What's more important? A coach that can win or one that speaks French?
- Thread starter Techman
- Start date
A 'deal' can always be arranged.
Oh! do you have an idea of deal in mind, par hasard?
Oh! do you have an idea of deal in mind, par hasard?
It would involved an exchange.......
Bowman was fluent in french.
The last habs coach that was unilingual was Al McNeil in 1971. He won the Cup that year. After they won the Cup, they canned him. No need to tell you why.
The Canadiens have a team which has no chance of contending for the Stanley Cup in the near future - (due, in no small part, to the joint efforts of one Francophone and one bilingual anglophone, Gauthier and Gainey)
I can see their revenues declining in the future as a result. (I think that they could possibly find themselves in the same situation as the Alouettes a decade ago.)
Like Coca Cola, the only way to continue to extract revenue from a unhealthy product is to maintain great public relations and advertising. From that standpoint, a francophone de souche would have been a good idea.
I can see their revenues declining in the future as a result. (I think that they could possibly find themselves in the same situation as the Alouettes a decade ago.)
Like Coca Cola, the only way to continue to extract revenue from a unhealthy product is to maintain great public relations and advertising. From that standpoint, a francophone de souche would have been a good idea.
Really starting to feel bad for RC and his family, for his sake i am glad they are on the road for the next 2 weeks, but it does not get any easier as they could very well go 1-5 or even 0-6 on this trip, they are playing some good teams and or teams that are hot right now. Wonder if the poor guy is getting any sleep these days? must be hard for him, poor guy. Pierre Gauthier hung him out to dry and the lynch mob will not let up if they keep losing, and probably even if they start winning a few games.
http://tsn.ca/nhl/story/?id=383198
http://tsn.ca/nhl/story/?id=383198
With that kind of losing season so far , RC will need good nerves to just stay alive until the end of the season.
In any language, the Montreal Canadiens don't show signs of being a winner
by Red Fisher, Montreal Gazette
MONTREAL - There’s nothing like bringing out the heavy artillery to blow up what’s little more than another day at the hockey office.
Never has so much been written by so few about a non-story such as GM Pierre Gauthier selecting Randy Cunneyworth as the Canadiens’ interim head coach. Trouble is, Cunneyworth doesn’t speak French.
The question I’ve got to ask is why so many people, including politicians who have more important fish to fry, have made a federal case about a lame-duck coach, which is the corner into which Cunneyworth has been steered and/or pushed by owner Geoff Molson and Gauthier.
Everything is about Cunneyworth’s inability to speak French. What’s missing is that Cunneyworth has been handed a team that up to now has shown no signs it’s capable of being a winner.
I’ve been around this franchise for more than a half-century – and never heard of or noticed any sign of the French-English “thing.”
It wasn’t there, of course, when the Canadiens, coached by Toe Blake, were in their Flying Frenchmen glory days in the last half of the 1950s, when they brought home the Stanley Cup five years in a row – a record that will stand forever.
The franchise had a mystique for winning, with Stanley Cups four times in five seasons in the 1960s and, when they were flying high, in the late 1970s with four in a row.
The language of the dressing room always has been English – without a murmur of complaint from the French players who, in those days, filled 50 per cent of the roster. Instead, it was all about winning. Nothing else mattered.
Unilingual defenceman Al MacNeil played 11 seasons with several National Hockey League teams, including 61 games with the Canadiens in 1961-62. Following his retirement, he coached the American Hockey League’s Voyageurs in the 1969-70 season in Montreal. The next season, he joined the Canadiens as an assistant to head coach Claude Ruel.
The Canadiens had missed the playoffs the preceding season, and when it appeared they would fall short for a second consecutive year, Ruel resigned halfway through 1970-71 and MacNeil took over. There were no complaints about language issues at the time because from there the Canadiens rallied to qualify for the playoffs, mostly because GM Sam Pollock had acquired Frank Mahovlich from the Detroit Red Wings.
What followed was something that still resonates in the history of the franchise. The Canadiens eliminated the heavily favoured Boston Bruins in seven games, defeated the Minnesota Stars in six and the Chicago Blackhawks in seven to win the Stanley Cup.
After the season, Pollock appointed MacNeil head coach of the Nova Scotia Voyageurs and brought in a chap named Scotty Bowman to take over the Canadiens. That prompted a veteran reporter to put this question to Pollock:
“How can you demote a guy who won the Stanley Cup?”
“I didn’t demote him,” Pollock replied. “What I did was rearrange the cabinet!”
I didn’t hear any complaints when unilingual head coach Bob Berry was named head coach in 1981-82 and led the Canadiens to a first-place finish in the Adams Division with 109 points. There were no complaints the following season, either, when the Canadiens finished the 80-game season with 98 points.
Berry was replaced by assistant coach Jacques Lemaire halfway through the 1983-84 season, when the Canadiens finished No. 4 in the Adams with 75 points. From there, they were eliminated in the conference final in six games by a New York Islanders team seeking a fifth consecutive Stanley Cup – after the Canadiens had won the first two games.
You know the rest. Patrick Roy led the Canadiens to their 23rd Cup in 1986 and their 24th in 1993. They’ve been in a rebuilding mode since then under the watchful eyes of a flood of bilingual coaches – with little success.
The Canadiens have missed the playoffs six times and been eliminated six times in the first round because their general managers haven’t been able to provide the coaches with players capable of going all the way.
Players who know how to win have made this franchise great. Teamwork has allowed them to win 24 Stanley Cups.
Canadiens coaches bark out instructions in English without complaint from the French-language players. French-speaking players snap at each other in their language and English-speaking players do the same.
That’s where it begins. That’s where it ends – and should.
http://www.montrealgazette.com/life...being+winner/5894380/story.html#ixzz1hDpv77by
by Red Fisher, Montreal Gazette
MONTREAL - There’s nothing like bringing out the heavy artillery to blow up what’s little more than another day at the hockey office.
Never has so much been written by so few about a non-story such as GM Pierre Gauthier selecting Randy Cunneyworth as the Canadiens’ interim head coach. Trouble is, Cunneyworth doesn’t speak French.
The question I’ve got to ask is why so many people, including politicians who have more important fish to fry, have made a federal case about a lame-duck coach, which is the corner into which Cunneyworth has been steered and/or pushed by owner Geoff Molson and Gauthier.
Everything is about Cunneyworth’s inability to speak French. What’s missing is that Cunneyworth has been handed a team that up to now has shown no signs it’s capable of being a winner.
I’ve been around this franchise for more than a half-century – and never heard of or noticed any sign of the French-English “thing.”
It wasn’t there, of course, when the Canadiens, coached by Toe Blake, were in their Flying Frenchmen glory days in the last half of the 1950s, when they brought home the Stanley Cup five years in a row – a record that will stand forever.
The franchise had a mystique for winning, with Stanley Cups four times in five seasons in the 1960s and, when they were flying high, in the late 1970s with four in a row.
The language of the dressing room always has been English – without a murmur of complaint from the French players who, in those days, filled 50 per cent of the roster. Instead, it was all about winning. Nothing else mattered.
Unilingual defenceman Al MacNeil played 11 seasons with several National Hockey League teams, including 61 games with the Canadiens in 1961-62. Following his retirement, he coached the American Hockey League’s Voyageurs in the 1969-70 season in Montreal. The next season, he joined the Canadiens as an assistant to head coach Claude Ruel.
The Canadiens had missed the playoffs the preceding season, and when it appeared they would fall short for a second consecutive year, Ruel resigned halfway through 1970-71 and MacNeil took over. There were no complaints about language issues at the time because from there the Canadiens rallied to qualify for the playoffs, mostly because GM Sam Pollock had acquired Frank Mahovlich from the Detroit Red Wings.
What followed was something that still resonates in the history of the franchise. The Canadiens eliminated the heavily favoured Boston Bruins in seven games, defeated the Minnesota Stars in six and the Chicago Blackhawks in seven to win the Stanley Cup.
After the season, Pollock appointed MacNeil head coach of the Nova Scotia Voyageurs and brought in a chap named Scotty Bowman to take over the Canadiens. That prompted a veteran reporter to put this question to Pollock:
“How can you demote a guy who won the Stanley Cup?”
“I didn’t demote him,” Pollock replied. “What I did was rearrange the cabinet!”
I didn’t hear any complaints when unilingual head coach Bob Berry was named head coach in 1981-82 and led the Canadiens to a first-place finish in the Adams Division with 109 points. There were no complaints the following season, either, when the Canadiens finished the 80-game season with 98 points.
Berry was replaced by assistant coach Jacques Lemaire halfway through the 1983-84 season, when the Canadiens finished No. 4 in the Adams with 75 points. From there, they were eliminated in the conference final in six games by a New York Islanders team seeking a fifth consecutive Stanley Cup – after the Canadiens had won the first two games.
You know the rest. Patrick Roy led the Canadiens to their 23rd Cup in 1986 and their 24th in 1993. They’ve been in a rebuilding mode since then under the watchful eyes of a flood of bilingual coaches – with little success.
The Canadiens have missed the playoffs six times and been eliminated six times in the first round because their general managers haven’t been able to provide the coaches with players capable of going all the way.
Players who know how to win have made this franchise great. Teamwork has allowed them to win 24 Stanley Cups.
Canadiens coaches bark out instructions in English without complaint from the French-language players. French-speaking players snap at each other in their language and English-speaking players do the same.
That’s where it begins. That’s where it ends – and should.
http://www.montrealgazette.com/life...being+winner/5894380/story.html#ixzz1hDpv77by
French group organizes anti-Habs protest
The grumbling continued Thursday over the Montreal Canadiens’ appointment of a unilingual anglophone coach.
The latest to denounce coach Randy Cunneyworth was the Mouvement Quebec Francais (Movement of French Montreal), which issued a statement that a peaceful demonstration would be held before the Canadiens’ next home game, Jan. 7.
Cunneyworth was promoted to interim coach last Saturday after the bilingual Jacques Martin was fired by the Canadiens.
MQF president Mario Beaulieu said Thursday it was “time to take to the streets and demonstrate,” adding that Quebec flags would be distributed to protesters.
He said Cunneyworth’s appointment came on the heels of other disturbing elements, such as the fact there are few francophones on the team and there is too much English music played during games at the Bell Centre.
Cunneyworth has said he would try to learn to speak French.
http://slam.canoe.ca/Slam/Hockey/NHL/Montreal/2011/12/22/19158596.html
The grumbling continued Thursday over the Montreal Canadiens’ appointment of a unilingual anglophone coach.
The latest to denounce coach Randy Cunneyworth was the Mouvement Quebec Francais (Movement of French Montreal), which issued a statement that a peaceful demonstration would be held before the Canadiens’ next home game, Jan. 7.
Cunneyworth was promoted to interim coach last Saturday after the bilingual Jacques Martin was fired by the Canadiens.
MQF president Mario Beaulieu said Thursday it was “time to take to the streets and demonstrate,” adding that Quebec flags would be distributed to protesters.
He said Cunneyworth’s appointment came on the heels of other disturbing elements, such as the fact there are few francophones on the team and there is too much English music played during games at the Bell Centre.
Cunneyworth has said he would try to learn to speak French.
http://slam.canoe.ca/Slam/Hockey/NHL/Montreal/2011/12/22/19158596.html
