In The Pressbox

Under Pressure

“Under pressure that burns a building down, splits a family in two, puts people on streets.”

So sang David Bowie and Freddie Mercury on their single ‘Under Pressure’ in 1981, and it applies today. Society is so much more advanced than it was even 30 years ago, but we’re under as much pressure now as we were then, if not more.

Wasn’t all this technology supposed to make our lives easier?

Think about cars. When the automobile was first invented, it revolutionized the way mankind travelled, allowing people to get to their destinations a lot faster than was previously possible. Sounds like a positive development, right? Well, drive into Toronto on a Monday morning and look for positivity. It’s more likely you’ll see throbbing veins, angry glares and middle fingers.

Think about the Internet. It has definitely changed our world, but has it made life easier?

The speed with which we now communicate and access information doesn’t seem to have made our lives more convenient. It’s actually made them more frantic and high paced. The internet, cell phones and digital cable are just some of the advancements that have turned us into a society that is constantly starved for stimulation. We crave information and we want it now. We don’t have to wait anymore, so when we’re forced to, we don’t know what to do with ourselves.  

It’s the same frustration that those morning commuters feel. When you’re used to travelling at high speed, standing still just isn’t good enough.

We’re under so much pressure, most of it self applied. Instead of forcing technology to adapt to us, we’ve sped ourselves up to the speed of light for fear of being left behind.  

If we could slow down for just a moment, we might remember what’s actually important, and what David and Freddie were really singing about.

“Can’t we give ourselves one more chance? Why can’t we give love that one more chance?”

Just breathe

Let's all take a deep breath and step down off the ledge. It's going to be okay.

Yes, the Toronto Maple Leafs got their butts kicked by the Ottawa Senators on Tuesday. Yes, Carey Price of my Montreal Canadiens looked pretty awful letting in four goals on eight shots against the Boston Bruins on Wednesday night.

None of it matters, because it's just exhibition hockey. It's meaningless. I know it's hard to tell, with the pre-game shows and the post-game shows and the call-in shows and the stadiums in Toronto and Montreal predictably packed, but these September games are nothing more than glorified scrimmages.

I'm no Leaf fan, but I wouldn't judge the team's chances in 2010-11 based on their 5-0 loss to the Sens. Mostly because that 'Leaf' team that suited up isn't the real Leaf team. For that matter, that Senators team was a fake one too. Filled with minor leaguers, and draft picks, and players who won't get a sniff of NHL action once October comes around.

I love hockey as much as the next guy, but my interest in watching the Habs play last night, aside from seeing the uniform in motion again, was getting a look at some players I've only read about. Jarred Tinordi. Louis Leblanc. Aaron Palushaj.

I wasn't really interested in whether or not they beat a Boston Bruins squad also comprised of youngsters and projects.

Smart fans don't look for wins until the regular season.

Only in Quebec

Books and essays have been written about the never ending language debate in Quebec. It's certainly not something I could adequately cover in a mere blog post.  

But I can at least comment when something like this comes down the pike. 

This bothers me on two levels; as a diehard fan of the Montreal Canadiens, and also as a proud Canadian who loves his country from one coast to the other, including Quebec. Even though sometimes, it feels like the Big Q doesn't love me back.

When you follow the Canadiens, you hear this kind of crap all the time. 'Why aren't there more french players?' 'Why doesn't the captain speak french?' 'This team doesn't respect Quebec heritage!'

While it's true that the Habs once were the dominant team in the NHL thanks to legendary francophone players named Richard, Beliveau, and Lafleur, those days are gone. The hockey world has changed. The NHL is a 30 team league and all of those teams have equal rights to draft, trade for and sign french players. There's no special rule in the league constitution that gives the Habs first right of refusal on all Quebec-born players. Nor should there be.

Secondly, in this day and age, NHL players (including francophones) enjoy far more freedom to decide where they are going to ply their trade than ever before. I'm sure it must irk some Quebecers that elite french players like Roberto Luongo, Vincent Lecavalier and Daniel Briere are not strutting their stuff on Bell Centre ice, but all of those players reached unrestricted free agency and chose to sign long term deals in other places. In Briere's case, he actively spurned the Habs in 2007 in favor of the Philadelphia Flyers, despite the fact that both teams offered him similar term and money.

That ought to tell you something.

Quebecers need to understand that times have changed and that the Montreal Canadiens are no longer an extension of their culture. Those days are gone. The best french hockey players in the world are now free to play wherever they want to and the majority choose not to play in Montreal. That's something Quebecers need to make peace with.

Once they do that, they should enjoy the game of hockey for what it is; a game. And they should enjoy the exploits of players named Gomez, Cammalleri, Price and Subban. Because they want to be in Montreal.