[Alberta's Child]

Thanks for the ping!

One of the great ironies of this idiotic obsession these Montreal hockey fans have about the French language is that the English language is far more useful in the Montreal Canadiens' locker room than French is. The team has very few players from Quebec these days (only 2 of the 25 players listed on their website today). There are so many American players in the NHL today as well as Europeans with a decent command of the English language (including Canada and the U.S., the current Montreal team has players from nine different countries) that English has become something of a "universal language" for hockey coaches so they can communicate with most of their players.

If these Montreal fans cared as much about hockey as they do about the language skills of the team's head coach, the team might have been more successful in recent decades. They haven't won a Stanley Cup (or even been to a Cup finals) in nearly 20 years -- a startling string of failures for a team that has 24 Stanley Cup championships to its credit.

[shove_it]

Well said!

[xsmommy]

This is francophone racism, pure and simple.

[The Pack Knight]

One of the great ironies of this idiotic obsession these Montreal hockey fans have about the French language is that the English language is far more useful in the Montreal Canadiens' locker room than French is. The team has very few players from Quebec these days (only 2 of the 25 players listed on their website today).

I remember the kerfuffle back in the 90s when Kirk Muller was traded away and Mike Keane was named the new captain. Keane pointed out exactly what you said, that it didn't matter whether the captain spoke French since all the players spoke English. Needless to say, he was pilloried by the Quebecois media.

Too bad for Montreal they didn't fire Jacques Martin a few weeks earlier, or they could have hired Muller before Carolina did.