Martin Post-Mortem Email Excerpt
December 23, 2011, by Homme de Sept-Îles
A recent email exchange with my Montreal affiliates and esteemed Tricolore Panel yielded the following:
DB (our eyes, ears and wisdom)
It’s a question of priorities….it has been clear for a very long time that winning a championship has become secondary to the language “issue” – I don’t remember anyone boycotting the Habs ownership, or complaining about Toe Blake, Dick Irvin Sr. or Sam Pollock when we were winning multiple Cups in a row.
Today an Anglo coach in Montreal is much more of a “crisis” than the fact that the team is 12th and has no chance of winning anything in my or anyone’s lifetime…..no one seems to care much that the team is not built or coached well – both the result of “franco” administration.
So – rather than boycott Molson – I have decided to boycott the Habs. M- B- is picking me up a signed Preds Jersey this holiday season ( she is in Nashville visiting her brother) – I already have a signed Preds ball cap & t-shirt.
I have put all my Habs stuff in a locked drawer here at work – and I will be wearing Preds colors to the games from now on, and I will be cheering for the visitors.
Dr. Rick (our anguished elegance)
DB is out and will not be a Habs fan until Geoff “Nutpuncher” Molson proves that he wants to bring the Cup to Montreal – by hiring the best coaches & management who then bring the best players and gets the best out of them – regardless of language. I won’t hold my breath……. The Sleeper has awakened (obscure Dune reference)! Welcome back, DB.
As a Frog and fair-weather Habs fan, I’m surprisingly ambivalent to the ‘crisis’ at hand. I’m totally in tune with the importance of the CH to the plebian masses and the historical importance to French-Canadian/Quebecois identity. Here, sports is culture, and culture is sports-the two are inseparable-like Seigfried and Roy!
OK, that was the Frog. Now, the fair-weather fan is a little fed up at seeing one of the most-storied franchises in sports claiming success when they bumble their way into the postseason! European soccer, heck international soccer, has shown that a Brazilian can coach in Italy or England. Pro sports is about winning. It’s a business. Now, the Habs had Guy Boucher and let him go. It would have been nice to have a hometown boy coaching the Habs. However, I want my kids to attend a Stanley Cup parade on Ste. Catherine before the polar icecap melts and we all live in underwater cities (ie, before 2020). I’ve said this before, even though there’s a salary cap, gloried franchises like Montreal and Toronto should have the best staff, best facilities, etc to support their players. Signing blank cheques to players past their prime is unacceptable for the Habs. Jesus-Christ wagons, imagine the disaster if the there was no cap!
The CH management has to get its shit together and put the best people in the best situation regardless of their origins. That’s what it’s come to. I don’t feel well writing this, but Habs fans have to face reality-the best hockey players were French-Canadian at one point, and it was easy to be proud and associate their performance with the culture. It ain’t so anymore. Move on.
What do Habs fans want? That’s the question.
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