by Coach K, AllHabs.net
SAINT-LAZARE, QC — The year was 1995. That summer, the Quebec Nordiques, provincial rival of our beloved Montreal Canadiens were moved to Denver, and renamed the Colorado Avalanche. As Habs fans, we rejoiced. No more Nords. No more stiffs from Quebec City coming to Montreal, trying to convince us that their team was better. No more fleur-de-lis. According to everyone, the infamous “Battle of Quebec” was won. Or was it?
From that day forward, things would never be the same in Habs’ country again. We would struggle to make the playoffs every year. We would be unable to attract high-priced free agents for nearly fifteen years. We couldn’t even fathom getting close to a Stanley Cup, until last season’s magical run.
So what changed? What could have possibly made it so difficult for the National Hockey League’s most fabled franchise to achieve any measure of success?
Part of it was the immediate migration of ALL of Quebec City’s sports journalists to Montreal, in search of employment. Some of these once reputable journalists and radio personalities, whose opinions were revered by most, suddenly drew their attention to the lack of francophony on the Bleu-Blanc-Rouge. They would interview politicians, who in their infinite wisdom and craving for attention, would vilify the Canadiens’ organization, saying that they needed to have a more French presence on their team. Funny, they never said things like that when they were writing about the Stasny brothers, Mats Sundin, Brent Ashton, Mike Ricci or Joe Sakic, did they? When Marc Crawford was the coach, did they make fun of him because he spoke broken French in the provincial capital? Did they point out their lack of francophones on their team?
While the Nord-alanche were busy taking the spotlight, with Saint Patrick in goal, and Peter Forsberg becoming a perennial all-star, we languished. The Canadiens slipped further and further into the basement of the league. This organization, who in it’s history had great hockey minds like Dick Irvin, Hector “Toe” Blake and Scotty Bowman lead them to glory, suddenly needed to have bilingual coaches. They restricted themselves to Quebec-born instructors, who for the most part, had little or no experience coaching at the professional level. Coaches like Michel Therrien, Alain Vigneault and Claude Julien passed through Montreal, building valuable experience that would get them employment with other organizations. Even they, Quebec’s finest coaches, didn’t remain in Montreal. While the decision to leave was not theirs to make, I’m sure they are grateful to the Canadiens for letting them go.
All this to say, we didn’t win the “Battle of Quebec”. The Quebec Nordiques ultimately did.
And what if the Nordiques were to return to the NHL? After so many years of linguistic decision-making by the Habs, would the reigns finally be loosened to allow this team to seek out the best administrative and coaching talent out there? Would the talking-heads at “La Capitale Nationale” now have their attention diverted to the local team for which they helped fund a new arena complex? And would the same rules apply? Would the new and improved Nordiques need a fundamental French core? Would the fans really care?
Either way, the future of the Montreal Canadiens has been put back in the hands of Quebec City.
I hate everything about the french debate but you are cutting corners here. How many english speaking coach would have made a better job with the team Réjean Houle gave Vigneault? In my mind, not a single one. The absence of the Nordiques, and Expos in the summer, allow the media to overblow every single story. It creates noise that distract the team.
To reduce the lack of success since 95 to the french factor is idiotic. The team was destroyed by a bad gm and they were never able to build from the draft. It’s not Vigneault/Therrien/Julien/Carbo fault’s.
And Quebec’s reporter didn’t need to tell Aubut about having a more french team. He was the one championing it. Do you remember what he offered Ottawa for Daigle?
When in the article did I say it was a French factor, Pierre-Luc? The article is about using political issues to sabotage our beloved team. I didn’t lay blame on anyone.
Suffice it to say that it has nothing to do with the individuals who were selected to the positions but more with the pressure from the migrated media from Quebec City.
And when you call someone “idiotic”, get some facts straight.
1 – Aubut was trying to keep his team in Quebec City and was desperate, hence the Daigle offer (It was also the beginning of this whole French-Allophone debate)
2-Former Canadiens’ coach Carbonneau said himself that a bilingual coach is needed in Montreal. Why? Most teams are made up of English, French and European players.
3-Most journalists speak both languages, and understand them very well. So the need for a bilingual GM is what exactly?
We want a better team here. The first step is to hire the best personnel, regardless of language.
If you call it sabotage, you have to point to an actual decision the team made to please those journalist that impacted the team in a negative way. The media makes a lot of noise about it, but they have no effect about how the team is run.
I absolutely agree, the team need to hire the best personnel, regardless of language. But most of the hiring made in the NHL is from within. There’s never a ton of unsigned gm waiting for the call. Since the hiring is from within can you really blame Boivin to have promoted Gauthier over Timmins? In 15 years only Ron Wilson left the team because he wasn’t bilingual. Where is he? Assistant-coach in the AHL. Not a huge lost there.
If the Nordiques would still be here, they still would have 2 more frenchies on their team than the Habs. It was how they stole fans outside of their city. It was a great marketing ploy for them.
Actually there are plenty of good hockey minds who were passed up for promotion by the Canadiens, because of their language deficiencies.
While Guy Carbonneau won the praises of the league for getting the Habs to the top of the Eastern Conference in 2007-2008, Andy Murray was the brains of the operation. His analytical abilities in pro scouting were the reason Carbo was so well prepared.
There was also Don Lever. Who would have prefered, Lever or Martin? With his wealth of experience developing young talent, I’d go with Lever.
And while searching for a new coach, do you think Gainey might have preferred his friend, Ken Hitchcock?
You’re right that the CANADIENS made the decision to use bilingual coaches. There is a plethera of unilingual coaches who could do far better than some of the others we have had through the years. Hopefully, Jeff Molson changes the culture, for the better.
If I remember right the Habs had a bilingual coach since the early 80s. Lemaire, Peron, Burns, Demers, Tremblay…
Hell Bowman speak French! This whole argument is based on one dumb quote by Gauthier that been stretched way too out of context. And by the way the habs won the battle of Québec in 1993 when they made Pierre Pagé blow a casket on national TV!
Madhi, from the list you just gave, only Demers could speak English fluidly. Even Lemaire learned proper English after he went to New Jersey. And Bowman would never address the media in French. By the way, have you heard Tremblay speak English? I can’t understand a damn thing he says.
All these coaches have one thing in common, francophone family names. Along with Vigneault, Therrien, Carbonneau and Julien. Only the late Pat Burns had an Irish name, although his roots are in Quebec. These 4 coaches, along with Burns, were fluent in both languages.
My whole point is this. What if Muller was the head coach and Martin the assistant? Would we be so insulted as a culture to have that situation? Would the media be so outraged to speak to Muller in English? If they can do it between the benches on RDS, why not in the press conference?
This is my first time visiting your site, and I find the comments from both Coach K and Pierre Luc touching fact and falsehood.
This of course is only my opinion, but I truly believe the demise of the Habs at that time had nothing to do with media or language.
Rejean Houle’s lack of recognition of true coaching ability brought us Mario Tremblay. And Ronald Corey’s total lack of a spine didn’t help.
The result? Say goodbye to St Patrick.
That is where the team started it’s freefall.
Since then, and the loss of the Noriques, I agree that the media have played a more important role in influencing decision-makers, regarding many if not most issues.
As far as I’m concerned, that last great draft year for the habs was 1971.
Larry Robinson and Guy Lafleur.
Like all teams, the Habs have been lucky since some years
– Chris Nilan, 19th round, Chris Chelios went 45th I think, Patrick Roy was in the 3rd round, Plekanec went 70th. And although there have been better choices than a few of these (Koivu for one), none are hall-of-famers except Roy, the one Tremblay, Houle and Corey’s egos let get away.
Are there great individuals who’ve passed up coming to Montreal on as well as off
the ice? Absolutely. More so recently. But a lot of teams are passed up.
If comments are to be made about coaching, it seems that the acting GM is never
patient enough. And we’ve seen some very good coaches come and go, to
cover their inability to recreate the “dynasty” that the Montreal Canadiens once were.
And I find that very unfortunate.
Welcome to the site, Bripro.
For the record, I am trilingual and speak and write English, French and Greek.
I didn’t write this piece as a language issue, although it may come off that way to some. I grew up in Outremont, a French neighborhood, and am proud of it.
Just to correct you, Tremblay wasn’t a Houle hire, it was Corey. Just like the Roy trade was all about Corey. Do you think if Roy spoke to Corey behind closed doors, the trade that sent us in a spiral would have gone off so fast?
The whole point of the article is that the Canadiens cannot restrict themselves to just bilingual coaches or managers. If they continue to do that, we will remain where we are for another 2 decades.
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