Music: {allcanada} Ex-Hab Spacek rips Canadiens' management

Wednesday, May 23, 2012

{allcanada} Ex-Hab Spacek rips Canadiens' management

The Montreal Gazette ran a really interesting feature on 38-year-old former Habs blueliner Jaroslav Spacek, who will be a UFA this summer who hopes to re-up with the Carolina Hurricanes.

Off the record over lunch, Spacek chronicled in detail an alarmingly dysfunctional Habs hockey-operations unit that, alongside a ridiculous number of injuries, played a starring role in the team's rock-bottom finish.

More broadly, he repeated the words spoken by more than one Habs teammate: there was virtually no management communication with players, the club's style of play seldom suited the roster, and mind-numbingly bizarre rules were legislated, these childish regulations unchanged even after the pleading of veteran leaders.

"So much bad stuff," Spacek said. "In my 20-year hockey career, I'd never seen anything like it. If you don't like the way I play, kick me in the ass. But no one said anything. It was terrible.

"But this is a great city, I loved to play here so much, I really enjoyed it. The fans were hard on me, but I understand it's a big market. I always tried to protect the young kids, to take them out of the (media) scrums. …

"If I'd stayed here, in a bad situation, I'd probably be (retiring). I wouldn't be playing much, I'd have no confidence and I don't think anybody would have picked me up."

Carolina, by contrast, was a breath of fresh air. Spacek was made to feel welcome by head coach Kirk Muller and, even if he wasn't playing huge minutes, he knew his role; that was a constant mystery in Montreal.

He feels for demoted coach Randy Cunneyworth, "who was put in the worst situation ever," and expresses surprise that Gauthier wasn't shown the door the same day Jacques Martin was turfed.

That said, Spacek says he's heard "only positive things" about new GM Marc Bergevin, and believes the change will greatly improve "an organization that's been in the dark" the past couple of years.

Read the entire Spacek Q&A, which delves into much greater detail than the feature article itself could provide due to space limitations, in Hockey Inside/Out. Consider this a must-read. Really honest, revealing thoughts from Spacek.