The Montreal Canadiens have fired head coach Guy Carbonneau and replaced him behind the bench with general manager Bob Gainey. Carbonneau was let go after being the Canadiens coach for 3 years,and being a finalist for the Jack Adams Award last year."Not long ago, I responded to a question: What was the best decision I made as (Canadiens) GM? And hiring Guy was my best decision," Gainey said. "Today this decision might seem contradictory, but in the last eight weeks our performance has been below average, and I believe that a change of the direction at ice level was necessary. With 16 games left in the season, I believe that the change was necessary to maximize our chances of being one of the teams to participate in the playoffs this spring."After finishing first in the Eastern Conference last year, the Canadiens' 100th anniversary season in 2008-09 has had alot of ups and downs. With this change Gainy will try his best to make the Canadiens win the Stanley Cup this season.
"There were certain games when I had a real confusion about the overall performance,it showed up as effort, but I felt like it was emotional engagement to a game," said Gainey. "Our team did not seem to be emotionally engaged."Carbonneau's coaching record with Montreal is the record for most wins as a Canadiens Coach with 124-83-23.In Carbonneau's first 2 seasons as head coach the Canadiens missed the playoffs. But in his 3rd year the Canadiens finished in first place but got elimanated in the second round against the Philadelphia Flyers. Bob Gainey will make his coahing debut tomorrow against the Oilers.
Written by Andrew Di Pardo
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