Habs Head Coach Guy Carbonneau Fired

The Montreal Canadiens head coach has been fired on Monday afternoon and will be replaced by the team's GM Bob Gainey behind the bench. In addition, Don Lever, the AHL Hamilton Bulldogs head coach will come to Montreal to become assistant coach.

In a press conference tonight, Bob Gainey says that he has been thinking about this decision since Saturday after the lost against the Atlanta Thrashers. He claims that it is not normal for a team with the potential as the Montreal Canadiens to not be able to compete with a team like the Thrashers that are below the Canadiens in the standings. He feels that the team is going in the wrong direction and that his intervention would give the Habs a better chance to making the playoffs. There are many tactical areas he would like to correct. He would like to reduce to amount of scoring chances that the team allows and wants the team to play more defensive. He wants his team to play with more emotion. He was disappointed with the performance of his team during the last 8 weeks and therefore believes a change in direction on the ice level is required.

Wow, what a bomb! I would never think that Bob Gainey would fire his buddy Guy Carbonneau. I couldn't even believe it when I first saw it on the news. Especially after a win last night in Dallas. I have always said I didn't like the way that Guy coached the team, but I never wanted him to be fired. I was hoping he can change and adapt...I liked Guy Carbonneau. He was a great captain for the Montreal Canadiens. I hoped he could have success as a coach in Montreal. It is just sad that it turned out this way. Once again, the players were able to get the head of the coach. After so many different coaches that got fired in the past few years, and was able to have success elsewhere like Claude Julien, Michel Therrien and Alain Vigneault. I would have thought that the Montreal Canadiens organization would have learned from their mistakes.


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