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
André Lauzon
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.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 CobbHughes est quebecois.Jean-Pierre PineauTo 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.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.With names likes Molson, Gorton and Hughes, we cannot feel more like 'owners.'Jean RossFor those worried about their language, does Coach Ducharme actually speak French?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 LauzonWhat 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 TherrienOver 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 BretonBizarre to hire a player agent. Instead of negotiating for higher salaries, he'll now negotiate for lower salaries!Andre ParentReading 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.
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.
“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.”
Corey wasn't the GM, he was the president.
ReplyDeletePeanut was the GM.
Mr. Marco, worse yet! I guess "Peanut" means Réjean Houle? Yes, it was Houle, with ZERO hockey front office experience, ZERO coaching experience, etc. was thrown into this job and then had to deal with the team's best player not two months into his tenure.
DeleteThere was ZERO doubt Roy's services were a HIGHLY valuable commodity that were traded away FAR TOO fast by a know-nothing-at-all green GM for virtually no comparable talent (even the three players who came over put together weren't) and did like a distress sale, this was the beginning of the downfall of the Habs for most of the next 15 years. It took until 2010 for the Habs to make it to the Conference Finals in the playoffs, and as the 8th place team after beating #1 Washington (President's Trophy winners) and #2 Pittsburgh (defending Stanley Cup champs), they lost to the #7 Flyers, who, like the Habs, clinched their playoff spot on their last game in the regular season and finished like the Habs, with the same six-points-over-.500 record. It took until 2014 to do that again, and 2021 to get back to the Finals, the first time in 28 years.
What makes last year's triumph all the more misleading is Bergie got one stroke of good luck when the 16th berthed team in the playoffs overachieved even more than in 2010. It was a very distorted representation of Bergie's years of team destroying that fully came to fruition between July 5th of last season and the 2nd week of October this season.
Those journalists and like supporters are a bunch of 'ot-dog-vapeurisé-eating Pepsi drinkers! ...oh, and don't forget the dessert--a May West!
As Philip writes, the Monopoly on Quebec has been lost, almost going on 60 years (when in 1963, the universal draft was born). Sam Pollock, in his infinite wisdom as the heir for builder extraordinaire Frank Selke Sr., managed to squeeze a leftover out of then-NHL President Clarence Campbell and enable the Habs to draft two "French Canadian" (read: «Québécois de vieille souche») players before the draft For the first five years of the Amateur draft, from 1963 to 1967, the Canadiens never invoked their "French Canadian" option (gee, I wonder why?). In 1968, the Canadiens saw an opportunity and finally made use of their exclusive right for the first time. They selected goaltender, the late Michel Plasse and another player who never made the NHL. Plasse played 32 games for the Habs as a backup goalie and was subsequently lost with no compensation in the 1974 Expansion Draft (to the defunct Kansas City Scouts, who eventually became the New Jersey Devils after a whistle stop as the Colorado Rockies, in Denver).
In 1969, the Canadiens used the French Canadian rule again to select Réjean Houle and Marc Tardif before the other teams drafted in regular order. Although both of these 1969 selections were serviceable NHLers, they were hardly the foundation of any future Habs dynasty. Both players were lost to the rival WHA after four seasons with Montreal (although Houle came back after three seasons in Quebec for another seven seasons).
By 1969, the old sponsorship system had been completely phased out. The NHL voted to eliminate the French Canadian rule, otherwise, the Habs would have been happy to take junior phenom Gilbert Perreault in 1970, and he went on to become the foundation of the early Buffalo Sabres’ success. Considering the Habs only took advantage of this option twice in six years, it goes to show even with all those advantages, no superstars came about in all that time. Houle was a journeyman player. THAT is the kind of half-century-plus way it has been in the NHL for the last 52 years. SUCK IT UP, TREMBLAY, and the rest of you antiquated sports writers!
OK, the above was the history lesson on player acquisitions. Before going on, I should mention that the pick behind Perreault was Dale Tallon, from Rouyn-Noranda, and he spent ten years in the NHL with 98 goals and 336 points in 642 regular season games primarily with Vancouver, then Chicago, and finally finished with two seasons in Pittsburgh.
ReplyDeleteBack when the Habs celebrated their centennial season in 2009, I checked then to see how many Francophones were associated with (let alone outright owners of) the Habs over the century. I counted 36, with Senator Donat Raymond, the last sole Francophone owner. I made miscalculations re the Front Office altogether. I did not know that Leo Dandurand was NOT«Québécois de vieille souche», although his paternal great grandfather and grandfather were. Dandurand, like his father, was born in Bourbonnais, Illinois, a small town about an hour's drive SSW of Chicago (probably longer back then, when there were no super highways). He did eventually move back to Montreal when he was 16 years old and attended St. Mary's College where he was an athlete in baseball, hockey and lacrosse, then dwelled the rest of his life, and was interred, in Montreal. Leo Dandurand did speak French well thanks to his heritage.
Having been born a second generation American, would his ancestral Québécois routes have been recognized today? Maybe Réjean Tremblay et al should be asked that question! I'd love to hear them hem and haw over THAT question!!!
I can reduce the association to 31 of the first hundred years as co-investor H. A. "Louis" Letourneau co-bought the Habs with Dandurand and another (Anglohone) investor in 1921, but sold out his share in 1930 vs Dandurand in 1935. Senator Donat Raymond, along with Ernest Savard, Maurice Forget and Louis Gélinas invest with Raymond to buy out Dandurand, and then Raymond manages and owns the team alone, co-managed with Tommy Gorman, from May 1940 to September 1957, when Senator Hartland de Molson and his brother Thomas buy out Raymond. Except for two interruptions of less than a decade each, the Habs have been owned by Molson family members or its breweries since that 1957 date. Those were between late December 1971 to August 1978 when the Edper Bronfmans (Edward and Peter) owned the team, and again between January 2001 and June 2009 when American George Gillett bought 80.1% of the team with the breweries retaining the other 19.9%, and then selling his interests to Geoff Molson and other minority holding family members.
In short, since September 1957, there has been no known Francophone ownership of le Club de Hockey Canadien, i.e., going on 65 years. In Summary, in 113 years, the only complete or partial Francophone ownership took place from 1921-1931 (ten years), and from May 1940 to September 1957 (a little over 17 more years), that ownership is reduced from my miscalculated 36 years to 27.33 years, a mere 15.34% of the Habs' history.
To all you nationalist, vengeful and vitriolic «Québécois de vieille souche» readers out there: CHOKE ON IT!
Oops, a misleading statement: In the second paragraph above, I mentioned the number 36. Originally, I thought for a long time that was the number of years there was at least partial Francophone ownership, not the number of Francophone owners. Through clearer sources, as per the next to last paragraph above, the number of years was actually 27 1/3. As you can see from the hour I wrote the above, I had a rather sleepless night, so please pardon the error!
ReplyDelete