gumper

Actually, Gainey is ultimately answerable to the messageboards - the fans. Huet may have been struggling of late, but Price has certainly not played much better and certainly not enough to earn the clear mantle of our number one. As for evaluating Halak, that's crap. He couldn't even beat out Abeshier for a job and when Price arrived, Halak quickly took a back seat. Gainey has had more than enough time to "evaluate" Halak - and found him wanting. By all accounts, Huet was a rock in the dressing room. This is NOT addition by subtraction! Who picks up that mantle? It's true this is basically the same team it was yesterday [except we have a shiny new pick!] except we no longer have any kind of safety net in goal going into the playoffs [if we make it that far]. It's not so much we didn't get Hossa, it's that we didn't have any kind of plan B. The problem is some of our rivals have made moves to try and address perceived weaknesses [rightly or wrongly - let's hope we don't have to play Pitt or Wash in the first round]. We cannot say that in the least. What does that say to a team that is struggling at times. You say it's all about the kids coming up, about the future. Don't the players working their ass off right now deserve a shot at a Cup? 1993 was a long time ago. Standing pat at the trade deadline and protecting prospects for the future has not translated into much the past 15 years [zero as a matter of fact], but yes, I know, this time is different, yadda, yadda, yadda....

I don't see how Christiansen, Angelo Esposito and Colby Armstrong even remotely equals Higgins, Grabovski and Kostytsin! Armstrong and Christiansen are both third line players on any other team and Esposito's stock has fallen out of site. Bob must have offered next to nothing because that's what Atlanta settled for. He's not an idiot for making one trade, but he is answerable for dumping any safety net we had in goal going into the playoffs and for not having a plan B [or C] to help this team when the Hossa thing fell through.

Letter to Bob Gainey: Mr. Gainey, we had higher hopes for this year than this. This is NOT addition by subtraction. Any safety net we had in goal going into the playoffs has now vanished for a measly pick. Many of the players that went at the deadline went for next to nothing - could we not have picked up any help? Did you have ALL your eggs in one Hossa basket and when that fell through you took your ball and ran home crying? No Plan B? or C? or D? Isn't that your job? Have we thrown in the towel? Even Fedorov would have helped in the playoffs. Now we have to limp into the playoffs [hopefully into the playoffs] with two unproven goalies, a bunch of unproductive forwards in Michael Ryder, Chris Higgins and Saku "Can-no-longer-keep-up-with-the-pace-of-the-game" Koivu. I'm hoping you know something we don't know. Allow me to be the umpteenth Habs fan to say "I hope we don't have to play Pittsburgh or Washington in the first round".