joshtm:

You have spent an enternity of your time and ours in the last few weeks trying to convince us all that the Habs cannot get there from here. The past is now in the past. Ok, some of us may now be in agreement, but the question has actually been posed to you several times in this blog alone. Where do the Habs go from here? It’s actually very easy to criticize and play Monday morning quarterback all the time, but be brave and go on record with your actual opinion. Speak your opinion clearly without any of that extraneous stuff.

In one weeks time, does Gainey (a) fish now or (b) cut bait to obtain some prospects for the future? The floor is yours, buddy… Which choice is it going to be?

Rob, to be fare at this point and time, dropping a bomb like that on any one’s lap is not a nice thing to do to people. The team is in such a disarray; where would one start? Now a couple of years ago, an ex Canadians hero by the name of Bob Gainey took on such a mission ,with the promise of a complete turn around. So have others” G.M. Nonas in Vancouver”and many more ,rebuilding their clubs after the strike and with a modicum of success.”Canucks”being a great example.Now you can make a million excuses why things work or don’t work AND USE THEM IN ANY ARGUMENT OR DICUSSION YOU WANT, just like in politics, but in the end the truth will always surface and in this case unfortuantely it is that our team is a broken Heep of parts, some of which are salvageable .It would be end of story any where else ,but never should this be an acceptable fate for such a storied frachise,it’s just not rite !!!

Xhabsfan:

The only point that I am trying to make is that my opinion is that Gainey is working on a different time scale than most of the fans. Do you think that Gainey really would want Aaron Downey if he could have had Patrick Elias or Jason Arnott? He has had to work with a bunch a castaways and nare do wells! It is absolutely not his fault. The team that Gainey is building consists of his prospects and draft picks who are likely still 2-3 years away! If he survives another two years in Montreal, I am almost sure that we will all eat our words and our doubts.

I am almost as sure about this as I was that the Canadiens would go into a major slump after their antics with Sidney Crosby after the game of February 4, and I had the guts to go on record with that prediction both on this blog and with Jack Todd.

Geeze R Habs do you ever pull your weight too? Get off your high horse there buddy, like as if you don’t care. Happy Go Lucky eh? Guess what, we’ve had your type running the habs for what going on 12 years? Oh ya, let’s do the nice board room shuffle, oh gee, if it was run like a business, the habs would be sinking sinking. Unlike the laffs they don’t got HNIC to bail them out when the rich american gets bored of losing and loses patience and the roof falls in on the Bell Center like it did in the O.

Like as if our life depended on the habs too R Habs, honestly.

This is about the habs, not about oh gee, we don’t wanna ruffle your pretty pert feathers there, oh no, we can’t be having that, we can’t be complaining about the habs are going no where.

If they don’t move now, they ain’t never gonna move. No amount of planning around rookies is gonna bring us a bumper crop. As long as we keep re-signing and bringing on mediocre and horrible veterans, the rookies are never gonna be able lift the tired old folkies like Rivet and Johnson….

Get real and stay real, especially you R Habs.

We definately let our youngsters sit in the minors too long.

I have a hypothetical question: if Montreal had drafted Jordan Staal in the draft last year would he be:

A) playing a regular shift on the big club?
or
B) sent back to junior?

joshtm very good posts ,entertaining and i agree with most of what you say

I’ll reserve judgment on Bob Gainey until after the trade deadline
If he goes out and trades some of our youth for a “broke down old vet” that will tell me he doesn’t get it. If BG knows Markov and/or Souray isn’t going to re-sign with us and doesn’t deal them at the tradeline for some something(no broke down vets either)i’ll know he doesn’t get it. I would imagine Bob should know if they have intentions of re-signing. If he could move any of the overpaid, underachieving vets that would be a bonus. I thought the so called “4th” line may have been our best line the last 2 games. I’d rather see a bunch of hard working,eager youngsters out there, at least you know they are going to improve and are certainly not overpaid. bringing Samsanov in was a bad idea.
So called plan D’s never work out well. In hingsight having Kostitsyn or anyone else in his spot would have been more productive, and with extra money saved we could try to lure a elite free agent for a change and one who’s skills aren’t declining. So yes Bob made numerous mistake he has one chance to right the ship, or i fear we will be perpetually in 7-11th spot for the next 5 years. Of course going no further than the second round in the playoffs. Some of us are then left wondering where it went wrong.

Since when is getting into the playoffs the goal, the goal is suppose to be winning the cup. This team is a second round team at its very best let’s face the facts. we hope they win the cup if they make the playoffs of course,but your brain has to be telling you, they don’t have what it takes to get in done.
The veteran core of the team needs to be looked at they are so used to losing too.

eeking into the playoffs and hoping for some sort of miracle sounds like leafs fans to me. sad really how the mighty have fallen.

LJ55,Great comment on the reality of the Canadiens origination ,we know if Stall was our he’d be in juniors still !please post more often.

And drafting Carey Price was not a genius move. He was the top-ranked goalie in the draft that year. If he had not gone 5th he would have gone in the next 5 picks.

Saw that someone else heard it on the radio as well. Maybe Gainey has something cooked up.

I am down here in Flordia with the GM’s and overheard Gainey talking about shark fishing????

well frank if in fact it true that UFA’s don’t want to sign in montreal. I suppose there are only 2 options to get the kind of players we need either via the draft or via trade. me personally i don’t buy the whole ufa’s don’t want to sign here, well that being said if they don’t want to sign here maybe it’s cause they don’t think we are good enough, or maybe the don’t like the direction we are headed. to me those would be the more logical reasons. Im glad anyhow that we don’t sign UFA vets that are way past there prime, to big money long term contracts. Samsanov was a total bust of course, i didn’t think he was a good fit with us in the first place, we have way too many perimeter as it is. I still didn’t think Samsanov would be this big of a bust.
If i was in Gainey’s shoes no one would be untouchable, i’d be open to any offers that made my team better, this year but more importantly next year.

Ok i have a few comments about Kovalev, i just want to get off my chest.
why on earth would kovalev sit out now as opposed to sitting in december when he was actually injured? we all know Kovalev only wakes up in april, so really he should have sat in december so he could 100% for the stretch run and the playoffs. mind boggling really, i wonder if it was managments or Kovalevs decision to try and play through the injury. the whole situation rubs me the wrong way, i wonder if we are getting the full story, just seems so illogical.

Like i said before Gainey has made some good and bad decisions, i still can’t believe he was able to get rid theo’s contract, although he is the one that signed theo to it. Really Gainey trades overall have been neither here nor there nothing of real impact in that department, Free agents signing have been a bust, some of the contracts BG he has handed out have been potential albatross’s :theo’s for instance. The only area we seem to be having success is
in is drafting, personally i think we should stick to our strenghts.

quite frankly after the Houle era it’s hard to tell what’s good and what’s bad anymore. those were dark days, not as dark now but still overcast.
Overall i’d give BG a C, maybe he has a master plan who knows really. He has an infinity for the old guys, i mean 32 years old plus guys. Please if we are going to try to sign a ufa or trade for a Marquee player, do you think you could target someone coming into there prime please. thanks BG.

Holy ****, what the hell is wrong with some of you. I agree with R Habs 4 Real when answering Joshtm. Look people, nobody was complaining up to Dec 23, we were flyin high, there was no talk of getting rid of Souray or Koivu,or any of this **** that I see you supposed Hab fans are ranting now. In my opinion,there is nothing wrong with being passionate about our beloved Habs, but,crapping on the team when their down, just pisses me off more than the way they’ve been playing lately.When a team is in a funk,all of a suddden, out come the so called armchair Gm’s, who all think they know what it takes to fix the team. I have coached for 23 years, and I know from experience, that sometimes, changing players does not necessarily make the team more successful, sometimes, the team has to work out its problem internally. What would you all say,if Gainey made no moves,and the Canadiens made the playoffs and went a couple of rounds?Would you **** on him that he should have made moves so that we could have gone further.Damn right you would. Because a lot of you are whiners not winners. Listen, How the hell do any of you know that Forsberg to Nashville will deliver the cup, or any of these teams paying big bucks to these so called superstars to try and buy the Stanley Cup? Calgary,Edmonton, Tampa Bay, Florida and our Habs are a few examples of some teams in the past few years who have made it to at least the finals without spending a billion dollars to try and win the cup. The last 2 Cups for us were not won with superstars, they were won with speed, grit and sheer determination,and a hot goalie of course. So, whether we get to the playoffs or not, This is still my team, win or lose, great players and not so great players, managers,Gms,coaches,and yes, even owners, and fans included. I will love the Habs till the day I die. I GUARANTEE, that my Habs will NEVER finish last in the league, and I can also Guarantee that it wont be long before LES CANADIENS WIN THEIR 25TH. I hope I didnt offend anyone, I just wish people had more faith.

I think Sheldon Souray and Michael Ryder should not be on the trade block. They are very good players. Michael Ryder scored 2 goals in a row and Sheldon is friendly and good hockey player.