What happened?

Well the decade is closing on the resetting er rebuilding habs. The habs did not go to a Stanley cup final during the last decade, but did make it technically to two conference finals. Technically because one was in the 2009-2010 year. We can say that the Habs Gms left us frustrated, confused, or exhilarated at times but there were very few dull moments. So here is a year-by-year recap of the decade. 2009-2010 I mention this year because the habs made it to a conference final even though the season spanned two decades. This was the first season of what I refer to as the Gainey experiment. Before the season started, Bob Gainey unloaded Saku Koivu, who he once referred to as a champion in waiting, and Alexei Kovalev who had actually won a cup with the Rangers and had quantums of talent. Koivu had been the hab’s captain for almost as long as Jean Beliveau. He had a courageous bout beating cancer. However, his tenure led to no cups and no playoff success. The reality wa...

What in hell have we witnessed in the first half of the season. Talk about plans going awry. The habs had a disasterous pre-season and they followed that up with a shocking start to the season. Now as we head to the halfway point the season is probably over in terms of making the playoffs. What went wrong? Everything. The hardest part of the habs season has been watching their A list players falter like Price, Weber, Pacioretty, and Drouin. So why did things go sour? We can start with the coaching staff. Sorry I expected more from Claude Julien. Both defensively and offensively the habs have looked disorganized and confused. Julien still has not been able to stabilize the defence pairings or the line combinations. Some of the blame no doubt belongs to Bergy and his off-season signings. There have been way too many defensive lapses and way too many impotent powerplays. Kirk Muller was brought in to help a sputtering powerplay. There has been no visible improvement since Muller’s arriv...