Canadiens de Montréal

[Habsfan]

Là ou je rejoins Tremblay c'est quand il affirme que le Canadien a un rôle à jouer dans l'ascension des coachs Québécois à la ligue Nationale. Je veux dire, soyons réaliste, très peu de coach 'frenchies' ont atteint les grands honneurs sans le Canadien, pour des raisons que je ne qualifiais pas, car ceci pourrait peut-être s'avérer offensant pour certains gens.

 

Si on veut regarder la parade en tant que Québécois et voir notre implication dans cette ligue être fragmentaire, so be it. Avec des affirmations du genre, la compétence n'est pas une question de langue, of course, enfin pour moi Montréal a un devoir afin de promouvoir les coachs francophones.

 

Oui, je suis d'Accord... jusqu'à un certain point. Les Perron, Burns, Tremblay, Vigneault, Therrien, Julien, Carbonneau ont tous eu leurs "chance" comme coach de la LNH avec le CH!!! Et dans le cas des 5 derniers coach, le mieux qu'ils ont pu faire c'est se rendre en deuxième ronde des séries.

 

Le dernier coach qui avait de l'expérience (Demers) a remporter la coupe. Je suis d'accord de dire que le CH a une responsabilité de faire monter des coachs francophones, mais à un certain moment, il faut penser au bien de l'équipe aussi. Il faut penser à trouver le MEILLEUR COACH DISPONIBLE(français ou anglais).

 

Je suis tanné de voir le CH poiroter dans les séries, il est temps que nous ayons un coach d'expérience qualifié. So What si il ne parle pas français?? Si nous remportons la Coupe, ça aura valu la peine...et puis si ça ne marche pas avec ce coach anglophone, et bien on pourra toujours retourner vers un coach Francophone par la suite.

 

Est ce que ce serait vraiment la fin du monde si nous avions un coach anglophone pour quelques années??? Imaginez si il remporte la coupe...plus personne ne parlera de la langue!

[jesseps]

wow OT was horrible! WTF

 

I got one of the fights on video, i'll post it later

[Ornello Mastrocola]

I agree that the habs should groom a quebecois coach from the minor leagues up to the NHL and who knows perhaps with the Habs. The way they do with players, they should do the same with a coach they see alot of potential in.

What pisses me off here is our scouting especially the Quebec scouts. I don't know who they are in particular but I beleive Trevor Timmons should get rid of them. We are loosing our home grown boys to other teams, the Gagne's, the Pommenvilles, the Burrows, the Bergerons etc etc... These kids are from our OWN backyards and our scouting pool here in Quebec do not see in their potential the way the other clubs do. We need to revamp our Amateur Scouts in Quebec. We also need to tweak our Pro scouts as well.

[ErickMontreal]

Carbo went from toast to roast

"In the long run, bouncing a coach is almost always counterproductive."

 

By JACK TODD, The GazetteMarch 16, 2009

 

Canadiens' general manager Bob Gainey announces the firing of head coach Guy Carbonneau on March 9 at the Bell Centre.

Photograph by: JOHN MAHONEY, THE GAZETTE, The Gazette

 

So much for stability.

 

The day this columnist wrote that maintaining stability within a hockey organization was more important than reacting to problems by firing the coach or general manager, Guy Carbonneau was told to walk the plank.

 

By his great and good friend Bob Gainey, no less.

 

Less than a year after he was one of the finalists for the Jack Adams Trophy as the league's best coach, Carbonneau was deemed incapable of coaching the Canadiens.

 

Less than a year after he was the toast of the town when the Canadiens finished first in the Eastern Conference, every self-anointed hockey expert in town wanted Carbonneau's head on a platter.

 

Apparently, a talented, highly intelligent young man who has spent a lifetime at the pinnacle of this game suddenly forgot everything he ever knew about hockey and there was no solution except to fire him.

 

Silly? Ridiculous? Absurd? All of the above? Without doubt. Coach-bouncing in the NHL (and most other pro sports) is a knee-jerk reaction to problems. In the long run, it's almost always counter-productive.

 

The Canadiens have now had eight coaching changes going back to the firing of Jacques Demers and every one has brought the same result: a temporary improvement, followed by yet another decline and another firing.

 

Only once, in my view, was the coach's firing justified: when Mario Tremblay was let go. Even Tremblay produced a temporary improvement in the team's play, but the downside with him was that his hot temper drove a long list of talented players out of town, beginning with Patrick Roy and Pierre Turgeon.

 

Every other fired coach has gone on to success elsewhere - except Jacques Demers, who had already had success in St. Louis and Detroit before winning a Stanley Cup here. Alain Vigneault, Michel Therrien and Claude Julien have all thrived in other settings and Vigneault and Julien are still in the hunt this year after Therrien got his Penguins to the Stanley Cup final last spring.

 

So why was Carbonneau fired? Everywhere we turn these days, we're told that he lost his job because he had "lost the room."

 

I have no idea what that really means. Guys are paid millions to play, they have millions more at stake depending on their performance and they decide to play like a bunch of industrial league hacks because they don't like the coach? I don't buy it. But every time a coach gets fired, we're told he "lost the room."

 

Even if it was true, I respectfully submit that Carbonneau did not "lose the room." Gainey took it away from him by undermining his authority with the players. When Gainey takes it upon himself to give the team's alleged offensive star a furlough in the heat of the battle for a playoff spot, he might as well take the whistle himself - which is what he did.

 

So Gainey, once again, is the coach. And after watching the Canadiens turn in a so-so performance against Edmonton before stinking out the joint against the Islanders and Martin Brodeur's New Jersey Devils, it's fair to say that his second tenure at the helm has begun with a resounding thud.

 

That should come as no surprise. You look back at all the changes since 1993 and the result has been nothing at all. Zippo. Nada. A lot of grief and a lot of change and not one solitary appearance in even the third round of the playoffs. Around here, better than Toronto is not good enough.

 

If you haven't seen it up close, it is almost impossible to imagine the complexities of coaching this team in this city. It is difficult to coach anywhere in the NHL but here, with the 24-hour-a-day pressure and the need to satisfy two distinct language groups while working in a fishbowl.

 

Yet I've had people who never coached anything more intense than a pick-up game tell me, quite seriously, that they could have coached this team better than Carbonneau. Pity they can't be parachuted behind that bench with five minutes left in a 3-2 game, 21,273 people screaming their heads off, a sulking star giving half an effort on the ice, a key defenceman injured and a playoff spot on the line.

 

Quickly, now. What do you do? Do you bench your star? How long have those guys been out there? Why is that defenceman pinching with a one-goal lead late in the game? Did your goalie just tweak a knee?

 

Let's face it: Half the people who think they could do the job would wet their pants if they had to step behind that bench for 60 seconds in the heat of a game.

 

People say Carbonneau is not a good communicator. Try communicating with a bunch of young millionaires who come from a half-dozen different countries, speak as many languages and are all endowed with industrial-strength egos, guaranteed contracts, pain-in-the-ass agents, injuries and varied psychological make-ups.

 

Once you finish with the players, you have to communicate with a rabid and constantly growing media horde in two official languages, when every word you say will end up on the web in some form.

 

And you still have to find a way for your team to stop Alexander Ovechkin or score on Martin Brodeur.

 

Given the difficulties, the more experience in this specific job, the better. Yet the Canadiens keep bouncing coaches after a couple of seasons. Do that enough and you eventually turn into the New York Islanders.

 

Especially if your GM does not give you the wherewithal to win. Let's face it: Had Andre Savard matched Gainey's list of blunders, he would have been fired by now. Savard did pretty well - but lost his job anyway.

 

And he didn't sign Sergei Samsonov, or fire Julien, or deal Mike Ribeiro for Janne Niinimaa. He didn't lose Sheldon Souray and get nothing in return. Ditto Mark Streit, now the Islanders best player.

 

And he didn't deal Cristobal Huet before Carey Price was ready, arguably costing the 2008 Canadiens their second-round series against Philadelphia.

 

Does that mean Gainey should lose his job in turn? Absolutely not. It's counter-productive. Constant change in your key positions undermines a team in every way.

 

The best way to succeed over the long haul is to hire good people and keep them in place. And if you don't want your coach to "lose the room," tell the adolescents in the room that the coach is here to stay and they'd better find a way to get along with him, not the other way round.

[Habsfan]

What a great Article! great Job Jack!

[MontréalYul]

Price, Hamrlik, Koivu, Gorges, Komisarek= POURRI CE SOIR

 

Mettez Halak comme gardien CR***!

Price POUR L'INSTANT est une vraie deception.

[Ornello Mastrocola]

Steve Yzerman as GM

Don Lever as coach... I thought of Jacques Lemaire who will most certainly get fired by the end of the season but he's too defensive minded with this so called "Trap" crap system. In any event, I beleive I heard him say that coaching in Montreal for him was out of the question. Perhaps, Stevie Y has a coach in mind tutored from the minds that has made Detroit the team that it is today.

Patrick Roy as goaltender coach

Larry Robinson as Defence coach

 

...without stability in the front office, this team is going nowhere fast. Again, detroit and New Jersey are prime examples with Ken Holland and Lou Lamourello.

[Habsfan]

Steve Yzerman as GM

Don Lever as coach... I thought of Jacques Lemaire who will most certainly get fired by the end of the season but he's too defensive minded with this so called "Trap" crap system. In any event, I beleive I heard him say that coaching in Montreal for him was out of the question. Perhaps, Stevie Y has a coach in mind tutored from the minds that has made Detroit the team that it is today.

Patrick Roy as goaltender coach

Larry Robinson as Defence coach

 

...without stability in the front office, this team is going nowhere fast. Again, detroit and New Jersey are prime examples with Ken Holland and Lou Lamourello.

 

Not a chance. Stevie Y will not be employed by anyone but the Red-wings.

 

Larry Robinson handed his resignation papers a few years ago cause he thought the pressure of being the head coach in NEW_JERSEY was too much for his nerves! Can you imagine what it would be like in the biggest pressure cooker of them all?(Montreal) Poor old Big Bird wouldn't last one week!

 

Patrick Roy will stay in Q.C. as long as one of his sons is still there. He is still learning the ropes and is in a great position with the Remparts. He is in no ruch to leave Q.C.

 

As for your last comment, I do believe you are correct. Stability in the front office is absolutely necessary to be successful!

[MontréalYul]

The Price isnt right anymore!

[Ornello Mastrocola]

Wow!!!! I can't recall in all my years of watching Montreal Canadiens hockey have I seen a team completely disorganized in their own end. Can anyone tell me what the fuck has happened to Komisarek, Hamerlik, Gorges and friends??? What the fuck has happened to this team!! Talk about Jeckyl and Hyde personnas...jesus, I see no passion, no system, no heart, no team. I think it's time to get rid of our veterans and start over. This team is imploding and the unfortunate part is that they are taking their fans with them.