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.
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