Dismay at Habs’ lack of Quebec player
Nobody is happy that the Canadiens played this week with no Quebec-born player dressed for the game. François Legault and Valérie Plante have weighed in, and Serge Savard is hinting that it’s some evil plot by Marc Bergevin to neglect Quebec’s junior hockey.
In an ideal world Bergevin could recruit local boys and win the cup. As it stands, he’s been able to do neither. Could anybody do both at the same time?
dwgs 09:45 on 2021-05-12 Permalink
Oh ffs. Not that I want to defend present management but for those who care check out the graphic here, https://twitter.com/HabsGifs/status/1392208901328752643/photo/1
Patrick 09:53 on 2021-05-12 Permalink
This piece by Martin Leclerc on Radio-Canada website explains that it’s not a Canadiens specific issue, but a generalized situation in the NHL : https://ici.radio-canada.ca/sports/1792208/chronique-martin-leclerc-hockey-joueurs-quebecois-canadien-lnh-declin-developpement
Also, other provincial hockey programs have been getting their act together while we let private interest from junior leagues decide how to develop hockey talents in Québec.
JS 10:34 on 2021-05-12 Permalink
I never understood sports nationalism, referring to the professional athletes hired to play the local arena as “us”, “our” team, etc, or even why anyone would actually care who wins or loses as long as there’s lots of action and skill on display. Maybe in the old days it was like the Olympics are supposed to be, where sports teams were actually drawn from the local population and perforce there was a direct connection between the players and the fans, but hasn’t it degenerated into red vs black checkers? It’s so pretentious.
Kate 12:01 on 2021-05-12 Permalink
Likewise, I think it’s time we stop playing national anthems before games. What does singing ‘O Canada’ mean when your team comes from a dozen countries, and the game has nothing to do with nationalism?
Meezly 12:17 on 2021-05-12 Permalink
I’m no sports fan but hasn’t this been common knowledge for decades? that big league sports is a huge private enterprise and any sense of nationalism or idea of a ‘home team’ is entirely fabricated. The NHL is American and every hockey team has players from all over the world. I know that sports fans are very emotionally invested in the games so I guess this overrides any sense of rational thinking.
CE 13:11 on 2021-05-12 Permalink
I wonder how many Nevada boys are playing for the Golden Knights.
dwgs 13:37 on 2021-05-12 Permalink
Right. Not a room full of sports fans. Patrick, by the time the kids get to major junior the winnowing has already been largely done. They just take the best of the Midget AAA kids and make what they can of them. A lot more kids these days are opting for the prep school followed by college route because they see it as a safer way to go. Unless you’re drafted in the first two rounds (top 40 kids from ON/QC border to the maritimes) the Q can be a real crapshoot.
Josh 14:00 on 2021-05-12 Permalink
CE: Your point is absolutely fair, but part of the thinking in expanding to some of these places has been to expand the game. Everyone makes fun of the Arizona Coyotes for their lack of fan support, deservedly so to some extent. But Gary Bettman and the other powers that run the league would point to Auston Matthews, captain of the Leafs and one of the top 3 or 5 stars in the game. He’s from Arizona, and he and his parents have both made the point that he likely would not have ended up playing hockey if not for the existence of a team in his state when he was young.
You see the same phenomenon with Canadian basketball. Canadian basketball is at an all-time high right now in terms of player development. Multiple Canadians go in the NBA draft each year now, and many people argue that is a direct result of the existence of the Toronto Raptors.
Josh 14:04 on 2021-05-12 Permalink
Oh, Kate: On the anthem point, the Dallas Mavericks of the NBA ceased playing the Star Spangled Banner at the beginning of the current NBA season. They made the change quietly, without any fanfare. But when it started gaining notice, the NBA issued a decree that every team must play the anthem(s) before each game.
https://www.npr.org/2021/02/10/966350329/dallas-mavericks-stop-playing-national-anthem-before-games
Kate 17:18 on 2021-05-12 Permalink
Josh: Interesting, and thanks for the story. I really do not get it. Did the tradition start during one of the world wars and then just keep going, I wonder?
Some years ago friends dragged me to a performance of some Gilbert and Sullivan thing by one of the traditional operetta groups (which may no longer exist, I don’t know – Montreal West Operatic Society, maybe?) and I was surprised to find the audience all stood and sang O Canada before the curtain rose. I’ve even read of the anthem being done before movie showings, during World War II.
So maybe the tradition has gradually withered away except for sports?
Josh 18:37 on 2021-05-12 Permalink
Kate: A USA Today piece that I found (but can’t link to because of weird internet issues at the moment) says that the practice was first documented during the US Civil War, and then became more popular toward then end of World War I. It says it truly took off though, with the advent of public address/sound systems in stadiums, which happened to coincide roughly with World War II.
It adds that there was a time that it was played at the start of all kinds of events – movies, theatre spectacles and so on. It was really cemented in (North/American) sports during the Vietnam War, when Americans started getting a lot weirder about imposed/enforced patriotism.