Luckily as I write this comment this morning, we know the Habs did win vs the Thrashers last night.

I have to agree with you about Gainey… having 6 years to build a team is really enough time.

What was costly these last few years is (as you mentioned)that he had opportunities to view the dressing room and basically decide to keep or change the core group of players.

The moves Gainey managed to make this summer were pretty good… that’s my assumption. I don’t really like making predictions. I think it’s to let history play out.

But I also believe that going into this summer Gainey had no choice but to retool his core group in a major way.

Holding on to an aging Koivu and an aging Kovalev and expect that they carry the same load that was asked of them previous would have been a big mistake.

Gainey may have played himself into that corner in the 6 years he’s been at the wheel.

Also, the point you bring up about not negotiating contracts during the season… that has always bugged me. I personally do not like that strategy. Negotiate with the players you’ve identified as keepers for sure.

How this season plays out will certainly be vital to his future with the organization.

I don’t expect the players to mesh immediately, when so many of them are new.

I do however question Gainey’s wisdom in his approach. He twice had the opportunity to inspect the locker room and root out the bad apples. He clearly missed them the first time around because he threw every single possible free agent overboard. A flawed approach? Perhaps? Was not negotiating with his free agents the best way to go? A lot of prominent people swore up and down that it wasn’t the way to go.

Things may yet work out, but if this does not work out and the team misses the playoffs, I believe Gainey is done.

My biggest concern, however, is how Gainey approaches the rest of the year. Should his troops struggle much longer, Gainey may feel the extra pressure…not from the fans, and not from the media, but from himself. It’s all well and good to remember Gainey as the noble and stoic player…and perhaps as the stable and competent GM. But the one thing all athletes have in common is ego (a large one) and competitive fire (to varying degrees). Gainey is in the final year of his deal, and if I’m not mistaken, he earns a substantial bonus if the Canadiens make the playoffs. Glory of the CH be damned, he’s going to do what he has to do to get his team in to the playoffs. If that means giving away some prospects (PK, Carle, etc), young players (Pacioretty, Weber, etc) to pull in a free agent rental to get that 8th spot, then that’s what he will do if he feels like he needs secure his bonus and/or future contract.

I love Gainey, but at some point his leash runs out of slack. 6 years is plenty of time to retool a team, and the early consensus (emphasis once again on early) is that he has not done a good job of that.

I think fans were right to expect more from him in 6 years on the job than a surprise 1st place finish and 2 first round playoff wins. Look at where the Capitals and Penguins were 6 years ago, and look where they are now. Granted, doing as poorly as they did prior to the lockout is not really an option here, but I would honestly prefer that over a constant retooling that keeps the Habs in a perpetual cycle of mediocre 7-10th place finishes. And I think that if the team had of come out and said “we’re blowing this up, starting over and going to get some elite kids in the draft”, the fans could conceivably have patience for a couple years.

But that ship has sailed, and with the amount of money Gainey spent this offseason, the rebuilding mantra is up in smoke. He’s positioned this group as a team that can make the playoffs and do well once they’re in. Anything less will not be accepted.

But I’m getting ahead of myself here. The focus is on now, and right now the team is not doing well at all…which could have been expected. The image that is coming clear now is that this team SHOULD be 0-7 if not for Price’s excellence in games 1 and 2.

Speaking of Price, he’s the key to this whole thing, and so far he’s been ok, but not good enough. He looks shaky at times, like he hasn’t fully recovered from last year’s nightmare. He’s still 21, but what’s clear is that he is still fragile, and it’s vital that the organization makes sure they don’t permanently break him. Too much rides on him, including Gainey’s future.