Montreal Canadiens fire coach Guy Carbonneau

The Montreal Canadiens have struggled through a disappointing year after a stellar start and are now life and death for a playoff spot as the NHL regular season grinds down.  For the league’s most celebrated franchise who are celebrating their 100^th season of competition that’s simply not acceptable.  On Monday, head coach Guy Carbonneau took the fall for the Habs’ struggles as he was fired by GM Bob Gainey.

The timing was something of a surprise, as there are only 16 games in the regular season and Montreal seems to have ‘righted the ship’ at least for the time being. They’re currently in 5^th place in the Eastern Conference—though that’s not as impressive as it sounds as they’re only 4 points ahead of 10^th place Buffalo in a tightly packed race for the playoffs.  Still, there’s no denying that the season has been a disappointment.  In particular, the Canadiens have struggled mightily on the road.  While they’re a solid 20-6-4 at the Bell Centre, they’re 15-18-3 away from their own rink.   That’s the worst road record of any of the teams in the East currently holding a postseason ticket.

Gainey praised Carbonneau for his service to the franchise at a press conference announcing the coaching change:

"The last eight weeks of performance have been below average, and I believe a change in the direction at ice level is necessary. For sure, Guy was a special player for Canadiens, a captain. He took a very difficult job as coach and tried his best to advance the team. It's never an easy message to deliver to anyone, but it was at a point where I felt it was needed."

Gainey himself will take over coaching duties in the interim which will likely be through the end of this year’s playoff run.  He indicated that he didn’t plan any major changes in the team’s tactical approach to the game:

"I'm not going to make black-and-white changes but we need to move toward being a better, stronger, more consistent team defensively and an offensive team that takes advantage of our opportunities."

"There were certain games when I had a real confusion about the overall ... it showed up as effort, but I felt like it was emotional engagement to a game. Our team did not seem to be emotionally engaged."