Martin Sacked

I’m honestly not surprised. I had guessed it would come before January 1.

Regardless of how many injuries there have been, he has made some very questionable ongoing decisions (not playing young players much, Darche on the PP, 4th liners in key situations) that have resulted in some serious mishaps. I have a feeling Louis Leblanc playing :49 in the third on Thursday didn’t exactly bode well for poor Martin.

I am not big on moves to appease fans or relieve pressure from the GM in survival mode.

I was listening to Mark Cuban explain how he found out early on that him and his GM were not on the same page because his priority was titles and the GMs was job security.

I am not sure how to absorb this because if it was a PR move then somebody like Crawford would be coaching today. I still can’t shake the feeling that this is a sacrifice though.

I am tired of all the cliches about “losing the room” and “team needs a change” because I have seen guys like Ruff and Trotz move up and down with poor seasons and successful ones and remain at the helm.

The only thing that would appease me with this move is philosophical differences between coach and GM.

I am not a Gauthier bashed by any means, but I have to be critical of a guy who supported his coach allowing Boucher and Muller to leave the organization and then fires him now. That contradicts the support and looks like short term thinking.

If you ask for my reaction, it will depend on who he is replaced with. If you want my visceral reaction, it screams panic and sacrifice.

If Markov had not had a setback and the majority of this team was healthy, do you fire Martin?

If the answer is no, then this is a result based reactionary move and those are rarely good.

The Habs started the season 1-5-2.

They have had the equivalent of a 99-point record since.

I don’t have the foggiest idea whether Gauthier genuinely expects the team, missing its entire second line and best D-man, to be much better than a 100-point club, but I hope not.

I hope that it’s Montreal’s sagging micros that precipitated this, but even then, with the injury situation, I think it’s a gross mistake.

I am wondering if this has anything to do with the re-alignment.Let’s face it, we will face the Bruins and toronto 12 games starting next year. And then we have to face them in the playoff.

Martin style hasn’t work all that well when facing the Bruins or Flyers in the playoff. We had a chance facing the penguins or washington.

…about a third of the way through the season, for a coach with only a year and change left on his contract, is usually enough to tip the scales, regardless of any specific underlying rationale.

The only thing that has been sustained since Pearn’s departure has been an almost step-function decline in Too Many Men infractions. Other than that, some of the bad habits we saw early on have returned to some degree or other. The team rarely dominates over a sustained period and is more eking out victories than convincingly winning them; I’m typically not comfortable unless the Habs are up 37-0, with two minutes to go, on a 5-on-3, as the other team is succumbing to a flash ebola virus, and they’ve pulled their goalie.

As such, it doesn’t have to be anything specific nor a philosophical difference, it’s just a reflection of the limited shelf life for NHL coaches, in particular in Montreal.

The interesting thing to see will be what the team does if RC – can we use RC, you know, just cause it’ll be easier to write “Fire RC!” in a few weeks? – enjoys a measurable degree of success. If he brings the team somewhere, will the media and masses blindly call for a bilingual replacement or will the org have found a way to escape this notional linguistic stranglehold?

At the risk of reading too much into RC’s interim status, there is a potential machiavellian angle to all of this on Molson’s behalf.

If I’m Roy, and this is gonna be my first NHL coaching job in a town where the only thing I’d like hung from the rafters is my retired jersey, I don’t take over on the fly.

I line my ducks up all nice and tight during the offseason, in concert with a GM who is making personnel decisions.

Roy might be crazy, but he ain’t st00pid.

Still, I’ll believe it only when I see it.

So, a friend of mine just pointed something interesting out, regarding the french media outrage over the unilingual coach.

Only three cups have been won by French coaches: Perron, Ruel and Demers.

it’s addition by subtraction … would be nice to have an A+ replacement standing by waiting in the wings, but that’s not reality. JM was routinely out-coached, his line juggling has never worked, the PP is in a shambles for the first time in 7 years. The team has talent and skill, why not try playing a style that fits the team’s talents? With 3-4 PMD in place (if Markov ever gets healthy), maybe up-tempo hockey might be worth a try. Versus trying to sit on 1-goal leads that you never hold with a strangely ineffective attempt at “puck possession” hockey. JM’s “system” never led to much in Ottawa or Florida, and the mirage of the run to the Eastern finals was just that. Just sayin’ …

I figured it out. We totally missed it, but it’s obvious.

When Gauthier sacrificed Pearn to the Hockey Gods he was rewarded with four straight wins, but clearly that was insufficient. Gauthier must simply have decided that a bigger sacrifice was needed to appease the Hockey Gods. The Habs can’t possibly lose now.

…to find someone around these parts who doesn’t understand the rationale behind the Habs’ desire to hire coaches who can communicate in French. I was born and raised in Montreal and, other than a few years of schooling in London, Ontario, continue to reside here. I speak fully fluent French as do my three teenage children.

None of it is lost on me.

At the same time, I think most everyone also accepts that this unwritten policy comes at a cost, much as Boivin was quite direct in regards to as he exited his position with the org.

With that in mind, there is really no harm in exploring compromises and alternatives that might widen the scope of talent the Habs can look at when trying to hire a head coach. Put another way, pure acquiescence to the status quo isn’t necessarily the only route to go

There has always been an ebb and flow to the language issue, not only as it pertains to the team, but also the way Quebec has evolved.

Like most everything, a language can be learned. It’s a simplistic notion, but maybe it’s enough to satisfy the voices that demand a head coach who can communicate in French. I’m not saying this is the solution, just that it’s a worthwhile discussion. And there are a whole host of other possibilities.

I made the point earlier, which I believe earned a few guffaws – and I’m jiggy with that – that by having the opportunity to inject a unilinqual anglophone into the head coaching positon in mid-season – he’d have a tough time doing it in the off-season – Molson (a presumption, yes) has the opportunity to break with the modern precedent next season if, a big if, Cunneyworth achieves great success.

No, the world will not turn on its head, the Middle East will not become a beacon of peace, and a barrel of oil will still go for something in excess of $100.

It’s just about breaking with modern precedent. Baby steps.

And maybe the org will just not be able to. There will be too much pressure come to bear. I fully understand and accept that this the most likely end game.

But a man is allowed to hope the org can open its door a bit wider when it comes to coaching talent.

Time for Randy to whip out the textbook.

Depends on what your team needs, obviously; e.g., St-Louis needed a hardass like Hitchcock, but I don’t think that would play well in Montreal. The team needs stability and continuity.

An outstanding talent? I’d probably go with Babcock. If he’s anything, it’s consistent.

I’m not one for NHL-inexperienced coaches but believe Dineen was probably among the most qualified from the minor ranks. He’s been picked off. Boughner and Kleinendorst come to mind.