It was easy to be a fan of Bob Gainey when he played because he seemed to do everything right, in a blue-collar kind of way. He wasn’t flashy like teammates Guy Lafleur or Yvan Cournoyer, but he was an all-important piece of the puzzle on the world’s greatest team in the latter part of the 1970’s.

So when Gainey was brought to Montreal to run the circus, to settle things down and get the job down in fine and patient fashion the way he had done as a player, I was pleased. Every move he made as a general manager, I believed in because I believed in this guy. I knew he wouldn’t do anything without long and serious thought, and so his decision was the right decision. I believed this.

But the team Gainey built after coming from Dallas is a mess. It was a mess last year and the year before. He tried players, they didn’t get it done, and so he tried some more. He fired coach Claude Julien and stepped in to do the job himself, he fired Guy Carbonneau and stepped in again. His coaching resume consisted of losing in round one every year, except when he took the Minnesota North Stars to the final in 1991. And as Habs GM, he never got better than making it to the second round of the playoffs in 2007-08.

As much as I’ve always believed in Gainey, there are questions. Taking on an $8 million dollar contract for Scott Gomez is one. Bringing in so many small players must be questioned. There’s no doubt the skill is there, but so many? Gionta, Cammalleri, Gomez? Every single hockey expert on the planet will tell you that a team of small guys will not go far in the NHL playoffs. It’s just too tough to win battles against the big strong behemoths who play in the league now.

Biggest of all is the goalie situation. PJ Stock brought up a great point last night on Hockey Night in Canada when he said the Canadiens dropped the ball with Carey Price. They should have had him living with a mature veteran and family, seeing how a guy who’s been around the league for a long time lives his life in the fishbowl. Sidney Crosby still lives at Mario Lemieux’s house. John Tavares lives with Doug Weight and family. Instead, like Stock said, they bring in a young guy from the west, give him a million bucks, tell him to take an apartment in downtown Montreal, and let him fend for himself in a classic party city. In Montreal, restaurants and clubs practically kill to have Habs players in their joints where boose flows and gorgeous women looking for rich, famous, handsome young studs, are everywhere. And Price soaked it all in.

Yes, Gainey and the organization did drop the ball with Price.

I was happy when Gainey overhauled the club this year. They needed to be blown up after bowing out in four dismal games to the Bruins in last year’s opening round of the playoffs. I’m just not happy witht the size factor. And whether or not Gainey made the right moves or not, he couldn’t control the abnormal amount of injuries the club has suffered through so far. It’s just plain bad luck for the organization when you replace most of the team in the off-season, and then the majority of the new players take their turns in hospital beds.   

Can Pierre Gauthier, Gainey’s replacement, make a difference? Maybe if there are no more injuries, and maybe if he can convince Carey Price that the youngster is the future, but for now, Jaroslav Halak will play on most nights. If Gauthier can convince Price without ruining him, he’ll have done a big job.

The task at hand is simple for Gauthier. Tweak the team until you like what you see. Keep both goalies. Make the team a little bigger up front, (Dustin Penner?), decide whether you think Jacques Martin is the guy to run the bench, put the C on someone’s jersey.

For Bob Gainey, maybe he’ll bow out of hockey altogether and spend quality years with family and friends back in Peterborough. With the sadness he’s experienced, losing his wife and daughter, he needs to remove himself from a league that eats its young. He seems like the kind of guy who would enjoy sitting by a stream with a fishing rod, or diving into a good book.

All the best to Bob Gainey, a man I’ve always respected.

Because Danno and Derry took the time to read the latest post and comment while Super Bowl was on, I have decided to make them official assistant coaches of the Montreal Canadiens when I own the team.

I did my part, so don’t blame me. I put on my Rocket t-shirt. I brought out the three Habs rocks. And I of course went to look for some cold tablets in the kitchen.

But even I can’t help the Canadiens if they don’t help themselves. A 3-0 loss to the Boston Bruins, with a little help from Ryan White and Josh Gorges’ sticks.

There’s a couple of rules you learn in minor hockey. Don’t swear at your coach, don’t pass across the ice in your own end, and don’t stick your stick out when a shot is coming in on your goalie.

Full marks to the Bruins, though. They played a strong checking game today. And the goalie, Tuukka Rask, was so good it makes you wonder how this team had just endured a ten-game losing streak.

The Canadiens only showed flashes of danger. Tomas Plekanec and Brian Gionta both had chances to bury it but Rask was in a zone and handled things.  The Bulldog line were kerfuffled by the Bruins’ blanket, and the only thing this line could produce on this afternoon was a nice deflection by Ryan White into his own net.

What a difference 24 hours make. The Habs were full of piss and vinegar against Pittsburgh, and listless today. It wasn’t their worst performance of the year, not by a long shot. They just couldn’t handle the Bruins.

You can’t blame me, I did all I could. I think we should blame their wives.

Random Notes:

Capitals and Ovechkin in Montreal on Wednesday.

Habs take it to the Penguins, 5-3.

It was a refreshing change to see the Canadiens win a game without needing Jaroslav Halak to win it for them. And although Halak played well once again, it was a trio of young Hamilton Bulldogs and a 33 year-old journeyman bus rider who set the tone, who combined to create chances and cause penalties and havoc all afternoon at the not-so-old Bell Centre.

David Desharnais, Ryan White, and Brock Trotter playing his very first NHL game played like they belong. They began as a nervous fourth-line, and in the end they were on the power play, killed penalties, played regular minutes, and were dangerous sparkplugs all day.

What a story. And not only was it Trotter’s first game, but he was also voted third star of the game and in his interview after, wore a proud smile on his face as he told Cassie Campbell-Pascal it was “nerve wracking, especially in front of so many fans. Ir was really something to play in front of that many people.”

If you’re a Habs fan, it warms the cockles of your heart. And yes I’m jealous. Really jealous. He gets to do that and I can’t even be stickboy.

Brian Gionta scored a couple, as did Scott Gomez, but the guy who got the winner and the guy who was first star is the mature and hardworking Mathieu Darche. This is a 33 year old blue collar worker who is putting a fairy tale cap on, until now, a very ordinary pro career. He began his story at McGill, then to Syracuse, then Columbus, back to Syracuse, then Columbus again, Milwaukee, Nashville, Hershey, Duisburg, Worcester, Tampa Bay, Norfolk, Portland, Hamilton, and now is blossoming into a player who just may have a solid NHL career after all.

Whew. It’s the stuff dreams are made of.

Random Notes:

A huge game for the Habs, a momentum builder, a confidence builder, a magical night for some Bulldogs and an aging minor league vet. Plus, a big day for Tomas Plekanec (1 goal, 2 assists), Scott Gomez (1 goal, 1 assist) and Brian Gionta, (2 goals, 1 assist).

In fact, the whole team was in a zone today, it seemed. They made us happy and they give us hope

Another matinee tomorrow when Boston comes to town. The Bruins blew a two goal lead to Vancouver today and lost 3-2 in a shootout. The way way the Bruins respond from this in tomorrow’s game is anybody’s guess.

Below, Mathieu Darche’s amazing journey from there to here.

When you look at the Pittsburgh-Montreal comparisons, you see similarities even though the Penguins sit in 4th place in the east with 71 points while Montreal has just scraped into 6th with a measly 60 points. In fact, looking at the numbers below you see that’s it’s Sid the Kid who makes the real difference, as we saw last Monday when Crosby took care of the Buffalo Sabres almost single-handedly.

The bummer for Habs fans is, you also see Mike Cammalleri, now on the shelf for six weeks or so, with the big numbers, and the only points he’ll be making for the next little while might be with a couple of nurses

But what it also means is the league has parity in many ways, that the top teams aren’t up in the clouds, eight miles high, while the lower teams sit in purgatory half-way to China. It just isn’t the case. Except for the Leafs.

And regardless of Pittsburgh sitting above, it shows that they can be had. So Habs, make it three straight. Ground those flightless birds. And grinders, stop the Kid and help pick up the slack for Cammalleri. Is that asking too much?

I’d heard about Ryan O’Byrne’s mother Lorelei passing away but I wanted to wait before I said something. I wanted the hockey game and the circus that goes with it long over because something like this doesn’t need to take second fiddle to anything. This is life and moms we’re talking about.

Ryan O’Byrne is 25 years old and has just lost his mother to the evil clutches of cancer. I was 27 when my own mom left because of the same disease, and I can only imagine what Ryan is going through. It’s not just young kids that hurt and cry and miss when they lose their mom. It’s any age. Because moms are moms, the greatest role of mankind.

Ryan’s mom will never see her grandkids grow. She’ll never see how Ryan carries on as a fine man, father and husband. She won’t see anymore the one she gave birth to, who she fed and changed and watched grow from a little boy into a big strapping man, but who remained to her still her little boy. She’ll never again swell with pride to see her son play hockey on the big stage.

When I lost my mom, my family fell apart. We went our separate ways. My father, now 89, was buried in grief and has never recovered. It was my mom who made things work, who helped us with our problems with friends and homework and all the drama in our young lives. She did without so we could have nice clothes like other kids, who listened to my rock and roll records with me even though she probably preferred to be somewhere else, and who made sure we had good Christmas’ even though there was no money.  She wore old clothes and spent her life in her kitchen cooking for us. She helped me write my letters to the Montreal Canadiens, she came to my games, and in my world, she was the best mother on the planet. My mom gave up everything to be a mom. It’s what most moms do.

And I remember the joy on her face when she won a clothes dryer in a poetry contest. Her life just got a little bit easier that day.

Ryan O’Byrne, at 25, is still a young fellow and is grieving. He’ll remember things from before, the big and small from his days at home, like I do. And he’ll remember those times with her for the rest of his life.

I miss my mom and have for many years, and my heart goes out to Ryan and his family.

It was like a rerun of Tuesday’s Canucks game. Jaroslav Halak stopped 45 shots, including a slew of beauties, and the Habs skate away with an anxious 3-2 shootout win in Boston. It’s a beautiful thing, regardless of the wide margin in shots, 47-25, because  the Habs rebounded from a 2-0 hole and stole two big, honkin’ points.

It’s the kind of thing that drives Bruins fans to drink.

Glen Metropolit lit the fuse by kicking things off on the power play with less than three minutes to go in the second period, and Roman Hamrlik tied it 39 seconds later. And all this happened after I’d begun to get antsy and started looking for some head cold pills in the kitchen.

So from now on, when the team needs a goal or two, I’m going to look for some head cold pills. It could be what we’ve been missing all along.

Brian Gionta scored in the shootout after Tomas Plekanec and Scott Gomez failed to connect. Like the first two batters striking out in the ninth and the third guy hits one over the fence.

With Halak, I hope he’s in good shape because he’ll be getting the lion’s share of the work from here on in. Halak has been outstanding, solid as a rock, and he gives his team, as he did tonight and against Vancouver, a chance to win with his heroics. I’m sure the boys have whipped up a healthy appetite tonight in Boston, so when they go out, they’d better spring for a big steak and a couple of cool Samuel Adams for their goalie.

Hell, they should carry his bags.

Random Notes:

Whats’ become more annoying than fingernails on a blackboard or listening to Mike Milbury? It’s Benoit Brunet’s constant muttering of “ei yi yi.”  We heard “ei yi yi” about 25 times tonight. Or was it 2500 times?

Sergei Kostitsyn, on the strength of his good game against the Canucks, got to see what the penthouse looked like, playing with Plekanec and Benoit Pouliot. And especially early on, Sergei had good chances.

Pittsburgh’s in Montreal on Saturday for a matinee game. I think it’s a 3:00 PM eastern start, but you’d better check anyway. I don’t want to be responsible for you turning the thing on and the first period’s over.

Atlanta has traded Ilya Kovalchuk to the Devils for a package that includes suspended Rouyn-Noranda forward Patrice Cormier, who is now in the bad books of just about everybody in the free world for his lethal use of an elbow.

Kovalchuk had turned down an Atlanta offer of over $100 million over 12 years even though he said he wanted to remain a Thrasher. Hey, with the way things are nowadays, with the price of groceries and everything, $100 million isn’t what it used to be. So I understand completely.

The following are excerpts from an article in Tuesday’s Vancouver Province, written by sports writer Gordon McIntyre. Big words from a guy whose favourite team hasn’t won a thing in 40 years of existence.

It’s titled “What Happened To Proud CH?” And subtitled “Habs are on downward slide, so will Canucks play down there too?”

“Maybe Roch Carrier is at this moment penning a new sequel to The Hockey Sweater, a new book about a crest-fallen Quebec boy whose mom accidentally orders a Canadiens jersey from craigslist instead of the Senators sweater he dreamed of.

The original title of Carrier’s classic novella translates as “An abominable Maple Leaf on the ice,” and at the rate his beloved Habs are going that famous ‘CH’ is getting awfully close to abominability territory too.”

“Scott Gomez, who scrapes by on $8 million US a season, has seven goals. Brian Gionta, who makes $5 million, fares a bit better with 14 goals, but Bob Gainey’s master scheme to acquire players who he thought could sneak between opposing defencemen’s legs isn’t panning out.”

“There’s a goaltending controversy, floaters are floating, the defence, outside of Andrei Markov, is a patchwork of No. 5 and No. 6 guys.”

“The one thing going for the Canadiens tonight is the Canucks manage to play down to the league’s lesser lights.”

I don’t know whether we just happened to be at the Canadian National Exhibition in Toronto when the Hockey Hall of Fame opened its doors in 1961, or whether my father took my older sister and I to the Hall for that very purpose. Regardless, we were there, I was ten, and I had my pen.

I got a bunch of autographs that day, including the three you see here – Clarence Campbell, Conn Smythe and Foster Hewitt. And what I remember most was that Foster was so busy talking to someone he kept my pen and I was too shy to ask him for it. So my sister had to do it for me.

Kind of reminds me of when I got stuck up in a tree and my sister had to help me down before someone called the fire department.

(Please note: The Hockey Hall of Fame moved in 1993 to its present location at Yonge and Front St. in downtown Toronto)