Faith, Rescinded
On the twenty-fifth day of the second month in the year of Our Lord two thousand and seven, Bob Gainey didst trade Craig Rivet to the San Jose Sharks for Josh Gorges, and the pundits were perplexed, for Rivet was a solid D-man of size and combativeness, yet Gorges was small and obscure and the pundits knew him not, and they were skeptical.
Yet the fans cried out, trust in Gainey, for he has a plan.
And on the second day of the seventh month in that same year, Bob Gainey didst sign Roman Hamrlik to a four-year deal, and the pundits were flustered, for Hamrlik was old and of unspectacular achievement, and they were skeptical.
Yet the fans cried out, trust in Gainey, for he has a plan, though we may know it not.
And on the twenty-sixth day of the second month in the year of Our Lord two thousand and eight, Bob Gainey didst trade Cristobal Huet to the Washington Capitals for a second-round pick, and the pundits were irate, and Bob McKenzie didst shake his great head in disbelief, and Pierre Maguire didst shout condemnations.
Yet the fans cried out, trust in Gainey, for he has a plan, though his motives may be mysterious and his ways manifold.
And verily, on the twentieth day of the sixth month of that year, Bob Gainey did acquire Alex Tanguay for picks and pieces, and the pundits were pleased, and said, yea finally Gainey has made a sensible deal.
And the fans said, we told you so.
And on the twelfth day of the ninth month, Gainey did acquire Robert Lang, and the pundits exalted him, and said he has made his team into a contender, verily they shall make it to the Conference Final at least in this season.
And the fans rejoiced.
But the team was bad, and did not make it to the conference final, and the pundits were mystified, for what they had forseen had not come to pass.
And then, on the thirtieth day of the sixth month in the year of Our Lord two thousand and nine, Gainey didst trade Ryan McDonagh and Christopher Higgins to the New York Rangers for Scott Gomez and other players of minor import, and the pundits cried out in agony, for while McDonagh was a blue-chip prospect and Higgins a winger of great responsibility and leadership potential, Gomez was a center of diminutive size and gargantuan contract, and they said, there is no conceivable way that this could be good for the Habs.
And from Habistan there rose up a great wailing and gnashing of teeth, for though Gainey whispered to Komisarek and Kovalev, he spoke not to Koivu, who was also a center of diminutive size, but of reasonable contract demands and great heart. And the fans lost faith, and no longer did they say, Gainey has a plan, but cried out as one, Bob, what the fuck are you doing?
And Gainey didst retire to a secluded penthouse over the Rue St. Catharine, and didst keep his urine in jars in the closet, and refused to cut his fingernails, and didst watch tapes of the 2008 second-round playoff series against the Flyers many times, and the people were angry and afraid.
***
At what point must one give up faith in Gainey? Canadiens fans have been patient with him. We heaped scorn on Carbonneau and the players, but for the most part we’ve trusted Gainey, thinking him a cautious and sensible man. If, on occasion, people have lamented his inability to make ideal acquisitions (i.e. Vinny), they’ve also given him a lot of credit as the best management this organization has had in many a year.
It’s true, his moves have often been inexplicable. The analysts have disagreed with him more often than not. There’s a reason that ‘In Bob We Trust’ is a frequently circulated phrase on Canadiens message boards and discussion sites- because often his trades and signings have seemed to be lateral or even negative, yet they worked, in strange ways which often became apparent only months later. We, more so than a lot of local fan bases, believe that Bob knows more than us, and so we keep the faith and wait.
But this move, this Gomez trade, this is ridiculousness on an unprecedented scale. Gomez may be good, I have no doubt that he can be good, perhaps even he will be good, but for this deal to seem reasonable, he’ll have to be more than good. This is the kind of deal that will only be vindicated by a Stanley Cup, and then only if Gomez contributes to the winning of it with an MVP-level performance.
It’s not a good move because Gomez is not worth that money for that long, he is not a player so gifted that he ought to taking up $7+ million of anybody’s cap space. I don’t care what Gainey thinks he knows about this dude that might make him more valuable, I don’t care if he’s the Winston Churchill of locker rooms and the Mother Theresa of childrens’ hospital visits, he’s not worth that contract. Yes, sometimes in this modern NHL, a bloated contract is the price of doing business, but that means all the more that a GM should reserve his bloated-contract overkill money for truly unique acquisitions, and if such acquisitions aren’t available or don’t want to sign in a given year, than just keep the cap space until something delicious comes along. There’s no crime in being under the cap, no cruel law of hockey says you absolutely have to spend $8 million on somebody.
Set aside, even, the questions about the Habs’ losses in the deal. Higgins, I think, was not long for this organization in any case, since his name has figured prominently in nearly every trade rumor that’s come up in the past two seasons. McDonagh, well, he’s still a long way from NHL ice, and I’ve rarely seen him play, so maybe the great minds in the organization know something I don’t. It doesn’t matter who we gave up, hell, if Sather gave us Gomez for free, wearing a tiara made from the Hope Diamond, it still wouldn’t be a good deal, because Gomez is not worth the money.
There is, remember, a dark side to Gainey’s behavior over the past three years. His actual moves have been rather sedate and almost numbingly prudent. However, his rumored moves- the deals and acquisitions he’s been named as a potential player in- have frequently been horrifying in scale. Every summer, it seems, the Canadiens are considered ‘in the running’ for the biggest of the big free agent sweepstakes, every trade deadline there’s an almost-blockbuster. These moves haven’t happened, and I’ve credited Gainey for that, thinking that he rightly balks at meeting the most outrageous of outrageous demands. But perhaps he’s only been lucky that the deals didn’t go his way, or now the Canadiens would be the dying home of overage, overpaid, one-season-wonders.
Last season, the much-anticipated, much-lamented centennial, was a do-or-die year for Gainey- he built a team that everyone thought would be extraordinary, he intended an epic run. He failed. You can blame his management or you can blame the luck (I personally blame the injuries rather heavily), but nevertheless he failed. With all the free agents, we anticipated a rebuilding, but a plodding, eccentric, Bulldogs-heavy rebuilding- not a grab-desperately-for-whatever-somewhat-prominent-name-was-available rebuilding. Perhaps there are moves still to come; one hopes there are moves still to come, for if this is the end of the Habs activities this July, it is cause for drinking, weeping and the ineffectual pounding of tables. But whatever moves do come, no matter how excellent or elegant, they’re not going to magically improve this one by association. And now, next season becomes another do-or-die season, except now it’s Gainey personally who’s on the line. This is a trade that must, somehow, via some transmutation of money or talent that I cannot even imagine at this moment, be justified; if it’s not justified, it’s going to have to be paid for, in cash and possibly punitive retribution. Good luck, Bob.
