My New York Road trip

This past Monday, I was on-air between 11am and 3pm. After work, I ran a few errands and watched the Canadiens-Leafs game at nite. Following the game, I co-hosted the Habs PostGame Show with Picard. I then took a 90 minute nap. At 12:30am I left my house to pickup Noel Butler and we were off to New York. If i wanted too, I could have gone by plane, but Im not crazy about flying; so i drove instead. The only thing I asked of Noel was to stay awake and talk to me because I was scared to fall asleep at the wheel. Noel said it would be no problem. We were ready. We had chips, chocolate and energy drinks. On the can it said consumption was 2 cans per day. By the time we reached the U.S. Border, Noel Butler had already drank 3 of them. I have tried many energy drinks, but this one tastes great. It's called Beaver Buzz......ok, ok.....don't laugh....Anyway, if you want to pick some up call my friends at Q-Bec Cafe, they are the distributors in Montreal. (514) 365-2111.

We finally left Montreal at 1am and checked in to the Doubletree Guest Suites at 9am. The Hotel is on Broadway and W47, the Montreal Canadiens were staying at the same hotel. I was on the 22nd floor, the players were on the 27th. I washed up and went to the 6th floor about half an hour later. The players were to meet for breakfast at 10am in a meeting room on the 6th floor. There were about 7-8 players there, one of which was newly acquired d-man Josh Gorges. Josh, is a great kid. He approached every guy and introduced himself. Almost every guy, shook his hand and 1 second later, they either turned to their left or their right, or placed a call on their cell. It wasn't the warmest of greetings. Now, I didn't see all the players meet him. Like I said, I only saw 7-8 players meet him; I can't tell you who they were, but I will say it Koivu and Souray weren't there when I was. Those two are leaders, I imagine they greeted him well. Of the 7-8 that were there, the warmest welcome came courtesy of Janne Niinimaa. He went over and said, ''Hi Josh, Im Janne. Welcome to the team. I think you will like Montreal. The whole process bothered me. When a player joins a new team, what great organizations do is: send his wife flowers, help them find a home, make sure the fridge is full, the groceries done, etc.....Now, as far as Josh is concerned, he's not married and doesn't have any kids. In that case, IMO the Canadiens should have sent a team rep to NY and that person should have introduced Josh to the guys........it all just didn't seem right. A former NHL executive, told me this is a management issue and management should make sure these situations are handled better in the future.

10am: I setup my laptop on the 3rd floor, in the lobby area. Some players (Johnson, Bouillon and Komisarek) came by and asked if any trades were made. Most of the guys however went out for a walk.

1:30pm: Some guys are still going out for walks....i thought they would be taking a nap instead.

4PM: the deadline ended at 3pm, but some trades were announced as late as 4pm. It's official, Bob Gainey didn't make a move. I wasnt really surprised; but if i was in his shoes, I would have been a seller. Moments later, I get word that Gainey will not answer questions from the Media at the Bell Center. Personally, I don't think thats right. Gainey, is like a CEO of a big company and the fans are the investors. The fans pay the players salaries,,,,,they had the right to know why the GM didn't improve the team. I believe it was part of Gainey's GM responsibilities to talk and I find it unfortunate that he didn't.

4:30pm: Guy Carbonneau shows up in the lobby area and takes a seat next to Pat Hickey and myself. Guy, told us they didn't make a move because the management team and coaching staff decided to give the players a vote of confidence. Carbo, went on to mention that in the East, besides Martin Brodeur, all the other goalies were equivalent. He said if the Habs make the playoffs, anything is possible. YEAH....YEAH....YEAH.....the team said the same thing last year.

In the meantime, the players were all coming down and went outside, where they waited for the team bus, set to leave 15 minutes later.....the players seemed down......they said they didnt expect the team to make a move, but deep down I believe they were hoping GM Bob Gainey would have added a player or two. Outside the players were split up in many groups....the whole time I was thinking where is the team spirit here? The players were talking with the media and the fans and signing autographs. Where is the focus? The guys were on their way to play Game #66 of the season and you would never know it. I talked to a former NHL Coach this morning about these issues. He told me that unfortunately cell phones and ipods are the story of the new NHL. However, he did say that the Coaching Staff can change all of this if they want. Think of it, you meet in the lobby at 4:30pm; you dont talk to anybody and when the bus is set to leave, the players are then escorted out by security. Honestly, the minute the players left for the rink, I knew they were going to lose...and lose big.....The guys need to be a team again. They need to get their game faces back on. Things have to change,.,,,I find it sad that The Montreal Canadiens, considered to be the best organization in all of hockey, are in reality very far from it.

Game over, Canadiens lose 4 nothing. Enter the room and 5 players are available: Halak, Streit, Komisarek, Souray and Koivu. The guys werent very happy, especially Koivu. He was still disappointed that Rivet left.....it will take a while for him to get over that one. I can understand his disappointment, but at the same time, he's the Captain and he has to lead the team.

Wednesday morning: a lot of players go for walks. I cross paths with many of them. Its on off day, the guys are relaxed and when that happens, you can get some good stuff off the record.

I asked one player if the team played badly because they were disappointed they didnt add a player at the deadline. I was told No; it was more a matter of the team being tired because they checked in at 2:3oam on Tuesday, following the Toronto game....

I asked another player if he was confident the team could finish strong. The player said, ''We are batttling for our playoff lives. There is pressure from the city, the fans and pressure we put on ourselves. Some players can handle it, it's obvious other players cannot.''

12:45pm: I am about ready to leave NY to come back home. I make my way to the Business Center, to print some directions; there I meet up with Chris Higgins. He's a true professional. He was on the TSN website, taking a look at all the trades and analyzing them. Chris and I had a great conversation. He told me he loves Montreal, he loves playing for the Habs and he hopes to be here for a very long time. Finally, some good news....

Here's the bad news, it's 1pm and I am ready to leave to come back home. But, I have to wait until 3pm before doing so because Noel Butler had to send emails and text messages. At which point, I look at him and say, ''Great Noel, it's 3pm and now we're stuck in traffic.'' He looks back at me and says, ''It's NY mate, there's traffic 24 hours a day.'' You can never win with this guy....

I am happy to be home! I was gone for only 45 hours, but I missed my 2 boys a lot...... and before my wife freaks out.....YES Honey, I missed you too. Hopefully, I can talk her into watching the Rangers-Penguins with me and the kids tonite on TSN.

Talk to you later......