Carbo still has trouble with players

[Habsfan84]

If Guy Carbonneau had one major problem last season, it was communicating with his players. He admitted as much during the offseason, but there was an indication yesterday that the problem still exists.
Carbonneau benched veteran Steve Bégin for last night's game against the Panthers and, while I was surprised by the move, I'll defer to Carbonneau and accept he felt it was something he had to do to help his team.
What is hard to fathom is that Bégin learned he was benched when he walked into the Canadiens' dressing room yesterday and saw he wasn't on any of the lines for the Florida game.

Bégin appeared stunned as he talked to the media after the morning skate. He said he hadn't received any negative feedback from the coach and that Carbonneau hadn't talked to him about the decision.
If Carbo wasn't discussing the decision with Bégin, he certainly wasn't in a mood to share his thoughts with the media.
"I want to talk about the 20 players who are going to be on the ice," Carbonneau said in his opening remarks after the morning skate.
When Andie Bennett of the Team 990 raised the subject of communication five minutes later, Carbonneau was downright testy: "I don't have to talk to the two players on the ice. I'm going to meet with them and tell them what I think. I don't like to talk on the ice in front of the cameras, so you guys can speculate and have fun on TV."
Carbonneau might not feel he has an obligation to explain every move he makes to the folks wielding notebooks and microphones, although the argument could be made the media serves as a surrogate for the fans who ultimately pay his salary.
But it would be to everyone's benefit if he shared his thoughts with his players, particularly those who are directly involved in his decisions.
We saw the fallout last season when Carbonneau made a healthy scratch of Craig Rivet and later benched Saku Koivu during the third period of a game. The coach's failure to explain his decisions led to unnecessary controversy.
Any controversy that arises out of Bégin's tenure on the bench could have been avoided if the coach had taken a few moments to communicate. Coaches are constantly stressing the importance of communication on the ice, but there has to be some in the dressing room as well.
Koivu hung out to dry: Speaking of controversies that could have been avoided, the Canadiens
didn't do captain Saku Koivu any favours when they had him introduce his teammates before the home opener with the tagline: "This is my team."
Given that Koivu has been criticized in the past for not speaking French, you would think someone in the organization would have suggested, nay insisted, that Koivu open his remarks with a "Bonsoir" or close by saying "C'est mon équipe."
That would have forced La Presse columnist Réjean Tremblay, the closet monarchist who is the defender of all things Québécois, to actually work to get a column idea out of the game rather than have a controversy handed to him on a plate.
The Canadiens like to think of themselves as a classy organization and there's no doubt they have a knack for grand gestures.
But on this opening night, they left a very classy guy in an uncomfortable situation. And once again, it could have been avoided with a little thought.