I bet you were complaining about Houle and Savard before that.
Face it, nobody wants to come here.
Ever think that Gainey took a chance with Niiniima and Samsonov. Now that he doesn’t take a chance you criticize him also.
Taxes are the problem. Guess you make below 30k family income
Nuff said again

I hated losing Hainsey too and since my wife’s a nutso Blue Jackets fan, I’ve watched him a lot on the Center Ice package and he’s good, or getting better but still very iffy in his own end and YOU GUYS WOULD BE ALL OVER HIM FOR IT IF HE WERE WITH THE HABS much like you’re on Mathieu Dandenault and were on Craig Rivet.

As for J.P. Dumont, can you blame Gainey for preferring to chase down Patrik Elias, Jason Arnott and Brendan Shanahan? Dumont’s a great secondary type winger but is not a go-to-guy which is what Montreal was seeking last summer. I wish you people would get off Sergei Samsonov’s back, granted he’s holding onto his stick too tight and underachieving but to deride him constantly is not helping his brittle psyche (as everyone here has pointed out, this town pretty much eats their own if they falter and is a major reason why not many players wish to come here).

Bob Gainey’s not a perfect GM but neither is Brian Burke but he’s a quality man and he chose to be here where many others would not have the guts to run this team in this market (again, see how we eat our own!)

2) Traded Mike Ribeiro for Janne Niinimaa. Ribeiro has 41 points and is +7. Niinimaa has played 31 games, is a -8 and spends most nights watching from the press box. He is an unrestriced free agent that we will gladly lose but will have nothing to show for the trade. I don’t begrudge trading Ribeiro but we have to do better than Niinimaa.

3) JP Dumont wanted to play in Montreal, was willing to accept a hometown discount, has 51 points and is a +9. Yet we were not interested. Instead we actively pursued the likes of Elias and Shanahan, neither of whom wanted to play in Montreal.

4) Instead signed Sergei Samsonov to 3.5 million per season. He has 25 points in 60 games played. We can’t even give him away and his 3.5 million will count against next years cap.

5) Held onto Sheldon Souray who will walk at seasons end. Once again we will have nothing to show for him. Souray’s stock was at an all time high as he is playing for a new contract and big payday. There is no arguing he is having a tremendous season but he will not duplicate this season again productionwise and has always been injury prone. I know we need Souray if we are going to make a run at a playoff spot. However, the reality is that we are an average team at best and don’t have the horses, combined with the injury to Huet, to do any real damage in the playoffs that is providing we actually make it in. (Andrei Markov is another unrestriced free agent at seasons end, wouldn’t it be tragic to lose him as well!? I know he claims that he wants to remain in Montreal but nothing is guaranteed).

6) Traded Craig Rivet for Josh Gorges and a first round pick which seems like a good deal at the time as Rivet is an unrestricted free agent at seasons end. Unfortunately we lost some leadership and toughness in losing Rivet. Ironically we receive a “most sportsmanlike player” (Memorial Cup) in Gorges. Just what we need, another soft player.

When will Montreal’s management realize that we need some size and toughness. We have too many European players and too many small, soft players. We must be the easiest team in the NHL to play against. We definitely don’t intimidate anyone.

I hope Bob proves us wrong but thus far he has given us Habs fans little to cheer about.

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