Montreal Canadiens Centennial Season Anything But Celebratory

As a Calgary Flames fan, I could care about the Montreal Canadiens winning about as much as I care that Oprah is retiring in 2011.

That being said, as a Canadian hockey fan, there was a big part of me that hoped the Habs could win it all last season and keep their streak of hoisting a Stanley Cup in every decade alive.

Instead, they crashed and burned faster than Tiger Woods fleeing the wife in his Cadillac Escalade.

This season, the once-storied franchise continues their struggles to find an identity, and have been mediocre at best.

Let's face it, they've been more up and down than a Jenna Jameson flick.

As an outsider looking in, it is easy to see where it all went wrong, though pointing the finger at GM Bob Gainey is tough to do when he bleeds the bleu, blanc et rouge of the Montreal Canadiens.

It's like blaming just Bono for allowing U2 to put out their Zooropa album.

Honestly though, were the Habs that finished 41-30-11 last season really in need of a major face lift?

Aside from letting Komisarek walk, and signing Michael Cammalleri, Gainey's moves in the off-season made about as much sense as turning the Slapshot sequels into Disney movies.

Basically he replaced Saku Koivu's heart and soul with a player in Scott Gomez that would rather be playing in the US somewhere as long as it's got a nightlife.

Koivu and Gomez are tied in points so far this season by the way (15 each), but Saku has one more goal and comes about $4 million cheaper.

Brian Gionta is a good little player, but not worth the $5 million Gainey dished out, that money would have been better spent taking a gamble on 29-year-old Maxim Afinogenov, who was one of the last free agents to sign at around $3 million per.

On the back-end, a player like Derek Morris probably would have been a lot more useful than either Hal Gill or Jaroslav Spacek.

And in goal, it may have been smarter to get a veteran guy like Martin Biron to back up Carey Price and cut ties with Jaroslv Halak in order to bolster your roster further.

Afterall, Halak has some worth on the market, and Biron sported a 29-19-5 record with a Flyers team that apparently wasn't very good...go figure?

It seemed as though Gainey made quick decisions, in order to make a splash on the free agent frenzy, but set this club back further than they were last season.

Which is basically nowhere near winning a 25th Stanley Cup.

And with the cap hits of Gomez and Gionta over the next five years, the future is bleak at best.

The Canadiens fans deserve better in their 100th season; they should be able to celebrate with victories along with cherishing the former players who have donned the Habs sweater.

Something that may have come by simply keeping their core, and adding three or four more players to fill a few holes.

Instead, Gainey ripped it apart at the seams without knowing how to sew.