The molehill that is the Montreal Canadiens naming a non-francophone as the team’s head coach is becoming a mountain.
The Habs fired Jacques Martin on Dec. 17 and replaced him with Randy Cunneyworth, a decision met with contempt by many fans and media outlets in Montreal because the new head coach does not speak French.
Former NHL coach Pierre Page, who was the bench boss for the Quebec Nordiques from 1991-94, said that the issue of what language the coach speaks is masking what the problem really is.
“To me it’s all about winning,” Page told HOCKEY CENTRAL @ Noon on Tuesday. “Montreal (Canadiens) have won 24 Stanley Cups so people are a little frustrated right now. But I don’t think the fans and the media in Quebec would have been mad if Marc Crawford (the Quebec Nodiques coach in 1994-95) for winning a Stanley Cup in Quebec City, at all.”
Page, who currently coaches the EC Red Bull Salzburg of the Austrian Hockey League, said that Nordiques fans reacted differently to issues like this.
“They were in love with their team, they were in love with Marc Crawford,” Page said. “(Former Nordiques GM)Pierre Lacroix knows the mentality of Quebec and he hired Marc Crawford. It’s all about winning and right now there’s a lot of frustration. If you win, people forget a lot of things. If you don’t, people sort of grab all sorts of issues. It’s too bad that sometimes the wrong issues are at the forefront.”
Page believes that Canadiens brass will use this latest firestorm as a learning tool for future situations.
“I really think that the right people at the top always make the right decisions. I would think that Montreal, with their tradition and history, will make the right decisions,” Page said.
“I think right now they’re caught in a tsunami. The wave is getting higher and higher; you have to prepare for those waves before the wave comes, and when it comes if you’re not ready it’s going to cause more damage. But eventually when you have to prepare to make sure the next wave doesn’t hit you as hard as the first one.”
According to Page, Quebec City and Montreal have different attitudes when it comes to issue of French
“It was different because in Quebec, they waited for an NHL team for so long. They were so much in love with us, they forgave us a lot (if the team wasn’t playing well),” Page said.
“In the end, it was the media in Montreal that was criticizing the media in Quebec (City) for not being tough on us, so it’s totally different,” Page added with a laugh.
