"It's a message to everybody to wake up,"-- Head Coach Guy Carbonneau outlining how his roster moves prior to Wednesday's game were designed to get the team's attention, a request that apparently went unheeded...
Neil Macrae the acerbic sportscaster on Vancouver radio station CKNW probably provided the best commentary on the state of the Montreal Canadiens these days, recounting how head coach Guy Carbonneau had taken the team bowling this week all part of a bid to break the tension of their losing ways.
As Macrae tells the story, when the Habs left the lanes, the pins were still standing.
Such is how far the mighty Montreal Canadiens have fallen in such a short time, they now provide the punch line to cross Canada morning radio show jokes.
Things may be worse than they think, back home they've become the staple of the yuk yuks set as well. Perhaps it would be best to keep the internet away from the lads for the next little while.
Montreal's horrid days continued on Wednesday in Edmonton as the Oilers demolished them by a score of 7-2, not the best way to celebrate the 3,000th road game of your fabled history.
The Habs have lost nine of their last eleven games, gone seven games now since tasting victory, surrendering some 35 goals in that period. scoring only 14.
They seem to have shattered the confidence of their young goaltender Carey Price, some of the players have pouted in the dressing room and others have taken the funk onto the ice, mostly however they hav looked less than competent and left their head coach to say only that he and Bob (Gainey) will have to once again look at the roster.
Of course that's providing that Carbonneau will still be in the executive loop by the time the Habs return home after Sunday nights game in Vancouver. As the Habs have continue to lose, there have been rumblings that coaching may be the quickest fix, though watching the Canadiens play of late one wonders just how logical that might be. It's the easy route but one wonders if it will be the most effective thing to turn around the struggling squad.
Whatever is happening in Montreal these days seems to be an ongoing fungus, it's begun to creep into all corners of that dressing room, turning former high achievers into disinterested spectators game in and game out.
From the talk of a run for the Stanley Cup back in November and December, now it's a case of just trying to hang on to make the playoffs. With a trading deadline fast approaching, Carbonneau and Gainey had best quickly find some kind of package to put together to move out the troubled assets and bring in some injection of intensity and effort to salvage the year.
The Vancouver sportscasters joke ended with the zinger of "the pins were still standing", at the moment the same can't be said for the Canadiens, for now they're clearly a team mired in the gutter.
Montreal Gazette-- Oilers grease skidding Habs 7-2
Montreal Gazette-- Mental break for Habs
CBC Sports-- Canadiens clobbered by Oilers
Canada.com-- For a night, Habs helps Oilers solve offensive woes
Edmonton Sun-- No Habby ending
Edmonton Journal-- Merci, Canadiens
Globe and Mail-- Seventh hell for Habs
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