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An Assessment Of Bob Gaineys Time In Montreal


kaos

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I originally wrote this in the 38 post and then made it a separate one.

Original

Not really hard to figure out why this team is struggling so bad eh?

Lets see what had this team let go in free agency and trades, and dumb as waiver losses in the Bob Gainey era, and what have they got in return?

Yanic Perreault..52 GP 19 goals 19 assists 39 points, and again one of the top faceoff men in the league. Montreal had no real replacement for this guy, and although he may have been soft with no phyiscal attributes, what Canadien player isn't that right now? Definitley hurt to have lost him, considereing he'd be tied for the team lead in scoring.

Mathieu Garon 39 GP 21-13-2 2.95 GAA 2 SO 0.905 Sav%. Far and away better than anything any Montreal goaltender has done this year. I think everybody knew this was going to happen though. Everybody knew that Garon was a good goalie, and just needed some playing time. Having said that, I originally liked this trade, as I thought Radek Bonk would be an excellent 3rd line center with size and grit and 20 goals. Boy was I and Bob Gainey wrong. Christobal Huet has been the only thing saving this trade from being a disaster...and thats pathetic...basically trading a starting goalie for a backup goalie.

Marcel Hossa 41 GP 7 goals 6 assists 13 points +7 . Garth Murray 18 GP 1 goal 1 assist -3. Yeah Marcel Hossa never gave a full effort, but hes the better hockey player in the trade and therefore New York wins the deal. Murray can't even crack the lineup every night, and will eventually be a 4th liner or career minor leaguer. Thats pathetic.

Ron Hainsey 30 GP 1 G 9 A 10 Pts +1 and has steadily improved his play on a weak defence in Columbus.

He was lost because Montreal drafted a 28 year old in the 9th round of 2004 draft named Mark Streit whose is pathetic. 35 GP 1 Goal 6 assists 7 Points -7. This was just brutal and will ultimatley define Bob Gaineys GM role with Montreal. Hainsey will become an excellent top 4 defensman, NOT A #1, while Streit will be back over in Europe within a year. What a waste

Alex Kovalev, on any given night can dominate a game. On most nights, loafs and doesn't play hard. Unfortunatley he's had a serious knee injury that robbed him of 20 + games. Traded for Josez Balej who's pretty much a career minor leaguer....and this has been Gainey's best move. Not exactly a ringing endorement.

Aaron Downey...waiver pick up. Piece of shit, that hasn't even had a fight year

Yann Danis, has been the best Montreal goaltender this year and is currently playing in Hamilton. I realize its a numbers game, and hes the youngest and most inexperienced, but you have to be able to find this guy playing time. Ultimately hes destined to be the next Mathieu Garon.

Oh and lets not forget that he fired Claude Julien. The same coach who had us competing at the beginning of the year. The same guy who didn't have us getting outshot 35-40 to 15-20 everynight and blasted 6-2, 7-2, 8-2 which is a frequent nightly occurance with Gainey

This my friends, is what Bob Gainey has done to this franchise. Ultimatley it rests on his shoulders. I admit that I thought it was great that he came here and would be good for the franchise, but boy was I wrong. Bob Gainey has been a disaster.

In a lot of these posts, people have been talking about trades, and who should go and who should stay. I don't trust Bob Gainey to make any moves. I don't think he would make any good trades, and am actually afraid of what he might do, based on what he has accomplished through the above transactions. I hate to Poo Poo on the guy considering how a great he was and what he did in Dallas, but I am really scared for the franchises future.....

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it is very easy to use 20/20 hindsight to prove any point you want. Bob obviously felt this team needs to be rebuilt a little at a time. It is unfortunate that he did not forsee that theo would suck badly or that soury would suddenly look like a junior b player, or that Bonk would turn into a non scorer or that kovalev would miss 20 games as well as all the other injuries we have had. I mean that is his job, to predict the future. Hossa had plenty of time to make it in montreal could not play more than 1 game in a row. Hainsey had plenty of time to prove he could make it in Montreal, maybe he didn't want to be here who knows. there will be a lot changes over the next year but lets be honest Bob can only work with what he has and what the players show him.

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If (when) Montreal misses the playoffs this season. I believe Bob will be given one more year to make this team a very good team that means finishing in the top 6 on the conference and top 2 of the divison. Boivin and Gillett.

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GMs should make moves based on the best information available to them. It is NOT their job to be psychics, prophets and fortune tellers. With that in mind:

-Garon for Bonk/Huet. Bonk was a PROVEN NHL veteran at centre, which the Habs needed in case Ribeiro should regress after his breakthrough season. A desirable player to have, and a significant upgrade for us, given all the information available at the time. Theodore was a proven #1 goalie. And Huet is a perfectly good backup. Therefore, this trade made sense. Expecting Gainey to know in advance that Theodore would suddenly collapse, and that Bonk would be hampered by a groin pull and never fully recover his moxy in Montreal, is ridiculous.

-Hossa for Murray. I'd rather have Murray - a physical, gritty, leaderhsip-type guy in an orghanization that desperately needs these qualities - any day. Hossa is a marginal player, garbage. I can't believe that anyone is still lamenting the loss of that clown.

-Hainsey. Yep. Things look bad on this front NOW...but it's far, far too early to come to a definitive assessment. It would be lunacy to condemn Bob's tenure in Montreal because Hainsey has played well for a few weeks. Talk to me in about two years.

-Perrault. He was let go because he's getting long in the tooth, because his defensive game sucks, because his faceoff prowess is overrated, and because Ribeiro beat him out of a job. All good reasons. Now that both Ribeiro and Bonk have collapsed, this looks like a bad move - but see my first point about Bonk.

-Julien. Give me a break. This was a lateral move at best, but something had to be done. You'd swear Julien was Scotty Bowman the way people are now talking - anyone remember his uselessness with our young guys---?

As for the idea that Bob has ONE MORE YEAR TO MAKE THE HABS A GREAT TEAM, well, if short-term fixes are all our organization can think about, we're condemned to another 20 years in the wilderness. Bob was NOT simply a great player. He has been a great coach (in Minnesoat/Dallas) AND GM (Minnesota/Dallas), where he led a crappy franchise to dominance and Cups. The track record is there. But is he a psychic? No. If proven players don't produce, then ANY GM looks bad.

And you know what? If Theodore hadn't sucked rocks all season, no one would be writing this now.

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The Hossa for Murray was a good deal. Hossa could have left Montreal for nothing and we got Murray in return. Murray plays with heart.

Firing Claude Julien was a way to shake things up. It didn't work out but my guess is that Gainey was looking for a trade before the coach got fired but didn't find anything. But it's just a guess.

Hainsey has looked better in Columbus than he ever did in Montreal. He couldn't handle the pressure about being the top prospect defenceman of the Habs? Maybe but I do feel that we got ripped.

I didn't like the Bonk trade initialy and I don't like it now. I hate it now. It forced my favourite player Perreault to Nashville and a great backup in Garon to Kings and all I see is a big, slow, non-hitting overpaid czech republic former top prospect...

Everything that happens is not Bob Gaineys fault.

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The Hossa for Murray was a good deal. Hossa could have left Montreal for nothing and we got Murray in return. Murray plays with heart.

Firing Claude Julien was a way to shake things up. It didn't work out but my guess is that Gainey was looking for a trade before the coach got fired but didn't find anything. But it's just a guess.

Hainsey has looked better in Columbus than he ever did in Montreal. He couldn't handle the pressure about being the top prospect defenceman of the Habs? Maybe but I do feel that we got ripped.

I didn't like the Bonk trade initialy and I don't like it now. I hate it now. It forced my favourite player Perreault to Nashville and a great backup in Garon to Kings and all I see is a big, slow, non-hitting overpaid czech republic former top prospect...

Everything that happens is not Bob Gaineys fault.

Not to mention toughening up the team. Bob's still alright with me. There have been a lot of players that have betrayed the organization and their fans this year.

Theodore was Bob's biggest mistake in my books. The contract was way too much or for too long considering the uncertain state of affairs with with the rule changes. Then again Montreal press would have burned Gainey for letting him go, being the Montreal good old boy with community involvement that Theo is. Theo knew this and took full advantage. I wish Gainey would have taken the risk, but its doubtful many managers could have handled Theo differently.

The toughening up was huge and lets not blame Ivanans or Downey for the lazyness of our "superstars". For one thing Downey is still very new and sounds charismatic and Ivanans is an absolute necessity. Don't let anyone tell you otherwise. Look at what has been happening to Crosby until they got Cairns, look at how fast goons like Colton Orr and Nathan Parrot were grabbed off waivers. Having tough guys allows your superstars to focus on being super. Toronto has been suffering more these days because their goons are old and weak by comparison to other teams. Also almost every successful team has at least one goon and others to stand in if necessary.

Lets also remember that Gainey brought the machine Steve Begin and Langdon. Guys that gave us immediate impact. Murray will be the same and I think Ferland has promise too.

Our problem is that everywhere that our money is placed we're not getting results. If guys like Theodore Kovalev, Ribeiro, Koivu, Zednik, Souray, Bonk, Ryder and even Bulis and Sundstrum were playing remotely well on a consistant level we would still be winning and our tough gritty players would have no problem being on the bench. These guys rotate being the worst player(s) on the team (except for Zednik he's been a tit throughout) and each takes their turn blowing games with stupid plays. You look at the names on the list and that there is the entire talent pool of the team. Bulis I would give a slight exception too because he atleast looks like he's trying most nights, but his output until recently has been pitiful.

What we should be asking ourselves is what factors have lead to all of these players becoming so lazy? I'd say Julien has to answer for part of that, as he began the year so well. Also, to the pain of many on this board, I still say the officiating against Montreal has been nothing short of terrible. We get more 5-3s against us at game breaking moments than any other team in the league. One day I will get the stats to prove it but for now I'm a crackpot. The refs tilt the balance against us early, the team gives up and then they balance out the penalties once the lead has been secured by the opposing team and all the heart is lost. When this first started happening we'd get shorthanded goals, Sundstrum would single handedly kill penalties and we would win anyway. Then we got injuries and started losing, the team got depressed with bad calls and stopped playing. Now when a 5-3 is called you can predict the goal against us (possibly 2) and the certain loss that will follow from it. Its interesting too when you see returning players from injuries come back with fresh vigour, score some goals and witness the on going hopelessness and then return to their losing ways. They forgot about the fix.

The problem is that Gainey has been handed a rotten egg. For years Montreal's drafting has been committed to small so-called fast talented players??? Does anyone else notice that our team looks slower than the Leafs! They get burnt out or rubbed out by physical play and take plenty of hooking penalties because they can't play the man. Man they're useless. These small players (Pleks, Higgins, Perez) have brought us very little and it seems the league's big players have ajusted just fine to the new NHL (with some exceptions...Souray and Allison).

It will take sometime to clean house.

Edited by Lister110
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GMs should make moves based on the best information available to them. It is NOT their job to be psychics, prophets and fortune tellers. With that in mind:

-Garon for Bonk/Huet. Bonk was a PROVEN NHL veteran at centre, which the Habs needed in case Ribeiro should regress after his breakthrough season. A desirable player to have, and a significant upgrade for us, given all the information available at the time. Theodore was a proven #1 goalie. And Huet is a perfectly good backup. Therefore, this trade made sense. Expecting Gainey to know in advance that Theodore would suddenly collapse, and that Bonk would be hampered by a groin pull and never fully recover his moxy in Montreal, is ridiculous.

-Hossa for Murray. I'd rather have Murray - a physical, gritty, leaderhsip-type guy in an orghanization that desperately needs these qualities - any day. Hossa is a marginal player, garbage. I can't believe that anyone is still lamenting the loss of that clown.

-Hainsey. Yep. Things look bad on this front NOW...but it's far, far too early to come to a definitive assessment. It would be lunacy to condemn Bob's tenure in Montreal because Hainsey has played well for a few weeks. Talk to me in about two years.

-Perrault. He was let go because he's getting long in the tooth, because his defensive game sucks, because his faceoff prowess is overrated, and because Ribeiro beat him out of a job. All good reasons. Now that both Ribeiro and Bonk have collapsed, this looks like a bad move - but see my first point about Bonk.

-Julien. Give me a break. This was a lateral move at best, but something had to be done. You'd swear Julien was Scotty Bowman the way people are now talking - anyone remember his uselessness with our young guys---?

As for the idea that Bob has ONE MORE YEAR TO MAKE THE HABS A GREAT TEAM, well, if short-term fixes are all our organization can think about, we're condemned to another 20 years in the wilderness. Bob was NOT simply a great player. He has been a great coach (in Minnesoat/Dallas) AND GM (Minnesota/Dallas), where he led a crappy franchise to dominance and Cups. The track record is there. But is he a psychic? No. If proven players don't produce, then ANY GM looks bad.

And you know what? If Theodore hadn't sucked rocks all season, no one would be writing this now.

Your assessement is right on, how anyone can expect Bob to have worked miracles in the time he's been here is beyond me. It takes time to build a contender especially when one has suffered thru mismanagement for years. As they say hind sight is 20/20 and everybody that uses it is an "expert".

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I would agree with most of that but higgins is tough and a good skater, he plays well along the boards and doesn't lose too many one on one battles. He is not a big hitter or anything but a great third line LW. Pleks is interesting, where to play him? great speed, can score some, good work ethic and defensively pretty sound. They are both rookies and will make some mistakes but i totally agree about the vets and other hi priced players.

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Most people are not blaming Gainey for where we are right now.

People are pissed because he seems to be doing nothing to fix it.

We are sinking and sinking hard.

There are now 6 teams fighting for one playoff spot. The teams in 7th are pulling away. What are our chances of getting that last spot?

Not to mention that Washington is going to pass us soon.

Hello bob?

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True, but Bob cannot sacrifice young players to help this broken down wreck of a team make the playoffs (probably to be swept in the first round). That Bob is taking his time shows his commitment to the long run.

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Gainey did what he did... and there's no turning back!!!

No way he is getting fired!! even if we finish last! So I wont even read anything thats posted about the past!! what's important is Now!

And "Now" it’s about dissecting the team with the least post-surgery trauma as possible.. removing whats chronically gone bad... and repairing and aiding whats got still hope!

And of course implants! lol this stupid Bionic man analogy sucked sorry but in any case

I am getting an impression there is something really wrong within the team Chemistry? something happening LEaguewise? Drugs? whatever... Something HEavy heavy... and once BG pin points it... get ready for more dose of habs getting rid of players for nothing in return! like many of us I believe in what we have in the rooks!

I still believe in many players! have lost complete hope in others (5) and am convinced we need to get a franchise player (other than a goalie) and of course Keep Koivu put him in the second line! and get a Big Number one centre! and number one D THATS IT!

Tell Gainey to call me!

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Gaineys' effectiveness in Mtl will take time to tell. It's just too early to evaluate his impact, I think it is good to critique some of the moves or non-moves in real time (it shows our passion if nothing else) but an in depth assessment cannot be done yet.

I don't really agree that Gainey has done nothing, in fact we have seen him juggling lines, defence combos, goalies, sitting players (Bonk, Zednick), call ups (Cote, Perezhogin), send downs (Kostitsyn) etc. He is trying to get a sense for the elements that he has under his control. He has to do this before moving to the drastic step of trades.

In the off season it was painfully obvious that the Habs needed help on defence. Gainey made offers to some of the better FA defencemen but had no takers until near the end when Dandenault accepted. Dandenault was not his first choice obviously but the FA defencemen were not interested in what Mtl had to offer either in terms of money or ambiance. Looking at the current dysfunctional situation in Mtl some of theses FA's may feel quite comfortable that they made the right call. I think Mtl remains one of the least desired franchises to want to play for in terms of taxes, relentless media pressure and opportunity to win Stanley. Kind of a continued sad statement of a once storied franchise.

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Not to mention toughening up the team. Bob's still alright with me. There have been a lot of players that have betrayed the organization and their fans this year.

Theodore was Bob's biggest mistake in my books. The contract was way too much or for too long considering the uncertain state of affairs with with the rule changes. Then again Montreal press would have burned Gainey for letting him go, being the Montreal good old boy with community involvement that Theo is. Theo knew this and took full advantage. I wish Gainey would have taken the risk, but its doubtful many managers could have handled Theo differently.

The toughening up was huge and lets not blame Ivanans or Downey for the lazyness of our "superstars". For one thing Downey is still very new and sounds charismatic and Ivanans is an absolute necessity. Don't let anyone tell you otherwise. Look at what has been happening to Crosby until they got Cairns, look at how fast goons like Colton Orr and Nathan Parrot were grabbed off waivers. Having tough guys allows your superstars to focus on being super. Toronto has been suffering more these days because their goons are old and weak by comparison to other teams. Also almost every successful team has at least one goon and others to stand in if necessary.

Lets also remember that Gainey brought the machine Steve Begin and Langdon. Guys that gave us immediate impact. Murray will be the same and I think Ferland has promise too.

Our problem is that everywhere that our money is placed we're not getting results. If guys like Theodore Kovalev, Ribeiro, Koivu, Zednik, Souray, Bonk, Ryder and even Bulis and Sundstrum were playing remotely well on a consistant level we would still be winning and our tough gritty players would have no problem being on the bench. These guys rotate being the worst player(s) on the team (except for Zednik he's been a tit throughout) and each takes their turn blowing games with stupid plays. You look at the names on the list and that there is the entire talent pool of the team. Bulis I would give a slight exception too because he atleast looks like he's trying most nights, but his output until recently has been pitiful.

What we should be asking ourselves is what factors have lead to all of these players becoming so lazy? I'd say Julien has to answer for part of that, as he began the year so well. Also, to the pain of many on this board, I still say the officiating against Montreal has been nothing short of terrible. We get more 5-3s against us at game breaking moments than any other team in the league. One day I will get the stats to prove it but for now I'm a crackpot. The refs tilt the balance against us early, the team gives up and then they balance out the penalties once the lead has been secured by the opposing team and all the heart is lost. When this first started happening we'd get shorthanded goals, Sundstrum would single handedly kill penalties and we would win anyway. Then we got injuries and started losing, the team got depressed with bad calls and stopped playing. Now when a 5-3 is called you can predict the goal against us (possibly 2) and the certain loss that will follow from it. Its interesting too when you see returning players from injuries come back with fresh vigour, score some goals and witness the on going hopelessness and then return to their losing ways. They forgot about the fix.

The problem is that Gainey has been handed a rotten egg. For years Montreal's drafting has been committed to small so-called fast talented players??? Does anyone else notice that our team looks slower than the Leafs! They get burnt out or rubbed out by physical play and take plenty of hooking penalties because they can't play the man. Man they're useless. These small players (Pleks, Higgins, Perez) have brought us very little and it seems the league's big players have ajusted just fine to the new NHL (with some exceptions...Souray and Allison).

It will take sometime to clean house.

I agree with everything you said except that Plekanec has brought us nothing. He is arguably the best player on the team and he's only a rookie.

Gainey is good and people should stop complaining about the Garon trade. Bonk is one of the better players on our team and would be on any team. He's showed up when healthy and he does his job well. Huet has been playing as well as Garon. Garon has been playing good, not great. Huet has been playing great. I'm not saying that Garon is worse than Huet but I think that Bonkevens out the deal and that it's fair. Hossa isn't better than Murray! Murray will be a 4th liner, but Begin is a 4th liner and I'd rather have him than half the 2nd liners in the league. Guys on the fourth line are there because that's their style of play not because they suck. Hossa will end up on the fourth line except he's an offensive player. THAT'S pathetic.

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GMs should make moves based on the best information available to them. It is NOT their job to be psychics, prophets and fortune tellers. With that in mind:

-Garon for Bonk/Huet. Bonk was a PROVEN NHL veteran at centre, which the Habs needed in case Ribeiro should regress after his breakthrough season. A desirable player to have, and a significant upgrade for us, given all the information available at the time. Theodore was a proven #1 goalie. And Huet is a perfectly good backup. Therefore, this trade made sense. Expecting Gainey to know in advance that Theodore would suddenly collapse, and that Bonk would be hampered by a groin pull and never fully recover his moxy in Montreal, is ridiculous.

-Hossa for Murray. I'd rather have Murray - a physical, gritty, leaderhsip-type guy in an orghanization that desperately needs these qualities - any day. Hossa is a marginal player, garbage. I can't believe that anyone is still lamenting the loss of that clown.

-Hainsey. Yep. Things look bad on this front NOW...but it's far, far too early to come to a definitive assessment. It would be lunacy to condemn Bob's tenure in Montreal because Hainsey has played well for a few weeks. Talk to me in about two years.

-Perrault. He was let go because he's getting long in the tooth, because his defensive game sucks, because his faceoff prowess is overrated, and because Ribeiro beat him out of a job. All good reasons. Now that both Ribeiro and Bonk have collapsed, this looks like a bad move - but see my first point about Bonk.

-Julien. Give me a break. This was a lateral move at best, but something had to be done. You'd swear Julien was Scotty Bowman the way people are now talking - anyone remember his uselessness with our young guys---?

As for the idea that Bob has ONE MORE YEAR TO MAKE THE HABS A GREAT TEAM, well, if short-term fixes are all our organization can think about, we're condemned to another 20 years in the wilderness. Bob was NOT simply a great player. He has been a great coach (in Minnesoat/Dallas) AND GM (Minnesota/Dallas), where he led a crappy franchise to dominance and Cups. The track record is there. But is he a psychic? No. If proven players don't produce, then ANY GM looks bad.

And you know what? If Theodore hadn't sucked rocks all season, no one would be writing this now.

my point exactly but much more eloquently

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I think not all the blame is Gainey's

1) Yanic Perrault- for some reason his last year in Montreal whether he played well or badly he was benched. I blame this on Julien as much as Gainey. And he did have some great games his last year. He is a natural talent and only if he knew how to skate like Paul Kariya

2) Mathieu Garon- when he played with Montreal he was inconsistent and did not want to challenge Theo for the NUmber one job. I think in an article once he said he was content as the Number 2 goalie. In LA as well he did not win the starting job at the start of the year. He is now playing well and has become the number 1 goalie in LA. Did Montreal give him a real chance to be Number 1? Why should they when Theo was playing well in previous years? Did they get enuff for him from LA. Not sure.

3) Marcel Hossa has not proven a thing in NY- very poor stats for an offensive team. Could we have gotten more? I know Atlanta was stunned when they heard of the trade. They wanted to join the Hossa brothers. I think we could have gotten more

4) Ron Hainsey. I blame this on Julien as much as Gainey- a 1st round draft pick and not even a chance to show what he can do for a whole season. I saw talent in the guy. I always thought he could handle the puck much much better than Komi.

5) Did you see Aaron Downey skating in Boston- lol did John Chabot come back from the grave

Unfortunately I think the habs are using Perezhogin Kotsy Plekanec in a Hainsey like way. Play them and let them make mistakes- that's why they are rookies- Hell anyone remember how many mistakes Robinson Gainey or Lafleur made their first year. Its called the learning process.

Edited by Strummerman
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First, I feel the successfull 03-04 season to have been in a very large part the result of Gainey's

work behind the scene (Buying-out Audette and Zcerkawski, introducing Begin, Langdon, Dagenais, Kovalev ) and on the front scene ( The Brisebois situation at the Bell).

I was able to see the postive relevance instanteneously while they where taking place,.......unlike most of his post-season moves that was about to follow.

None of his post-season, pre-lock-out moves included any UFA players but included:

1) aquisition of Bonk and Huet for Garon.

2) not signing Langdon.

3) signing Sundstrom

4) lost of D-prospect Francois Beauchemin to waiver, not getting him back from waiver a week later.

No: 1 was very logical since Theodore was seen like an irreprochable no.1 starter for the next few years,...Huet was seen like a very convenient and able second starter and Bonk was seen like a guy having

the combined virtues of centers-Juneau-Perrault which he was about to replace.

If Bonk would had deliver half of what our GM thought he could this trade would still be not too bad,... but he

hasn't even come close,....it has affected our team negatively this season and still does.

No.2 was done in knowing that an equivalant and younger strong man could be found elsewhere,...

Yvanans seems adequate.

No. 3 was a BAD move if you consider that Yan Laperriere was UFA and willing to come in his home town and play on the third line,.......no better equivalant third liner could have helped this spineless team more than he would have,......this evolving formation had a need for a veteran of this kind.......I still dont get that one.

No.4 Can annyone explain to me why our solid defenceman prospect is now playing above 20 minutes per game with Niedermayer and the Ducks as opposed of playing here.

Post lock-out moves:

5) Buying-out Brisebois.

6) UFA Dandenault

7) signing Streit

8) UFA Kovalev

9) signing Dagenais

No. 5 Brisebois was coming from a strong season and his style did seems appropriate to takle the New NHL on which Gainey had to profiled his team in order for it to be competitive. Like Rivet, he was overpaid, but unlike Rivet, this was his last year at being so. Dispensing of his services was radical,.......he was one of our top three defence the previous season and there was no assurance of adequatly replacing him,....plus,...the

NewNHL could mean a drop in performances coming from our heavy guys like Souray and sophomore Komisarek. Without the lost of Beauchemin and the departure of Brisebois this team would have had a very very good defensive squad........one that would have for shure mitigate the consequences of our underperforming Theo and one that would have supported better our offensive and our power-plays also.

No. 6 a last resort move 4 year contract brought about to help compensated for Brisebois and Beauchemin.

No. 7 a last resort one year contract that fails to help the season.

No. 8 was an outwright necessity and one of the most adequate UFA for the job.

No.9 What was the chances for him to performed in the New NHL ? according to most fans,,very little indeed.

Signing him meant to burden Julien's team from the start,.....didn't help the cause whichever way you look at it.

I have never miss any chances to write about, what I saw as gainey's favorable imputs during the last season and I have no probleme in writing about, what I see as his unfavorable ones during this one.

The injuries, not to forget, have been very unfavorable this season so,... it made matter worst than they should have been,....yet I feel Gainey was inadequate at making his team a better performing team than in its last season....I dont think much in terms of Cup, I prefer to see incremental improvement taking place from one saison on to the next one...............but the season is not over yet.

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Oh and i forgot

Dandenault not a good move (HaPpy bIRTHDAY LOL)- How did he win all those Cups at Detroit- sheesh did we get the worst player from the Red Wing lineup.

Kovalev- hard to say what is wrong- cant pick on someone who has had knee surgery during the year-

One thing I kept hoping for but didnt happen was another UFA forward. We had the salary cap space- This would have taken a lot of pressure off Kovy -

I was hoping for a Kariya or a Selanne or even a Modano- when Kovy went down with injury is when the habs started to skid- no one picked up the slack- This is one of my main beefs with gainey- being too conservative with UFA's

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So far, Gainey has been nothing short of incompetent. I understand that mortgaging the team's future to scrape by into the 8th spot only to get steamrolled in the first round would be stupid. But why not make some small, lateral moves to change the team chemistry a little? Inject a few players that are hungry to prove themselves into the lineup, and just maybe it will be contagious. It certainly couldn't hurt.

Edited by sbhatt
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«La situation de Théodore peut changer. Il faut lui donner du temps. Je me souviens que les gens souhaitaient le départ d'Alex Kovalev après la fin de la dernière saison. Mais ces mêmes gens avaient changé d'avis après les séries»

- Bob Gainey, La Presse, 03/02/2006

I'm really happy with Bob Gainey as the GM. I wonder what this team would look like if we traded all these players who played a bad shift, a bad game or a couple of bad games. OH NO! The new player coughs up the puck, 3 on 1 for the other team.. NEXT!

In Bob I trust.

If this team starts winning again Bob will be praised for his patience, for sticking with this team and everybody would have predicted it. Smart move.

I think Bob knows what he's doing. Give him a break.

Edited by mathieu30
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«La situation de Théodore peut changer. Il faut lui donner du temps. Je me souviens que les gens souhaitaient le départ d'Alex Kovalev après la fin de la dernière saison. Mais ces mêmes gens avaient changé d'avis après les séries»

- Bob Gainey, La Presse, 03/02/2006

I'm really happy with Bob Gainey as the GM. I wonder what this team would look like if we traded all these players who played a bad shift, a bad game or a couple of bad games. OH NO! The new player coughs up the puck, 3 on 1 for the other team.. NEXT!

In Bob I trust.

If this team starts winning again Bob will be praised for his patience, for sticking with this team and everybody would have predicted it. Smart move.

I think Bob knows what he's doing. Give him a break.

the problem is that we are not talking about a bad shift or a bad game or even a bad couple of games.

We are talking 30 games

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