Canadiens Fire Pierre Gauthier

In a move that no one - and by "no one," I actually mean everyone - saw coming, the Montreal Canadiens today announced the firing of General Manager Pierre Gauthier.

Announcement: http://canadiens.nhl.com/club/news.htm?id=624765&navid=DL|MTL|home

The other parts of the news are that Serge Savard has been appointed an advisor for the selection process of finding Gauthier's replacement - a strong move given that for all of Geoff Molson's passion and concern, he isn't truly a hockey guy. The official appointment of Savard, long speculated about by many, indicates that along with Gauthier, Bob Gainey's time of influence on the organization is also be at an end. Gainey occupied the role of special advisor to Gauthier since he stepped down as GM. Finally, the temporary Larry Carriere behind the bench experiment has come to a close, as he returns to his role as Assistant GM, taking on hockey operations (e.g. call-ups) duties until a new GM is in place.

Why was it right to fire Pierre Gauthier? I think anyone who has read this site has seen my enumerate reasons on many an occasion. Mismanagement of assets, a lack of back-up plans that forced the team to give up 2nd round picks year after year, this season's inexcusable inexperienced defense, the Scott Gomez trade likely having been one of the worst trades in the last decade or more, this season's Tomas Kaberle deal saddling the club with another big contract, the lack of class with which Gauthier handled some issues, and so much more. Gauthier's "plan," if there really was one big picture, failed. He tried to adapt on the fly, to bring in more size, to fix holes, to acquire future assets... but it was too little too late, and it was certainly time for him to go.

Why now? Well it didn't make sense to rush the process and get Gauthier out the door prior to the trade deadline, since it was important to have a hockey person in place to manage that busy time. The Canadiens need to search high and low to find the best possible replacement, and there are far fewer candidates available mid-season than during the summer. We'll go over candidates for the new GM in the coming days, but today Geoff Molson indicated winning and finding the best person for the job are top priorities (though language is also important), while Serge Savard indicated that - without doubt - the new GM will be capable of speaking French. Why not wait till season's end? At this point, it makes little difference. With Greg Pateryn signed, there are no upcoming close deadline for the Canadiens from a player management perspective, so the search is completely free to get underway.

More to come, now that we're back up and live on Dan's Daily Dose - Your Canadiens!

Canadiens Fire Perry Pearn

Less than 2 hours prior to their game against the Philadelphia Flyers, the Montreal Canadiens announced that assistant coach Perry Pearn had been relieved of his functions.

This opens a spot behind the bench for Randy Ladouceur, who had been "assistant coaching" from the press box. Ladouceur came up to the Habs from the Hamilton Bulldogs along with Randy Cunneyworth this summer, but only one spot on the bench was available at the time (that replacing Kirk Muller).

Pearn has been an assistant coach in the NHL every season going back to 1995-96, when he was behind the bench with the Winnipeg Jets. He joined the Habs prior to the 2009-10 season, coming over from the New York Rangers who were no longer pleased with his services after 4 seasons there, where he was in charge of a sputtering powerplay as well as the defense. Rangers fans seemed please about his departure at the time, painting him as someone who sticks to his guns even when the plan is failing. (for more on that, see here:
http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:x-jXvBynVlAJ:community.iamaranger.com/reply/2181530/t/FIRE-PERRY-PEARN-ALREADY-PLEASE.html+new+york+rangers+fire+perry+pearn&cd=12&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=ca)

He previously worked with Jacques Martin as part of the Ottawa Senators staff, feeding into the notion of a Jacques Martin / Pierre Gauthier "country club" running the team.

Gauthier said Pearn was offerred another position to remain with the organization, but it is still unknown whether or not he'll take it. Over the summer, there were rumours that the Edmonton Oil Kings were interested in hiring Pearn to head coach their Western Hockey League club, so perhaps he will try to go the junior route.

When pressed on a reason for the firing, Gauthier repeated several times a mantra of the team "changing its global outlook" and starting to "think outside the box." While he wouldn't give specific details, he did also add that he was getting frequent phone calls from other general managers proposing trades. It will be interesting to see what the next few days hold, especially given the team has a long break following Saturday's game against the Boston Bruins.

This isn't the huge Gauthier / Martin firing shake-up that many are clamouring for, but it's a start. In Gauthier's press conference, he mentioned that Martin is still his "homme de confiance," or "his guy." It seems like the pair will sink or swim together, though Gauthier also said that Martin tried to convince him not to fire Pearn. One might read into this move that the PG / JM team has some degree of immunity for this season, especially given that Gauthier was able to offer Pearn another position. It will be interesting to see how Geoff Molson will address the situation as President if the team continues to struggle.