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Don Lever Has Been Let Go


AK-1

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He has scads of NHL experience as assistant or associate coach. He's never been a head coach, but still, he would be a major step up from our previous hires in terms of overall NHL experience.

But he doesn't speak French, so the point is moot. He won't get the job.

I think Gainey should be coach/GM. Makes Gainey accountable for Carbo's salary obligations. Lever should be a permanent associate coach. In fact he could largely run the show if Gainey has enough confidence in his abilities. If somebody else (one of the assistant coaches) has to go to make room, c'est la vie.

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  • 4 weeks later...

Hey Don! I hope they have the sense to give you the head coaching job - you'll do a great job as long as they let you be your own man!

If you don't get it - come on back to Hamilton - Ron is doing great but the two of you are a dynamite team in developing our future Habs and in helping the Bulldogs win!

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Hey Don! I hope they have the sense to give you the head coaching job - you'll do a great job as long as they let you be your own man!

If you don't get it - come on back to Hamilton - Ron is doing great but the two of you are a dynamite team in developing our future Habs and in helping the Bulldogs win!

:blink:

Yeah he has a great future in Hamilton, not in Montreal.

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The man matched 2 rookies in the playoffs, theres no way i want a coach who does that in Montreal.

Plus he's been coaching forever, why isn't he in the NHL already? Something is up right there.

Can anyone say "Bruce Boudreau"?????? :lol:

Now try saying "Claude Julien"????? :P

Just two names off the top of my head who coached for years in the AHL - I'm sure there are more!

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If only............

If only Gainey would have stayed in the press box, gotten rid of Jarvis and Muller when he canned Carbo and let Lever run this team.

Lever would have had enough time to change the same old same old that was not working under Carbo. The outcome against the Bruins could have been very different.

If only...........

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  • 1 month later...
Reports had Guy Boucher coaching the Dogs, which he denied at the time, but we never know..

Sucks for Lever, he seemed like a great coach.

Great call, my thoughts exactly. I think that Guy has a similar coaching style to Jacques Martin in that they both are both defensive minded coaches who preach discipline. I think Gainey wants the young guns from the farm to be ready to play the style of the big team when they get there rather than be lost out on the ice, trying to find their way. This is the way Detroit utilizes their farm system and finally in a long time the Habs are starting to get the ship turned around.

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Gainey continues to surprise me. Firing Don Lever over the phone?? I heard he did the same thing to Carbonneau when he was fired. I thought Gainey had more class than that.

He wasn't really fired. His contract had expired and had not been renewed because the organization simply decided to go another direction (possibly giving Guy Boucher a chance?). I mean, the writing was on the wall already, Gainey having given he and Wilson the opportunity to pursue a job elsewhere last month.

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This seems so unnecessary. I haven't ever heard a complaint about Lever since he started. He brought the bulldogs their first stinking Calder Cup a few years ago. I hope more details come out that make this decision more reasonable. I don't need any more reason to be critical of Gainey.

I don't know what in the world Gainey can do without getting bashed all the time. When the season ended there were people in here calling for Gainey's resignation or firing for a lousy 100th Centennial, then the same bashers wanted wholsale changes to be made to make this team better. Well now it's hapening, first with the coaches and coaching staff at both levels. I know Don Lever won a cup for Hamilton and no one is disputing that he is not a good coach, but I think that Gainey wants continuity all across the board when it comes to the coaches. He wants everyone to be on the same page from the AHL, ECHL and the NHL club.

All those who want change are now getting it. With change comes moves that you may not like but that's life get over it. You can't have your cake and eat it too. You can't just have changes to certain things without affecting other things, it's just the process of doing things. Just let Gainey do the things he thinks he needs to do without bashing him on every move. This will probably be Gainey's last season if he doesn't get things turned around anyway. So we might as well see how the off season and regular season plays out.

The team is better today than it was 5-10 years ago, everything can't happen over night. I want a championship team as quickly as the next Habs fan, but I'm also a realist, I know that you don't go to bed one night and a transformation occurs where you wake up and the team is 180 degrees better. If Gainey was not running the ship, then we would only be bashing someone else. In the end I really don't see where it gets us. I know we all like to vent out our fustrations, but I know after I type it out it still doesn't change anything. I still have to wait for things to happen, even if they seem like they are at a snails pace.

This season will be better than last years team, because the hype of the 100th Centennial is over and theplayers who have had bad years will not duplicate them again this season, and by point total we were not that bad. I still have confidence in Bob to get the job done, but it just doesn't make any sense to see every move microscoped like we have been doing. I bet if the delivery guy took a different route to get to the Bell Centre, there would be an outcry at to what motovatd him to change is course.

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I think Gainey wants the young guns from the farm to be ready to play the style of the big team when they get there rather than be lost out on the ice, trying to find their way. This is the way Detroit utilizes their farm system and finally in a long time the Habs are starting to get the ship turned around.

+1

I'm happy to see that Gainey is trying to establish continuity between the farm team and the NHL team. That's what we need going forward. I feel bad for Lever, a good guy caught in the crossfire, but these kinds of purges are fairly customary when a new coach and new ownership take over.

People will bring up Lever's Calder Cup, but honestly, the point is to hoist the Stanley Cup. I don't give a damn one way or another how many Calder Cups the Bulldogs win, provided the Habs are successful.

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+1

I'm happy to see that Gainey is trying to establish continuity between the farm team and the NHL team. That's what we need going forward. I feel bad for Lever, a good guy caught in the crossfire, but these kinds of purges are fairly customary when a new coach and new ownership take over.

People will bring up Lever's Calder Cup, but honestly, the point is to hoist the Stanley Cup. I don't give a damn one way or another how many Calder Cups the Bulldogs win, provided the Habs are successful.

Exactly, the point of a farm team isn't to win, its to develop. I could care less if the Bulldogs win one game all year, as long as the future NHL players are being properly developed.

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