Music: {allcanada} HABS' EX-GOALIE COACH RESPONDS TO CRITICISM

Thursday, August 1, 2013

{allcanada} HABS' EX-GOALIE COACH RESPONDS TO CRITICISM

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The Montreal Gazette recounts how Pierre Groulx, fired as goaltending coach of the Canadiens June 3, was then subject to heavy criticism from Vancouver Canucks counterpart Roland Melanson. Those comments were published in the French daily L'Acadie Nouvelle.

Among Melanson's quoted comments: "Carey hasn't stopped deteriorating since I left."

Also: "(Price) is all over the place now," Melanson added. "At some point, there has to be some accountability in the schoolyard. The position requires a lot of work and Carey hasn't been consistent. He let things slide in practice and it caught up to him during games."

Groulx defends Price by noting "what Melanson said (of Price's numbers) was totally untrue." Groulx also tells The Gazette what irks him even more was Melanson's charge that the coach's personal relationship with the franchise goalie undermined their work together on the ice.

"People think that Carey and I were close buddies," Groulx said. "We had a professional and personal relationship. A personal relationship needs to be built so that there's trust between the goaltender and his coach.

"Did Carey and I go for beers? No. We didn't go for dinner unless it was once or twice in Kelowna when I went out (to Price's off-season home) in the summer. We weren't best friends, we just had a really good working relationship.

"You don't know what's going on in a hockey locker room unless you're inside. I cannot criticize any other coach in the NHL because I do not know what's going on behind closed doors.

"In Montreal, any fan can watch practices (in Brossard). You can say you're watching, but you're not listening to what's being said in the room.

"That's the thing that pissed me off the most," Groulx said of Melanson playing the friendship card with a thinly veiled agenda. "I was floored by it because in the business we're in, you do not do that."