One year ago today, the Montreal Canadiens were in disarray. They had just fired their head coach Guy Carbonneau. They were heading south in the standings going weeks between wins. As the season concluded, the club made the playoffs on the strength of an overtime loss and three regulation losses in their last four games. Obviously, they backed in.
The Habs were the second worst team in the entire National Hockey League after the All Star break last year - an All Star game in Montreal with the Habs well represented and Carbonneau as one of the assistant coaches. However, from the day of that All Star game it was an astounding trip downhill.
When last season concluded, the future for the Habs looked very grim. Ten unrestricted free agents were awaiting contract offers and a chance to choose to stay in Montreal or look for another home. Bob Gainey, the GM, had other ideas. These ideas were so bold it has been completely lost, I believe, on most people in hockey that Gainey may have made the gutsiest moves in the NHL in three decades.
Historic
The only move that I can recall that rivals Gainey's decision to clean house so entirely that ten UFAs were sent on their way is when Sam Pollock traded Ralph Backstrom to Los Angeles, because he owned the top pick of Oakland and wanted to be sure that L.A. improved enough to pass Oakland in the standings. The move paid dividends as Pollock got the first pick overall and drafted some kid named Guy Lafleur.
That was the stuff of genius, and I am under the impression that Gainey's moves in the off season were just as spectacular.
Addition by subtraction
Look at the ten players that were let go. Not even a single one of them is having much of a season. Koivu is aging by the month. Kovalev is inspired once a month. Tanguay is on one of the highest scoring, most prolific teams in the league in Tampa, playing with great scorers, yet he somehow is managing to not score much. Lang had a good start in Phoenix but has tailed off. Higgins might just be out of the league in a couple seasons he is struggling so remarkably. Komisarek misses Markov.
The others aren't even in the league anymore, or you can't even remember their names. Can you imagine how bad the Habs would be this year with all of those players back in the fold here had Gainey gone with the status quo? I shudder to think.
United locker room
Gainey looked around the room after he was a head coach last year and decided he didn't like what he saw. He knew he had to change the chemistry of the room. He did in a most complete way.
Instead of two solitudes, hockey style, Koivu vs. Kovalev, we have one solitude with everyone pulling the rope in the same direction. The player's roles are well defined. The scorers are scoring. The checkers are checking.
That credit goes in large part to a professional coach Jacques Martin. I don't have to tell you who hired him do I?
One mistake
With the Habs riding a five game winning streak, it's time to give credit to the former GM who rebuilt a franchise last summer. I think Gainey made only one mistake, and it has nothing to do with the talent of the player. Scott Gomez is playing very good hockey, but he makes a lot of money at over $7 million a season.
You have to get 90 points from that kind of monied player and it does hamstring the salary cap ceiling if the $7 million dollar man can't produce like it. That's the only decision I am willing to give Gainey any flak over. The rest? Look at where the Habs are and where the Habs could be without a brilliant Gainey.
One year ago vs. today looks like this for the Habs: Second worst team in the league after the all-star break vs. a club on a 5 game winning streak. Dressing room divided vs. dressing room pulling in the same direction. Head coach fired vs. professional head coach. Old aging veterans on the downside of their careers vs. players with some upside still and some skillful years left.
Night and day isn't it?
Gainey has pulled off a transformation in every way in this franchise.
I could go on as well and mention that the Pouliot vs. Latendresse trade is going to go in Montreal's direction in a big way as the years pass. Another Gainey move.
Bob Gainey maybe had his best 12 months as a GM in his last 12 months. I'm confident history will record this to be true as the players he let go continue to regress while the free agents he signed and the traded players he acquired will move forward shining more brightly with the passage of time.
