Lost in all the hoopla of the Habs centennial is a really long piece by Red Fisher (it was spread out over three pages) about his career covering the Canadiens and all the great moments of the second half of its first century.
I point to it particularly because Fisher goes into a bit of detail in how he got started in the news business, before he even started covering the Canadiens:
A man named Hugh E. McCormick helped make the dream a reality.
I was a first-year student at Sir George Williams College, The Georgian's one-person sports staff, when McCormick, the owner of the suburban N.D.G. Monitor, Westmount Examiner and Verdun Guardian, sent out a call for college students to report on the sports activities at their schools. A phone call to his office told him I was interested.
"You've got the job," McCormick said immediately.
"How much do you pay?" he was asked.
"Nothing," he said.
"I'll take it," I replied.
It goes from there to an adorable story about him writing a story about a junior football game for the Standard and having it tossed in the garbage by an editor.
But what gets me is that Fisher worked for free, and later took a significant pay cut, just so he could follow his dream of reporting on the Canadiens early in his career.
Half a century later, not much has changed. Plenty of young journalists would make a similar choice now, willing to sign their souls to the devil to get a press pass into the Canadiens dressing room.
More insight into Fisher's career can be gleaned from this Dave Stubbs piece, first published in April 2006, when the Habs honoured his 50 seasons covering the team.
Speaking of the Canadiens centennial, Mike Boone's weekly Eeee-mail makes note of the team's mastery of marketing (to the point where we're all getting sick of it). Jack Todd echoes that, noting the contrast between the Habs' history and its present (and perhaps suggesting a link between the non-stop commemorations and the bad performance of the team).
By the way, I used to find it funny that Boone's column, which appears opposite Red Fisher's Red Line page every Saturday, was essentially a column about Fisher himself. Only Boone could pull off writing a column about another columnist and making it worth reading. Sadly, even Boone has reached his limit. Last week he officially retired the Living Legend of Sports Journalism schtick after 10 years.
A moment of silence for the passing of one of The Gazette's silliest running gags.
Georges Laraque and two fans pose boxing-weigh-in-style
I'm going to come right out and say it: I like Georges Laraque.
When I found out last year that the Canadiens had signed him as a free agent basically as an enforcer to intimidate opposing teams and get into fights, I was disappointed. I'm not a fan of fighting in hockey, and I'm not crazy about goons.
Laraque is still a goon. He's a fighter, an enforcer, a guy who's there more for his size and the strength of his fists than the accuracy of his slapshot. But, for better or for worse he lives by a strict, unwritten code that supposedly uses one-on-one fighting to self-regulate against cheap shots that would otherwise target small superstars. And he's always smiling when he fights, which I found incredibly odd. He finds it amusing when some guy from the other team thinks he can take on Big Georges Laraque. There's clearly a big difference between Laraque and someone like Chris Pronger or Todd Bertuzzi.
I'll never understand the concept of free agency in sports. Or drafting, for that matter. Sure, it makes the odds even, so that a hockey team from southern California can compete against another from Montreal even though one city has ice and the other doesn't. But it just makes the whole system seem so fake. Much as I hate to agree with some of the xenophobic francophones who want to cleanse their country of impure races, I feel for them in the thought that a team based in Montreal should have Montrealers on it. Otherwise, what's the difference between the Montreal Canadiens and the Toronto Maple Leafs other than the city in which they play their home games. Why should fans here blindly follow the Canadiens, as if location alone gives their team an advantage?
Maybe it's supposed to be like that. Maybe sports rivalries are supposed to be meaningless to preserve their fun. But it's hard to think of the idea of a team when people can just come and go as contracts dictate, even sometimes when they don't want to.
And so, just like that, Canadiens captain Saku Koivu signed a one-year deal with the Anaheim Ducks. The writing was on the wall for at least a week now (though most thought he'd be going to Minnesota to join his brother Mikko), but those crazy logic-defying fans held out hope that he'd still be here next season (at least the ones that don't irrationally blame him for everything. We've now lost our C and both As (Alex Kovalev to the Ottawa Senators and Mike Komisarek to the Toronto Maple Leafs, both pouring salt into the wounds). Next year will see the biggest turnover we've seen in a while.
So, like Red Fisher, I will miss our captain, and thank him for his service. He spent his entire NHL career in Montreal, went through a lot (with us living it vicariously through him) and did a lot for our team and our city. He doesn't speak French, isn't from here (neither are Kovalev, Komisarek, Andrei Markov, Carey Price, the Kostitsyns, Tomas Plekanec, etc.), but he was an integral part of Montreal and loved by its citizens. He certainly won't be booed by me next time he comes to town.
We'll get a new captain, as parents explain to their young children what "salary cap" and "unrestricted free agent" mean, and why those things led to them losing their hero. But our fans will soon go back to irrationally predicting that the Canadiens will win the Stanley Cup next year (with lots of Quebec-born francophone players), because ... well, just because.
Life will go on. Because hey, it's only a game, right?
Though scarier than the thought of Céline Dion being the permanent national anthem singer or the Journal de Montréal getting exclusives on everything related to the Canadiens is this:
This trio of potential buyers is said to be contemplating a dedicated pay-TV channel in Quebec that would carry Habs games and other hockey-related content as one way to increase revenues from the team.
It's just an idea, but it's an idea that would be devastating to RDS.
Sportnographe spots that RDS's Canadiens page doesn't have Montreal in the playoffs. (Montreal and Florida had identical records, but the tiebreaker is points against each other, and the Canadiens prevailed there 6-3 with two wins, a loss and an OT win)
And if public sentiment is any indication, our team is going to need all the help it can get. This time they're No. 1 and we're No. 8, we're the ones plagued with injuries and will face each playoff round with the other team having home ice advantage.
In compiling this year's list, I noticed quite a different tone from last year. In April 2008, the Canadiens were expected to finish out of the playoffs but surprised everyone with their strong season and first-place finish in the East. This year, the expectations were high (especially with the centennial) but a post-All-Star meltdown nearly put the Canadiens out of the playoffs. Some of the songs below reflect that.
I'll start us off with Annakin Slayd, who produced a very popular video last year. This time he's back with a French version, which thankfully removes obscures the Journey sample and adds a reference to Alex Tanguay to show it's current. The production values (thanks to Aviva) are also noticeably better. But the song - and its magic - are still essentially the same.
A similar list is compiled on the Bébé Habs blog, though I'm doing my best below to respect copyright. Links to MP3s are on radio station or artist websites and YouTube links are to official videos only. Please let me know if I screwed up somewhere there or if there's an iTunes link I should add.
I'm getting a bit tired of the language debate in Quebec.
I feel a bit guilty saying it, because the neverending battle has become so central to the province's identity that it's almost like I can't call myself a true Québécois unless I have a spot on the front lines. What does it mean to be a Quebecer if not to constantly argue about French vs. English, federalism vs. sovereignty, Liberal vs. PQ/BQ?
The most popular post on this blog, by far, in terms of comments is a criticism I made in 2007 about anglo rights crusader Howard Galganov. The comment mark on that post just passed 500 (all of which I had to individually approve), and new comments are added every day. Discussion of the statements made in the post or of Galganov himself have long fallen by the wayside. The four participants who keep the thread going just yell at each other, call each other racist and compare each other to Hitler in their discussions of the great divide. I block those comments that go too far, but if I deleted those that I didn't think advanced the conversation enough, over 90% would disappear immediately. At this point, I'm just watching the counter go up, in awe about how much time people can waste trying to change the mind of someone who is obviously never going to agree with you.
Autre
I'm an anglophone. Even though I've lived in Quebec my entire life, I'm seen as the enemy. No different than the Rest of Canada. It's assumed that I'm just waiting for my chance to make it in Toronto or New York, and that I don't really belong here because I don't really want to be here. Though I love Quebec as much for its culture (which is inescapably intertwined with its language) as its politics (which is inescapably intertwined with language issues), because I use English more than French in my daily life I'm set aside from real Quebecers.
Once, in a conversation with some young francophone journalists, I was asked about my opinion on Quebec politics in a way that gave me the impression I was introducing these people to a culture they'd only read about. I felt like I was giving them a sociology lesson on what it's like to be an anglo Quebecer.
One of the things that was odd about the conversation is that it came a bit out of nowhere. People don't stop me in the street to debate politics. I've never been refused service at a commercial establishment on account of my language. Francophone bloggers link to me, and I link to them, with little regard to the fact that our posts are in different languages, unless the thing were talking about is language politics. Quebecers are more concerned with daily life, gossiping or getting laid than they are convincing others of their point of view on separation.
I got dragged into a brief debate about my positions on Bill 101 recently, and though I have serious issues with some of its provisions that seem more anti-English than pro-French (and the psychological factor and selective enforcement only exacerbate the anti-English sentiment), part of me wanted to scream out at one point: "I don't care!" I can read French signs fine. I can communicate fine in that language (just don't ask me to write in it for a living). In that sense, Bill 101 doesn't really affect me. Though I cringe at how much the government is spending on language enforcement rather than language education, I think there are far more pressing issues for it to deal with than reforming our language law.
Pure laine
I bring this up because of a couple of debates going on that really make me wonder where Quebec's priorities lie.
La Presse's André Pratte had to apologize on Friday for noting that Michael Sabia, the ex-Bell CEO who has just been named to head the Caisse de dépôt et placement du Québec, is (a) not a Quebecer and (b) doesn't speak French very well. It seems he was wrong on both counts. Sabia has lived in Quebec for 16 years ("how long do you have to live in Montreal before you become a Quebecer?") and his French, while accented, is fine. He attributed his first error to "un détestable réflexe québécois" - namely that if you're anglo, you're not a Quebecer. Believe me, this is a big problem. It's not just in Quebec, of course. People, media and PR agencies all over Canada will look at someone with brown skin and assume they're an immigrant. In the U.S., if you're latino, it's assumed you're an illegal immigrant or the descendant of one.
Now we know why there are rules against political interference in the Caisse's affairs. If something as petty as province of birth is a political issue (and deemed more important than making money for Quebec pensioners) then who knows how many ways 125 MNAs could figure out to screw with the system and doom our finances in order to maintain political correctness.
As Martin Patriquin points out, "Quebec must be the only place in the world where it actually matters what language money speaks."
Not just money, but pucks.
Jeu de puissance
The other debate, which has just started, is over who will fill Guy Carbonneau's shoes as head coach of the Canadiens. For any of the other 29 NHL teams, the only criterion would be the ability to coach a team of players to a Stanley Cup victory. (Well, that and not being a child molester, hockey gambling addict or 9/11 terrorist, I guess.) But in Montreal, they want to add another: the ability to speak French. And because former Hamilton Bulldogs coach Don Lever is a prime candidate (he was promoted to Habs assistant coach when Carbonneau was fired), there's already discussion that, no matter how good a hockey coach he might be, he can't get the job because he won't be able to speak properly to the media and to fans. Even Bob Gainey, who speaks French fine but with a strong accent, isn't good enough for the people at RDS.
This debate should come as no surprise. The same debate has been going on ever since Saku Koivu was promoted to be the Canadiens' captain. Patrick Lagacé complained about it when he was at the Journal (though he's softened his stance at La Presse - Lagacé the old softy disputes this in a comment below) in a column more notable in media circles for its hilarious follow-up. Of course, there are plenty of NHL players who don't speak a word of English, but nobody complains about that. After all, their job is to play hockey, not to give speeches. But, in defence of this particular point, there aren't any NHL captains who can't at least carry on a conversation in the language of Gary Bettman.
And then there's debate any time you see a trade, a call-up, a healthy scratch, or even a line-change which alters the makeup of the team to make it less francophone. It doesn't matter what Guillaume Latendresse, Maxim Lapierre or Mathieu Dandenault's skills are. What matters is that they can be interviewed in French on RDS during intermission, and therefore they must be on the team and in the lineup. For these people, a Patrice Brisebois is more valuable than an Andrei Markov, and certainly more than a Mike Komisarek.
Fans can demand these things. It's their right. And Canadiens fans aren't exactly known for their logic or cool-headedness anyway. And it's the government's right to demand that the head of the Caisse is a Quebec-born francophone who watches Star Académie.
Priorités
But when you say that language and nationality is more important than skill, you can't complain when you don't get results compared to others. You can't complain that the Caisse is losing more money than other pension funds when you passed over a qualified anglophone for a less qualified francophone for the job. You can't complain that the Canadiens failed to bring home their expected 25th Stanley Cup when you cut the field of head coach candidates to less than half of what it was so that RDS viewers don't feel uncomfortable.
In the United States, the military is mocked because it fires gay Arabic translators even when it's in desperate need of them. We make fun of the Americans because they put what you are above what you know, to their own disadvantage.
Sometimes, I wonder if Quebec is any better.
Except, I'm tired of debating the point. So I'm just going to hit "publish" and move on to something more interesting.
For those wondering, RDS had the scoop (and more importantly, the Twitter scoop) on Bob Gainey firing Canadiens coach Guy Carbonneau. They've cut scheduled programming of extreme winter sports on RDS and replaced it with a feed from its RIS all-sports-news network. A press conference is scheduled for 7pm.
A story filled with anonymous sources about a crime boss/drug lord/mafia king
A story about a celebrity scandal
A story about the Canadiens
The news dominated coverage yesterday and today, even as everyone was talking about Alex Kovalev's performance problems.
Part of that was because of La Presse, whose hockey analysts were dropping hints on every TV sports show they could find Thursday night to say that a huge scoop would appear in the next day's paper.
The various news sources did all they could to try and match La Presse's story before it came out, but couldn't gather enough before publication to put it all together. So while most just waited until it was out and summarized La Presse's story or re-researched it, Quebecor-owned 24 Heures put out its exclusive story that four Canadiens players had been arrested.
The story, still available in the Google cache, by reporter Maxime Deland, quotes a single anonymous source "very close" to the Canadiens saying four players had been arrested on Thursday night on their return from Pittsburgh.
Of course, no such thing happened, so 24 Heures deleted the story. I found no correction on their website, and the story was not in Friday's edition of the paper.
The story has gotten so big now we have the second (third?) day stories about whether the media is blowing this out of proportion. This piece at Fanatique summarizes the timeline of stories from the various news outlets, while Yves Boisvert, Patrick Lagacé and Mike Boone defend the media's insane interest in the Canadiens as a mere reflection of what the fans want to read.
UPDATE (Feb. 26): Pierre Trudel says La Presse did a good job with its scoop... in an article in La Presse.
It's a one-way shuttle, leaving the Bell Centre 15 minutes after home games, and dropping off at "three specific locations": Dorval, Pointe-Claire and Fairview.
At least that's what NHL all-star ballot stuffers think. Because of rampant stuffing from Canadiens fans, and then counter-stuffing from Pittsburgh Penguins fans, the Eastern Conference starting lineup has four Canadiens players (Alex Kovalev, Andrei Markov, Carey Price and Mike Komisarek) and two Penguins players (Sidney Crosby and Evgeni Malkin).
Though Habs and Penguins fans should be embarrassed by this, the fault lies in the National Hockey League, which setup a system of unverified voting for its all-star lineup and even encouraged people to vote as many times as they wanted.
Maybe it's time to realize that online voting isn't a proper way to poll the public on anything.
It's amazing how many people will write songs about their local sports team. I listed some of them during the playoffs last season, though I'm sure half of those links have since gone dead. Many of the songs are professionally produced, and feature catchy music, inspiring lyrics and on-key singing. Or they're just funny.
Proving once again that Canadiens fans will buy anything, the Gazette and the Journal de Montréal got involved in this scheme marketing idea whereby Couche-Tard would sell medallions for each player and would need a corresponding coupon from the newspaper to get it (actually, requiring the purchase of a newspaper to get such a thing creates legal implications, so you can bypass the newspapers altogether, but they hope you won't notice that).
Unfortunately,the people involved didn't realize how truly gullible Canadiens fans really are, and the medallions sold out in record time. Reports of people getting up at 4am every day and still not having any luck. Those who are lucky enough to get them are now selling them on eBay for $20 a pop, a 669% profit on the original $2.99 purchase price.
The two papers are falling over themselves apologizing for the shortfall and have ordered new ones, but they will only come in December. Suckers readers are being asked to hold on to their coupons until then.
Perhaps they'll use that extra time to rethink spending $72 on glorified Pogs.
...
I'm sorry, I'm being told this scheme is keeping me employed. Please disregard all of the above.
The immensely popular Habs Inside/Out blog (run by my employer, who will be cutting me a cheque shortly for the plug) has introduced some guest blogging, bringing in devoted Canadiens fans to blog on the site in a section called The Other Wing. What I find interesting about this is that two of the four people are also blogers: Eric Engels writes about the Habs for HockeyBuzz.com and David Kellerman is one of the Four Habs Fans (you know, the one with boobies all over the place). They may not have all the access that a mainstream media outlet does, but they make up for that in enthusiasm.
