There's just no pleasing some people

There are exactly two criteria that determine whether an American Hockey League coach is doing a good job or not. Winning is one. Developing players is the other. By those standards, Don Lever was an outstanding employee for the Montreal Canadiens . The kind of guy you'd want to hold onto if you had him in your organization. Since taking over the Hamilton Bulldogs four seasons ago, he brought this city its first-ever professional Hockey championship by creating a game plan uniquely suited to the huge defencemen and technically-superior goalie entrusted to him that season. It's worth noting that along the way he knocked out teams coached by John Anderson and Bruce Boudreau, who both got their shots in the NHL since then. Last year, with a roster widely considered to be short on offensively gifted players and unexpected to score much, he altered his strategy and ended up with one of the league's higher-octane outfits and its second-highest point total ever. Most importantly, he taught young men how to play the game. So well in fact, that 21 guys who had no real NHL background before being placed under his wing are now regulars in the big leagues. Skill players like Tomas Plekanec, Andrei Kostitsyn and Mikhail Grabovski. Grinders like Maxim Lapierre and Max Pacioretty. Tough guys like Raitis Ivanans and Zack Stortini. Defencemen like Ron Hainsey and Ryan O'Byrne. Goalies like Carey Price, Jaro Halak and Yann Danis. And projects he turned into young gems like Matt D'Agostini and Greg Stewart. "We took a lot of pride in creating a real solid foundation for these kids," Lever says. So how do the Canadiens thank him for his work? With a promotion? With a raise? With a new contract? Nah. With a phone call from Bob Gainey telling him he's no longer got a job. "It wasn't an easy decision but we felt it was the right one for our prospects and organization going forward," says Montreal assistant general manager Julien BriseBois, who denies reports he's already tapped Quebec junior coach Guy Boucher for the now-vacant spot behind the Dogs' bench. You can debate the propriety of the way it was done, keeping in mind that most guys wouldn't even break up with a girlfriend over the phone. But harder to fathom is that it was done at all. When you do everything they ask and you still get shown the door, makes you wonder what more the Canadiens expected Lever to do. Walk on water? Feed the poor? Heal a leper? Speak French? Ah yes, French. Lever doesn't parlez much francais. But having already made sure the new coach of the big club met the language criteria demanded publicly by team president Pierre Boivin several months ago -- even if that meant overlooking several viable alternatives and settling for a retread like Jacques Martin, who's long struggled with a bad case of premature elimination -- you'd hope language didn't play a role in the decision here, too. Thing is, Lever says he doesn't know. Nobody's told him why he's been released. "They just said they were going in a different direction," he says. "It was a short phone call." BriseBois says this is one of those times that change is needed just for the sake of change. So even though Lever was good enough to win a title, develop plenty of players and be called up to the Habs to work as an assistant coach during the stretch drive last year, he still gets dumped. The same fate suffered by his assistant coach Ron Wilson, who took over for Lever behind the Dogs' bench late last year and kept the club rolling. Worse, they get it through Hockey's version of the George Costanza It's-Not-You-It's-Me non-explanation explanation. For an organization that boasts of its greatness at every opportunity but that's won five fewer playoff series than the Toronto Maple Leafs over the past 16 years and exactly the same number of Cups, you'd think proven winners who produce results would be people you'd want to hold on to. This isn't Lever's fault. Nor Wilson's. They did what was asked of them. Then can walk out of here with their heads held high. The Canadiens' brass? Not so much. sradley@thespec.com 905-526-2440