Canadiens firings not what they seem

by Bob McKenzie for tsn.ca, 11/20/00, excerpted

Ask 100 hockey people who’s a better coach—Alain Vigneault or Michel Therrien—and 99 will tell you it’s Vigneault. Mind you, Therrien has paid his dues, a career junior and minor-league bench boss who may be entirely adequate, given the right opportunity (and this may not be it).

But Therrien, even with Guy Carbonneau as his assistant, should not be considered an upgrade on Vigneault.

Vigneault, it says here, was sacrificed not because he couldn’t effectively coach this team, but because the Habs opted to show greater faith in Carbonneau than their head coach.

Carbonneau was hired in the off-season after retiring from the Dallas Stars. His function was to oversee the development of the Habs’ prospects, but it quickly became evident Carbonneau wasn’t going to be able to limit his input to that area.

As a player, Carbonneau exhibited one of the brightest hockey minds in the game. He also earned a reputation for being strong-willed, independent and stubborn. It would be fair to say that Carbonneau had firm ideas on how the Canadiens should be playing and that they didn’t necessarily mesh with what Vigneault was doing.

Clearly, Carbonneau wasn’t going to be content in his role of monitoring prospect development. He wanted and needed to be closer to the ice in all facets of the operation. And that wasn’t going to happen with Vigneault as the head coach.

So even though Boivin thought enough of Vigneault to give him that contract extension, he realized Carbonneau’s limited role would eventually become an issue.

By hiring Therrien, Boivin put an "experienced" or career coach behind the bench, but gave Carbonneau the title (assistant coach) and role that will allow the former Hab captain to be deeply involved on a day-to-day basis.

It would be a mistake to call Therrien a puppet or figurehead, but make no mistake—Carbonneau will have a huge say in the coaching of this team and may well be apprenticing for the balance of this season with an eye toward being the head coach by next season.

Of course, there’s no point in looking too far ahead. The sale of the Canadiens’ franchise is expected in the weeks or months to come. Depending upon who buys the organization, more changes—radical changes—may be in the offing.