"It was only seconds after the news broke on June 17 that the Canadiens had traded goaltender Jaroslav Halak to the St. Louis Blues when a colleague, who is a big Habs fan, stormed into my office. "Is it true that they traded Halak?" "Yes," I replied. "What the hell are they doing?" he roared. "What a great way to (upset) the fans after such a great playoff run!" Two days later, when I arrived at the cottage I rent every year at Lancaster's Resort in Cloyne, Ont., for a two-week family vacation, the first words out of owner Ken Lancaster's mouth when he saw me were: "What the hell are the Canadiens doing? Why did they trade Halak?" Lancaster is a diehard Toronto Maple Leafs fan, so he loves the trade. Canadiens fans, not so much. When I returned to work last week, my email was full of rants from angry Habs fans (you can read some of them in this week's Letters to the Sports Editor on Page B22). During my vacation, it seemed like everyone I saw was asking the same question: Why did they trade Halak? It reminded me of the situation last year, after the Canadiens were swept by the Boston Bruins in the first round of the playoffs and people were asking why Halak never got a chance to play while Carey Price lost all four games and saw his career playoff record drop to 5-10." http://www.montrealgazette.com/spor...s linger about Halak trade/3263037/story.html
