When Montreal traded Jaroslav Spacek to Carolina for Tomas Kaberle, they didn’t know they were doing him a favor.
NHL.com correspondent Ben Raby caught up with Spacek and asked his thoughts on what’s going on in Montreal. He was more than blunt and honest in his assessment of the situation to the point where you’ll wince (audio).
“I’m pretty happy to be gone from all that circus,” Spacek said. “Obviously it’s the number one sport in Montreal and everybody’s so proud. If the team doesn’t do well, like this year, it’s always pretty bad. I think the guys hiding right now, they don’t even want to go out and eat. It’s a big mess.”
One of the bigger distractions Spacek pointed to was the language situation with interim head coach Randy Cunneyworth saying, “All that crap with the French speaking coach doesn’t help if you don’t win the games.”
Spacek certainly wasn’t nasty in his take, he was honest and it’s hard to disagree with him given how things have shaken out this year. Hearing stories like this come out of what’s still a toxic situation is fascinating given the gigantic microscope everyone is under to succeed in Montreal.