How much do the Montreal Canadiens mean to the province of Quebec? After firing their coach, Jacques Martin, earlier this month, the organization’s hiring of interim coach Randy Cunneyworth quickly crossed from a sports topic to a political one. The move created a media firestorm where unhappy Quebecois lamented that Cunneyworth doesn’t understand French. In a province where that is the primary language of eight in 10 residents, having a coach unable to communicate in French is an issue. It hasn’t happened in Montreal since the early 1970s. But how big of a problem is it really for an NHL coach? “Everything’s in English [in the NHL]. There’s no French whatsoever in the room,” said Caps forward Mathieu Perreault, a Quebec native who also played his junior hockey in the province. “I think [the Canadiens] have one or two French-speaking guys on the team. So I don’t know why they make such a big deal out of it, but …”
There’s always a “but” with this issue. Perreault was close. There are actually three Quebec natives — Mathieu Darche, David Desharnais and Louis Leblanc — on the team. If we include players on injured reserve and those moving up and down from AHL Hamilton, there are nine countries represented in the Montreal locker room. Most opponents concede that Cunneyworth doesn’t need to know French to do his job as a coach. He needs to speak French to make a large segment of Quebec society — hockey fans and non-hockey fans alike — feel like the team represents their community. You can argue that hiring only French speakers limits the Canadiens’ coaching pool. In the end, that misses the greater point. Winning is paramount in a rabid hockey market like Montreal. It can be smothering there even for non-native NHL players who don’t speak French. If a majority of that culture is OK with these limitations, then the rest of us should be, too. It’s their team.
“People are proud of their Montreal Canadiens over there,” Perreault said. “This is like everything else there. I’m kind of surprised. I feel like it’s a little too much, but this is what they do there. They just love their hockey.”
– Brian McNally
