Losing crucial ground

Another effortless game, another avoidable loss. Mindless giveaways, endless time spent in the defensive zone. These Canadiens are pure awful, there's no other way to describe it.

I'm starting to see Gainey's plan here: see if anything's possible with this sorry bunch in his first 10 games or so behind the bench, and then start to make some decisions. At this point, it would be wise for the Habs' coach/GM to give up on the season and try getting some bang for his buck with trades. That would give him the chance to really put his stamp on the team and flush out all the poison that's dragging this organization down. I'm not saying this to knock André Savard, who is a very intelligent hockey man; this team's problems go back way before he was a part of it.

One must really beg the question: are the players on this team worthy of enjoying success and raucous applause from their fans if they're even capable of it? My personal answer right now is 'no' - I would have a very hard time cheering for these guys after their consistently lacklustre play - but a few digits added to the 'W' column might persuade me otherwise. For now, though, this is absolutely pathetic.