Does no one else see the similarities here?

About half the city is revelling in a mix of told-you-so joy and impending doom after receiving absolutely no assurance Friday from Andrei Markov regarding his recovery from knee surgery.

For the people who spent the summer condemning Pierre Gauthier's decision to pay Markov $5.75 million for the next three years, this was like Christmas. They are now right, clearly.

At the same time, those who defended the contract and expressed some degree of loyalty and belief in Markov are most likely feeling just a little bit queasy, and aren't quite as vehement in their disputes with those espousing the opposing viewpoint.

Is this not a familiar scenario to anyone?

If you wind the clock back a mere 12 months, you'll see the city was plunged in almost the exact same divisive situation involving a certain Carey Price.

There was a summer of heated debate, with two equally passionate groups that seemingly split the city in half. The group that was mortified that Jaroslav Halak was not only traded away, but was traded for a Danish hockey player for crying out loud, loved reliving all of Price's failures every single day of the summer.

The Price supporters – some called them apologists – tried to focus on more of a long-term view that he was still young and had a lot of career ahead of him.

And after the months of endless debate came that first pre-season start, where Price's performance created a perfect storm for the Halak camp, and had the Price camp second-guessing what they spent all summer defending.

But we all know now how that debate ended.

I'm not saying the Markov debate will end the same way, with all the haters quickly shifting their allegiance to the point they deny ever being in the other camp.

It is entirely possible the people saying I told you so Friday after Markov could say nothing more than he hopes to be ready for opening night were right all along, that his knee is forever damaged and he will never be the same player and that Gauthier acted recklessly handing him a three-year pact at that lofty amount.

But the point I am trying to make is that the debate was far from settled Friday, just like it wasn't settled last September when Price was booed off the ice by his own fans.

Markov will suit up in a Canadiens uniform this season. It may happen in October, or it may not happen until Christmas, but it will happen. When it does, and Markov can prove that he can stay healthy, that is when the merits of his contract can be judged. Not a second before.

Because to judge Markov simply because he may not be ready to play only 10 months after undergoing a second reconstructive surgery on the same knee, a surgery that can require a convalescence of up to a year, simply isn't fair.

And as very recent history suggests, it's not all that smart either.