When I heard that the Montreal Canadiens fans booed “The Star Spangled Banner” before Game Three of the Eastern Conference Quarter Finals against the Boston Bruins at the Bell Centre on April 20, I was sick to my stomach. It made me want to edit the Canadian National Anthem from “Oh Canada” to “No Canada” because they disrespected a neighbor, who would protect them during an international conflict.
When I read an article by someone who wrote the "fans" in Montreal who booed the "Star Spangled Banner" before Game Three of the Eastern Conference Quarter Finals in the 2009 Stanley Cup Playoffs against the Boston Bruins at the Bell Center (located on 1260 Rue La Gauchetiere, Montreal, Quebec, Canada, North American, Planet Earth) on April 20, I nearly fell asleep after the first sentence. I was so ashamed that I would be so disrespectful to a neighbor by falling asleep, that I was quite sick to my stomach....
Montreal was a city that had another franchise back in the 1930’s named the Maroons. On April 20, the fans in the Bell Centre were named the Montreal Morons.
Someone remembers that we had a team called the Maroons? Isn't that awesome? I thought everyone had forgotten about them. I'm so proud that someone actually remembered them.
After the incident, Canadiens Coach & General Manager Bob Gainey showed class by telling his fans their behavior was uncalled for. For years, I’ve always had a ton of respect for the Canadiens and their fans as being an excellent hockey town. This original six city has the same passion as Green Bay Packers fans do where everything revolves around the team on and off the field of play. Being the only game in town with a large city is what these towns live for.
Green Bay Packers.......? Please tell me I wasn't the only one who had to go and Google that. And yeah, Bob is teh awesome.
But I lost all of my respect for Montreal due to this classless incident due to the lack of common sense. I’m not buying the Us Vs Them excuse with the USA facing Canada because there are many match-ups in North America which feature these two countries. The Boston Bruins and Canadiens have indeed had many contested battles since they’re both original six teams however, to boo the other countries national anthem is crossing the line between politics and sports.
I think I lost all respect for the city of Detroit too. I mean, how can I respect a city that has someone writing up a diatribe like this? All those wonderful people that I know from Detroit have to be morons too because as Morganroth implies, if a city has a few idiots, everyone from that city has to be an idiot too.
And I wonder what he thought about the Blues fans booing the Canadian national anthem?
There is no question that the Canadiens success in their 100 year tradition is unmatched. They’ve won 24 Stanley Cups more than any other team and as a franchise this amounts to 26 percent.
On Dec 29, 2008, Montreal defeated the Florida Panthers 5-2 to become the first team in NHL history to reach 3,000 victories.
Thanks for acknowledging that. Maybe you do know a thing or two about this team....
But in recent years, the Canadiens have fallen onto hard times. Montreal’s last Stanley Cup occurred in 1992-93 when former Detroit Red Wings Coach Jacques Demers guided them to a title led by Hall of Fame Goaltender Patrick Roy.
Don’t expect anymore championships in the immediate future as a modern day player would rather play for a USA based team where the dollar has a much higher value.
Someone should tell the dingbats at my bank that the American dollar is "much higher" than the Canadian one because I was paid in American dollars a few weeks ago and when I had it converted, it wasn't much higher. Now I'm mad!
Does anybody in the USA care or know anything about Hockey Night In Canada?
Apparently not. Because if they did, then they'd know that in Quebec we don't watch Hockey Night in Toronto....
With the exception of the NHL Finals and a marquee match-up in the playoffs, you won’t see a Canadian based team on NBC. The Detroit Red Wings, Pittsburgh Penguins, Philadelphia Flyers, New York Rangers, Boston Bruins, Washington Capitals, New Jersey Devils, Chicago Blackhawks and Colorado Avalanche have been the primary teams featured on the game of the week.
And we all know how great it is to watch the Devils and the Avalanche! I wonder why NBC never puts on the Panthers? Or the Lightning? Or the Coyotes? Or the Predators? They're American teams too, right? Why don't they get any airtime on NBC? WHAT'S WRONG WITH YOU NBC?!
As a sidenote... I remember a specific "game of the week" where NBC had a Flyers/Rangers game on in which the Flyers lost in the most ubelieveably lame fashion. And while the poor people had to suffer through that, there was a really great Bruins/Penguins game on... Wonderful work NBC!
While Canada’s hockey tradition speaks for itself, the Winnipeg Jets and Quebec Nordiques moved south of the border to Phoenix, AZ and Denver because they couldn’t survive north of the border. Over the years, the Ottawa Senators and Edmonton Oilers have struggled financially. There are only six Canadian based teams with the Senators, Canadiens and Toronto Maple Leafs in the Eastern Conference while the Oilers, Calgary Flames and Vancouver Canucks compete in the Western Conference.
And we all know how well the Jets are doing in Phoenix, eh? Funny how he doesn't mention that Phoenix was just loaned a pile of money from the NHL to stay in operation. Or that Nashville had a little crisis earlier this year? Or that the Thrashers and the Lightning can't fill their buildings even half way on most nights.....
When sports fans around the continent look at Montreal, they view this market as a third world country because of the many failures of its teams. Major League Baseball’s Expos are now the Washington Nationals while Montreal has struggled to support two Canadian Football League teams. The Montreal Alouettes and Concordes have folded and revived over the years.
I always thought that Phoenix and Nashville as third world countries too because of their problems maintaining a hockey team without borrowing a pile of money.....
My advice to Canadiens fans is don’t embarrass yourself anymore because North American fans don’t view your city as a legitimate sports town.
I'm sure everyone here wakes up every morning with the idea that they want their city to be viewed as the most amazing and legitimate sports town in the world.
To the people of the town of Montreal: You're greatest ambitions have now been squashed.
Very few people in Dallas, Phoenix, Denver, Tampa Bay, Southern Florida, North Carolina, Columbus, Ohio, Nashville, Tennessee, and Atlanta know anything about Guy LaFleur, Jean Beliveau, Henri Richard, Maurice Richard, Larry Robinson, Yvan Cournoyer, Steve Shutt, Bernie Geoffrion, Ken Dryden and Jacques Plante.
Notice how he leaves out New York, Boston, Detroit and Chicago....
But they do know that you booed “The Star Spangled Banner.” It’s hard to believe that your championship drought has now reached 16 years.
Yeah, I can't believe we haven't won in over 16 years either...It tears me up every night when I go to sleep....
I predict that the Detroit Lions will reach the Super Bowl before your team will hoist another Stanley Cup Trophy because teams in the NFL have been know to change their fortunes quickly if they make the right moves in the drafts, via trades and on the waiver market. The Miami Dolphins went from 1-15 to 11-5 in one calendar year.
Someone should inform the Islanders about that. They could really use some help in changing their team around.
The perception of Montreal by todays players is that your area is viewed as Hockey’s version of Siberia and they know the national television exposure and mega endorsement deals in Montreal are lacking.
If we're Siberia than what is Nashville? The moon? I don't think they have a brutal media in Siberia either...
To the people of Siberia: We greatly apologize if your feelings have been hurt. We're sure that Siberia is a great place to live despite the perception that you all live in the middle of nowhere.
Today’s players will take the same approach as the Montreal Expos did by using your organizations as stepping stones toward free agency and seeking greener pastures. Your 100 year tradition will carry less weight in contract negations.
Then again, USA fans won’t care about you and they’ll continue to say “No Canada.
USA fans don't care about us? Oh! I AM SO SHOCKED! You have just like, burst my bubble. I thought everyone cared about us? Oh wow... whatever am I going to do now?
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4 comments:
Ahaha, I knew you'd write about this! Well done.
The most ridiculous sentence, in my mind, is this one:
The perception of Montreal by todays players is that your area is viewed as Hockey’s version of Siberia and they know the national television exposure and mega endorsement deals in Montreal are lacking. I mean Montreal has all kinds of trouble attracting free agents, that's right. But does he really think it's because the Habs lack media exposure?! Seriously?? And I would think it's not that difficult for a hockey star to get a big endorsment deal in a hockey-crazy city, located in a hockey-crazy province, which is part of a hockey-crazy country. But I could be wrong.
How lame.
BTW, I think Siberia probably does have a pretty harsh media. I'd hate to read what they wrote about Cherepanov's death in Omsk.
Grrreg - That bit was hilarious.... people aren't coming here BECAUSE of the media not because there's a lack of a media..... Pfftt...
Justin - You're probably right about the media... I expect that it's brutal in a different way than it is here though...
His "essay" made about as much sense as Grabs calling Sergei "French"...
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