Goodbye Jacques

I can't tell you how thrilled I was to wake up this morning and hear that the Montreal Canadiens had fired coach Jacques Martin. As any life long Habs fan will tell you, when the team is struggling, we all take on the roll of the teams General Manager and try to assess what needs to be done to get the team on track and winning once again. It sucks to see anyone lose their job but this one was a long time coming.

After making it to the Conference Final just two seasons ago, the team saw a first round exit in the playoffs last season and so far they're struggling to stay around the .500 mark this year and time is quickly running out to make up ground and secure another playoff spot.

This isn't the Toronto Maple Leafs I'm talking about where missing the playoffs is not only tolerated but in recent history...expected. In Montreal where hockey is a religion for the fans of Le Canadiens, missing the playoffs is not something that they'll stand for and certainly won't put up with quietly.

So to no surprise over recent weeks the call for a change at the Head Coaching position has been gaining strength. Montreal fans are the most knowledgeable in the NHL and when they see something is wrong, odds are good the owners of the team and GM know it as well.

Now I'm not going to sit here and say that Jacques Martin was the only reason for Montreal's lackluster start to the season. His style of coaching and plan of attack was never well received in Montreal even when the team was doing well. The team has always succeeded when they used their superior speed and skill rather than trying to out muscle their opponents. Under Martin as of late, that game style disappeared. Instead of running and gunning they were sitting back and protecting leads. OK, let me rephrase that. They were trying to protect leads but doing a bloody awful job of it.

As I mentioned, Martin was only part of the problem and as witnessed tonight, the other problems were painfully obvious. Horrible decisions while in possession of the puck have been a trademark of the Habs of late. Giveaways in the defensive zone have become common place and those turnovers have more often than not found their way into the back of the net.

The power-play continues to be abysmal although it's hoped that the addition of Tomas Kaberle will help to turn that around and I think it has had an effect already.

The next big move the team needs to make is to fire the current GM Pierre Gauthier who has done very little to improve a deteriorating situation. I honestly think his days are numbered unless he can swing a deal to improve the teams offensive output and poor showing in the standings.

That brings us to what I think is the biggest elephant in the Montreal dressing room. The goal scorers aren't scoring. Where has Michael Cammalleri's pin point accuracy gone? I'm a big fan of Cammy's but this season he's looking more like Scott Gomez than the pint sized powerhouse we've seen in recent years. I'm sure he'd be the first one to admit that. By the way, how is Gomez even a part of this team still? He should have been gone at the end of last season.

As far as I'm concerned, if I was the GM there's only about 10 players or so on the roster that I'd keep and the rest should be trade bait. We have some good promising young talent but aside from Plekanec, Pacioretty, Cole, Subban, Cammalleri, Desharnais, Moen, Weber, Georges, Gil, Kaberle and Price, any of the rest could be shipped elsewhere to bring in some better talent.

I know I'm dreaming but at this point I have to dream because the reality of the situation is tough for this Habs fan deal with. At this point I'm just about ready to see them start Youppi at left wing.