Once again, not the news Canadiens fans were expecting or even hoping for. Canadiens’ General Manager Pierre Gauthier must really feel like he’s been on the hot seat to agree to swap Jaroslav Spacek for Carolina Hurricane’s ageing and slumping veteran defenseman, 33-year old, Tomas Kaberle straight up earlier today.

PHOTO CREDIT - Hurricanes.NHL.com

Whitby - December 9, 2011 - Once again, not the news Canadiens fans were expecting or even hoping for. Canadiens’ General Manager Pierre Gauthier must really feel like he’s been on the hot seat to agree to swap Jaroslav Spacek for Carolina Hurricane’s ageing and slumping veteran defenseman, 33-year old, Tomas Kaberle straight up earlier today.

If this news can’t get any worse for every Habs fan who was hoping to see Head Coach Jacques Martin shown the exit door, the Canadiens now have handle a heavy salary cap hit for three more seasons in not only Andrei Markov ($4.25 million) and Scott Gomez ($7.357 million) but now too with Kaberle ($4.25 million).

Tomas Kaberle is no longer the swift-moving offensive puck carrying defenseman like he was with the Toronto Maple Leafs of many seasons ago. Kaberle is just offensive (in the skunk-smelling sense).

Greg Wyshysnki of Yahoo! Sports Puck Daddy reported that Carolina Hurricane’s General Manager Jim Rutherford had even offered the Columbus Blue Jackets, Kaberle and a second round pick but were turned away. Said Rutherford last week on XM Home Ice, “he hasn’t played up to what we hoped he would have played…He came into camp and didn’t prepare himself properly. He came in like the Boston Bruins did after winning the Stanley Cup and enjoyed his summer, and he hasn’t caught up.”

Kaberle has 9 assists in 29 games and is currently a minus-12 so far in this 2011 -12 NHL regular season. Kaberle had zero power play goals this season for the Carolina Hurricanes. Tell me, why did Montreal make this trade again? Oh yes, I almost forgot. I have to believe they made this deal to improve their impotent power play. If memory serves me correct, Kaberle wasn’t even on the Hurricane’s first power play unit. With the amount of media attention that the Montreal Canadiens have generated with the NHL’s second worst power play and with the job the Head Coach Martin has shown to date, expected breaking news would have been a head coach dismissal, not a trade of this magnitude.

Jaroslav Spacek had been playing strong, consistent hockey for the Montreal Canadiens this season when he was healthy. Spacek had gotten himself into much better shape this off-season and it had shown in his improved defensive play.

The last time Habs’ fans expected to hear Jacques Martin was going to be shown the door by Canadiens’ brass, Petteri Nokelainen was welcomed into the Canadiens’ fold as the team’s fourth-line centreman. After last night’s loss to the Vancouver Canucks, fans were calling for Martin’s head and media reports indicated that the team had stopped playing for the Habs’ bench boss. I guess those reports were wrong; either that, or GM Gauthier and CEO Geoff Molson don’t believe Jacques Martin is the problem.

I would like to report this was a great trade for a team that requires a much-needed surge in offence, but we are not living in the year of 2005-06.

Until next time, play every game as if it is your last one…