Let's say the NHL does give in to what the Quebec gov't wants, a Francophone coach....?

Even though I think the Quebec government is just ridiculous on this whole "We need a French speaking coach" thing....It's still different that the 2 examples you gave. The Cali example and Boston example aren't a different language...it's English, just like what the Fans of those teams speak. In those cases that's just more slang/accent kind of thing. Where as in Montreal the fans really do speak French. (I'm sure a lot of them are Bilingual, but you get my point).

I can understand the fans that just want to be able to understand what their Coach is talking about. I guess you could hire a translator, but that would take up to much time I would think at press conferences and stuff. I wouldn't want a French only speaking coach here in Detroit, so I get why they would want their coach to be able to communicate with them on some level. But the government made this whole thing worse, a lot of Habs fans want a coach that can win them a Stanley Cup. I'm sure speaking French is a plus and all, but it shouldn't be an absolute need.

Michelle ♥ Hope to Landon i hope you realize you sound like a complete idiot. Since you are not educated on what is going on here in Quebec i would prefer that you don't comment. The only reason ta Francophone coach is wanted is so he can communicate with the fans and media, having an english goal horn, and having a roster full of anglophones is completely irrelevant. The government who in my opinion should stay out of this only want a coach who can speak french to communicate with a province who official language is french. The majority of people in Quebec are bilingual but still the majority of people here speak french as the primary language so it makes sense to have a coach who speaks both french and english.

I will quote my brother who sometimes has to go to Canada on business, "It's a different world up there, don't try to figure it out."

It is not an NHL issue, it's up to the ownership of the Canadiens. They have to worry about pissing off the Montreal fans, the majority of whom speak French as their first language. It has nothing to do with the players. Think about it, Benoit Poulliot last year with Montreal is a francophone and needs a French coach and all of sudden he signs with the Bruins in the off-season and can speak English (although Claude Julien was in the Montreal system and is French). http://sports.yahoo.com/nhl/players/3781

What about Daniel Seidenberg, who is German, or Zdeno Chara, who is Czech, somehow they managed not only to learn enough English to get by, but as you correctly point out, they learned how to communicate with Bostonians.

It's not just the government. It's the fans too. It's their primary language, why wouldn't they want a coach they can understand? You can't compare this to anything else because no other team plays in a city where the primary language is something else.

Keep in mind. You people are making just as big a deal of this language thing as they are, so don't consider yourself any better.

@Blackhawk - So much ignorance. You entirely lose credibility when you start name-calling on the ******* internet. It's almost entirely about the fans wanting to understand their coach. No fans? No team. The most historic team in hockey moves. You have to please the fans. Here, i'll cite some articles for you to read.

"In other words, some fans think their head coach should be able to speak directly to them in French, just like any other politician or leader would." - CBC "Habs fans stew over coach who can't speak French"

- http://www.ctv.ca/CTVNews/Canada/20111219/montreal...

''Probably 80 to 90 per cent of the Montreal Canadiens fans in Quebec are Francophone and they'd like to get the answers and read the newspaper and see the coach respond to some questions in French, so they can understand and relate to the team they've been cheering for all their lives.''

-http://www.theglobeandmail.com/sports/hockey/guy-c...

"You don’t want half of your fans to never understand what the heck their coach is saying without using Google Translate (and I don’t think that’s a small issue)."

- http://blogs.thescore.com/nhl/2011/12/19/montreal-...

It's not up to the NHL to make this call. The league, per their own constitution and by-laws, does not involve itself in personnel matters of clubs beyond issues of tampering with coaches under contract to other NHL clubs.

It's the call of Pierre Gauthier (for now he's the GM) and Geoff Molson (majority owner).

I know a few people crapped their pants when the Leafs hired an American as President and GM (Brian Burke), and a US citizen (Ron Wilson- he was born in Fort Erie but is a US citizen) as their head coach. I couldn't give a flying turd about their citizenship...their win-loss record interests me much more.

Dave Lewis is the spitting image of Hitler if he cropped the 'stach" down. He performed for years with 4 diverse communities. Lewis coached the Wings and Bruins and is now an assistant with the Kings. inspect the hyperlink under in case you do not have faith me. Uncanny.

Re @Quack Attack

You moron, it's never been about the coach being able to talk to the fans. Who gives two shts if the fans understand him!? The important part is the players understanding him.

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Anyway... Quebec does this in all avenues of life. They have a language police. They tear down historic signs from Montreal's old Jewish shops because the Hebrew didn't comply with regulation (being 3 times smaller than the French translation)...etc. Talk about self-destruction.

I thought they were still trying to get Chara arrested