Habs GM rolls dice with Halak By RED FISHER, The Gazette June 18, 2010
How do you erase the Canadiens' stunning postseason victories over the Washington Capitals and Pittsburgh Penguins? Easy.
What you do, if you're Canadiens GM Pierre Gauthier, is trade the guy who got them there in what for now must stand as the mother-of-all brain-dead decisions in recent memory.
What was this guy thinking of ?
Where was Gauthier on those nights when Jaroslav Halak was winning regular-season and playoff games with more than 40 shots to handle? Downtown Minsk? Where was Gauthier on the night Halak wasn't beaten until Washington's 52nd shot in another astonishing winning performance?
I don't know when the Canadiens' GM thought about this trade, but I do know he couldn't have had his thinking cap on when he made it. He can talk all he wants about something called a salary cap and the difficulty of fitting Halak into it. What Gauthier is really saying is that it's a fit for Carey Price, who has yet to demonstrate he belongs in the NHL, but not for Halak, who was one of the truly great achievers in the playoffs.
What awaits Canadiens fans, you ask? Fit to be tied, that's what.
Gauthier can suggest, as he did yesterday in his conference call with media people, that the team had two excellent goaltenders, but (sigh) Price was his guy ... or words to that effect. Duh!
Where was Gauthier when Halak was responsible for winning game after game late in the regular season? Where was he when he was stoning the No. 1 overall Capitals in seven games and eliminating the Penguins? Do I have to remind you Halak was being mentioned as a leading contender for the Conn Smythe Trophy as early as after the Canadiens rode on his back into the Eastern Conference final?
Halak was, in every way, the "feel good" story of the season for the Canadiens. Nothing is engraved in stone, but he was everybody's biggest hope for the team to do even better and go farther in its 18th rebuilding year.
Where, however, do the Canadiens go from here now that their No. 1 goaltender is gone?
Don't take my word for it. Instead, the wire report of the trade still was sizzling when I received this message from my mentor Jack Todd: "Is this the time to mention that, in addition to what may be the worst trade since (Patrick) Roy to Colorado, the Canadiens fired six scouts after picking up a $30-million windfall in the playoffs, thanks to Halak.
If I didn't know better, I would think that Brian Burke is making the calls for Montreal on the hot-wire from Toronto, with an eye to making certain they win nothing for another 17 years."
There is no point even mentioning the minor-league "prospects" the Canadiens acquired from St. Louis. Instead, I have to think that somewhere my longtime friend, Blues president John Davidson, is smiling. The guy has won the U.S. Open without lifting a golf club.
Call it Christmas in June for the Blues. Call it anything you want, but the first thing this trade means is that it has turned off legions of Canadiens fans who had been looking forward to the 2010-11 season with hope. I mean ... when you have a goaltender who has lifted a team that sneaked into the playoffs in the final game of the regular season to the conference final, you hold on to him no matter what it takes. Give him the money he wants. Buy him a steak at Moishe's. Erect a statue of him alongside several of the Canadiens' icons.
This nightmare of a trade came out of the blue. There was no reason for it. Gauthier's suggestion in his conference call that "the Canadiens have two excellent goaltenders and only one could be retained" sounded little more than a call for help when none was needed. Since Gauthier thinks so highly of Price, then the only way to go was to retain both, no matter what.
Theloveof mylife, Mrs. F, is not a big hockey fan. However, she knows a good thing when she sees one.
"Guess who the Canadiens traded?" I asked her yesterday.
"Carey Price?" "Nope?"
"The other one?" she asked.
Trust me on this: "The other one" was the wrong one.
rfisher@thegazette.canwest.com© Copyright (c) The Montreal Gazette
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