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Short Take – The Canadiens’ coaching change and the language issue

20th December, 2011 · Kerry Butt · 3 Comments

Since the (mostly) out-of-the-blue firing of Jacques Martin and the hiring of Randy Cunneyworth as “interim” coach a couple of days ago, we have heard a lot about the fact that Mr. Cunneyworth doesn’t speak French. This has sparked the usual reactions from the usual suspects. The French media characterize the hiring as a slap in the face to the French majority in Quebec, saying that the Canadiens are an “institution” in the province and, as such, have a responsibility to the (mostly francophone) community. The media outside Quebec wonder what all the fuss is about – shouldn’t the team simply hire the best coach, regardless of language? Who cares what language the coach or the players speak? Would they turn up their nose at a Mike Babcock? a Sydney Crosby? (As usual, Yahoo’s Greg Wyshynski has skillfully summarized the reactions in this Puck Daddy blog post)

But, for all the bluster, the underlying truth is that there is much less to this story than it seems, at least from the language perspective. To me, the issue is not that the coach of the storied Montreal Canadiens, the team of Maurice Richard and Guy Lafleur,  doesn’t speak French. The issue is simply that Randy Cunneyworth doesn’t speak French. If a coach with an A-1 NHL resumé has been hired, no one would care what language he spoke. It’s at least partially because Mr. Cunneyworth is not seen as The Answer that he has been attacked as a unilingual anglophone.

The hiring of Mr. Cunneyworth is quite logical, from a certain point of view. Canadiens’ management saw the season slipping away and  probably felt the team simply wasn’t responding to Jacques Martin anymore. (It happens; most coaches have a shelf life, at least with one team.) So the Habs’ brass probably thought the team would get a lift from not having JM as coach, no matter who the replacement was, and figured Mr. Cunneyworth was “good enough” to at least do no harm. People can talk about lame ducks all they want but, ultimately, the team wants to win (so goes the thinking of Canadiens’ management) so, freed from the shackles of JM and his boring style, let’s see what they can do. We can use this information to help us make both player and coaching moves down the road.

From this perspective, management is treating the remainder of the season as a kind of experiment that will determine, not only if Mr. Cunneyworth can make it as a head coach in Montreal (with all that entails), but also which players will make up the core group going forward.

What do you think? Comments are welcome.

Posted in Hockey | Tags: Habs, Jacques Martin, language, Montreal Canadiens, Randy Cunneyworth |

Being a Canadiens fan, then and now

7th November, 2011 · Kerry Butt · Leave a comment

I grew up a fan of the Montreal Canadiens. I probably first became a fan because my older brother was a fan. My household in those days was evenly split – my older brother, my sister and I were Habs fans, and my mom and dad and oldest brother were fans of the Toronto Maple Leafs.

The earliest I can recall watching hockey was during the 1968-69 season, when I can vaguely recall watching the Habs play the Saint Louis Blues in the Cup final. I was 7 years old. I remember a few bits and pieces from the next couple of years but my memories are much clearer starting with the 1972-73 season. I vividly recall my sister claiming that “hockey is fixed!” after Chicago beat the Habs 8-7 in game 6 of the finals. (Justice prevailed, though, as the Habs went on to win game 7.)

The seventies were a good time to be a Habs fan, as the team won 6 Cups during that decade. I often wonder whether I would be a different type of Habs fan if I had grown up with a less-successful version of the team or, for that matter, if I had grown up in a different era.

For one thing, my support for the team was much more, I don’t know, undiluted than seems to be the case today. I did not dislike any players on the Canadiens in the seventies. I had my favourites, like Guy Lafleur, Ken Dryden and Yvan Cournoyer (still my all-time favourite Hab). But I supported anyone who was on the Montreal Canadiens unreservedly. In fact, the first Canadien that I did not fully support was Claude Lemieux. Even though I was happy he was a Hab and I cheered when he scored the overtime winner to eliminate the Hartford Whalers on the way to the 1986 Stanley Cup, I was vaguely embarrassed by his style of play (especially the “diving”).

Anyway, I don’t know if it’s because hockey is more ubiquitous today (when I was growing up, hockey was only on television on Saturday night – Hockey Night in Canada – and newspaper/television coverage in my hometown of St. John’s, NL was minimal), but today’s fans seem much more cynical. Judging by the fan commentary on such Habs sites as The Gazette’s Hockey Inside/Out, there are as many Habs fans who dislike a given player as like that player. And nobody seems to like everyone on the team.

Of course I recognize that the game itself is different today, with the big money and easy player mobility leaving each team’s roster in a state of constant flux – is there anyone on the Canadiens now who will spend his whole career with the team? Probably not (and, short of a megawatt star like Sidney Crosby, most fans today would happily see any player leave if they thought the team was getting value for the move).

In addition, the dizzying number of stats available to fans today (I never progressed beyond plus/minus, myself…) mean that a statistical case can be made for or against almost any player, or coach for that matter.

But for all the added sophistication of the modern fan, I still feel they lack something that us “old-timers” have. I’m no less a fan than I was when I was a teenager – I still live and die with the team. But I basically still like everyone on it. I like to see each of them do well. I’m sad when they (all too frequently) leave via trade or free-agency, but I’m also happy to see the newcomer arrive and I always wish them well while they wear the bleu-blanc-rouge.

Similarly, I never second-guess the coaching staff. I never assume I know more about coaching than they do. No matter how odd it might look (like Jacques Martin’s line juggling), I always assume there is a “method to their madness.”

All told, I guess I have not changed with the times. But I cannot be cynical about the team I support Sure, I pretend I am, sometimes, to fit in and I may make a snide remark or two on Twitter but, at the end of the day, I still have that (childish?) sense that all members of the team have some elemental “Canadien-ness” conferred upon them when they join the Habs, which elevates them in my eyes. The cynics can keep their cynicism (I guess it works for them), but I can’t share it. I want to see Scott Gomez come back and play well no more or less than I want to see P.K. Subban excel.

So when’s the next game, again?

Posted in Hockey | Tags: Claude Lemieux, Guy Lafleur, Jacques Martin, Ken Dryden, Montreal Canadiens, P.K. Suban, Scott Gomez, Yvan Cournoyer |

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