Blogging About The Montreal Canadiens and Canadiens Hockey

Now THAT is a shakeup. Head coach of the Montreal Canadiens, Guy Carbonneau, as been fired by the Montreal Canadiens and will be replaced by GM Bob Gainey until a suitable replacement has been found. The announcement just came out on RDS.ca.

This shouldn’t be a shocker to anyone, I mean, Carbonneau seemed to have a tough time making the difficult decisions that this team needed. Gainey making the decision to bench Kovalev for two games is just one example of this.

Obviously the Gainey and the organization didn’t feel like Carbonneau was helping this team, and it makes perfect sense.

Who would I like to see? This may come as a surprise to some of you, but I believe that Pat Quinn is still more than capable of leading a professional hockey team to the post-season.

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With all of the injuries occurring this year, and the crazy speculation from the media and fans alike. It seems that the Canadiens’ organization is going to be a little more forthcoming about long term injuries beginning with Georges Laraque’s apparent “groin” injury. It turns out that it’s actually a back injury which has sidelined the 250 lbs left-winger, and that his groin has been fine since training camp.

Get used to this new, open-door policy, Canadiens coach Guy Carbonneau explained, at least when it comes to long-term injuries. No sense hiding the truth, he continued. Certainly not in a hockey-crazed city such as Montreal, where no news isn’t necessarily good news, and only leads to countless stories being concocted.

Georges Laraque’s take on his injury status:

“To be criticized … when I’m hurt is stupid. You can’t control your body,” he continued. “I’ve been fighting for 11 years and playing a physical style. Injuries are part of the game. It’s nothing I can change.”

The main reason that the Canadiens didn’t discuss specific injuries and will continue not to discuss short-term injuries is because it gives opposing players an idea of their opponents weaknesses, which is understandable. It’s like the old saying, “Hit a man while he’s down”.

With long-term injuries, however, the player has the opportunity to recover completely before returning to the ice which doesn’t give the opposition that same advantage.

The policy of non-discussion makes complete sense, but it’s nice to know what long-term plagues are keeping key players out of games. Read the full story here.

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Carbonneau Happy With Team So Far

Pat Hickey, Canwest News Service

If you ask coach Guy Carbonneau, he will tell you that the Montreal Canadiens have met expectations.

“We’re where we want to be,” insists the Canadiens head coach, who will take a few days off to celebrate the Christmas season with an 18-9-6 record.

Read the rest here.

Carbonneau is happy with the team, are you?

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This was definitely one of the most exciting series I have watched in a while, and I’m surprised I don’t have heart problems after watching the Habs lose two games in a row in game 5 and 6 with Price letting in 5 goals in each game. Many people believed that we had this series won even before it started, and many more believed that we were going to sweep Boston in four. If only.

This series went all the way to game 7 with many people unsure of what the result would be. Out of the many things that were unsure, one thing was more sure then anything else. The Montreal Canadiens had one of the biggest fan bases of believers standing behind them, urging them to out perform Boston, and scrutinizing them at every turn. This wasn’t necessarily a bad thing, because it allowed the Habs to push the envelope and come back from two straight losses to take game 7 with a 5-0 victory.

Game 1 was what everyone expected to see. Utter domination by the Habs, with the first two goals scored in the first 2:01 of the game. No one expected that the next 5 games would be so much more difficult. In game 2 the Habs came out with a nail-biter in OT with a wicked slapshot from Alex Kovalev that beat Thomas. This of course was to make up for the penalty he took that gave the Bruins a 5-3 PP in which the tied up the game.

Game three took the Habs to Boston where they couldn’t quite find a cure for the Bruins’ heavy hitting play, and lost that game 2-1 in OT where Savard buried one on a delayed Penalty against the Habs. Game 4 in Boston had a different result giving Price his first shutout of playoffs in a 1-0 victory, and a 3-1 lead in the series heading back to Montreal.

Game 5 at home was where things began looking bleak. Boston seems to be rejeuvenated and came out swinging with a 5-1 victory over the Canadiens. Game 6 lead to similiar result with a 5-4 victory to tie up the playoff series at 3-3. Game 6 was also the return of Saku Koivu and Francis Buillon, both being out for weeks with foot injuries.

Game 7 was the return to Montreal and would be considered a must win for both teams if they wanted to move on to the next round. The Canadiens were on thin ice with their fans, and the Montreal media after the poor play in the last few games, but not that night. The Canadiens took the final game of the series with a 5-0 victory with Price snapping a two game losing streak, giving him his second shutout of the playoffs.

The Habs might have won the final game, but Guy Carbonneau’s lucky tie was also present, as it went 3-0. Carbonneau is also planning to auction off the lucky tie at the end of the season for charity. In my opinion, I think he just wants to get rid of it.

The Habs will now move on and either play the Flyers or the Rangers depending on the game tonight when Washington plays Philadelphia.

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For Game 7, Guy Carbonneau will be wearing his lucky tie, which thus far has gone 2-0, including a win in the first game of this series. Here is the full article taken from TSN.ca.

MONTREAL – Guy Carbonneau plans to wear his lucky tie behind the Montreal Canadiens bench for Game 7 of their playoff series against the Boston Bruins.

Carbonneau has a 2-0 record when wearing the multi-coloured Hermes tie, which was a birthday gift from his wife. He wore it when Montreal clinched a playoff spot late in the regular season against Ottawa and again for Game 1 against Boston.

The Canadiens took a 3-1 lead in the Eastern Conference quarter-final series, but saw Boston battle back to force Game 7 on Monday night at the Bell Centre (CBC, 7 p.m. ET).

It has been a wild first NHL playoff series as a coach for Carbonneau.

“It’s fun, it’s exciting, it’s different,” said the former Canadiens captain. “Whatever happens, I’m going to learn from it and be better.”

No lineup changes are expected for the do-or-die game – the seventh Game 7 all-time between the two Original Six clubs. Montreal holds a 4-2 edge.

“I think everyone’s going to be nervous, whether you’re a veteran or a young player,” said Montreal defenceman Andrei Markov.

Markov was asked is he was playing with an injury and he said “no,” and smiled.

“You have two teams playing for their lives,” said Boston coach Claude Julien. “There’s not much to speculate about – just sit back in your seat and watch the game.”

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So here we are, game 4 of the Stanley Cup Playoff Quarter Finals, most people believed that we would be going in with a 3-0 series lead, and this would end it for the Boston, but that just isn’t the case. I predicted Montreal in 5, so this comes as no surprise, but just like everyone else, it saddened me to see them lose like they did. Without any heart.

The last couple of games reminded me of last season, with our top players underperforming, leaving our third and fourth line guys to pick of the slack, but unfortunately, that just isn’t their job. We’re in Boston for our second game in a row, and the Habs look to rebound from a loss that easily could have been avoided. The Canadiens didn’t practice yesterday, instead they had a team meeting with coach Guy Carbonneau which I’m assuming was regarding their play. One thing about your habs is that they’re never down and out, they’ll have some bad games, then go on a stretch of solid performances.

Injuries

Koivu still isn’t capable of playing, but Bouillon had a full skate and is feeling much better, but will still be a game time decision. Patrice Bergeron for the Bruins will not be in game 4, as he still hasn’t been cleared to play by his neurologist.

Changes

Montreal is making some changes in the lineup, Michael Ryder will be out, putting Mark Streit one offense. Which means none other than Ryan O’Byrne will be in the lineup tonight. Stewart did practice with the team, but Carbonneau decided not to use him in tonights game.

Playoff Series: Montreal Leads 2-1

Team logos graciously provided by NHL Tournament of Logos.

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As some of you may already know, Guy Carbonneau was invited to a teleconference for North American and International media, talking about the Habs and their success this season. Here the transcript of that interview (Original from Habs Inside/Out).

This is really quite an interesting, but long, interview with Guy getting into some real detail with things such as the key to Habs success, and even his thoughts on the Patrick Roy situation.

THE MODERATOR: Good afternoon, everyone, I’m David Keon of the National Hockey League’s public relations department. Welcome to our call. With us we have Montreal Canadiens head coach, Guy Carbonneau. Thank you to Guy for taking the time to answer your questions.

In his second season as head coach, Guy has guided the Canadiens to the top record in the Eastern Conference with 96 points. With Monday’s 7?5 victory over the Ottawa Senators, Montreal has clinched a Stanley Cup record playoff berth for a record 76 times. He was coaching assistant with the Canadiens in November of 2000.

He served as an assistant manager in Dallas from January 2003 until January 2006 when he returned to Montreal as an associate coach. He spent the first 12 of his 18-year NHL playing career with the Canadiens, capturing two Stanley Cups and three Frank Selke trophies as the National Hockey League’s top defensive forward.

We thank Guy for taking the time today to answer your questions.

Q. Two quick questions: I was wondering if there was any particular game or trip during the season that you really think was essential for the team’s growth where you thought, maybe, this was more than just a playoff team, that they could win the conference?

(more…)

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