Wamsley, I get what you’re saying wholly, but you’re defending your point with alot of stretches here.

Sergei was not running around with the mob. He knew one guy, a friend who helped him out with living in Montreal, who unfortunately had drug ties. Sergei had no idea what this dude was involved in. That’s far from running around with the mob.

Yes he missed a team bus, but it’s something that happens occasionally. The fact that it happened to him while his status with the team was in question pretty well earned him his ticket to Hamilton once more.

The tantrums….I glad he’s pissed. I’ll take a team full of players that get pissed over such things. I have a problem with how he has handled some things, but he’s showing how much playing in the NHL means to him. He should be upset. He should also be way more mature about it, no doubt, but he is what he is, and you can’t fast track maturity. It’s important to note that we are all judging on something without being privy to the entire story.

The Chelios comparison at Lions In Winter has merit. His shenanigans hit the papers and eventually forced his trading, one the team ought to have regretted for 15 years. Lafleur of course, did similar things, but they were not publicly reported in the papers and talk shows. Guy, being Quebec born AND the team’s star player, was protected like you cannot believe. It wasn’t until his car accident in the 1980’s that much of his nightlife tales came to light. You can’t say it’s disingenuous to ignore Lafleur’s antics. He was an icon by then. Comparisons with him to any other players have no fit.

The one real time comparison in Sergei’s case is to Grabovski, who couldn’t find a spot with the team but was still able to prove he could play in the NHL.

Grabovski still could not fit on the Habs top two lines at center, Sergei, on the wing can, and is needed.

True, it’s all about his entitlement and he does need to grow up. Maybe he needs to feel that he is wanted by the team. So far, Gainey has managed to twice convince him to return to the Bulldogs, so it can be assumed he’s being told something or other.

As far as trade demands and promises go, I’ll have to see and hear those words straight from Gainey or Sergei’s lips to believe them. There’s still that fake Facebook Sergei running about and taking interviews!

The disagreement isn’t about talent, it’s about dedication and work ethic. Remember that Sergei was sent down to Hamilton last season, just as the team was beginning to free fall. He had been ineffective under Carbonneau up until that point. There had been much on ice indiscipline. Gainey coached him for what, two or three games beyond that point? The cleansing of last year’s team, if it can be put that way, was in removing veteran’s with strong voices. All of the kids were kept in the fold.

It’s also important to note that Sergei is the one and only player at this point that can be shuffled back and forth from Hamilton without passing through waivers. The only way the Canadiens can lose him is if he bolts to the KHL…but is he even allowed to play there while under contract elsewhere?

That Carbonneau quote, and he’s clarified it himself a bunch in the french papers. The “see what happens” was just generalization, and meant nothing in particular. In was given more in response to seing how the team will do and what will happen in the playoffs than anything else. Of course, since he’s said it, people have tacked all their own thoughts onto it. There’s no prophecy involved in sensing that changes were coming, even if that were what Carboneau was alluding to.

In the past, Carbonneau has been one of the team’s bad boys. Look up his dealings with Bob Berry his first season and his own invlovement with Chelios, Corson, Keane and Skrudland off the ice in later years. Carbo was no choirboy and if ever there was a coach who understands that dressing room harmony is more affected by losses on the ice that vice versa, it’s him. Every team, winning or losing has it’s splits and factions, it’s an inevitable truth of sporting teams. There’s always a player or three that are apart from the group. Sergei is actually quite liked by his teammates. His youthful exhuberence has been found amusing.

Folks are always taking speculation and twisting it to suit their views. They grasp at straws rather than trying to develop an understanding of how things truly are. The media, in search of a story, promote this dressing room ideal to ridiculous proportions because it is the one area of access fans don’t have. Everyone then bases all kinds of thoughts on nothing but gossip and garbage rumour.

Have you seen the Gomez / Sergei fight story? There you go….total manufactured b.s. by some creative thinking guy wanting a moment on a pedestal. Just plain sad.

While Gainey’s changes could be interpreted as being about altering the culture of the team, it was just as much about retooling a chunk of the lineup that had gone as far as it could and could not win more.

Was it about cleansing the room?

Some people think so, but then again, who was the biggest problem last season? Gainey wanted Kovalev back and made an offer.

It’s true of course that talent alone does guarantee much without conviction, it’s still a key element from which winning is built. Lots of teams filled with inner turmoil during a season have gone on to win Cups by harnessing all their assets and differences and pointing it in one direction. The ’86 Habs under Perron were an absolute mess heading to the playoffs. The winning on ice, thanks in no small part to bad boys Roy and Lemieux, translated into a better atmosphere.

The bottom line is that every team has it’s delinquents and badasses. It’s almost part of the winning chemistry.

Sergei seems to me like a player and person with all kinds of vinegar and fight in him. He’ll do whatever it takes to get there, and that is why everyone liked him in the beginning. He still has those traits, and perhaps after this lesson, he can use them to help the team.

And don’t kid yourself, there’s a dozen teams ready to pounce on his talent in a nanosecond. He’s got all kinds of leverage, but he’s hesitating to fully employ it. Or maybe he isn’t. Who truly knows! Look at the cases of Avery, Heatley, etc. They all found takers despite weighty contracts.

The Habs seem to have badly mismanaged some assets, and here’s an opportunity for them to think outside the box. Sometimes, a forward thinking organization just has to tolerate a 22 year old acting his age when the hammer fails to work. If the kid has his place in the lineup, give it to him. The rest can be a work in progress where it matters most.