Shedding some Carbs

Joe Scaringi
March 13, 2009

History has a funny way of repeating itself. On January 14, 2006, Montreal Canadiens general manager Bob Gainey fired his head coach and assumed the role himself for the remainder of the club’s season. The fatality was Claude Julien. Three years, one month and 23 days later, he did the exact same thing – the casualty this time being Guy Carbonneau.

To some, it may seem hard to believe that Gainey would fire Carbonneau. After all, he is such a likable guy, not just in Montreal but league-wide. As a player, he was one of the best defensive forwards of his era and enjoyed great success with the Canadiens franchise. But to say that his great on-ice play automatically translates into great coaching would simply be nonsensical.

Take, for example, the following hypothetical argument:

Premise 1: Wayne Gretzky is an amazing hockey player.

Premise 2: Wayne Gretzky is the coach for the Phoenix Coyotes.

Conclusion: Wayne Gretzky is an amazing hockey coach.

Non-sequitur anyone? The conclusion simply does not follow the premise.

Anyway, the point is that just because someone is a great player, it does not mean they are by necessity a great coach as well. Coaching requires a completely different set of skills – communication being at the top of the list. Apparently, so Bob Gainey thought, Carbonneau was lacking in this area. When you can’t communicate with your players, it will no doubt translate into their on-ice play. Such was the case with the Canadiens. Throughout numerous games in 2009, Montreal looked listless, confused and without emotion. It was like watching a team of robots. When you remove the emotion, you remove the will to win. When you remove winning in Montreal, there is no doubt going to be a problem.

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So, at the end of the day, Gainey did what he thought would be best to attempt to correct the problem. After all, do they not say that when you want something done right, you have to do it yourself? The only sad part is that there had to be a casualty – and such a liked and respected person at that.

As such, before we officially say “Au revoir” and “A bientot” to Guy Carbonneau, let us remember why we admire him so much to begin with. To that end, in honour of his trademark number 21, I leave you with 21 reasons (of varying significance) why he is awesome.

1) His birthday is the day after St. Patty’s Day (ahh, the infamous hangover birthday)

2) He is the father-in-law of a Dallas Star (Brendan Morrow)

3) He played on the same team as Guy Lafleur (I know, they have the same name!)

4) If you add his player number (21) to the number of Stanley Cup rings he owns (3), you get the number of Stanley Cup banners hanging at the Bell Centre (pretty cool eh?)

5) He won the Frank J. Selke trophy as the league’s best defensive forward three times in five years (wow!)

6) He was traded by Montreal to St. Louis for Jim Montgomery (Jim who?)

7) He took the ceremonial face-off at the last game ever played at the Montreal Forum (alongside Saku Koivu)

8) He has a trophy named after him in the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League, which is awarded annually to the league’s best defensive forward (the Guy Carbonneau Trophy – go figure!)

9) He served as Montreal’s assistant coach on two separate occasions (alongside Michel Therrien and Bob Gainey)

10) His predecessor and successor as Montreal’s head coach was the same person (Bob Gainey)

11) In less than three full seasons as the Canadiens’ bench-boss, he earned himself a nomination for the Jack Adams Trophy, awarded annually to the NHL’s best coach (quite the feat!)

12) He has the same initials as George Clooney (wasn’t he on ER?)

13) He finished his career with 93 NHL playoff points (not brutal)

14) He guided the Habs to a first-place finish in the Eastern Conference in only his second year as head coach (not exactly a sophomore jinx)

15) He was probably the only coach in the league who always opted to shoot second in the shootout when given the option as the home team (why be like everyone else, right?)

16) Il parle francais fluent (check French-English Dictionary if required)

17) Whenever Montreal was called for a penalty, his demeanour always seemed to say, “Wow, this has to be a joke” (or maybe, “Sacre bleu! You call dat a penalty?!”)

18) He owns a lucky tie (how can you not like a guy with one of those?)

19) His friends casually refer to him by cool nicknames like “Carbs” or “Carbo” (I’m not sure why though?)

20) He was born in the same city as the bass player for Simple Plan (Sept-Iles, Quebec)

21) His last game as Montreal’s head coach was a win over his former team, the Dallas Stars (everything is bigger and better in Texas!)

And there you have it – 21 reasons why Guy Carbonneau is officially awesome. Merci, Guy, et a la prochaine!

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The Author:

Joe Scaringi