any media questions, might just be his personality, but again not the sharpest tool in the shed i dont think.

As far as the record goes, i have said numerous times, when 25-30 million of dollars worth of players (11,13,14,21,79) gets you only 45 goals combined, what coach could win, Scotty Bowman? And trading Gill and Kostitsyn for no-roster players, will unlikely help the record neither.

I say, thank God Martin is gone and Cammalleri with him, now only 1 cull left to get rid of and he wears #11.

It is too bad Gauthier got fired, i wouldnt have, but maybe the house cleaning will go fine..

Even the shallow end of pool, with francophones only, should have a few good canditates to pick from?

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The crazy thing here is that if this team had an effective power play, none of this would be happening! I stand by my statement that no Markov or Markov replacement was the demise of this season. CC was right. Those OT losses would have been half wins and you have to think that some of our one goal losses would have been OTL points.

None of this happens with a good power play. That said, we would still have been a well coached, structured team with great goaltending but without the depth or the horses to be a contender. This change may be a good thing.

I still believe that Martin is the best francophone coach not coaching in the NHL today. I still believe that the main error by goat was not icing a legit defense core at the beginning of the season and that bad luck in Markov's recovery played a huge role in all of this. Rather than disect Gauthier's individual moves , I will say that he did a solid job up until It was discovered Markov would not return. That is when he started going insane. His timing when firing and trading guys was ridiculous. Taking on Bourque and Kab's contacts was crazy. Though the Kab deal may not be so bad. Kab never changed. The public and media perception of him did.

I look forward to new direction, but I am not expecting any miracles.

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Though the Kab deal may not be so bad. Kab never changed. The public and media perception of him did.

I wonder how a Kaberle/Gorges line would work. Gorges does everyone's work and more on the blueline anyway so cleaning up after Kaberle's defensive errors would just give us Kaberle's skating up the zone and passing ability.

Then place Markov with Emelin and Subban with Diaz/Weber/Campoli.

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bout Martin,

How many too many men penalties have we had since he was axed?

I love the treatment of the players by the 2 Randy's and the constant communication during games (Subban, Eller and Leblanc really seem to be getting coaching and looking very good).

I dont miss the dogs breakfast of lines Martin would toss out, especially when behind.

Nor the confused look and actions he had behind the bench, pulling out his little notepad only to put it away and then pull it out again, used to be funny to see, but not a confidence builder.

Also his inability to be the least bit candid, nor have intelligent nor witty answers  to any media questions, might just be his personality, but again not the sharpest tool in the shed i dont think.

As far as the record goes, i have said numerous times, when 25-30 million of dollars worth of players (11,13,14,21,79) gets you only 45 goals combined, what coach could win, Scotty Bowman? And trading Gill and Kostitsyn for no-roster players, will unlikely help the record neither.

I say, thank God Martin is gone and Cammalleri with him, now only 1 cull left to get rid of and he wears #11.

It is too bad Gauthier got fired, i wouldnt have, but maybe the house cleaning will go fine..

Even the shallow end of pool, with francophones only, should have a few good canditates to pick from?

You can say all you want about how Martin was awful and the Randys are better but the same team was 1 game above 500 with Martin and is 6 games below 500 with RC.

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What I like most about this is it feels like we now have a chance to progress. Maybe logically we could still go forward with gauthier but psychologically I think we needed a complete purge. Now that it is done it feels like a clean slate for the new GM to start fresh.

In regards to Gauthiers performance I think he did no better or worse than most GMs in the league in terms of his performance with picks and trades but what I really hated was his lack of class in regards to how he managed trades and how he sacrificed Cunnyworth to try to save his job. Those are the things that made the habs look like a classless organization and are why I am glad he is gone.

(null)

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You can say all you want about how Martin was awful and the Randys are better but the same team was 1 game above 500 with Martin and is 6 games below 500 with RC.

Obviously i am not a fan of Martin and when he was hired it was only becasue he was experianced and french (just my opinion).

i think the Randy's seem better, i like the hands on approach with players and Cunnyworth's candid answers (very refreshing) but are they better? i cant say for certain and we will likely never know. I was just sick of Martin and as when Cammalleri got gone, i was very pleased.

Who knows, we could be in for worse than Martin (and i wouldnt classify him as awful, cause i am not an insider and know anything for certain)? hope not but should be interesting next couple months.

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The crazy thing here is that if this team had an effective power play, none of this would be happening! I stand by my statement that no Markov or Markov replacement was the demise of this season. CC was right. Those OT losses would have been half wins and you have to think that some of our one goal losses would have been OTL points.

None of this happens with a good power play. That said, we would still have been a well coached, structured team with great goaltending but without the depth or the horses to be a contender. This change may be a good thing.

I still believe that Martin is the best francophone coach not coaching in the NHL today. I still believe that the main error by goat was not icing a legit defense core at the beginning of the season and that bad luck in Markov's recovery played a huge role in all of this. Rather than disect Gauthier's individual moves , I will say that he did a solid job up until It was discovered Markov would not return. That is when he started going insane. His timing when firing and trading guys was ridiculous. Taking on Bourque and Kab's contacts was crazy. Though the Kab deal may not be so bad. Kab never changed. The public and media perception of him did.

I look forward to new direction, but I am not expecting any miracles.

All I can say, BC, is that I wish I'd been wrong.

One point that hasn't been mentioned enough is how nice it is to see Serge Savard back in the fold. He was wrongly dismissed back in 1995 and it's only fitting to see him come back for one more round and helping us to right the ship. Whether his counsel will be well-suited for today's NHL, that's another question - but let's hope so.

Incidentally, inferring from JT's analysis, it looks as though Patrick Roy is the most obvious choice based on Savard's criteria (and note that in the Gazette interview he pointed to himself and Bobby Clarke as former players with 'no previous experience' who did a good job as GM): http://habsloyalist....t-with-old.html Carbo or Damphousse might be other possibilities - Savard boys in whom he probably retains a strong belief: French, local, part of the 'family,' Cup ring(s), burning desire to win. I'm just speculating of course.

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I was in such a good mood today, that I bought a 12 pack of Molson Ex to celebrate today's good news.

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I'd also like to see the two Randy's back next year, along with a PP specialist as that appears to be one of their major downfalls and something they really weren't able to turn around until late.

I think it took a while for Cunnyworth to apply his values and system to the team, but once the mold started to gel, there was a lot of good things that came out of it. Despite the numbers building up in the L column, we started to see things we wanted out of this team: offensive fore-check, team toughness, and none of this sitting back and waiting for turn-over bullcrap. I think the two and a half men also thrived under the Randy's. Also, those bench penalties suddenly stopped too.

If you look at our bottom six right now, you can tell this isn't a properly equipped team. Injuries (yes, damn it, i said it) have played a spectacular role in us burning out in the last half of the year. When Ryan White gets 17 minutes a game and Bourque and Leblanc are (sometimes) part of the top 6, you know the (lack of) depth is hurting you. It's quite surprising really, but even Hamilton, who normally manages the call up quotient gracefully, has fallen this year. It seems there was small gap in the cupboard vs. what's coming next year (Tinordi, Gallagher, Bournival, Ellis, Pateryn, Holland, etc.). Had that gap been smaller, we might have managed things better, but there was virtually nothing compared to the last years (Grabovski, Kostitsyn, D'Agostini, Desharnais, MaxPac,) that was able to come up and make the smallest difference. Perhaps we can put Leblanc in there...but it wasn't enough to stop the bleeding.

Getting back to where i started, and supporting the argument from others that have posted here, the power play killed this season. Had the PP gone into the top-15 this year, we could be 5-10 wins higher, 10-15 more pts (thinking of loser pts we got along the way) and possibly be fighting with Buffalo and Washington for 8th. Alas, it's not the loftiest of dreams, but with the team make-up we have now...Gionta out, Gomez MIA, Cammy gone...that's a whole (potentially) top line of talent right there. Could have had 4 30-goal scorers this year...imagine that!

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I am not a fan of JM, but the timing and handling of the firing was classless and stupid. Given the obvious nature of our team (injured and mediocre), I think it would have been better to keep JM and sweep him out now with PG. If not, then the firing should have been planned better to find a real coach to replace him. Instead, like most of PGs moves, it looked reactionary and poorly thought out. It appears they decided "need to fire the coach, not sure who to hire, how about we use RC".

The only good part about JM going is that it improved our draft position. We wouldn't have made the playoffs under him, but we would not be 28th.

This org has been embarrassing with the handling of Pearn, JM, Cammy, etc. The lack of communication both with the media and with other GMs was a constant with PG and it neither served him, or the org well.

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I said all along, based on actual evidence rather than hysterical outrage over his boring press conferences and funny looks, that JM was a good coach and should not be fired. But the fans got what they wanted. That usually a recipe for losing, which this was. Ah well. Water under the bridge.

This team is short two top-six forwards, having dealt away Cammy and Kostitsyn without adequately replacing them. My own view is that we can survive at C if we can add dangerous wingers. Interesting to read Dutchahek (sp?) in the Globe, suggesting that if we hired Roy we might be able to lure Radulov. Add to that one of the Russians at the draft table and we could fix the problem overnight - provided we are willing to roll the dice on Russians.

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Radulov is only an RFA so Nashville will extract a price to trade for his rights.

I would trade quite a bit for Radulov. His 80 point season in the KHL is absolutely elite. I wouldn't give up our first this year but I would give up something else valuable. Desharnais for sure.

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Something I don't remember seeing mentioned here is that the selection committee will be a collection of three people, not just the two everyone is talking about (Molson/Savard). Hamilton owner (also a minority owner in the Habs) Michael Andlauer will also be a big part of the selection process. As someone who is a bit more of an outsider (relative to Molson/Savard who are very immersed in Montreal), I'm curious to see how much of an impact he'll have going along.

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Pierre McQuire cant be a real canditate is he? He is more of a friggin blowhard than Burke; but maybe that is what many are looking for, the total opposite of a Gauthier/Gainey?

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Pierre McQuire cant be a real canditate is he? He is more of a friggin blowhard than Burke; but maybe that is what many are looking for, the total opposite of a Gauthier/Gainey?

Being a member of the media can be a useful tool. Also, McGuire is still close to Scotty Bowman who always praises him. Despite all of the praise when McGuire was canned in Hartford he didn't bring him to Detroit. Instead he ended up in Ottawa where he did nothing, went to the ECHL where he was a crappy coach even there and decided to become a broadcaster instead. McGuire works on influence because it is all he has.

I think the only thing of value (aside from hilarious TV moments) that McGuire has brought to the table is his contribution to the A&E Legends of Hockey specials they did back in the day. He was pretty good for those.

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I want to say that if MacGuire becomes GM I will stop being a Habs fan. But I can't bring myself to go that far; probably I'll either stop following them until the inevitable day when he is fired, or else watch in the fatalistic expectation that we have decisively entered Houle Years 2.0. The groundswell of fan support for this guy is the inverted mirror image of the groundswell that attacked Martin: total, abject confusion of style vs. substance.

I get really sick of the English-Canadian media ALWAYS emphasizing the PR aspect of the job. You read things like, 'Roy wouldn't be a top candidate anywhere else but he's a fit for Montreal,' or 'MacGuire would address the PR issues that are so important...etc.' There is an underlying contempt for Montreal as a pure hockey market in a lot of the comments - an assumption that nobody here really cares about excellence. Below that surface may also be an underlying contempt for francophone Quebec, which has historically been portrayed in English-Canadian discourse as passionate and irrational. Just saying.

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