By CoachK, AllHabs.Net
SAINT-LAZARE, QC — Canadiens’ General Manager Pierre Gautheir is as spineless as they come. “We have a competent team,” was one quote he made in his post-trade deadline press conference. Another was “The nucleus of players on this team made a significant impact in last year’s playoffs.” We’ve all heard the cliches before. They are the words spoken by general managers around the NHL who don’t have the guts or the knowledge to make deals when they need to.
While we can’t blame the players for the team’s recent failures, it is apparent to me that we don’t have the type of roster that fits Coach Jacques Martin’s “system”. Come to think of it, who does? In this newest era in the NHL’s illustrious history, the majority of teams in the league have put away their trapping playbooks, and have been using a more open style of play. Even New Jersey Devils’ coach Jacques Lemaire, the godfather of the Trap, has found a way to combine offense with defense. Why can’t Martin do it with the type of offensive firepower we have in our top six forwards?
That being said, Gauthier has to remember while his team was on their magical run just less than a year ago, the primary reasons were the short blocking mastery of Hal Gill and Josh Gorges, the incredible offense supplied by Michael Cammalleri and the stellar goaltending of former Hab, now St. Louis Blues netminder, Jaroslav Halak. And since we’re on the subject, doesn’t Gorges count as being part of the nucleus of this team? His warrior-type mentality was the driving force behind the solid play of the Canadiens’ defensive core last season.
Gauthier also went on the say that he used up all of the team’s available resources to address the plethora of injuries sustained on the Habs’ blue line, and did have much to deal with. Really? Since when is another small, talented offensive forward like David Desharnais not worth anything? If you package him with someone like Andrei Kostistyn, who’s been completely lost in Martin’s “system” this season, couldn’t you land a player who could help bolster your current roster? Has this city become so desperate, that they are willing to start rumors about players like J.P. Dumont of the Nashville Predators, who has been a healthy scratch since the birth of the new NHL? Do we really need to hang onto the same type of players? The small, speedy type who can’t move a fly, let alone defensemen like Zdeno Chara and Chris Pronger?
All this to say, the problem isn’t one that just happened. It is an issue that began with a useless amateur scouting department, who drafted a ton of US born defenseman from the high school and college rank and never saw the light of an AHL arena, let alone an NHL rink. For years, this organization has pissed away draft picks on second rate players, while other “Good Canadian Boys” as Grapes calls them, were picked up by other teams, only to succeed. Stop wondering why we can’t do anything at the trade deadline. So long as our scouting department as a whole is run by Pierre Gauthier, the team will, as the cliche goes, “Be happy with what we have!”
(Photo courtesy: Reuters)