Pat, you make some good points, but I believe the lessons you are referring to are players on the ice. If you look at the team right now, it’s clear they have moved on from the days of playing as many French-Canadian players as possible at all costs.

Unfortunately, it appears that same lesson may need to be learned for the selection of coaches and GMs before this team can fully compete with the rest of the league without the burden of narrowing down the field of candidates by over 90% before even getting started.

What if:

Gauthier is in place only to help save Bob Gainey from an unceremonious firing at the end of the year. Allow Gainey to step down now, then at the end of the year, when his and Gauthier’s contracts are up, replace Gauthier with Jacques Martin and bring up Guy Boucher from Hamilton to coach the team.

Not saying I want this, just saying it would make some sense…

Never mind the Cup, Gainey succeded because he turned the franchise around through great adversity both personal and professional and he maintained his dignity and class at all times. He is one of the few human beings I admire and I wish him well.

Nobody wanted to watch a loser. This despite the drafting of players like Eric Chouinard, Fichaud and Laflamme, and the presence in the lineup of guys like Marc Bureau, Ben Brunet, Joe Juneau, Bordeleau, Poulin, Thuibault, Perrault…along with real NHL’ers like Damphousse, Quintal and Brisebois.

If the Molsons want to re-learn that lesson, it’s their right to do so. But that needle is too thin to thread. For every Derek Roy or David Perron, there are a dozen terrible French-Canadian players drafted every year. It’s the simple law of averages.

All things being equal, in a vacuum, I understand why they would want to go the French route. But in the real world, you can’t always draft the perfect French-Canadian, the same way you can’t always hire the perfect French Canadian General Manager. At some point, actual skill and talent have to win the day.

And if the Habs try to do it another way, they will fail. Again.

If Boivin is half the business man I think he is, than he’s made the calculation and figured out that the bottom line would be more negatively affected by not having French management in place than it would by not having a winning team in place. That’s the reason for their position.

So the way I see it, until the fans make it clear that they are more interested in wins than in French by not filling the Bell Centre anymore to see mediocre teams, Habs owners and upper management will continue to maintain the need for French-speaking coaches and GMs. It’s that simple. And yes, it sucks donkey balls.

Food for thought: if the Habs win the cup this year, did Gainey succeed? How ironic would that be?

At least you have the Kings and Ducks to watch. Both make the Habs organization look like crap. I enjoy watching them on the NHL Center Ice package drooling over what could have been for the Habs. If the Ducks get in I think they can beat the Sharks and go a long way. Would love to see Koivu hoist the Cup almost as much as the Habs.