Hope And Hate Greet New Habs General Manager

It It isn't surprising that the reaction amongst Quebec's nationalist element was decidedly negative towards the announcement that the Montreal Canadiens' new General manager would be a west island anglophone named Kent Hughes.

In his introductory press conference, Hughes spoke in superior, though decidedly Anglo-French. His comprehension of questions put to him in French was pretty remarkable considering he's lived outside the province for over two decades.

For years we've been told by the likes of racist anglophobes like Réjean Tremblay, the doyon of the Quebec's French sportswriters, that Anglophones or Europeans who play or work for the Habs are remiss in not being able to communicate with fans in French.
From Saku Koivu to André Markov to Carey Price, Tremblay showered scorn upon those who he believed should learn a third language before fans learned a second.
He complained bitterly that the choice of Hughes was made before the other francophone in the running were given a chance. As for Hughes' French, Tremblay wasn't enthusiastic.

As for Jeff Gorton, he remains livid that he was hired as the real big boss over Hughes.

"Geoff Molson is the one who made the biggest mistake. Meeker Guerrier asked the President a question in French. He was no doubt counting on an answer for his report on Noovo. Molson told him he would answer in English so that Jeff Gorton understood what he was saying.
Fuck Roberval!, fuck Rimouski!, fuck Matane!, fuck Baie-Comeau!, fuck Quebec! More colonialist  than that and you'd blush with shame. We find ourselves water carriers forced to speak English at a table because one Anglophone out of the ten guests does not understand French. Simultaneous translation exists. A pair of headphones and Big Boss Jeff would have it all figured out. Otherwise, let Molson answer in French and translate or have his answer translated. That way he respects Roberval, Rimouski, Matane, Baie-Comeau and Quebec. Otherwise, it will always be the same horrible bouillabaisse. There are already enough players who don't care about the fans, a vice-president, a senior officer of a company who depends on the tickets and the ratings of the good people to get rich, well that's another story..

 Now fans who care about the team and not about language politics were more open to giving Hughes and Gorton a fair shot and the comments under the various stories in the French press reflected the very real difference of opinion in the two camps;

Jean Ross
His French isn't the best but we can understand him as well as we understand our coach.
Now we have to concentrate on hockey.
Speaking of French, let's talk about Ducharme who has difficulty putting together a complete phrase.

André Lauzon

We didn't have enough Québécois talent to fill the job? We needed to find an expatriate chum of the unilingual Jeff Gorton?  What a lack of respect!

Adam Cobb

Hughes est quebecois.

Jacques Thériault

Kent Hughes est Québécois

Jean-Pierre Pineau

To be 'Québécois' is not simply an accident of birth, nor just growing up here. We'll see if he settles here and pays taxes. We know his kids don't speak or understand French. We're going to have a team of strangers with no attachment to the people.

 

Stephane Therrien 

For a winning team you need the best talent and language has nothing to do with it, even in the LHJMQ, English is spoken by the Swedes, Germans, Russians, Slovakians and Americans. Your vision is more attuned to a garage league team rather than the NHL. If the directors succeed in fielding a winning team, the Bell Centre will be full, anglophones as well as francophones.

 

Thomas Usine Lachine
The NHL has been a racist organization towards francophones for a long. It's an old tradition that's perpetuated here.

Gilles Millette
His French isn't perfect but resembles the French we'll probably all speak in 20, 30 or 40 years as Anglicization does its job in Quebec. We're far from the teams of old that represented the specificity of Quebec with management and star francophone players. We're sadly condemned to accept these  things.

 

Jean-Pierre Pineau 

With names likes Molson, Gorton and Hughes, we cannot feel more like 'owners.'

 

Jean Ross

For those worried about their language, does Coach Ducharme actually speak French?

 

Ghislain Bouchard 

Very good first impression. It's good to see a Canadiens GM with presence and aplomb.  As for his French, it is already very good.

André Lauzon

What an embarrassment to forgo francophone talent to hire an ex patriot anglo with bad French.

Not choosing Patrick Roy indicates a profound disconnection with reality. RIP Canadiens.

Nelson Jacques
For the moment everything is positive, nice personality, a lot of experience and skill in negotiation, he knows the field well. Personally I believe in him and that the CH was not mistaken.  

Best of luck to the team.

 

Stephane Therrien 

Over the last 10 years with francophones like Bergevin, Ducharme, Therrien, Julien, Martin, Carbonneau, Drouin, etc. the team  struggled not  to finish last, so why not change the recipe a bit? And whether you're Russian, Slovak or wherever you're from, hockey is in English. 

 

Jean-François Breton

Bizarre to hire a player agent. Instead of negotiating for higher salaries, he'll now negotiate for lower salaries!

 

Andre Parent  

Reading the comments, it seems to show that the attitude Canadiens fans is that of the of eternal loser. 

 

 Roméo Bouchard.

The Canadiens turn their back on the Quebeckers who pay for the tickets at the Bell Centre.

You have to be a masochist to believe that the Canadiens respect their fans. Hockey has become an American game, controlled by Americans, for the profit of Americans. 

After they stole our name, our country, our national anthem, our maple leaf, our nationality, Anglos have definitely stolen our hockey Canadiens team and excluded us.

Wow, what a mixed bag!

I'd like to address two issues, the first which applies directly to the last comment where the writer claims that the historically French Habs have somehow been stolen by an anglo cabal, an idea that remains popular despite it being utter nonsense.
 

With the cognitive dissonance of a Trump supporter claiming that the election was stolen, no amount of facts or evidence can convince these people that the Habs have always been a largely English organization.

It is true that the team was historically French on the ice, due to the NHL giving the team a monopoly on Quebec players for decades, but the modern era with the inclusion of Americans and Europeans to the league, coupled with the loss of exclusivity rights to Quebec players has altered the face on the ice dramatically.

But as for the management coaching and ownership, the Habs have always been largely anglophone.

In the 112 odd year history of the team;

The Canadiens have had an Anglo general manager for 71 years or 65% of the time.

 

The Canadiens have had an Anglo head coach for 63 years or 55% of the time.

 

The Canadiens have been owned by Anglophones or groups led by Anglophones for almost 90% of their history and exclusively since 1940.

 

Of the 24 Stanley Cup won by the Habs, 19 were won while the team had an English general manager and 19 were won with an English coach.

 The idea that the Montreal Canadiens were a French team stolen by 'les autres' is a popular fantasy.

The last point I'd like to make is the notion among francophones that Patrick Roy would make a good General manager for the Canadiens.

Roy notoriously quit the Canadiens in a fit of pique by walking out of his last game in Montreal after a disastrous outing where he let in nine goals in half a game. He famously disrespected the Habs president Ronald Corey on his way out of the rink and true to his word left the team via a forced trade.

His tenure as coach of the Colorado Avalanche was short-lived as he once again quit when he didn't get his way.

Former NHL defenseman Brian Engblom was an Avalanche television analyst who now works with the Tampa Bay Lightning. He had this to say about Roy.

“Patrick never lacked for opinions, right?” Engblom asked. “He’s always been that way, as a player and coach. This looks and smells like issues between he and the other people in the front office that they had differences in opinion, and he’s like, ‘OK, that’s it, I’m not doing it that way, ‘.

“That doesn’t surprise me. He never minces words or lacks conviction. He thinks what he thinks and he knows what he knows. And if it doesn’t work, that’s fine. He’ll walk away.”

 Never mind hiring a guy who embarrassed the organization big time, does he sound like GM material to you?

 

This will remind you of the sorry end of Patrick Roy in Montreal, a nasty piece of work with a hair-trigger temper, ill-suited for the calm and calculating demeanour required for the job of general-manager