Forever_Habs10 Posted December 18, 2011 Report Share Posted December 18, 2011 I know Randy Cunneyworth has his own thread...but thought this topic which always tends to bring much heated discussion should be separate.....if not in agreement mod's,close.....so,what's your take on this topic?...does it make any difference to you? WITH NEW ANGLO COACH, CANADIENS STRIKE A NERVE IN QUEBEC MONTREAL -- Many Quebecers are throwing a few body checks at the Montreal Canadiens today for choosing a unilingual anglophone as interim head coach. The team announced on Saturday that the job is going to assistant coach Randy Cunneyworth. A prominent sports writer in Montreal's La Presse newspaper wrote in a column that the club has failed in its responsibility to protect and promote the French language. Some fans say they wouldn't be so upset if the Habs had brought in a highly-regarded Stanley Cup winner instead of an assistant without NHL head coaching experience. Others say if the struggling team goes on a winning streak all will be forgotten. Cunneyworth replaced the fired Jacques Martin, becoming the team's first non French-speaking coach in nearly three decades. There have been countless stories in Quebec in recent weeks about a perceived regression in the use of French, inside the province and in Ottawa. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RSD Posted December 18, 2011 Report Share Posted December 18, 2011 Lol. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hatethosebruins Posted December 18, 2011 Report Share Posted December 18, 2011 Some people need to learn that not everything goes their way, this is borderline prejudice. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kindred Posted December 18, 2011 Report Share Posted December 18, 2011 ya having a coach that can speak french has really helped us out since 92-93 hasn't it It's funny that a member of the french media in Montreal is bringing this up. If the Canadians went out and hired a coach that didn't speak a word of English i highly doubt the English media would be having a fit, or the fans for that matter. posting the appropriate image to reflect my feelings on the french media in 3 2 1 Some people need to learn that not everything goes their way, this is borderline prejudice. 10000000000% agreed Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MIASUN Posted December 18, 2011 Report Share Posted December 18, 2011 The team has bigger fish to fry than language. If they start speaking winning all will be forgotten. Was Scotty bowman bilingual? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
js2 Posted December 18, 2011 Report Share Posted December 18, 2011 This is hockey, not politics. Language shouldn't matter at all. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BeanCountingHab Posted December 18, 2011 Report Share Posted December 18, 2011 The team has bigger fish to fry than language. If they start speaking winning all will be forgotten. Was Scotty bowman bilingual? His French isn't pretty, but yes he is. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BigTed3 Posted December 18, 2011 Report Share Posted December 18, 2011 Dick Irvin, Scotty Bowman, Al McNeil, Toe Blake... all guys whose first language was English and who spoke little or no French so far as I'm aware. Mario Tremblay, Michel Therrien, Guy Carbonneau... all guys who are French-Quebecers and who can't find jobs anywhere else. Certain members of the media are willing to accept lesser coaching candidates in order to promote their own political agenda. It's wrong and it's prejudiced. I am all for going out and getting someone French if he's the best candidate, but to me, the person who's best qualified for the job should get it, regardless of language. We've accepted mediocrity in the name of language for too long, and it's time to put an end to this outdated notion that this is acceptable. When the Habs won Cups back in the day under Anglophone coaches, no one complained. And if we have success under an Anglophone again, it will serve to quiet those media members again. But only as long as the success lasts. As soon as there is any kind of faltering, the calls for that coach's head will come quick and furious. The Habs are an institution in Quebec. They are part of the culture here. But Montreal is bilingual, and the Habs are popular more so because of their storied past of winning, not because of satisfying the need for a french coach. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest habs1952 Posted December 18, 2011 Report Share Posted December 18, 2011 Don't Quebecers and all Canadians have more important things to worry about than who coaches a hockey team? I've never heard the language complaint when it came to baseball, football or soccer. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest archey Posted December 18, 2011 Report Share Posted December 18, 2011 you guys can believe or reject this as you wish. it probably won't help you with me and certainly won't hurt my feelings if you decide against the theory but it goes like this: let me say i play the sax and that it has at the level i'm at a certain tone which stands by itself. when i go out to blues jams i will flat out say i find guitarists to be less than level headed about the type of tone i render. it is NOT the crying baby tone one finds with the harmonica rather it is the mature voice of an adult. it does not attempt to cheat as would a guitar by allowing for a slide to be played upon it (cheating being of course a relative term) rather it is extremely specific in its rendering. it takes every muscle in ones body to play a sax. i also play the guitar which takes far fewer muscles and much less effort to learn. i have feelings about being wanted and/or accepted by people and i would rather think that speaking french in an english speaking world has much the same parameters. upshot: if you people really knew how difficult the matter is wouldn't you just rather let it be? nod your head and agree with those who voice the idea that the coach should be french speaking and not voice your opposition to forcing the coach to be french speaking? well that's how i take it. just as i refuse to be taken for a permanent second fiddle to a guitarist i would imagaine i would refuse to play second fiddle to the english speaking world in some regards. i imagine not everyone can jump out into the world as a premier sax player but everyone who speaks french can prefer it to english. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lizardking89 Posted December 18, 2011 Report Share Posted December 18, 2011 The club has failed in its responsibility to protect and promote the French language? Since when is it the responsibility of the Montreal Canadiens to protect and promote the French language? I thought their responsibility was to win games and the Stanley cup? French is protected and promoted by the politicians and enforced by l'office de la langue francaise. I think the French language is just fine in Quebec and these so called journalists should keep politics out of hockey. It belittles the sport and smacks of prejudice...utterly disgusting behavior from the french media. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest habs1952 Posted December 19, 2011 Report Share Posted December 19, 2011 The club has failed in its responsibility to protect and promote the French language? Since when is it the responsibility of the Montreal Canadiens to protect and promote the French language? I thought their responsibility was to win games and the Stanley cup? French is protected and promoted by the politicians and enforced by l'office de la langue francaise. I think the French language is just fine in Quebec and these so called journalists should keep politics out of hockey. It belittles the sport and smacks of prejudice...utterly disgusting behavior from the french media. It's not just the media. You can bet your last dollar the politicians will be up in arms if the Habs hire an English only speaking coach. All over the world sports teams hire whom they feel is the BEST person/players for the job no matter their language or nationality. Quebec's media(not all) are doing nothing but belittling the people of Quebec when they continue to rant "we demand a French speaking coach" when most Canadiens fans just want a winner. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lizardking89 Posted December 19, 2011 Report Share Posted December 19, 2011 It's not just the media. You can bet your last dollar the politicians will be up in arms if the Habs hire an English only speaking coach. All over the world sports teams hire whom they feel is the BEST person/players for the job no matter their language or nationality. Quebec's media(not all) are doing nothing but belittling the people of Quebec when they continue to rant "we demand a French speaking coach" when most Canadiens fans just want a winner. I know I do and I couldn't care less what language the damn coach speaks. If we won the cup the language the coach speaks would be a non issue hell he could speak Portuguese for all I care. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Regis2 Posted December 19, 2011 Report Share Posted December 19, 2011 I guess the French media / politicians would prefer to have a losing, lousy , mediocre hockey team like the last 19 or so years . Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kinot-1 Posted December 19, 2011 Report Share Posted December 19, 2011 The only reason the Francophone media want a bilingual coach, is so they can ask questions in French. If we are winning with an Anglophone Coach,,,they would still be on this issue. We have ,,what 3-4 Francophone players on the team? We also have Swiss, Russian, Belarusian, Cze, and Svk, players. The spoken language in the room is English. JM2C Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RSD Posted December 19, 2011 Report Share Posted December 19, 2011 I guess the French media / politicians would prefer to have a losing, lousy , mediocre hockey team like the last 19 or so years . If we started winning, they'd have nothing to whine about. So, yeah, they probably do lol. They need to get with the times, this is why the Habs haven't had significant success for years. They have this supposed duty to the "community". No, what they need to have is a commitment to their fans and go after the best available people all around. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest habs1952 Posted December 19, 2011 Report Share Posted December 19, 2011 I excerpted this from a comment on HIO. I found it both fitting and humorous: The most revered coach in the NFL was Vince Lombardi, who will have the trophy named after him competed for every year at the Super Bowl. Lombardi coined the well known phrase about the importance of winning: “Winning isn’t everything. It’s the ONLY thing.” I wonder if history would have judged him differently if he had said: “Winning isn’t everything. Speaking Italian is.” Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kinot-1 Posted December 19, 2011 Report Share Posted December 19, 2011 “Winning isn’t everything. It’s the ONLY thing.” I wonder if history would have judged him differently if he had said: “Winning isn’t everything. Speaking Italian is.” I often wonder if we had "The best Coach" available during the lean years, instead of catering to the French media's version (of the best French speaking coach), what may have happened. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Habsturies Posted December 19, 2011 Report Share Posted December 19, 2011 Don't Quebecers and all Canadians have more important things to worry about than who coaches a hockey team? I've never heard the language complaint when it came to baseball, football or soccer. Talking about soccer.In Europe all the coaches and players who goes to any country,has to learn the local languaje.In the English premier league everybody speaks english. In Spain,spanish...In Italy everybody has to learn italian,etc. In fact David Beckham never make the intend to learn spanish when he was in Madrid,so everybody make jokes about that, The Canadiens has to hire the best coach and skaters as posible,but I never understand why the not french spokens made the intend to learn the local language.I think it´s a way to integrate in the community as well. Europeans players usually speaks more than one language,look at Yannick Weber,who speaks english,french and german. Even when northamericans plays in the KHL they had to learn russian !! If the common situation were that everybody who plays in the CH learn french,no matter how many time takes to learn,there will be no issue about what kind of coach to hire. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
endo519 Posted December 19, 2011 Report Share Posted December 19, 2011 His job is not to be a French speaker or teacher his job is to lead and teach a hockey team. I am getting sick and tired of things like this coming up with this organization. This is just embarrassing. Sometimes I start to question whether I even want to be fan of this team anymore when issues like this arise. Yea you may say good riddance which is understandable, but I have been a fan since I was 3 and just getting tired of this team to be honest. Just the moves they make the people they hire and things like this the MEDIA and These Montreal fans that act this way and make a big deal out of something thats really not. You can get a translator for the coach quit making big deal out of nothing your not losing your team or hertige give it a rest! With as much partiy in the NHL as now why would any team hinder themselves so much as to not hire the best coach but the best french speaking coach. I hope the same fans that complain about things like this dont complain when the habs lose as well. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kindred Posted December 19, 2011 Report Share Posted December 19, 2011 If we started winning, they'd have nothing to whine about. if we went on a tear for the next two weeks the media would cry that " we didnt win enough games in regulation, we faced a team that is missing this player or that player, this player has finally stepped up but is still not worth his contract" thats the kind of crap the media would spew. And if we lose , well they will still have the language issue to fall back on. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GinoCyber Posted December 19, 2011 Report Share Posted December 19, 2011 Bring back the Nordiques and leave us alone. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
powerplay2009 Posted December 19, 2011 Report Share Posted December 19, 2011 Bring back the Nordiques and leave us alone. That's Phoenix's job Anyway, I have 3 word to say. Hire A Winner Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Walrus_26 Posted December 19, 2011 Report Share Posted December 19, 2011 As a guy from Europe (see, not all Brits are rabid anti-Europeans - how can we be seeing as we've invaded by Danes, Saxon Germans and Norman French in time and our gene pool reflects that) I actually support the view that staff hired by a sporting organisation need to make the effort to get at least a basic knowledge of the local language and customs. Montreal is a bilingual city, non? Get Randy up to a good school-leaver's level of French - he and the organisation will be seen to be making the effort. Or is your local francophone media so insular that even this would be deigned to be some sort of insult? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GinoCyber Posted December 19, 2011 Report Share Posted December 19, 2011 Montreal is a bilingual city, non? Get Randy up to a good school-leaver's level of French - he and the organisation will be seen to be making the effort. Or is your local francophone media so insular that even this would be deigned to be some sort of insult? If the chosen one is not French AND NOT from Quebec, he's not wanted, at least that's the message I am getting whenever I read their racist articles. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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