A lifting word to all my fellow Habs' fans - it could be worse.
I remember, much like many of you surely do, the blind delusion that I had at the beginning of the season as I sat watching a pre-season bout against the Redwings and thinking to myself that a Cup win was not only to be expected from 'Nos Glorieux' this Centennial year, but that it was also destined to be. More importantly however is the fact that I believed this because I had valid reasons to. Our Habs had finished 1st over-all in the East the year before. A feat that had taken close to 15 years to re-accomplish. Our now long lost coach, Carbo, had been named for the Coach of the Year Award. We had the number one power play in the league. Kovalev seemed to have regained a confidence and drive to play that could only have been seen scarcely the year before if one was to watch his play through a microscopic lens, in slow-motion. Price, our net minding Prince, although somewhat shaky in the second round against Philly, also appeared to be an undeniable choice for the number 1 spot in the season to come. Youngsters like the K-titty brothers, Tabar-Halak, Lapierre and Latendresse also appeared to be becoming more and more confident with every game they played. We were contenders, or so we thought.
The season started beautifully. I mean, we were actually living up to the insurmountable hype that had been created around our club. We played great the first half of the season and we even battled through a mid-season injury stricken period where key character players came up big. Big enough to not only support but elevate our play. Consequently, this threw some big and somewhat unexpected W's our way. And then it happened...the All-Star game. Kovalev named as MVP! Now, this was evidently going to continue to spark the Habs to perform well and subsequently to not only ensure a play-off spot but maybe even secure home ice advantage, right? Wrong. In Achilles like fashion, the Lefty Lang gets injured in a brutal battle against Boston and the team falls apart at its newly sown seams of limited edition Barber Shop Circus throw-back jerseys and embark on the worst record of any Eastern team after the All-Star break. Rough.
Then, Price...well what can be said? The kid is young. Maybe too much pressure, maybe not enough support from his teammates, maybe sick, or maybe just plain terrible. At one point in February it looked as if you had a better chance getting one pass Price than having it stopped. I saw pucks trickle into his net while he was on his lackadaisical goal tending duties that my old man would have been ashamed of letting go by him, and he's 56 years old and hasn't played hockey in over 5 years. Isn't that right, Jean? At one point our appointed net minding Prince was averaging at least 4 goals every time he started. Now, how in the world do you expect to get some wins when your guaranteed to have the opposition put 4 pass your sophomore softy? You don't. You struggle and look unorganized and foolish in front of your ever adoring and increasingly frustrated fans. Which is precisely what our boys did.
So, the solution : Fire Carbo. Wait a minute, fire Carbo? Isn't this the same man who took our team to the number one spot in the East the year before? Upon hearing about Gainey's decision I was as surprised as Lapierre must have been in January when he got his 1st NHL career hat-trick. I mean, this was unexpected. Really unexpected. Nevertheless, if one observed any of the stupefying trends of the NHL in this 2008-2009 season - firing your head coach seemed to be the 'in' thing to do. Even though Carbo's tension with the aging All-Stars Kovalev and Koivu was no secret around the city, the question remains as to whether this was substantial ground for Gainey to give Carbs the old 'beat it' pat on the shoulder while holding the doors to the Bell Centre wide open for his premature exit.
Yes, we were struggling when Carbo got the boot. However, was it entirely his fault? No. Rather, the players themselves are the ones to blame. After the All-Star break, in which Carbs was Julien's assistant coach, the team simply seemed to lose the complimentary cohesion that had made them successful in the first half of the season. Players looked scattered on the ice. We couldn't seem to generate any sort of attack in the offensive zone even if our own A.K had been packing an AK-47 when selfishly dangling across the blue line. We didn't get any sort of fluid play through the neutral zone and forget about getting the puck out of our resort. Opposing teams were allowed to set up their beach towels and do whatever they wanted while roaming around the Habs Hotel. We were out shot every game. Every game. We weren't playing hockey; we were letting the other teams do that instead. As a result, someone had to take the blame for the horrendous play and effort that was being put forth night in and night out. The whole team couldn't get fired. So, Carbo fell victim to Gainey's panic slash. Out he went and in came big number 23.
Under Gainey so far we are a mediocre 5-3-3 and still battling for that eighth and final playoff spot. If we don't win or at least pick up one point in each of our last 5 games, make the call and start setting the tee times. Our boys will be hitting the links come late April. Don't get me wrong, it's not that I don't think that Gainey is a good coach. He's made the right move by putting Koivu, Kovalev and Tanguay together on the first line. These guys have been on fire as of late. Nonetheless, I just didn't and still don't agree with his decision to have fired Carbo. He should have let him finish the season at least. If he fails to squeeze us into the post-season then you let him go. You don't can your coach with only 16 games to go, you just don't. Even if Gainey finds a way to guide us into the beard growing portion of this season, I'll still refuse to view Carbo's firing as a positive move. Carbs had been the soul of this franchise for the past two years.
So, here we are. On the brink of a disappointing or very disappointing season. Either we get into the playoffs or we don't. If we do we're likely to meet the Boston Bullies in the first round and this team is for real. Yes, there still lingers the improbable chance that we'll have ourselves a repeat of the infamous first round upset of 2004 but don't count on it. We just don't seem to possess the character for such a remarkable feat. In a season where a good amount of our key guys are playing in the last year of their contracts; one question remains : Isn't time to ship a few out in order to clear some cap space so that we can finally make a legitimate move to get Lecavalier? I hope so, Vinny, I hope so.
Go, Habs, Go!
Let's go les boys. C'est l'temps de rentrer dans les series.
-YB?
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