Just when you forget how brutal a business the NHL can be on the ice, you all of a sudden get a reminder of how it can be just as brutal off of it too. Such is the case with the firing of Montreal Canadiens head coach Guy Carbonneau.
↵↵It was a little less than a year ago when Carbonneau led the Canadiens to a first-place finish overall in the Eastern Conference, a performance that made him a finalist for the Jack Adams Trophy as the league's top coach. But today, with his team still in playoff position -- albeit barely -- with just 16 games left in the regular season, Carbonneau finds himself without a job. ↵
↵↵Now consider what the conversation must have been like when delivering Carbonneau the news. His boss, Canadiens GM Bob Gainey, has been a friend for close to 30 years. The two were teammates in Montreal between 1982 and 1989, a stretch during which the Habs went to the Stanley Cup Finals twice, winning it all in 1986. When Gainey retired following the 1989 season, it was Carbonneau who succeeded him as team captain of the Canadiens. ↵
↵↵After a season in St. Louis, Gainey, as GM of the Stars, brought Carbonneau to Dallas, where he played in another two Stanley Cup Finals, winning a title in 1999. And after Carbonneau's playing career ended, it was Gainey who summoned him back to Montreal in January 2006 to join the coaching staff before eventually being elevated to the head coaching position in time for the start of the 2006-07 season. ↵
↵↵What's doubly surprising, as others have pointed out, is not just how the firing came so late in the season -- a move reminiscent of New Jersey GM Lou Lamoriello, who has canned coaches on playoff-bound teams twice with the postseason just around the corner -- is that it appeared as if Carbonneau had evaded the danger zone. ↵
↵↵The Habs are 5-2-0 in their last seven games, and it appears as if goalie Carey Price has finally regained the form that's been expected of him. And many of the team's troubles from the recent past -- both the temporary exile of Alexei Kovalev and the tabloid headlines grabbed by Sergei and Andrei Kostitsyn -- seem to be firmly in the team's rear view mirror. ↵
↵↵Still, overall, it's safe to say that the results this season -- one in which the Canadiens are celebrating their team's centennial year -- wasn't what management was expecting coming off last year's performance. Missing the playoffs in a year where the team will have hosted both the All-Star Game and the Entry Draft was a risk that they simply couldn't afford to make. And Carbonneau paid the price. ↵
↵This post originally appeared on the Sporting Blog. For more, see The Sporting Blog Archives.