On Halak and Honesty

Jaroslav Halak will get his second straight start Saturday night against the Leafs while Carey Price contrinues to recover from the virus that has felled him.

With every game he misses, Price becomes more unlikely to find the form he displayed in his last two starts, though with the way he was talking so openly about what exactly was wrong with him after the Chicago game, I would be willing to believe that he's figured things out.

Halak played very credibly in Long Island on Thursday and he has something to prove against these Leafs, a team that basically cost him a shot at solidifying the starting gig in Montreal when he lost that game 5-2 in Montreal. I expect Halak to come out ready.

No other lineup news was announced today, but I hope Mathieu Dandenault remains on defence and Patrice Brisebois remain in the press box. Dandenault played a strong game Thursday night and I have to believe he has so much more to offer as a defenceman than he does as a forward on this team.

Meanwhile, Réjean Tremblay over at La Presse has caused a bit of a kerfuffle by quoting some "friends" of Guy Carbonneau's who say that Bob Gainey told him two weeks before the firing that he would quit himself before ever firing Carbo.

I don't know who these "friends" are, but my guess is they can't be all that tight with Carbonneau if they would leak information like this out. I have no doubts that Trembay was in fact told this by some people at the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League awards gala, especially since he was sitting at the same table as Carbonneau, but I have to look at the relationship these people have with the former Habs coach a little skeptically.

In any case, even if the story is true, I don't know if Gainey felt he had much of a choice other than to go back on his word. I can't imagine him telling Carbo that he would quit because it appears clear to me that Gainey likes his job, and why wouldn't he? I feel it is that affection for his post that led him to fire Carbo in the first place, fearing a further slide would cost him his GM job, so I find it somewhat strange that he would make a promise like that.

But if he did and went back on his word, well I guess he's just not a very good friend. But I also guess that's why friends shouldn't hire friends to begin with.