Excerpts from the USA Today article by Mike Brehm who interviewed Jacques Demers.
I’m sure a certain Carbo basher will disagree with Demers’ assessment of the Canadiens head coach’s performance thus far.
I’ll even add this article by La Presse’s François Lemenu who believes Carbonneau deserves some credit for the Canadiens success:
The Canadiens seem to be people’s sentimental favorite this season because of the anniversary season. They got off to a slow start and have picked up recently. How do feel they’re playing now?
Demers: They’re playing awesome. They’ve lost their first line of Saku Koivu, Alex Tanguay and Chris Higgins for quite a while. They have more depth than they’ve had in the last 15 years. Bob Gainey has done a wonderful job rebuilding this team and they have a coach who’s turning out to be one of the elites in the NHL. If Carey Price stays healthy, they really have a good chance. But before we talk about the parade on St. Catherine Street, you’ve got to go through Detroit. You’ve got to go through San Jose. In the East, they have a great chance. I don’t think right now there’s a team playing more like a team — team toughness, team togetherness — than the Montreal Canadiens in the last six weeks.
You coached Guy Carbonneau as a player. How do you feel he’s doing as a coach?
Demers: Let me give you a little anecdote. In the 1993 Finals against the Los Angeles Kings, Kirk Muller was playing against Wayne Gretzky. The next day, Guy Carbonneau came into the office and said, respectfully, “Coach, I would like to have Gretzky. I could do a job against him.” He went against Gretzky and shut him down, which we had not been able to do in the first game. He was a quiet, silent leader. He blocked shots and played against the best, (Eric) Lindros, Gretzky, (Mario) Lemieux, who were all bigger than him, and he always held his own. He was a great student and understood the game as good as any player I’ve ever had. The two things he’s improved the most on as coach: 1) he communicates better and 2) his bench skills. He’s really good behind the bench right now, changing lines, calling timeouts and matchups.