So far, Gainey has gotten back zip, zip and zip for All-Star talent. Souray, Ribeiro and Huet for nothing at all. He's great for finding talent that is young but puts to much on one guy. Fedorov or anyone else would have been better than absolutely nothing especailly almost at the top of the East having to make the playoffs with two rookie goalies. Should be interesting to see how things come together or fall apart.
It was indeed a big let down to see Huet leave for nothing but I'm not that surprised. Bryzgalov was on waivers a couple of months ago and made goalies' value drop a lot especially for a guy like Huet who's not a proved playoff performer. I don't know how far we can go with two rookies goaltenders but the fact that we didn't land Hossa means that Bob probably didn't think that this team could've gone all the way and win the cup by adding a player of his caliber. I'm glad we didn't trade Higgins for Hossa if he wan't going to resign with us for sure this summer. It wasn't a great day but at least they won tonight! Higgins 2 goals! (Let's not talk about Ribeiro because he was one of my favorites on the Habs...)
We played good last night and Price only allowed one goal. I found we got too lazy defensively once we had a solid goalie. Thoedore and Huet were great examples of that and often took the media hit on it. Everyone just has to give 100%
I can kind of see Gainey's logic though. Despite their high seed, the Habs are still a relatively young team. They'll be back in this spot for the next few years and, if all goes according to plan, they'll be much better simply through internal improvement. I think swinging a Pittsburgh-ish deal for Hossa, who very well might bolt after this year, would've messed that all up. The only real complaint I can see is not getting enough value for Huet. But stro put forth a pretty reasonable explanation for why that happened.
