So... the Montreal Canadiens fired their head coach, Guy Carbonneau, today. General Manager Bob Gainey will take over as interim coach
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Well now, we have to be careful not to lump, say, Alain Chantelois in with Jacques Demers, Joel Bouchard, Francois Gagnon and Benoit Brunet. You can't judge, say, James Duthie, based on Don Cherry's comments or judge PJ Stock based on Ron Maclean's comments.
I don't watch the CBC. Or TSN, really. I watch RDS exclusively for my hockey games. I read TSN, RDS, the Montreal Gazette and (sadly) habsinsideout.com. I think, given all that, the French media (for the most part) have a better objective view on things than the English media.
A lot of the anglos here think Bob Gainey is the be-all, end-all and that the problems are with the French press and the Russian players. A lot of the francophones respect Gainey, but think he's been doing his buddy a favour by not firing him until now and that now, maybe we should just clean house at the end of the season and install all-new francophones in their places.
But ultimately, the smart people, on both sides, put aside the language issue and the history issue and go okay, look. Bob Gainey doesn't panic easy, Guy Carbonneau is making weird decisions about what happens on the ice. He's lost the dressing room. Something needs to change. I think a lot more people are willing to give Gainey a while longer to see if he can pull the team out of this slump and will give him the benefit of the doubt, even if he instills an English coach. It could be Kirk Muller for all we know, that's what they were suggesting today.
Bottom line, there's a LOT of noise out there that the coach and GM and team have to become immune to. But in that noise, there are some voices that speak with reason and logic, and those voices are on both sides of the language debates here in Quebec.
I don't watch the CBC. Or TSN, really. I watch RDS exclusively for my hockey games. I read TSN, RDS, the Montreal Gazette and (sadly) habsinsideout.com. I think, given all that, the French media (for the most part) have a better objective view on things than the English media.
A lot of the anglos here think Bob Gainey is the be-all, end-all and that the problems are with the French press and the Russian players. A lot of the francophones respect Gainey, but think he's been doing his buddy a favour by not firing him until now and that now, maybe we should just clean house at the end of the season and install all-new francophones in their places.
But ultimately, the smart people, on both sides, put aside the language issue and the history issue and go okay, look. Bob Gainey doesn't panic easy, Guy Carbonneau is making weird decisions about what happens on the ice. He's lost the dressing room. Something needs to change. I think a lot more people are willing to give Gainey a while longer to see if he can pull the team out of this slump and will give him the benefit of the doubt, even if he instills an English coach. It could be Kirk Muller for all we know, that's what they were suggesting today.
Bottom line, there's a LOT of noise out there that the coach and GM and team have to become immune to. But in that noise, there are some voices that speak with reason and logic, and those voices are on both sides of the language debates here in Quebec.
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