Finally, after years of being dogged by the media and fans, Bob Gainey got the credit he deserved when the Montreal Canadiens made it into the Conference Finals last month; fittingly, it was after he had already stepped down as the team?s GM. Gainey always received credit as a player, and deservedly so. He played his entire 16-year career with Montreal, and earned the nickname ?Le Capitaine? for wearing the ?C? from 1981-89. He won four straight Selke Trophies, a Conn Smythe, five Stanley Cups and was inducted into the Hall of Fame in 1992 after being regarded as one of the best two-way forwards to ever play the game. After he was finished playing, he was hired as the coach and GM of the Minnesota North Stars, taking the team to the Stanley Cup Finals in his first season (1990-91). At the end of the decade as GM-only, his Dallas Stars won five straight Pacific Division titles and made it to back-to-back Stanley Cup Finals in 1999 and 2000, winning the first year and losing to New Jersey the next year. But in Montreal, where Stanley Cups are the expectation every season, Gainey failed to deliver the ultimate prize. Prior to this year, Gainey?s clubs never made it past the second round. However in his six seasons as GM, the team only failed to make the playoffs one time. Nonetheless, Gainey was routinely vilified. But as you will be able to see from the breakdown below, the blame should fall more on the players than the management. Gainey put together talented hockey teams that just failed to deliver when it counted. The best example is the 2007-08 team that led the NHL in goals and was the first seed in the Eastern Conference, but ended up flaming out in the second round to the sixth seeded Flyers. 2003-2004 In 2003, he brought his three Stanley Cup appearances as a GM to Montreal, where he was hired as the GM and VP. The roster he inherited had a lot of good names: Saku Koivu, Jose Theodore, Joe Juneau, Sheldon Souray, Francios Beauchemin, Patrice Brisebois, Andrei Markov, Richard Zednick to name a few. In the AHL they had Tomas Plekanec, Ron Hainsey, Mike Komisarek, Michael Ryder and Mike Ribiero. And in his first draft he added Andrei Kostitsyn, Maxim Lapierre, and in the ninth round Jaroslav Halak. There were no big additions in Gainey?s first free agency, but he did make a huge splash near the trade deadline when he acquiring the highly skilled Alexei Kovalev for the mere cost of a minor leaguer and a second round pick. Though Kovalev was disinterested at times, he did contribute 111 goals in just over four seasons, including the second best season of his career in 2007-08 when he had 35 goals and 84 points. The seventh seeded Habs would upset Boston in the first round and lose to eventual champions Tampa Bay in the second round. 2004-05 There was no NHL season due to the lockout, but that didn?t mean Gainey couldn?t improve his roster. He drafted a stellar defenseman in Mark Streit in the seventh round, who would parlay his solid two-way play into a big contract with the Islanders after being the third highest scoring defenseman in 2007-08. At the draft, Gainey also traded goalie Mathieu Garon and a third round pick for Cristobal Huet and Radek Bonk. Huet would earn considerable playing time in the few years ahead, while Garon bounced around as a backup. 2005-06 Before NHL resumed play after the lockout, Gainey drafted Carey Price fifth overall, along with Matt D?Agostini and Sergei Kostitsyn. And as the salary cap was introduced, Gainey made some difficult for important decisions, such as dealing away Theodore and his big contract to Colorado. Montreal would finish sixth in the conference and lose to eventual Cup winners (again) Carolina. 2006-07 This was the one season where Gainey failed to impress and may have deserved the criticism he received. He didn?t draft anyone noteworthy in the draft, and instead tried to make his splash in free agency when he added veteran forwards Mike Johnson, Richard Zednick and Sergei Samsonov. Those moves didn?t pan out, as the offense sputtered and Huet was injured in February; the team finished tenth. 2007-08 In need of a big bounce-back year, Gainey boldly decided to let his best defenseman (Souray) walk in free agency. Also departing were Johnson, Bonk, Samsonov and Craig Rivet. The biggest addition ? not for the current season but for Montreal?s future ? was when P.K. Subban was drafted in the second round; his solid play in the playoffs, despite less than a handful of regular season games to his credit, give the Habs plenty of hope for the future. In free agency he signed Roman Hamrlik, Patrice Brisebois and Brian Smolinksi. Then at the deadline, Gainey rolled the dice with the rookie Price (rhyme not intended) and sent Huet to Washington for a draft pick. The team ended up finish on top of the Eastern Conference, but was upset in the second round. The one notable addition that stuck with the club was the acquisition of Josh Gorges in February (for Rivet), as he has become a leader and dependable blue liner for the current club. 2008-09 With the defense appearing to be in decent shape, Gainey spent this offseason trying to improve his offense. He traded for top-6 forward Alex Tanguay on draft day for their first round pick and 2009?s second round pick. Tough guy Georges Laraque was signed to toughen up the team, and veteran playmaker Robert Lang was acquired in September. The team was underperforming though, and Gainey made the tough decision to fire his friend and former teammate Guy Carbonneau and assume interim head coaching duties. They ended up finishing second in their watered-down division, but eighth in their conference and were swept in the first round. 2009-10 This was undoubtedly Gainey?s busiest offseason, and it turned out to be his most successful. He gambled a lot, and it paid off. At the trade he acquired Scott Gomez and his very large contract from New York along with Tom Pyatt for Christopher Higgins and two others. Then on the first day of free agency, Bob made FOUR big signings: Mike Cammalleri, Hal Gill, Brian Gionta and Jaroslav Spacek. After this, Montreal was picked to finish near the bottom of the league because of the lack of size: all of their best forwards were under 6? tall. Everyone questioned how they could possibly succeed without any size up front. Well as it turned out, three of those four signings (sorry, Spacek) were among the best and most dependable players for Montreal in the playoffs. Cammalleri ended up leading the playoffs in goals with 13 despite not making the Finals. Gionta was Mike?s lineup and beneficiary of a number of fortunate rebounds. Gill, who was once dubbed ?No Skill Gill,? turned into an elite stopper over night, and a shot-blocking machine who was the anchor and lead of the defensive system put in place by new coach Jacques Martin. But lost in the success of this year?s playoff run, was the fact that Gainey resigned due to personal reasons in February, and handed the team over to long-time assistant Pierre Gauthier. And it was Gauthier who decided not to trade Halak or Price, or anyone else from the team that Gainey assembled. And this team that Gainey assembled, one that was deemed to be too small to succeed, ended up eliminating the President?s Trophy winning Capitals in the first round after being down 3-1. For an encore, they downed the defending champion Penguins, only to lose their glass slipper in the Conference Finals to Philadelphia. It was at the tail end of this playoff run that everyone in hockey began to realize that Gainey had built a good hockey team, one that will be remembered for all of the right reasons. Over night he went from being vilified to being lauded. As Bob Marley said in the famous 1980 release, Gainey was able to move forward triumphantly, and was able to walk away because none but ourselves can free our mind. His mind should be free now, because while he didn?t win a Cup, in the end he certainly was triumphant. Nick can be reached via email nickobergan@hotmail.com or @NickObergan