Cowhide and Rubber

Aside from talking about possible trades and signings, and then endlessly dissecting them when they do or don’t happen, there’s one thing I will have the most fun with concerning free agency:

Habs fans blaming Pierre Gauthier for the head scratching moves that are bound to come.

You see, once the Habs came up roses after the Olympic break, and once they went real deep in the playoffs, everyone was showering former GM Bob Gainey with praise. THIS was the team he intended, and THIS was the team that was going to return the team to glory! He was a genius, the man who built a great and formidable team. I wanted to join the festivities, but couldn’t. Not fully, anyway. Don’t get me wrong: he does deserve some praise for putting this group together. They *are* a pretty good team, but there are still clear and glaring holes, and big questions to be answered in the next year.

I love Gainey as much as anyone, but let’s recognize the bind that he left Pierre Gauthier in. After last summer’s shopping spree, he left the Habs with scant cap flexibility, meaning new GM Pierre Gauthier will probably have to unload some salaries for nothing in return except for the luxury of perhaps resigning guys he already had. Essentially, the same team, for more money and for a long, long time.  Or, he could lose the guys he has, and still pay a lot of money for lesser players. Finally, he could trade assets to replace guys that he had just a couple months earlier. That’s not my idea of improvement, and it’s not the way to build a contender.

If you’re content with this team’s make-up, more power to you. If you like the mix that went a long way this season despite the Head Coach’s ineptness, wonderful. If you believe that the team will only be better with a year under their belt, and less injuries to endure, terrific.

But I think a team has to constantly improve and that includes making tough choices and bold moves. Gainey, for all the good he did in building this team, left Gauthier with little wiggle room for the next several seasons.

So when the Habs take the ice next year with either an overpriced Plekanec (he will get more than he’s worth simply because of the lack of free agent talent available), or someone else who isn’t as good as Plekanec, don’t be so quick to blame Gauthier. And when Gauthier is up against the cap and wondering what to do with pending unrestricted free agent Andrei Markov, get off his case. He’s not going to have wads of money to throw around. And if he does, it’s because he cut anchor with a lot of high priced guys for draft picks and cheap bodies. I’ve made it clear that I don’t like the Habs current management and coaching group (aside from assistant coach Kirk Muller), but if we’re going to bash a guy, we have to be fair about it, and I just don’t see Habs fans doing that simply because it’s easier to criticize Gauthier than it is Gainey, especially now that he’s gone (perhaps Gainey foresaw this storm brewing and simply didn’t want to deal with it?).

Sure, Gauthier gladly accepted the job once the Habs concluded that their exhaustive hiring process proved that he was brightest gem shining from underneath all the thousands of overturned stones, but there’s only so much a guy can do. It’s now his job to improve this team, but he can only work with what he has.