* CANADIENS THE NEW TORONTO MAPLE LEAFS
OH BOY! THE TOWN IS COMING UNRAVELED. THE EFFIGIES ARE BEING ERECTED FOR BURNING. CITIZENS ARE DEMANDING ACTION. CITY HALL IS READY TO GET INVOLVED. THE PROVINCIAL GOVERNMENT IS CONVENING A SPECIAL PARLIAMENTARY COMMITTEE. THE PRESS IS DEMANDING HEADS TO ROLL. What might you ask is happening, has the economy gotten that bad, is the health system deteriorated to the point where the government might fall, is the education system finally at the breaking point, is the government going Bankrupt. NO its nothing that minor, it's the Montreal Canadiens in 8th spot and poised to potentially miss the playoffs..my God stop the presses, shut down the town, run...hide your Tiny Tim Horton hockey playing children, lock up the wife...its chaos.
Listen i don't want to say i told you so but I TOLD YOU SO! In this city so preoccupied by its hockey that a guy would rather watch hockey on TV then go to a strip club and have Natasha bent over to show him her "assets", nothing less then success is demanded. But here is where it gets rather comical. We haven't had success in this town for over 16 years...let me repeat that 16 years. Oh yes i know this is the hockey Dynasty, the holy grail, the lost Ark of the National Hockey League. Wait hold the phone. Rush down to the old Forum (the Pepsi Forum...no wonder the ghost are pissed off) get the ghosts bring them to the Bell Center (Beaver Centre in more ways then one..wink) everything will be fine. AH NO!
This town has gotten to be as bad as the wind filled lungs of the conservative tight ass club also known as the Toronto Maple Leafs. Yes i said it! Start sending me the hate mail. But for God sakes people lets take our collective heads out of our asses and start calling a spade a spade and not a shovel. This team has been nothing but a disaster for the longest time. Yes way past the time when we won 2 Stanley cups in 1986 and 1993. For so long the media and the rabid fans have convinced themselves and anyone needing a lift on a band wagon that this team was great. When in fact all actual evidence points to the complete opposite. You have to go back to 1978-79 season to see when the last time the Canadiens were truly the dynasty of old. The team which was so overwhelmingly better then everyone else that they rightly deserved the name dynasty and their true place in sports greatness. Since then 30 years ago (swallow collectively..yes 30 years ago) this team has been nothing more then a team amongst 30 some other teams battling it out with nothing but 2 Stanley cups to show for its efforts.
Every game night and any other night in between on TV we are bombarded with all these talking heads; from ex coaches and players of the Habs, to ex coaches and players of other teams to media types who never laced up their skates in anything other then a minor junior league continuing to feed us all these false expectations. The Montreal Canadiens franchise has become exactly like the Toronto Maple Leafs. It has no heart any more. In a town once dominated by a passion so strong for hockey that it was rumored that if a game was played Sunday morning at 10am the churches would be empty (in a society predominantly 70% catholic). This team that at one time was a team for the people by the people has become nothing more then a hollow shell of corporate America. The goal isn't to win and win only. The goal is to manage it, to maximize it, to play on the traditions of old, to lull us all into a sense of acceptance. The challenge isn't nor has it ever been to fill seats or sell corporate boxes, the history alone of this team has taken care of that. The goal now is simply to make it make sense financially and to manage it no different then any other business.
The Canadiens have become the classic example of over state, over promise, over expect and under deliver. Much of the problem lies in the hands of the media who sell enormous amounts of news paper, TV time and magazines filled with advertising space. Another part of the problem lies with the way the team is structured and the twisted history which French media types try and attach back to the French Canadian heritage. When in fact other then great players like Maurice "Rocket" Richard, Beliveau, Bernie "Boom Boom" Geoffrion, Jacques Plante, Lafleur, (and a bunch i left out) has nothing at all to do with the french Culture. It was originally supposed to be about french players and french ownership but that never really transpired.
Look back to the The Canadiens; they were founded by J. Ambrose O'Brien on December 4, 1909, as a charter member of the National Hockey Association, O'Brien was from Ontario. The team was then sold to George Washington Kendall (aka George Kennedy)a Quebecois of Irish-Scot dependency. On November 3, 1921, his widow sold the Canadiens hockey team for $11,000 to businessmen Joseph Cattarinich (Italian descent), Leo Dandurand and Louis A. Letourneau. Dandurand was the active partner during their tenure (Dandurand was born in Bourbonnais, Illinois. He moved to Canada with his family when he was 16 years old)(Cattarinich was known as "The Silent One" and Létourneau sold his stake in 1930)In 1935 a syndicate of local Montreal businessmen led by Maurice Forget and Ernest Savard stepped forward to buy the club .In 1957, brothers Tom and Hartland Molson, owners of the Molson brewery, purchased the team. The 1950s were by far the most successful decade for the Canadiens, and it is believed by many that the Habs of this era were the best team in NHL history. Between 1950-51 and 1955-56, the Canadiens made the finals every year, winning six times (including a record five straight between 1955-56 and 1959-60). The team's owner, the Molson brewery, decided to refocus on its core business and sell the Canadiens (the Molson Centre was subsequently also put up for sale). After being unable to entice any Canadian investors to make an offer,[27] Molson sold an 80.1% interest in the team and 100% of the Molson Centre to American investor George N. Gillett Jr. As you can see the whole French Canadien ownership is more likely ownership by default of the Fans and not by true French Canadians. In essence a false sense of proprietorship which is more tangible to the great french speaking players then it is to the Club itself.
So here we are today the 20th day of March 2009, Two weeks after the firing of the coach and into a dismal slide out of the playoffs and the talking heads are still talking as if the Dynasty still existed. IT DOESN'T. I remember back to the day when Houle, Tremblay and Cournoyer were named to lead the team. I remember saying that that decision was like putting, goofy, mini and mickey mouse in charge of the Disney Franchise. We've been through 5 coaches in the last 10 years. This team has become a joke. The leading scorer on the team is a defense man. We have two 20 goal scorer, a captain who has done nothing in the way of winning (minus his personal health and injury battles) A bunch of Russian mafia types (that's a play on the media hype that turned out to be nothing involving a few of the Russian players). We have an over hyped, over his head 21 year old goalie. And a bunch of other guys that nobody else in any town outside of Quebec could name.
The sad reality for everyone is nothing is going to change. This team might sneak in by a nose hair into the playoffs. Skate around and make the over hyped over expecting and dreaming fans happy. Get knocked out in the first round and then listen to the front office executives tell us about the optomism for next season. GIVE ME A BREAK. In the end this team is going nowhere near Lord Stanley's hardware anytime soon. So folks tune in to 110%, anti chambre or RDS blowhard analysts and talking heads, pick up the Gazette, the Journal de Montreal, La Presse so they can tell you every reason why the Canadiens can't win but you should keep on dreaming. Listen to the great debate about the next coach and how he has to be a Francophone or be able to speak french even though there are only 5 French players on the team. People get the golf bag out, shine the clubs and watch the silliness. GO LEAFS GO! (yeah there not making the playoffs either).
Robbie
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