Héros ou bouc émissaire ?
Yet another chapter in the long dramatic history of the French-language Montreal sporting press neatly wrote itself this morning, when La Presse’s Stéphane Laporte posted a blog entry entitled “Daniel Brière a refusé d’être un héros”: in English, “Daniel Briere refused to be a hero.”
You see, Briere, French-speaking native of Gatineau, Quebec, and former co-captain of the Buffalo Sabres, had the audacity to sign a free-agent contract with a team that wasn’t the hallowed Club de hockey Canadien. For this sin against the pur laine, Laporte proceeded to all but insult Briere’s manhood in a screed bemoaning the recent lack of Quebecois stars on the Habs’ roster.
But why, Daniel, why?
“At the end of the line, I asked myself where I’d be the happiest, where I could best develop myself…”
You could have been happy in Montreal, Daniel. You could have developed yourself. Maurice Richard developed himself in Montreal. Jean Beliveau, Guy Lafleur and Patrick Roy too. They also became heroes of a people, something you can never be in the United States. […]
The pride of playing for your gang, for the people that speak your language, didn’t play into it. Nor the challenge. Nor the great hopes. Is there a great Quebecois player left who wants to raise these passions, not just to live a quiet life in the Philadelphia suburbs?
What Laporte doesn’t seem to understand is that it’s precisely this attitude, and those like it, that keep smart French-speaking stars like Briere from signing in Montreal.
Because if this column hadn’t been about him not signing with the Habs, it would have been about the first time he took a penalty that led to the opposition’s game-winning goal. If not then, the first time he missed a game with a nagging injury that no one but his teammates and the training staff knew about. And if not then, certainly after the Canadiens failed, for the fifteenth season in a row, to return la Coupe Stanley to its rightful draping of la sainte flannelle. Laporte referenced Richard, Beliveau, Lafleur and Roy — and Montreal expects nothing less than that level of play from its French-Canadian superstars. And if it doesn’t get it, there’s heck to pay.
Since 2001, five of the Canadiens’ nine first-round draft picks (they had two selections in ‘01 and ‘07) have been American, a percentage that almost certainly exceeds that of any other NHL team. Of them, Long Island natives Mike Komisarek and Chris Higgins have already made good names for themselves on the Montreal blueline. Why does Bob Gainey keep taking Americans, and avoiding French-Canadian kids? Because Americans wearing the bleu-blanc-rouge aren’t subjected to the crushing weight of the Quebecois national identity. They can just play hockey.
Laporte complained that Briere wasn’t willing to be a hero. The catch is that Briere would never have lasted in that role: sooner or later, he’d have been transformed from the province’s hero to the province’s scapegoat. Compared to that, the Main Line sounded pretty good.
2 July 2007 / 0 Comments / Tags: hockey, french, quebec