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brinshannaraSo... the Montreal Canadiens fired their head coach, Guy Carbonneau, today. General Manager Bob Gainey will take over as interim coach.
I don't know if it was deserved or not, but I do know that even I was scratching my head with regards to some of Carbo's decisions lately.
But that's not even what I want to react to.
The French stations here, particularly RDS (Réseau des Sports), are all talking about the firing and eventually the next head coach.
And there's this one blowhard, Alain Chantelois (think the French equivalent of Don Cherry, I would say), is all like "We need a French coach in this city."
The other guy goes on all "Maybe a bilingual coach," but eventually says "what if we need an anglophone coach? Who doesn't speak any French at all? I mean, why do we NEED a coach who speaks French?"
"It takes a French guy, a bilingual head coach."
His partner on screen, some dude whose name I don't even know, is like "well, you just limited our pool of coaches there."
"We have some good ones," Blowhard insists.
"Well how many francophones have we fired in the last five years? They were all French! Maybe we need an anglophone."
"An anglo who speaks French," Blowhard adds.
"[...] Or a unilingual, English coach."
"That would be the [French idiom for something like end of the line, as far as I can figure], chief. That wouldn't work."
"Well why not?"
"That wouldn't work, I [something... wouldn't stand for it?]"
Blowhard's partner throws up his hands in defeat.
Sociologically speaking, I am FASCINATED that a French guy in Quebec who follows the Habs would choose to have a worse coach than to choose to have a unilingual, English coach. And it's not even to speak to the players -- many of our players are bilingual with English and then Russian, Finnish, French, etc, or ARE unilingual Americans! No, this guy would rather limit our choices to bilingual coaches to ensure that the media can understand the coach.
I know, okay, I know that French is important to this city, that it's important that its big sports team, which is celebrating its 100th year, represent the French heritage and history... but for crying out loud... Who here thinks Dick Irvin or Scotty Bowman really spoke French?
I don't know if it was deserved or not, but I do know that even I was scratching my head with regards to some of Carbo's decisions lately.
But that's not even what I want to react to.
The French stations here, particularly RDS (Réseau des Sports), are all talking about the firing and eventually the next head coach.
And there's this one blowhard, Alain Chantelois (think the French equivalent of Don Cherry, I would say), is all like "We need a French coach in this city."
The other guy goes on all "Maybe a bilingual coach," but eventually says "what if we need an anglophone coach? Who doesn't speak any French at all? I mean, why do we NEED a coach who speaks French?"
"It takes a French guy, a bilingual head coach."
His partner on screen, some dude whose name I don't even know, is like "well, you just limited our pool of coaches there."
"We have some good ones," Blowhard insists.
"Well how many francophones have we fired in the last five years? They were all French! Maybe we need an anglophone."
"An anglo who speaks French," Blowhard adds.
"[...] Or a unilingual, English coach."
"That would be the [French idiom for something like end of the line, as far as I can figure], chief. That wouldn't work."
"Well why not?"
"That wouldn't work, I [something... wouldn't stand for it?]"
Blowhard's partner throws up his hands in defeat.
Sociologically speaking, I am FASCINATED that a French guy in Quebec who follows the Habs would choose to have a worse coach than to choose to have a unilingual, English coach. And it's not even to speak to the players -- many of our players are bilingual with English and then Russian, Finnish, French, etc, or ARE unilingual Americans! No, this guy would rather limit our choices to bilingual coaches to ensure that the media can understand the coach.
I know, okay, I know that French is important to this city, that it's important that its big sports team, which is celebrating its 100th year, represent the French heritage and history... but for crying out loud... Who here thinks Dick Irvin or Scotty Bowman really spoke French?
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Date: 2009-03-10 12:41 am (UTC)God, it sucks that we are still having arguments about language ! (for how many years people are not happy because Koivu don't talk french to the media... (srsly, I prefer this like that, can you imagine how people would react if he start to talk french but not perfectly,I don't blame him to not do. Anyway, apparently he talk french to a lot of people just not to the media !)
Anyway, what I say is give them the best coach they can have, after if he talk french or not, it's not the worst thing ever... He will probably learn a little someday !
Right now the Habs need a coach who will give the team what they need. Because it will not take a lot to have a amazing team again...
Don't let me start about how Québeçois can be so childish... (if you know what I mean !)
Bonne soirée ! ;)
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Date: 2009-03-10 01:44 am (UTC)As to Koivu, he does the little things right -- he says "merci" at the end of his interviews with francophone reporters. He knows the value of making the effort. That some people in this city can't accept him because he's the first European captain of the Habs, that he's non-francophone or even French-speaking, is kind of ridiculous. We've had him since we drafted him and he's done nothing but bleed bleu-blanc-et-rouge.
I think a good coach, one with NHL experience, would be a good plan, regardless of the language he speaks. And honestly, if the French reporters can't speak enough English to converse with an anglophone coach, they should look at themselves before demanding someone else learn a second language.
no subject
Date: 2009-03-10 01:30 am (UTC)It's all insane politics and it makes me sick. I swear this is also the main reason why a large number of big name free agents aren't really pumped on coming to Montreal in the off season, either.
no subject
Date: 2009-03-10 01:51 am (UTC)I don't watch the CBC. Or TSN, really. I watch RDS exclusively for my hockey games. I read TSN, RDS, the Montreal Gazette and (sadly) habsinsideout.com. I think, given all that, the French media (for the most part) have a better objective view on things than the English media.
A lot of the anglos here think Bob Gainey is the be-all, end-all and that the problems are with the French press and the Russian players. A lot of the francophones respect Gainey, but think he's been doing his buddy a favour by not firing him until now and that now, maybe we should just clean house at the end of the season and install all-new francophones in their places.
But ultimately, the smart people, on both sides, put aside the language issue and the history issue and go okay, look. Bob Gainey doesn't panic easy, Guy Carbonneau is making weird decisions about what happens on the ice. He's lost the dressing room. Something needs to change. I think a lot more people are willing to give Gainey a while longer to see if he can pull the team out of this slump and will give him the benefit of the doubt, even if he instills an English coach. It could be Kirk Muller for all we know, that's what they were suggesting today.
Bottom line, there's a LOT of noise out there that the coach and GM and team have to become immune to. But in that noise, there are some voices that speak with reason and logic, and those voices are on both sides of the language debates here in Quebec.