Bob Gainey: The Perfect Hockey Player

Take a look at Bob Gainey's career statistics. This is perhaps the most obvious case that statistics do not tell the whole story.

An impressive 1160 games played but "only" 239 career goals, 262 assists for 501 points. Throw in 25 more goals and 73 more points in 182 playoff games, and it appears Bob was a fairly average player.

Gainey never scored more than 23 goals or 47 points in a single season, yet the Russians once called him the greatest player in the world.

Gainey was a defensive specialist. He was constantly bumping, grinding, tormenting, frustrating and nullifying his opponents. The NHL didn't hand out an award for the game's best defensive forward until 1978, and Gainey's awesome largely responsible for the creation of the award. Gainey was the first recipient of the Frank J. Selke Trophy and won it 4 years in a row.

" I am happy to be the kind of player that this trophy honors, but hope to round off my all-around abilities," Bob said when he won the Selke Trophy for the first time. " Because of all the great scorers in the game, he added, " this trophy was an added incentive for a player like me to work towards. First I just wanted to make the team, and next to play regularly. But then to be given a major award by the league...it's quite an honor."

When Gainey played as a junior for the Peterborough Petes he had a reputation of being a defensive player with great potential. Montreal drafted him as their first choice, 8th overall in 1973. In his final season under coach Roger Neilson he still wasn't an outstanding goal scorer, netting 22 goals and 21 assists in 52 games.

Gainey regarded his own goals and assists as icing on the cake. Because of his specific role with the Canadiens, he was never able to really get a chance to show he could contribute offensively. But nonetheless he was an extremely important cog of 5 Stanley Cup championships and a Canada Cup championship. Bob was also awarded the Conn Smythe Trophy as the most valuable player in the 1979 playoffs, the Montreal Canadiens fourth consecutive Stanley Cup. Bob participated in four NHL All-Star games, despite not being a prolific scorer.

" Bob Gainey is just as important to the Canadiens as Guy Lafleur," teammate Larry Robinson once said.

Bob Gainey was a key member of Team Canada during the 1976 and 1981 Canada Cup tournaments. He also impressed during exhibition games between Montreal and the touring Soviet clubs. Red Army and Soviet National Team coach Viktor Tikhonov described him as technically the world's best player.

When Montreal played a classic against the Red Army team on New Year's Eve in 1975 (3-3) it was Bob who set the tone for the entire evening.

A few seconds after the opening face-off, the puck slid into the Soviet end, where Alexander Gusev picked it up, nonchalantly wheeled, and then waltzed down the right side, his eyes on the puck. Bob came roaring across the ice and smashed Gusev into the boards, rattling his bones. The hit was so hard that both players fell to the ice. It was a typical Bob Gainey play.

Bob was an all-around athlete who enjoyed any sport. He retired in 1989 after 16 years with the Montreal Canadiens, and five Stanley Cup championship rings. Bob also served as the Habs' captain from 1981 to 1989, conducting himself with utmost class, both on and off the ice.

In retirement he became one of the NHL's most respected coaches and managers.

Weekend Reading: Bob Gainey

Here's Bob Gainey on the cover of Goal magazine back in June 1986. It's funny - Gainey was a member of five Stanley Cup championship teams in Montreal, but this 1986 shot of a weary veteran Gainey hoisting the Cup is his lasting image.

Let The Patrick Roy To Montreal Rumours Begin

Bob Gainey made the toughest decision of his tenure in Montreal yesterday. He fired his own protege, his long time teammate and his close friend, Guy Carbonneau. There may be no more like-minded coach/GM combo in the game.

The move was surprising in that one close friend felt he had to throw the other friend under the bus, especially here in the Canadiens centennial season. Carbonneau is one of Montreal's great foot soldiers over the years, first as a player and as a coach. To be made to walk the plank for a disastrous anniversary season will sit well in history's eyes.

It is also surprising in that Montreal had just come off a victory, and were 5-2 in the past 7 games, perhaps righting the ship after a real tough stretch. Goalie Carey Price seems to be back on track, as is the power play following the arrival of Mathieu Schneider. Overall Carbonneau's record in Montreal was 124-83-23, and was described by Gainey as his "best acquisition."

At the same time this firing should come as no surprise. A few weeks back it was Gainey who ordered moody captain Alexei Kovalev to stay home and rethink his role on the team.

Some say the Kovalev situation is just the tip of the ice berg. Georges Laraque, Mathieu Dandenault and the recently departed Steve Begin, all Francophones, were all vocal in their displeasure with the coach.

Carbonneau, a coach of the year award finalist just last season, lost the room, never a good situation. And for all his line juggling, Carbo could not find the answers.

Gainey obviously felt he had to step in, probably for a couple of reasons.

Firstly, he is hoping to salvage the centennial season with a magical playoff. At the time of the firing the Canadiens were just two points up on the 9th place team in the East.

Secondly, he wants a first hand evaluation of his team and players. He faces a significant overhaul this summer, with 10 regulars, including most of his top players, reaching unrestricted free agency. Only 6 forwards, 4 defensemen and both goalies are signed for next season.

What better way to determine who is worth keeping and who to get rid of than by being in the room and on the bench with them.

Lever Being Groomed?

Gainey also announced that Hamilton Bulldogs head coach Don Lever will join him behind the bench. Lever, a top coach in the minor leagues for a long time now, has first hand experience with many of the Canadiens younger players.

This will lead many to suspect Don Lever is being groomed to take over next season as the new head coach of the Montreal Canadiens. It is highly unlikely that Gainey will continue to coach beyond the balance of this season.

But that begs the question - would Montreal hire an English-only speaking coach? They have not had an English only coach since the glory days of Scotty Bowman. (I'm pretty certain Bob Berry, a Montreal native, was bilingual.)

Lever is an excellent coach, and deserves an NHL shot somewhere. But, as Dennis Kane told me, "an English speaking-only coach in Montreal would be fed to the lions. If Lever is being groomed, he'd better take some quick French lessons."

Assistant coach Kirk Muller, another Anglophone, could also be on the list of candidates. Doug Jarvis, another assistant coach, seems happy to forever remain as an assistant.

And there certainly are more English coaches available compared to French coaches. That is just fact based upon population advantages.

But to hire a coach who is unable to speak French in Montreal would be sacrilegious. The notoriously tabloid French media would be out for blood.

It won't be long before the French media will be championing Patrick Roy as the next coach of the Montreal Canadiens.

It would take a very special coach to quiet the French media, with no one, short of the return ofBowman himself, able to step in without controversy.

There is only one way an English-only coach could survive in Montreal - deliver the Stanley Cup.

Update: Lowetide has by far the best Bob Gainey picture for today's news.

Busy Times For Bob Gainey

I'm guessing Montreal Canadiens' boss Bob Gainey isn't getting a lot of sleep these days.

He has a hot and cold enigmatic team that could really make some noise in the playoffs if they can get it all together in time.

That must make the decisions tougher as he heads in to Tuesday's trading deadline. And if all the rumors are to be believed, Gainey is working overtime working the phones while trying to land everyone from Marian Hossa to Vincent Lecavalier to Olli Jokinen to Alex Tanguay to Mats Sundin.

Gainey will have to take some time away from his general manager's job and remember and be remembered for the days when he was one of the greatest players in the game. The Habs will retire Gainey's jersey #23 on Saturday night.

Gainey certainly deserves the honor. He was perhaps the best defensive forward of all time, so good they basically made a trophy to honor him and players like him. What he gave up in offense actually made him a complete player, some would say the closest thing to a perfect hockey player that there ever has been. In the 1970s the Russians believed he was the best player in the NHL. He was an important piece of Montreal's dynastic puzzle in the 1970s.

The memories will be in abundance Saturday night in Montreal. Share your memories of Bob Gainey right here.

Catching Up With The Past - Playoff Edition

Dave Stubbs over at Habs Inside Out/Montreal Gazette re-posted a 2005 article on Bob Gainey. Dave shows off his fine writing skills in this article that really humanizes one of the great respected hockey minds in the game. A must read. Here's an excerpt:

Chin tucked to his chest and broad shoulders squared, he strides purposefully into the sea of train-bound commuters. They show flickers of "Hey, isn't that ...?" just as he's out the door and headed up de la Montagne, into a sharp winter wind that cuts like a blade.

Gainey has charted a few routes home, designed to elude both the gusts and the crowds.

"They're very nice," he says of Montrealers, "but having horns honked at you as you walk down the street isn't my preference. There's still a tradition and richness to the franchise here. The city still cares, and that's important."

His step quickens as he passes two young men, one wearing a Canadiens cap, who give him a double-take.

"And you know, by the time I tell them I'm not Larry Robinson, I'm gone."

Full Montreal Gazette Article -- Bob Gainey Biography

In other pieces:

James Mirtle recently bumped into former Washington Capital Pat Peake, the convincing argument for no-touch icing.

Robert L at Eyes on the Prize looks at the history of the Montreal Canadiens captaincy and goaltending.

Eric McErlain of the new AOL NHL Fanhouse directs our attention to a L.A. Times article that catches up with none other than Dave "Tiger" Williams. It seems the Tiger is the same as always.

Three More Additions to Legends of Hockey

Bob Gainey and Bob Nystrom share a lot in common. They were both hard nose wingers on glorious Stanley Cup dynasties. They both were extraordinary role players, perhaps two of the best ever. And even though neither got the spotlight that some of their flashier teammates received, both were every bit as important to their championship reign as anyone else.

They are two of three new additions to the Legends of Hockey Network today. The third is best known as a hard hitting Boston Bruins defenseman and long time Edmonton Oilers coach. But he is best remembered as the victim of a nasty stick swinging incident. "Terrible Ted" Green joins Bob Gainey and Bob Nystrom as the newest profiles here at Legends of Hockey Network.