Player Discussion Phillip Danault II: 2nd C? edition

[Lebowski]

If you have a problem with Danault I pitty you , because he will be here for long time.

As long as they don't make him the new Desharnais in terms of usage, I think everyone will appreciate having Danault on the team.

In a bottom-six role.

 

[groovejuice]

And yet, I often stumble upon posts mocking the accent of francophone speaking in English, or accusing francophone players of being given preferential treatment when it's patently clear it's not the case. Or subtly suggesting that certain media are inferior just because of language.

You've never seen a blue unicorn, but you've seen a player's wife publically call coaches "****ing french" and decided to bury your head in the sand and pretend it never happened.

For the priviledged anglophones, incidents like this are always downpayed. But for many of us who have had to suffer this kind of discrimination and those kind of remarks, it's grating.

Of course, the majority of posters are not discriminating like this. That's the important thing to remember and the reason a lot of us have not completely abandoned this place. But there's a shortlist of extremely vocal regular posters who have mastered the art of skirting the line and making it very obvious that they dislike frenchies, without the moderation doing anything about it. And they spread this poisonous, absolutely incorrect and ******** idea, which is irritating.

You make some fair points, and I myself, being a member of an ethnic minority am not immune to the insensitivity of others.

However, the poster to whom I replied stayed categorically that 100% of posters with a negative opinion towards a player or his performance were motivated by racism. That's absurd and insulting. I've read the thread and don't recall a single post suggesting or implying that Danault's "Frenchness" was his downfall.

Personally, I always considered the posts mocking Therrien's accent and halted speech were at worst childish and were more indicative of a disrespect for his intelligence. I'll happily concede that a person might see this in another manner.

I was personally shaking my head at the ignorant comments made by the wife of Pateryn, and I have no genetic or cultural ties to Quebec, save the fact that my parents met there. It's completely untrue and blatantly unreasonable for you to suggest that my head was buried in the sand. I was offended by her comments.

 

[Smokey Thompson]

Another in a long list of decent two-way Habs players who get thrust into a spot way above where they should be...

The kid has great defensive instincts but there is no reason he should ever be in an offensive role over Galchenyuk.

 

[Kudo Shinichi]

I bet if his name was Danokov and he didn't speak french, nobody would be hating on him

 

[Smokey Thompson]

I bet if his name was Danokov and he didn't speak french, nobody would be hating on him

I bet if he was playing on the 2nd or 3rd line and NOT flanked by our two top offensive wingers people would appreciate him for his two-way play.

 

[NotProkofievian]

I bet if his name was Danokov and he didn't speak french, nobody would be hating on him

I know! Danault is top 10 all time in being fine, I guess, and people just don't appreciate him.

 

[Toene]

And yet, I often stumble upon posts mocking the accent of francophone speaking in English, or accusing francophone players of being given preferential treatment when it's patently clear it's not the case. Or subtly suggesting that certain media are inferior just because of language.

You've never seen a blue unicorn, but you've seen a player's wife publically call coaches "****ing french" and decided to bury your head in the sand and pretend it never happened.

For the priviledged anglophones, incidents like this are always downpayed. But for many of us who have had to suffer this kind of discrimination and those kind of remarks, it's grating.

Of course, the majority of posters are not discriminating like this. That's the important thing to remember and the reason a lot of us have not completely abandoned this place. But there's a shortlist of extremely vocal regular posters who have mastered the art of skirting the line and making it very obvious that they dislike frenchies, without the moderation doing anything about it. And they spread this poisonous, absolutely incorrect and ******** idea, which is irritating.

When we were in BC, my ex-girlfriend got a yogurt thrown at her from a guy in a car who said : GTFO French ****s. Isolated incident but there are many examples that show there's still discrimination towards French people in Canada. Personally, I dont care. If they got a problem with that I'll be happy to kick their face in. I hate the victim mentality. But what annoys me is when I get called a racist because I want my culture to be promoted (e.g. having a French staff for the Habs). Wanting immigrants to speak French in Montreal and rest of the province. Etc. Being a nationalist = being a bigot nowadays.

 

[Kudo Shinichi]

I bet if he was playing on the 2nd or 3rd line and NOT flanked by our two top offensive wingers people would appreciate him for his two-way play.

I bet if people realized that Danault was playing in his first full nhl season and played against the top team's defensemen night and night out while not looking out of place, they would appreciate him more.

 

[ECWHSWI]

I bet if his name was Danokov and he didn't speak french, nobody would be hating on him

who HATES Danault ?

 

[Smokey Thompson]

I bet if people realized that Danault was playing in his first full nhl season and played against the top team's defensemen night and night out while not looking out of place, they would appreciate him more.

That's the thing though, he did look out of place in the offensive zone during the playoffs. He had a tremendous first full NHL season. But, like we've seen in the past, top coaches like AV will exploit the hell out of players that are slotted into roles they should not be in during the playoffs. Both Danault and the team would have been better off with him playing on the second / third line with Lehkonen / Gallagher / Shaw / Byron.

Galchenyuk disappointing down the stretch, but Julien should've just stuck with a Patch-Galchenyuk-Radulov power line. Instead, he stuck Galchenyuk with grinders and Patch with a two-way rookie centre. Lo and behold, both of his top goalscorers came up dry. Who would've thought?

 

[Vlad The Impaler]

You make some fair points, and I myself, being a member of an ethnic minority am not immune to the insensitivity of others.

However, the poster to whom I replied stayed categorically that 100% of posters with a negative opinion towards a player or his performance were motivated by racism. That's absurd and insulting. I've read the thread and don't recall a single post suggesting or implying that Danault's "Frenchness" was his downfall.

Personally, I always considered the posts mocking Therrien's accent and halted speech were at worst childish and were more indicative of a disrespect for his intelligence. I'll happily concede that a person might see this in another manner.

I was personally shaking my head at the ignorant comments made by the wife of Pateryn, and I have no genetic or cultural ties to Quebec, save the fact that my parents met there. It's completely untrue and blatantly unreasonable for you to suggest that my head was buried in the sand. I was offended by her comments.

I just want to make one last quick post on the subject. I believe you 100% when you say you were offended by her comments. When I said your head might be buried in the sand, I was refering to this quote where you said " Francophobe Habs fan is as numerous as blue unicorns who defecate gold coins.".

In no way do I want to suggest you're a person like that. In fact, let me reiterate that a large majority of people seem to be open-minded and way past any pettiness regarding cultural differences.

I'm just pointing there's a vocal minority that likes to hurl insensitive, hurtful insults and/or generally crack jokes about a specific segment of the population that has to overcome a language barrier.

I haven't figured out yet why the moderators here don't do something about it. Lack of balls ? Not sensistive to the issue ? Or worse, silent complicity ?

 

[M.C.G. 31]

I bet if his name was Danokov and he didn't speak french, nobody would be hating on him

Not this again.

No one is hating on HIM; they're hating on him clearly being played in a role he isn't good enough for.

 

[pepperMonkey]

When we were in BC, my ex-girlfriend got a yogurt thrown at her from a guy in a car who said : GTFO French ****s. Isolated incident but there are many examples that show there's still discrimination towards French people in Canada. Personally, I dont care. If they got a problem with that I'll be happy to kick their face in. I hate the victim mentality. But what annoys me is when I get called a racist because I want my culture to be promoted (e.g. having a French staff for the Habs). Wanting immigrants to speak French in Montreal and rest of the province. Etc. Being a nationalist = being a bigot nowadays.

Just curious and has nothing to do with the topic at hand but how did the guy who threw the yogurt know your ex-gf was French? It's not as if there is any visible signs of difference between French Canadian and just Canadian...

 

[The Nightman]

Are these debates really going to pop up any time someone criticizes Danault?

 

[pepperMonkey]

who HATES Danault ?

Same...I haven't been following this thread too closely but what's with all the hate towards Danault? He's just a guy who was pushed into a role he is not good enough to fill. Should be a 3rd line C (possibly 2nd) forced to play 1st C during the playoffs. Of course he will fail or at the very least the potential of failure was huge. He's just wasn't good enough and most likely never will be (sounds like the parallels of DD, lol).
Nothing to do with his race. Nothing to do with any lack of trying (he did). Nothing to do with him floating or playing without passion or anything like that. Just a guy thrown into an impossible situation to succeed.

 

[Lebowski]

Same...I haven't been following this thread too closely but what's with all the hate towards Danault? He's just a guy who was pushed into a role he is not good enough to fill. Should be a 3rd line C (possibly 2nd) forced to play 1st C during the playoffs. Of course he will fail or at the very least the potential of failure was huge. He's just wasn't good enough and most likely never will be (sounds like the parallels of DD, lol).
Nothing to do with his race. Nothing to do with any lack of trying (he did). Nothing to do with him floating or playing without passion or anything like that. Just a guy thrown into an impossible situation to succeed.

That's just the kind of rhetoric the poster who just started this debate likes to push when things go sideways in the "defend whoever the majority of HF is against" end of spectrum.

I won't call it trolling, but it's pretty damn close to it. Takes the conversation sideways each and every time.

 

[groovejuice]

I just want to make one last quick post on the subject. I believe you 100% when you say you were offended by her comments. When I said your head might be buried in the sand, I was refering to this quote where you said " Francophobe Habs fan is as numerous as blue unicorns who defecate gold coins.".

In no way do I want to suggest you're a person like that. In fact, let me reiterate that a large majority of people seem to be open-minded and way past any pettiness regarding cultural differences.

I'm just pointing there's a vocal minority that likes to hurl insensitive, hurtful insults and/or generally crack jokes about a specific segment of the population that has to overcome a language barrier.

I haven't figured out yet why the moderators here don't do something about it. Lack of balls ? Not sensistive to the issue ? Or worse, silent complicity ?

I understand the sensitivity. I've felt it myself, and it's not difficult to take offense to a remark regardless of its intent.

Personally, I seen years of moderation here and I believe the Mods scrutinize these particular conversations very carefully. They have a tendency to be tolerant until comments become out of control.

Something inferred isn't necessarily something implied, so I personally try to give posters on both sides the benefit of the doubt until that's no longer an option. Finally, I will add that I'm quite certain that many posters who mocked Therrien's speech were, themselves, Francophone.

Since this a Danault thread, I'll make a u-turn and say that I like his game, but he's clearly not a #1C. At best he'll be a #2, but most likely will be a top notch #3. The trick is to have a clear #1 and #2 on the roster.

 

[CHwest]

I bet if people realized that Danault was playing in his first full nhl season and played against the top team's defensemen night and night out while not looking out of place, they would appreciate him more.

That's the problem, he looked out of place. You can't see it.

 

[Price is Wright]

Everyone who wants him traded are people who think they can fix a coach by trading his toys away. He will always get new ones.

How do they say, don't hate the player but hate the game? I'm using it wrong but Folks should do more of that. Danault is a decent player, a 3C with 2C potential who the coaches keep putting in a 1C role. Ain't his fault. He's doing his best and his best isn't good enough because he isn't a 1C.

Blame the coach, not Phil.

 

[Vlad The Impaler]

Just curious and has nothing to do with the topic at hand but how did the guy who threw the yogurt know your ex-gf was French? It's not as if there is any visible signs of difference between French Canadian and just Canadian...

I'll let the person answer but *I* can attest that driving a car with a Quebec license plate in Alberta can be... an eye-opening experience.

I have no idea what it's like in BC but we've had insults thrown randomly at us everytime we've been in Alberta (three trips).

Again, the vast majority of people are courteous or friendly and one time, some extremely cool locals took our defense in what was going to be a very ugly incident otherwise. But the few incidents get to you.

 

[Lebowski]

Everyone who wants him traded are people who think they can fix a coach by trading his toys away. He will always get new ones.

How do they say, don't hate the player but hate the game? I'm using it wrong but Folks should do more of that. Danault is a decent player, a 3C with 2C potential who the coaches keep putting in a 1C role. Ain't his fault. He's doing his best and his best isn't good enough because he isn't a 1C.

Blame the coach, not Phil.

I think everyone can see that, and as stated many times... No one hates Phil.

 

[CHwest]

Everyone who wants him traded are people who think they can fix a coach by trading his toys away. He will always get new ones.

How do they say, don't hate the player but hate the game? I'm using it wrong but Folks should do more of that. Danault is a decent player, a 3C with 2C potential who the coaches keep putting in a 1C role. Ain't his fault. He's doing his best and his best isn't good enough because he isn't a 1C.

Blame the coach, not Phil.

Most, are blaming the coach, not Phil. I love his hustle, his hard work, his determination. But none of those things make him a first line center. I would hate to see him traded, not because I'm afraid he will will blossom elsewhere, but because he is a good player in his own right. The coach just needs to find the right stall in the barn for him.

 

[Price is Wright]

I think everyone can see that, and as stated many times... No one hates Phil.

W7 was hating pretty hard.

He was horrible in the playoffs. Between him and Chucky I'd rather trade him, he's close to his ceiling. Overrated player, maybe we can sell-high on him.

A few said he sucked. It wasn't the majority here but it still exists.

 

[Lebowski]

W7 was hating pretty hard. A few said he sucked. It wasn't the majority here but it still exists.

W7 is W7 though.

 

[pepperMonkey]

I'll let the person answer but *I* can attest that driving a car with a Quebec license plate in Alberta can be... an eye-opening experience.

I have no idea what it's like in BC but we've had insults thrown randomly at us everytime we've been in Alberta (three trips).

Again, the vast majority of people are courteous or friendly and one time, some extremely cool locals took our defense in what was going to be a very ugly incident otherwise. But the few incidents get to you.

Ahh, okay, I can see that happening. That is so dumb though. There are just too many dumb racist people on this planet. Just makes you wonder how such lowlifes didn't get themselves killed before teenager age because of plain stupidity.