Gainey & Rationality

I'm struck by irrationality of fellow Habs fans. I would ask everyone to think about things more rationally. Some points to consider:

1) What was state of team when Gainey took over, as compared to now? Run through forward, defence and goalie corps, from 1-12, 1-6, 1-2.

2) Gainey took over May 2003. Given lockout in 2004-2005, this is his 6th, not 7th season in charge.

3) When he took over, Montreal was toxic: no-one, NO-ONE, wanted to come here. Bad team, vicious atmosphere in all senses (media, public, internal, etc.). Terrible preceding draft record.

4) Gainey's goal was to restore rationality. We have had decent to good draft record under Gainey, actually, if you check any independent evaluation site or source. Could we have done better? Sure. But remember where Gainey had to start from to put things together.

5) Trades. He's made some good ones and some bad ones. Kovalev was a steal. Pouliot can be a superstar, whereas Latendresse can be a star. But we don't know all the reasons behind some deals (ex: rumours re. Huet). And others, like Ribeiro, are taken out of context. We all know Ribeiro could never have properly developed in Montreal, given context. He was also blocking the ascension of Plekanec. Gainey chose Plekanec over Ribeiro - wouldn't you? And given Ribeiro's reputation at time, were better deals available? Maybe. But he wasn't all that popular among GMs at time, eh?

6) Within four years, put together team that won conference in regular season, and should have beaten Flyers to go to conference final.

7) Managed culture as best as possible. Koivu was a legacy, and Kovalev a cost-benefit calculation - occasional performance vs. negative culture effect. But no other comparable player would come to Montreal. When last season became aware that internal culture problem was toxic, did what he could - replaced coach, saw inside, and traded away toxicity. Leveraged his status to best effect. Six years ago, Cammalleri, Gionta, Gill, Spacek, etc., would not have come to Montreal.

Gainey dealt with French & English media & public appropriately, from GM point of view, again leveraging status.

Conclusion: Gainey took over sinking ship headed in wrong direction. He first bailed out water and patched up leaks. Then he got better crew, bit by bit. And he was able to progressively improve ship and turn it around in better direction.

But turning around an institution as messed up as Canadiens were in 2003 is not a simple affair, esp. with 29 competitors, and insane local context.

Today, we have Gomez, Gionta, Cammalleri, Plekanec, Pouliot, Andrei K., & Sergei K. as top 7 forwards. Lapierre, Moen, Bergeron & Metropolit as useful role players. Promising kids to round out.

We have a superstar defenceman in Markov, very good 2 & 3 in Hamrlik & Spacek, excellent 4-7 in Gorges, Gill, O'Byrne & Mara.

Two very good goalies, one, Price, who may become superstar.

Compare that with situation in May 2003. And Subban, Weber & Carle on farm, Kristo, etc.

Be rational. Gainey did a great job fixing & turning around ship. He couldn't get all the way to desired destination. But he built, bit by bit, hopscotching when necessary (last summer), to make Canadiens into as good, normal, rational a team as possible, given irrationality of context.

What do we lack? That dominant superstar up front. We have superstar defenceman, and Price future superstar goalie. But every winning team has their Getzlaf, Crosby, Datsyuk, Lecavalier, etc.. And obviously, they are very hard to acquire. Have to finish at bottom to draft them, or overpay them as free agents, and not be able to afford supporting cast, or steal one through trade. But other 29 GMs know this and are unwilling to trade.

Canadiens are a good team. Of 30 teams out there, there are what, four genuinely bad teams, four genuinely excellent teams, and 22 other good teams, right? To go to next level, got to get that superstar - Pouliot may develop into it. That could end up being Bob's greatest legacy.

So when talking about this, please be rational and put things in their context.

All that really angers me is petty viciousness of locals, especially Réjean Tremblay with his ultra-tribal agenda. Disgusting. Expect a lot of crocodile tears and barely suppressed glee from the usual suspects.

Check out this link to 2003-2004 stats:
http://ourhistory.canadiens.com/stats/search?position=S&search=players&season=2003-2004&season_type=2&stats_type=season