Bob Gainey on line one!

See Jose slip, see Jose fall; see poor old Bob Gainey have to make a call!

Jose Theodore’s season from hell just got a little hotter. The embattled Montreal Canadien goaltender, who has struggle on the ice at the Molson centre and other NHL rinks, struggled on the ice around his house yesterday, rumbling down the stairs an into a Montreal hospital. .

Theodore slipped and fell down a flight of stairs at his Montreal home and broke his right heel, leaving him out of the Montreal line up for up to eight weeks. Meaning, he most likely won’t be available to play until mid April and even then will no doubt be hobbled by the problem area.

It’s the latest in blows to the Habs goalie that has seen Christobel Huet become the darling of the Habitant supporters. Huet who has been remarkable in his recent outings for the Habs has seen more and more action as Bob Gainey, like Claude Julien before him tried to give Theodore incremental rests and kicks in the butt to get him back on track. Now he won’t even be around for the dash to the playoffs, the puck firmly handed over the Huet for the rest of the season. For Theodore it's just one more little thing that has gone wrong in a season that many had hoped would be step forward for him. In addition to his woes in the Habs net, he was named in a banned substance test result, one which he offered up a possible reason for, but none the less has left him and his hair blowing in the wind so to speak for a bit.

The latest setback for Theodore means that Gainey, like a few other GM’s around the league (hello there John Muckler and Dave Nonis) is suddenly in the goaltending sweepstakes. This makes for a nice situation for the Buffalo Sabres, Minnesota Wild and Anaheim Ducks, three teams which sit on some solid back up potential for any NHL team.

If there’s any kind of silver lining in all of this it’s that the problems crop up before the trading deadline, the bad news is that Gainey is going to find it rather competitive bidding in the quest to secure a goaltender.