Did politics kill the Habs franchise ?

[Captain Mountain]

Therrien is awful. Julien is good but his system isn't suitable for a team like the Habs. Coach Q doesn't speak French. Vigneault is good but he had his chance in Montreal too.

I never said that bilingual candidates are terrible, but I find it stupid that the Habs management would turn down Laviolette or Babcock or Sullivan because they don't speak French.

Therrien is bad. So are many other unilingual coaches. Julien is good. Coach Q is Franco-Ontarian and is absolutely bilingual. His French is pretty rusty, but its good enough for the purposes of stonewalling the media.

Also, Habs management didn't turn down Babcock. Sullivan was never on their radar because he isn't experienced and Laviolette because he coaches to aggressively.

And how many non bilingual coaches have won cups ?

Nobody is saying being bilingual is terrible.

The point is if you only hire bilingual coaches, your not choosing from the best candidates possible since your excluding all the unilingual candidates.

I think you're missing the point with the bolded there.

As for choosing from the best candidates, for one, the Habs have never ruled out nearly universally recognized top coaches even if they are unilingual. They weren't available. For another, the implication when you say "if you only hire bilingual coaches, your not choosing from the best candidates possible" means that the best candidates are all unilingual. That seems pretty damn hard to prove.

 

[57special]

Did MTL actually not consider Babcock because he is English? I mean, the guy went to McGill, knows MTL, and is an excellent coach. Surely he could mutter few words in Franglaise that would satisfy the masses- if they were winning?

We were charmed by coach Lemaire and his sometimes incomprehensible accent here in Minneapolis/St. Paul. He is still extremely well thought of here.

Stu Cowan: Canadiens great Larry Robinson finds home with Blues

By all reports a great guy for developing young Dmen, but MTL didn't come calling.

 

[Captain Mountain]

Yes they are. 30 other teams can hire anyone that is a fit. The Habs are the only team which cannot.
The only organization hiring the same guys is..The Habs. Last 2 coaches are guys they previously fired. Not happening elsewhere is it? It's because they have so few to choose from. Time for Alain Vigneault to replace Julien next.

Most coaches in the NHL are in their 2nd or greater NHL head coaching gig. And while hiring the same guys may seem weird to you, we're talking about teams with different rosters, management and ownership here.

As for other teams, Carlyle is on his second stint with Anaheim and Hitch is on his second stint with Dallas.

 

[haveandare]

Yeah. It's better to try the Capitals way, it appears so much more successful.

I mean, compared to MTL, it absolutely is.

 

[Captain Mountain]

Did MTL actually not consider Babcock because he is English? I mean, the guy went to McGill, knows MTL, and is an excellent coach. Surely he could mutter few words in Franglaise that would satisfy the masses- if they were winning?

We were charmed by coach Lemaire and his sometimes incomprehensible accent here in Minneapolis/St. Paul. He is still extremely well thought of here.

When was Babcock available when Montreal had a coaching vacancy?

 

[Melrose Munch]

Mario Lemieux (2 Stanley cups), Vincent Damphousse (1 Stanley cup), Luc Robitaille (1 stanley cup), Pierre Turgeon, Stéphane Richer, Raymond freaking Bourque, more recently Vincent Lecavalier(1 Stanley cup), Martin St-Louis (2 times Art-Ross winner and Stanley cup champion...), Brad Richards speaks French (1 Stanley cup), Claude Giroux, Jonathan Toews (3 Stanley cups), Kris Letang (3 Stanley cups), Patrice Bergeron (1 Stanley cup).

Goalies : Roberto Luongo, Martin ****ING Brodeur, Marc-André Fleury (3 Stanley cups), José Théodore, Corey Crawford (2 Stanley cups).

I must forget some. I mean you couldve at least used a quick Google search before posting.

See the past again. I mean someone said Bergeron Giroux Letang but one is a defensive playing and the other two are injured a lot.

Patrice Bergeron? Claude Giroux?

Although neither of these players are available to the Habs.

Not disagreeing with your main point, but Luongo, Brodeur?

True, but see how hard is to name recent players? Luongo is old, Brodeur has been out of the game for a while. Before Giroux, Simon Gagne, who was good until the injuried piled up. What has french development brought the Habs recently, let alone the league? Not too much. That is reason enough for the Habs to open it up to english only.

 

[Gene Parmesan]

Missing on draft picks and poor talent evals is why they suck.

 

[sandysan]

As far as I know, the NHL does not operate in French, it does not transact trades in French, and organizations do not communicate in French.

So, if that's the case, why would an NHL franchise limit itself to French-speaking management? So that he can communicate with a fanbase that should and most likely does speak English?

Seems kind of backwards to me.

Having grown up in la belle province, statements much milder than this have led directly to fisticuffs.

The habs are not just a hockey team, they are a cultural institition. when people perceive this institution being threatened ( real or imagined) they act in completely irrational ways. that aint gonna change any time soon, if it changes at all.

 

[Melrose Munch]

Therrien is awful. Julien is good but his system isn't suitable for a team like the Habs. Coach Q doesn't speak French. Vigneault is good but he had his chance in Montreal too.

I never said that bilingual candidates are terrible, but I find it stupid that the Habs management would turn down Laviolette or Babcock or Sullivan because they don't speak French.

You make it sound as if all the bilingual coaches suck. Julien won a cup. Queneville won 3 cups. Vigneault and Therrien went to cup finals. Outside of the old-boys club, Ducharme is one of the best coaches in Juniors.

The variance in coaching quality isn't as big as people make it sound sometimes and its not like bilingual candidates are all terrible.

Therrien is not awful, he just grinds on people and a lot of the players today are soft and need to be babied. He also demands 200 ft play.

 

[sandysan]

Did MTL actually not consider Babcock because he is English? I mean, the guy went to McGill, knows MTL, and is an excellent coach. Surely he could mutter few words in Franglaise that would satisfy the masses- if they were winning?

We were charmed by coach Lemaire and his sometimes incomprehensible accent here in Minneapolis/St. Paul. He is still extremely well thought of here.

Stu Cowan: Canadiens great Larry Robinson finds home with Blues

By all reports a great guy for developing young Dmen, but MTL didn't come calling.

the big bird speaks french iirc ( so does bobby smith who will end up as a gm somewhere). And I think we kicked the tires on larry at a time when he said he was happy being an assistant. The surprising thing is that I don't think Muller speaks french ( I could be wrong). if the habs were to ever get an anglophone coach, it probably would have to be someone with a long illustrious history with the team.

 

[Alexander the Gr8]

Therrien is not awful, he just grinds on people and a lot of the players today are soft and need to be babied. He also demands 200 ft play.

His strategies are outdated and his system kills creativity offensively.

 

[member 298589]

I think Bergevin and karma firmly clotheslined this franchise into the ground. And I think there are worse days ahead.

 

[Melrose Munch]

His strategies are outdated and his system kills creativity offensively.

He expects his guys to play a balanced game. He's a downmarket version of babcock at worst. The Leafs should have MNM on the top line but then the rest of the team would be Marleau and some kids.

 

[pineapplestastegood]

Yup! LMAO!

 

[DaBolts]

It's hard to shed a tear here. Toronto I love to see coming back. Montreal? Not so much. Since we fleeced them in the Drouin trade, I'm pretty much not concerned with the Francophone version of Buffalo.

 

[Burke the Legend]

Ehh things aren't that bad. A lot went wrong this season like Price getting poisoned by his quack naturopath, losing Weber all season, then a lot of other injuries. The Habs have to easily be #1 in games lost especially if you were to prorate them by salary. They fell apart spectacularly but hey at least they get a better pick out of it.

It's on Bergevin to fill that glaring hole at center, not easy to find young/prime top 6 centremen but he has to do it.

A healthy team with Price finding his mojo back, and a top 6 centre acquisition would do just fine next year, probably in playoff range. Maybe those are somewhat optimistic 'ifs' but it's not crazy.

Meanwhile having a big draft this year, a good top 5 pick + finding some gems with all those 2nd rounders would restock the prospect pool for the next 2-4 years.

I realize hfboards is having some fun right now trolling the Habs failure, which is good fun I know. Then it's all amplified by the completely insane Montreal angst where there is a weird political, language and counter-language vortex aspect to it especially on the internet where every crank gets his say and media eggs it on for hits/ratings so it permeates into the mainstream which informs a lot of people who are just "Habs fans" not "hockey fans". Unlike other bigger cities they don't have the outlet of being able to bangwagon onto some other sport since the Habs are the only major league club.

 

[Wolf357]

Canadiens Franchise has always had issues “Politically” The French/English divide has died down significantly but will always be simmering.
Simply put a GM and more importantly a Coach simply has to be able to conduct interviews in French.
For years the Csptain was also expected to be able to do interviews in French. I remember vividly Mike Keane making the huge mistake of saying “it’s not nessary to be able to speak French as the captain of The Canadiens” . La Press ran a Front Page Cartoon of Keane waving The Union Jack.. He was pretty much traded right after that .

 

[Hockey Nightmare]

IMO, the Habs screwed themselves with the Subban deal. That's what has helped kill this franchise. They needed a number one centre, not an inferior replacement to subban. They didn't need Drouin either. They will never be good until they get that centre.

 

[Number8]

There is no question that Montreal has tended to emphasize francophones in key management and coaching positions over the years. That worked very very well in the 50’s, 60’s, and 70’s. It’s more of a challenge in today’s game.

I get the pressure and on some level understand same. However, it certainly limits the pool of available excellent candidates. In today’s game you need the best of the best on and off the ice to compete at the top.

That said, there’s no explanation for Bergevin. Even if it was a hard and fast rule, there simply has to be a better francophone option than Bergevin. Cannot believe I’m saying this but I sympathize with Habs fans. Having lived through the end of Harry Sinden’s career and Mike O’Connel there is nothing worse as a fan than ineptitude in head positions.

 

[Absurdity]

All they have to do is hire the best coach and GM available as well as translator. I guess that isn't the same though, and as a Bruins fan, I'm not complaining.

 

[Pyrophorus]

Though he wasn't a good coach, they ran out Cunneyworth since he didn't speak French. Hell, they didn't bring in Babcock despite him going to school in the area etc and speaking no French.

Lets stop this.
Therrien was doing very well with the Habs at this point, and his contract hadn't ended.
There was really no point to approaching Babcock during this time.

 

[Pyrophorus]

When was Babcock available when Montreal had a coaching vacancy?

Exactly!

 

[Pyrophorus]

According to the panel on HIO: 80% of the fanbase is francophone

 

[Laveuglette]

The Montreal Canadiens have more post-expansion cups (and also pre-expansion) than anyone and that franchise is still very much alive. This is just another french-bashing thread, which the mods will ignore because whatever. Franchises struggle now and then. The Canadiens will bounce back in a couple of years, no doubt.

 

[Porkleaker]

Most media coverage? Nah, that's easily Toronto - the center of the hockey universe, at least in Canada. I don't like it either, I always complained about HNIC east games always being Leafs forced down your throat which is in part why I loathe them.