Habs Fire Carbonneau, Gainey Claims Head Coach Job for Himself

Guy Carbonneau was fired as the head coach of the Montreal Canadiens yesterday.  He was close to completing his third season in the job.  With 16 regular season, GM/executive VP Bob Gainey will coach the Habs for the rest of the year along with associate coach Doug Jarvis and assistant coaches Kirk Muller and Roland Melanson.Of the situation, Gainey said: "Not long ago, I responded to a question that was asked to me about my best decision since taking over as general manager, and that Guy was my best decision.  The decision today can be seen as a contradiction, but in the last eight weeks the performance has been below average. I believe that a change in the direction at ice level is necessary."

The Canadiens, who currently sit in second place in the Northeast Division, started 10-4-2 but are 25-20-5 since November 17, 2008; 17-16-1 since December 22, 2008; and 7-8-1 since February 2, 2009. They were 5-4-1 in Carbonneau’s last 10 games.

Last year, the Habs won the 2008 Northeast Division for the first time since 1992 when Carbonneau was the team captain (they won the Stanley Cup the next season).

This comes just weeks after the legendary Guy Lafleur (Canadiens, 1971-1985) ripped the team leaders (both Carbonneau and Gainey) for benching Alex Kovalev for a couple games: "If I were in (Kovalev’s) skates, I’d have played my last game for the Canadiens.  No player with his talent would accept being humiliated like that. … I don’t know what Gainey is trying to prove in front of everybody. If you’re paying guys $4 million, $5 million a year, give them the tools to make sure they’ll produce. You just can’t switch lines and try things every night and hope something will come out of it. I don’t think this club has a team spirit. They don’t play for each other. They’re not playing as a team and they’re not ready to sacrifice themselves to win."

Gee, Guy.  Tell us how you really feel.  Oh wait, he does.  Here’s some more of what he said – this time in regards to Carbonneau’s coaching style: "He is operating like he has four (equal) lines, they play 1-2-3-4 every night.  You just can’t do it. Even if the fourth line was the best one night — they have to play to give the others a chance to relax, but your best players, let them play 25, 28 minutes a game if they can. (Carbonneau) won’t change his style. He should have done that before Christmas, even from the beginning of the season. Give your best players the ice time they need to play well, to get their confidence back, to prove to the organization what they can do."

image: TSN