Laurentide
Registered User
If Gauthier had hired an anglo coach with some pedigree, a Babcock or a Hitchcock, there would have been no protests. But he hired Cunneyworth, who couldn't coach in either language. Now sure you could argue that if these "fans" who showed up with torches and pitchforks actually knew anything about how hockey works they would have known that it's difficult to find anyone decent to coach that late into a season because anyone who's good has a job until at least the end of the season so you have to hire an available assistant. And they would also know that the hiring was always intended to be interim only no matter how well the team performed under the new coach. If I ever thought for one second that Cunneyworth was going to be the coach beyond finishing out the string after Martin was fired I'd have bought a pitchfork too. But I always knew he was just keeping the seat warm for whoever they were going to hire in the off-season.A former Hab who didn't have the decency to try to learn the lingo when he was here before. That's how it's going to be spinned. And if I remember correctly at first the press didn't have much to say about Cunnyworth's promotion yet the fanatics were protesting outside the Bell Center. That spooked Geoff "I'm-going-to-take-your-money-with-better-hotdogs-and-not-better-hockey"Molson.
As for Hunter, he really wasn't a Hab long enough to pick up much French and his stature on the team was never very prominent. He was nowhere near as big a presence on the Habs as his brother was on the Nordiques. So I wouldn't put too much stock in his Habs "pedigree". He played more for the Blues than he did for the Habs. And as a front office guy he's never been in charge of a team so I don't know how or why people would think that he's going to be some kind of savior. Hunter has nothing more on his resume at the moment than Bergevin did when he was hired by the Habs. You can say that Hunter is highly regarded around the league but the same things were said about Bergevin 6 years ago too.