Canadiens' GM Bob Gainey is entrusted with the difficult task of returning the team to their former glory.

Sometimes it's the small things that can make a big difference on an NHL team.

Case in point in Montreal, where General Manager Bob Gainey lashed out at fans who booed defenceman Patrice Brisebois during an exhibition game in early October.

While there's no doubt that Brisebois has sometimes brought things on himself, the veteran gave what can easily be described as an outstanding effort that night and Gainey thought the fans were unjust for picking on Brisebois for something that happened last season.

Usually a GM doesn't appear in the dressing room after a game, but there was Gainey in the Habs' room, sticking up for Brisebois and by extension all the players on Montreal's roster. The usually reserved Gainey chose his words carefully (he used words like "gutless" and "yellow" to describe the fans) and his biting comments were heard loud and clear by those who wear the storied Canadiens jersey.

Alan Adams has covered hockey since 1984 with the Canadian Press, Toronto Star and National Post. He also has covered three Winter Olympics (1988, 1994 and 1998). Adams also is a contributor to stlouisblues.com and his column on all things Canadian will appear each week on NHL.com. More Adams: All hockey, all the time

"There are not too many guys who can do that and he did it and it is first time in a while we have a GM that sticks (up) for the players," says veteran defenceman Stephane Quintal. "It was a great move and I think the players in the room appreciated it. I do not think everybody appreciated it, but I think for the players it was important."

"It felt good. It felt like you wanted to come to work the next day when you know someone is watching your back," adds defenceman Sheldon Souray. "I think Bob was like that as a player. He did not say too much and when he said something people listened. It was nice to have your boss come and defend you like that. It makes you want to work for the guy."

And if you're Gainey, you really can't ask for more than an honest effort from your players.

There has been great angst among fans and management in Montreal over the last handful of years as the team that won a record 24 Stanley Cups withered into a club that missed the playoffs for the fourth time in five years last season.

The Canadiens were in need of repair and management and did more than dip into their storied past when they named Gainey the new GM in June. They also overturned eight years of hiring unproven managers and coaches.

Gainey has an impressive resume. He is a former Canadiens' captain who won five Stanley Cups in Montreal. Since leaving the city 14 years ago, he's been a coach and GM for the Stars in Minnesota and Dallas, where he won his sixth Cup, and he was also one of three GMs of Team Canada at the 1998 Winter Olympics.

Now he's entrusted with the difficult task of retooling the Canadiens and returning the team to their former glory.

"I am still discovering, at least in my own opinion, what I think we need to do and how we need to go there," says Gainey. "And you can see there are some new players who people do not know yet that have the ability to be NHL players. How good they can be but how we can turn them into a good team that is stuff I still do not know."

Gainey knows as well as anyone that the Canadiens have a special place in the social fabric of a) Quebec and b) the rest of Canada. The Canadiens are a team fans either love or hate, and they are much-loved in La Belle Province.

Gainey was asked about what entices him about running the Canadiens.

"I think probably what makes it exciting and what makes it daunting is that is it in a place where it is really important to the people," says Gainey, who was out of hockey for over a year before the Habs sought him out. "I got to the point where I wanted to get back to doing something and then I got to the next point that it was going to be in the NHL and then I felt like I needed to do something different than the model I was in. It was a great model and it was fun, but to be working with a Canadian team and an established team that was a different scenario than the one I was in.

"People, I think, are still as attached to the team, but they have not had for a long time any consistency of evidence of this is going to be OK and it is worth committing to and I think we are still in that phase. We are going to have to supply the people there with some evidence that it is worth committing to, it is worth buying into, and it is worth getting emotionally attached to and that really is the daunting challenge."

Gainey played on some terrific teams during his Montreal tenure and knows what it takes to win.

When he was introduced in June, Gainey was quick to note that he can't separate himself from his personal history. Yes, he played on some great Montreal teams in the 1970s and 1980s, but also some lean teams. He said much has changed since he retired as a player and the emphasis is what needs to be accomplished now.

"We were happy with what we accomplished, but I don't carry it around with me," he says. "It was then. We did it. And the reason we're here today is because we would like to do it again."

Gainey is very calm and he analyzes situations before he makes comments. He works closely with the coaching staff, but knows when to back off and let them to their jobs. He wants the return to the glory days to be a team effort and he knows it starts by working together.

Quintal says Gainey's presence makes the Canadiens a better team.

"For me, growing up in Montreal watching the Canadiens, it was great to have a guy like him come in. He did so well as a player and as a GM and he brought a lot of credibility to the organization," says Quintal. "He walks in the room and he does not have to talk. He does not speak much but when he does speak, he makes a lot of sense and he is a great man.

Adds Souray: "He is a winner. He knows what it is like to play in Montreal. It is not the easiest place to play but when things are going it is a great place to play and he can relate to the fact there are a lot of potential distractions. He has been there and he has dealt with it and he can pass that on. He is just a leader and when he walks in, you know he is here."

Gainey was interviewed at Toronto's Air Canada Centre after the Canadiens spoiled the Maple Leaf home-opener, winning 4-0, and he was asked about his rant in support of Brisebois.

"I did not call the fans cowards, but there is a certain group of people who have been coming to the games and from what I heard and understood that it isn't the fans and it isn't the 17- or 18- or 19-thousand fans It is a minute, minute minority And they intimidate and they bully and it is not right," he says.

"The people here were disappointed in their team and they sent them a message (by booing the Leafs off the ice at the second intermission). There is nothing wrong with that and I do not have any problem with that as a team or as an individual if he is considerably below expectations then that is what we do. But in this case, that it was not the case and it becomes personal. It becomes bullying and I still say those people ... I do not want them at the games and we do not need them at the games. Nobody needs that."

The Canadiens are a work in progress. There is a youth movement afoot under Gainey. The Habs began the season with 16 of 23 players under the age of 28, and it could take a couple years before the good days outnumber the bad ones.

But the prodigal son has returned and the feeling is that's one giant step in the right direction for the franchise and the NHL for that matter.