MONTREAL, QC.– On Saturday night at the Bell Centre, it was Philadelphia vs Montreal. Unfortunately for Canadiens fans, it was a WBC light heavyweight title match with Philly boxer Bernard Hopkins trading punches with Montreal’s own Jean Pascal. Hopkins had planned to wear a Flyers jersey into the ring — instead that honour went to his corner man.
The 46-year-old Hopkins prevailed for a unanimous decision to become the oldest champ in history.
It’s worth noting that neither boxer was managed by Pierre Boivin, the former president of the Montreal Canadiens. Boivin left his Bell Centre office for the last time on Wednesday having served as the man who steered the Habs ship for 11 years.
You see, if Boivin had been managing either Hopkins or Pascal, the bout would have been over quickly — certainly a fraction of the 12-round fight. Boivin would have insisted that his boxer have one hand tied behind his back. After the match, a frustrated Boivin would complain to the assembled media that his man was severely and competitively disadvantaged by only being allowed to use one hand.
The manager would have his cover — silly to even hope for a championship under those conditions. Montreal media would nod in agreement. Most everyone would ignore the coiled rope peeking out of the pocket of Boivin’s suit jacket.
Proposterous you say? As crazy as it sounds, that’s exactly what happened during Boivin’s tenure as president with the Canadiens.
Before bidding adieu to the Canadiens, Boivin sat down with a reporter from the Montreal Gazette. In the interview, Boivin said that the Canadiens hockey team is “severely competitively disadvantaged” when it comes to recruiting talent, which he calls a franchise’s best asset.
What is the vile force, the incidious law or organizational impediment that he is speaking about? Boivin said that it is a policy that requires the coach and general manager of the Canadiens to be bilingual.
“There’s one general manager in the league this year who speaks French and he’s in Montreal. If Pierre Gauthier gets hit by a bus, what does (team owner) Geoff Molson do? Every other team says: ‘There are 29 others out there, how many contracts are up?’ Thirty assistant GMs might be prepared to step up, like a Steve Yzerman (in Tampa), and then there’s 30 AHL managers.” — Pierre Boivin
“So they have a pool of 90, (even if) not all are good or are available. We have a pool of three, four, five maybe? Sometimes none? It’s the same thing with coaches. And that’s a huge disadvantage when human capital is your most important asset. So we have to groom them.” — Pierre Boivin
Damn, so that’s why it’s been so hard to win a championship lately? I’m sure that we’re all grateful to Mr. Boivin for the insight. I feel so silly because I was all set to label his presidency as a failure due the lack of a Stanley Cup.
But, you know, I have one more question. Who’s crazy idea was it to handicap the team so badly by instituting a policy that mandates language for political reasons while severely restricting the talent pool?
The answer to that question came in the news conference in February 2010, when it was announced that Pierre Gauthier would be succeeding Bob Gainey as General Manager. Boivin said that one of the requirements for the position was the “ability to communicate in both languages.” At the time , he conceded that the “list narrows down very quickly.”
Well that’s rich. While in office, Boivin instituted a policy that created an extra burden on the team and then on his way out innocently points his finger at the same policy as the reason he failed to accomplish his goal?
We learned that the mission of the Montreal Canadiens during the Boivin reign was bilingualism. In addition the league’s most talented managers and coaches were bypassed in favour of one’s who could speak French. How did that lead to a better on-ice product?
Obviously, it didn’t.
Indirectly, this should also put an end to the nonsense that Gauthier and Jacques Martin were the best persons available for their positions. By his own admission, Boivin said they were among only a very few who met his self-imposed language requirement and they chose to fish in a shallow pond. Boivin said that Gauthier is the only GM in the league this season who can speak French.
One wonders why bilingualism was necessary anyway given that Gauthier hosted no more than a handful of news conferences, which is a tiny part of his job. Boivin’s words confirm that Gauthier’s bilingualism was useless when speaking to other general managers in the league.
The argument for a bilingual coach claims that francophone fans who buy tickets and merchandise demand to hear from the coach in their own language. I would counter that the prime consideration for all fans is winning, and not social engineering. The Montreal Alouettes, GM Jim Popp and Head Coach Marc Trestman can attest to that.
As far as grooming coaches, it would appear that Boivin is being rather disingenuous. Guy Boucher was allowed to leave for Tampa and it seems that Kirk Muller will be the next to go.
Sure there are bigots like Michel Bergeron who will criticize the team for considering talent over language. There are also lunatics like Pierre Curzi who believe that anglophones on the Canadiens are part of a federal governnment conspiracy to take over Quebec symbols. It would seem that Boivin was more concerned about their warped opinions than the moderate voices of average fans.
Speaking to the Gazette, Boivin said “What really upsets me is when people don’t accept or believe that we put significant effort into doing much more than any other team to try to get francophone players.”
What about recruiting the best players? And the best coaches? And the best general managers?
Gauthier was chosen over Steve Yzerman as the Habs GM. Louis Leblanc was selected in the 2009 draft over power forward Chris Kreider. Let’s keep an eye on this small sample comparison to see how it plays out.
Sports is a meritocracy. It is not the place to settle petty political scores.
Let’s hope that owner Geoff Molson and COO Kevin Gilmore adopt a new mission statement — winning. One step towards that goal would be to unburden the Canadiens from Boivin’s language policy. Let’s unleash the full potential of the Habs, and see what happens when they compete on a level playing field.
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