Pierre Gauthier's remarks are so infrequent that when he makes them they have more effect.
Intriguingly no one picked up on the most interesting remark he has made this year.
Of the 39 games the Montreal Canadiens played at the time he made his remarks that only in 4 of them were they above the salary cap floor.
You'd think this would have set the blog-o-sphere, press etc a-flame. That the internet meme would be that the Habs have had a GREAT season fielding essentially a team decimated by injuries. You'd think we would be reading how it's impossible to make any reasonable determinations about the team based on the injuries. That this year is a wash because of those injuries.
You'd think.
I found maybe three references to this on the net.
Instead we have the regular asinine clap-trap about how the team sucks with no context. From Mr. Boone whom, I respect I had to read this nonesense.
It’s becoming painfully clear, with each dispiriting loss, that if Gauthier is still employed by the Canadiens at the end of February, he’s going to be dealing players to a contender.
No Mr. Boone he doesn't or shouldn't. That would be tantamount to saying that next year HE WANTS TO FIELD A LOTTERY PICK TEAM. I expect more from journalists -- well I don't but that's just me.
If you've read my blog in the past you know that I am really frustrated with the attitude of the Montreal press in particular, the Montreal blog-o-sphere somewhat and most Montreal fans in general.
The team sucks because the team has been playing inexperienced players on defense. The fact that the team is competing for a lottery pick has nothing to do with Mr. Gauthier or Mr. Martin or the lack of a French speaking coach. The reason they are playing like a lottery pick team is that for 35 of 39 games they were a lottery pick team.
We can certainly argue that a team can be badly mismanaged in their salaries, but the Montreal Canadiens are not that team. Sure they have bad contracts, but not epically bad contracts. The problem the team has is that too many of those contracts are injured.
If the players come back from injury and avoid further injury then the team will win a boat-load more games.
And when they do win a boat-load more games, Mr. Cunneyworth will be declared a genius for rescuing Montreal from it's worst season evah.
This team as constituted is not a lottery pick team. It may not be a Stanley Cup Contender but it's not a lottery pick team.
Of course, you heard it hear first, the problem was and is injuries.
