I once lived in a city where French and English people poked fun at each other regularly, with an exception occurring during a Habs game, where these two cultural groups were able to put their differences aside for 60 minutes of hockey. The Montreal Canadiens used to make the city proud, mainly because they were so successful.

But then, on a cold December day in the dead of winter, we fired our perfectly bilingual, but boring and robotic head coach, and replaced him with another boring and robotic one who only speaks English. Suddenly, going to hockey games was a much less peaceful affair among the two groups. The feeling in the arena was as though new Head Coach Randy Cunneyworth was the devil coming to tell many that 2012 would be the end of the world after all.

McGill University is predominantly anglophone. As a result, the general campus consensus is that hiring an anglophone head coach is not such a travesty, even though most of the French Canadian media portrays it as one. The principle argument among Cunneyworth supporters is that winning hockey games should come before speaking to the media. Being an anglophone Canadiens fan, I understand the argument and believe that a coach should be judged on merit alone. Unfortunately, the team’s record of three wins and seven losses under the new unilingual coach has done little to dampen the outcries from French Canadians.

At this rate, even if Cunneyworth learned more French and managed to deliver Quebec their long-desired sovereign nation, he would still be fired at the end of the season. Yet there are protests outside the Bell Centre calling for the immediate dismissal of Coach Cunneyworth and owner Geoff Molson. If we are to be mad at Geoff Molson for anything, it should not be for hiring an English-speaking coach. The reason we should be mad at him is for buying wholesale beer from himself and then selling it to  fans for $10 a cup.

This upcoming week will mark the one-month anniversary since Randy Cunneyworth took over behind the bench. I spent most of that month believing that an anglophone coach could survive in Montreal as long as the Canadiens had a winning record. Over the last couple days, however, I have completely changed my mind. Quebec is like no other place in North America and the Montreal Canadiens are like no other sports franchise. Even the New York Yankees and Boston Celtics cannot claim to be a cultural institution like the Canadiens are.

A rich tradition of winning with homegrown Quebecois talent did a lot to establish the cultural significance of the franchise. Two Richard’s, Béliveau, Lafleur, Geoffrion, Plante, Bouchard, Cournoyer… need I continue? Throughout a period where French-Canadian stars led the Canadiens to the Stanley Cup every year, hockey became religion in Quebec, and the Forum became the church. Though it is not an official qualification for the papacy, the Pope is expected to speak Italian so that he can properly address the public in Rome. The same can now be said for the head coach of the Montreal Canadiens.

Some have suggested that the eventual return of the Quebec Nordiques could lessen the importance of the language issue in Montreal. In fact, this would have the opposite effect. If the Montreal Canadiens do not cater to their French-Canadian fans, they will lose them to the Quebec franchise. If the Canadiens became the “English” team and the Nordiques became the “French” team, Montreal would cease to be the most powerful franchise in the province, as roughly 80 per cent of the population would jump ship and become fans of the “French” team. If that were to ever happen, the Habs could effectively become a small-market club and would not be able to compete with the larger payrolls in the league.

A loyal fan base is essential to any winning franchise. In order to foster and maintain that loyalty, the Montreal Canadiens will need to continue catering to the language demands of the majority of its fans. Reputable members of the French media have conceded that if the Habs won the Stanley Cup with an English coach, language would be a non-issue. With the way things are going this year, however, that will not be the case.

– Trevor Drummond