<h2>Crisis of Faith</h2><h2>Solitude With Options</h2>

Crisis of faith...

...and crisis in the Kremlin
And yea we'd heard all of that before
It's wintertime, the house is solitude with options
And loosening the grip on a fake cold war

It's certainly wintertime in Montreal. But where once there were Lions, there are only Lines in Winter:

Lines on how bowling is better than practicing pass reception. Lines on how we must work with the team we have. Lines of tears down our juvenile netminders cheeks...

It is a true crisis of faith in Montreal at the moment. It went beyond the slump in Calgary. It went beyond the bottom last night.

In Bob We Trust?

One line you don't see bandied about is that one. And that for me is the crisis.

Before we always had Bob Gainey you see. Jan Bulis on the first line: In Bob we trust. Vezina winner for Aebischer: In Bob we trust. Let the most versatile player in the league leave to be replaced by (uh? no one?): In Bob we trust.

We don't have that anymore. We can't.

The only thing I can reasonably trust Bob Gainey to do these days is nothing at all.

The reason I think so many Canadiens fans are having such an ebb at the moment is precisely because they have come to question their own faith in the man. The man who was anointed and anointed others. The one we all look to after nights of stomach churning agony.

Montrealers saying they don't give a f*&$ about hockey, I never heard someone say that before...

This agony, that is followed by the inevitable questions and the unmistakable but tortuous conclusion that one may have been barking up the wrong tree for 165 hours and more of their year.

If Price isn't mentally strong, then that means Timmins is full of it and Gainey has gambled everything on...

If he could be wrong about that...

I guess this is only year 6 of the 5-year plan, and not the actual 100th, so there's not really any reason to panic (sic). Gainey's "5-year" plan now rests in the rebound ability of one of the youngest members of the team. Gainey bet on him early, he bet on him again, and then he went all in last February. Throughout that time, there has been the helplessness of knowing I couldn't influence those decisions any more than telling my bankers that I'd really like them to lend a little more carefully with my money in the future.


What, did you expect an answer?

Fire Carbonneau? Got a replacement? Like Michel Bergeron? Probably not.
Trade ______...? Good one.
Darts tournament?

In Bob We Trust? I ain't got anything else, sorry. His gamble was reckless, but it's all we have now. I certainly can't take solitude with options on a cold Saturday in February – I'm not ready to loosen the grip...