Mar 19 Montreal Sports Media: Enough with the Hypocrisy!

I don't know what I was more upset about after the Habs' 5-4 loss to the out-of-the-hunt Ottawa Senators last night; the fact that the Canadiens lost yet another must-win game or that certain pundits are playing a sorry game of revisionist history.

Throughout last night's game as well as a full hour after the fact and let's not forget all of today on several "all Habs all the time" stations, all you are hearing are people blasting Bob Gainey for all the things they were bombarding Guy Carbonneau for NOT doing.

First, although the timing of Carbonneau's firing was a surprise to many more people than Carbonneau himself, alot of these journalists were calling for Carbo's head for the last few weeks, claiming that he had lost the room and questioning every single decision that did not pan out and go on to explain why he should have opted for their much better option.

These same journalists are now already questioning Gainey's competencies behind the bench, when only days after Carbo's firing, they had expanded on how he was the most qualified candidate to coach them through 2009-10.

What really got me going, however, was that while some of you may remember the verbal pounding Carbo took about juggling the lines from day to day or shift to shift, all game long, all I was hearing was "How could Gainey insist on keeping Kovalev-Kostitsyn-Plekanec together when it was clear that they were useless together?" Damned if you do, damned if you don't, I guess.

Remeber when yet again, Carbo's continuous decision to put players like Gregory Stewart, Glen Metroplit, Tom Kostopoulos and the likes, on the ice in the final minutes when they were down a goal? "Unacceptable!" were the cries. "How could you not put your STARS on the ice in those crucial times. No wonder he lost the room!" One could (and I have) argue that Guy was simply putting the workers on the ice; the ones that deserved the ice time and the chance to play hero.

Enter last night, when all I heard were criticisms as to why in the world Gainey refused to put Latendresse-Lapierre-Kostopoulos, who arguably were the Habs' only bright spot, on the ice for the 5 on 3's or to place them in favour of the 1st or second lines. I mean, they were doing nothing anyways, right? And some of these denouncers were not only ex-coaches, but were the ones that were totally against this move when Carbo did it.

And, speaking of hypocrisy, can someone tell me what Don Lever is still doing in Montreal? It was initially prognosticated that Lever was the shoe-in to take over at the beginning of the 2009 season. Well, after much language issue debates and lengthy panel discussions on who would be the next coach, it would seem that unless Lever is being fitted for an assistant coach's track-suit, he might as well go back to Hamilton.

It would seem, according to RDS that Canadiens' President Pierre Boivin, had announced, during a red carpet lunch at the Victoriaville Chamber of Commerce that "it would be obligatory that the next Montreal Canadiens coach be able to speak to the Canadiens fans in their language."

He did not specify however, if this would be done via nationality, translator, or Berlitz.

Tags: bob gainey \ coach \ Don Lever \ Guy Carbonneau \ habs \ Hypocrisy \ Journalist \ Media \ Montreal Canadiens \ NHL \ Pierre Boivin