The pieces always seem that much more difficult to put together in Montreal.
The puzzle appears more complex, and the puzzle builders are pulled in so many more directions than in Boston or Vancouver.
There are debates in Montreal that aren’t heard in Canada’s five other National Hockey League cities, such as how many languages the new coach should be fluent in. Or how many Francophones should be required to inhabit the Canadiens roster?
By comparison, no Sutter has ever cashed a cheque from the Edmonton Oilers, and it has never been a debate in northern Alberta despite the fact the Sutter’s Viking, Alta. farm is a 75-minute drive from Rexall Place.
Had the Sutter frères been from Victoriaville or Chicoutimi, there would have been marches in Montreal held to right such a wrong.
These are the emotions that separate the Canadiens from every other NHL club, making GM Bob Gainey’s team the highest maintenance bride in the league.
Alas, Gainey’s Canadiens are the Liz Taylor to 29 other GMs’ Betty Rubble, in need of flowers and a massage every night of the week.
What is scary is that Gainey, who added coach to his resume earlier this month, has spent every bullet to try to right a sinking Habs ship this March.
The GM is down to promoting Sergei Kostitsyn from the minor leagues, and then the coach moves him directly to a prime spot on the second line at Monday’s practice.
Gainey has fired Guy Carbonneau, changed assistant coaches, held Alexei Kovalev home from a road trip, gone back to the struggling Carey Price in goal and then replaced him with his former backup on Hockey Night in Canada, no less.
Gainey is playing the piano as fast as he can. The song emanating from Montreal this season is, however, neither quick nor innovative. It sounds more like the last waltz for a town that is already talking about next year - despite the fact the Habs were still in a playoff spot prior to Monday's games.
It is the intangibles that make it harder for Gainey, who watches his roster of young men saunter off into one of North America’s premier nightlife towns after a game to be greeted by Canada’s most beautiful women.
Since the beginning of time, hockey men have commiserated over a post-game beverage, but in a city with two official languages, it seems no Montrealer knows the meaning of, "I’m just staying for two."
If it is true that the morning skate was invented simply to get the players out of bed and skating off the cobwebs, I’m betting it was invented in Montreal, where no deeper afternoon nap was ever taken.
And so, as Carey Price’s play diminishes from that promising rookie season last year they wonder aloud in Montreal if he is "still learning to be a pro."
That’s hockey talk for, "Is he getting enough sleep?"
The Kostitsyn brothers fell victim to it, and they are just another couple of Habs stumbling down Shayne Corson Trail, leapt upon by a press corps that can bury a player in two languages worse than most can in just one.
Perhaps, after 100 years, the Montreal media is just better at cranking up the headlines than the rest of the country.
Or perhaps they see the waste that is occurring, a 100-year hockey party that could have gone on all spring long, now just hoping to live beyond Opening Day of the Major League Baseball season.
Now, the owner is even ready to jump ship, with word coming out Monday that George Gillett is seeking investors – or an out-right buyer — and has retained the services of investment bank BMO to "optimize the value" of his holdings in sports, entertainment and other businesses.
A year ago Montreal finished first in the Eastern Conference, with a goalie in Price who looked like a sure bet to step into line behind Martin Brodeur and Roberto Luongo as a Team Canada netminder in 2010. Today he sits on the bench while the Habs faithful boo their club off the ice – not at the end of the game, but midway through.
"It was really humiliating to be booed like that with 10 minutes left in the second," Habs winger Guillaume Latendresse said Monday, reflecting back on Saturday’s 5-2 home-ice loss to Toronto. "You almost feel like hiding under the bench until (the coach) yells your name to get on the ice."
It all must be biting commentary for Gainey, though it should be noted that this is the second time Gainey’s coaching ploy has not worked as planned.
Do you recall in the 2005-06 season, when then-head coach Claude Julien, who had seen enough of Jose Theodore’s deteriorating game in the Montreal nets, began to favour backup Cristobal Huet?
Gainey fired Julien, but by March he began to see Theodore exactly the way Julien had seen him.
Theodore was dealt to Colorado on March 8, 2006.
This time Carbonneau got the pink slip, and Price became the new apple of Gainey’s eye. He went back to Price for four of Gainey’s first five games behind the Canadiens bench.
Gainey’s new vantage point did not favour Price however, and the GM quickly
went back to Jaroslav Halak Saturday night against Toronto.
The backup was, of course, brutal.
It was another decision gone badly for Gainey.
"You’re in a job where your job is to make decisions," Gainey told the Globe and Mail’s wonderful columnist Roy MacGregor. "You could do nothing. That was an option. Well, I didn't like that option. I'd rather be wrong than do nothing."
If that’s the case, then Bob Gainey is succeeding.
