Murray repeated his, “I’m not trading Teemu” meme. Francois Beauchemin signed a new 3 year contract for a reported $10.5million. No doubt Beauch left some money on the table to stay here. Scratch his name off the trade list as well.Eric Stephens’ writing in the OCR suggests that Lubomir Visnovsky and Toni Lydman are pieces other teams will covet if our Ducks fall out of playoff contention. That’s quite a statement for the usually cool and objective Iceman. Fall out of playoff contention? Really, lol.
There are of course the daily unnamed source rumors posted everywhere. These include Teemu to San Jose because Selanne once played for the Sharks. Getzlaf and/or Ryan to Toronto so they can renew their respective man crushes on Brian Burke. Saku Koivu will be joining his brother in Minnesota. Eklund must have missed Saku’s numerous public statements that he has no interest in competing with his brother for a roster spot. Jason Blake and Niklas Hagman are headed to every team looking for depth scoring.

Now for a reality check. Ryan Getzlaf or Bobby Ryan aren’t likely to be going anywhere before the trade deadline. The reason is that we’re not likely to get market value for any of them until the off-season.
Based upon the season’s each is having, their respective NTC’s, I wouldn’t be at all surprised to one or both of Teemu Selanne and Saku Koivu back next season.

This leaves the usual suspects of vets who don’t figure into our longer term plans as trade bait going toward the deadline. They include Toni Lydman, Niklas Hagman and Jason Blake. In other words don’t expect any blockbusters from Bob Murray until the off-season.

I’m going to put all the inserts above the break, then do a pack-by-pack breakdown of base cards after the “click here to read more” tag.

Inserts

• CupQuest (1:9)
  • David Booth, Panthers (Pack 7)
• Rookie Cards – Choice Reserve
  • Luca Caputi, Penguins (Pack 1)
  • Byron Bitz, Bruins (Pack 7)
• Rookie Cards
  • Ivan Vishnevskiy, Stars (Pack 1)
  • Tyler Bozak, Maple Leafs (Pack 3)
  • Steven Zalewski, Sharks (Pack 4)
  • Cody Franson, Predators (Pack 5)
  • Taylor Chorney, Oilers (Pack 7)
  • T.J. Galiardi, Avalanche (Pack 8)
  • Sergei Shirokov, Canucks (Pack 10)
  • Erik Karlsson, Senators (Pack 11)
  • Mike Santorelli, Predators (Pack 13)
• Choice Reserve
  • Kyle Okposo, Islanders (Pack 2)
  • Andrei Kostitsyn, Canadiens (Pack 3) – Slightly knicked corner.
  • 3 Star Selection: Mike Ribeiro, Loui Eriksson, Marty Turco, Stars (Pack 4)
  • Paul Stastny, Avalanche (Pack 5)
  • David Clarkson, Devils (Pack 6)
  • Alexander Frolov, Kings (Pack 8)
  • Cam Ward, Hurricanes (Pack 9)
  • Mathieu Carle, Canadiens (Pack 10)
  • Nikolai Kulemin, Maple Leafs (Pack 11)
  • Marian Gaborik, Rangers (Pack 12)
  • 3 Star Selection: Chara, Thomas, Savard, Bruins (Pack 13)
• Stick-ums (1:4)
  • Paul Stastny, Avalanche (Pack 2)
  • Rick Nash, Blue Jackets (Pack 6)
  • Alexander Ovechkin, Capitals (Pack 10)
• Warriors of Ice (1:6)
  • Martin Brodeur, Devils (Pack 3)
  • Henrik Zetterberg, Red Wings (Pack 9)
• Badge of Honor (1:6)
  • Devils (Pack 5)
  • Flyers (Pack 11)

Photo courtesy of AP/Yahoo Sports!

By Tom Dougherty | @FFTomDougherty
(Note: This is an editorial of the author’s opinion.)

The Flyers haven’t had much trouble scoring goals this season. They sit second in the league with 3.33 goals per game behind the Boston Bruins, and have nine players with double digit goals and 17 goals from their defenseman.

Scoring goals hasn’t been a worrisome for the orange and black. The problem is quite clear: defensive breakdowns and goaltending. The latter is a matter of confidence; once Ilya Bryzgalov finds any sort of rhythm, the goalie play should become steadier.

Since the announcement that Chris Pronger will miss the rest of the year with post-concussion symptoms, Flyers fans have identified a defenseman as the team’s top priority at the Feb. 27 trade deadline.

While getting a veteran horse on the blue line is a must, the Flyers could also use another forward; a player who can play on the third or fourth line, but can add the occasional goal.

The Flyers have seen their top line go ice cold since Claude Giroux’s frustration has grown in the New Year and Jaromir Jagr has been recovering from a second groin injury. Despite the scoring depth, the Flyers are basically a one-line team.

Sure, rookies Sean Couturier and Matt Read have been pleasant surprises with their offensive production this year, and Wayne Simmonds and Jakub Voracek are on pace for career highs in points, but Danny Briere hasn’t found much chemistry with the new players.

Rookie Brayden Schenn has been playing better as of late, but he only has two goals. James van Riemsdyk has 10 goals, but he’s out with a concussion. Max Talbot also has 10 goals, but he’s better suited in a penalty-kill role than a goal scorer.

Nine players with double digit goals is an impressive stat but there’s room for one more.

Perhaps the Flyers could find an answer in Anaheim should the Ducks make Saku Koivu available. Koivu, 37, has one year left on his contract in Anaheim and comes with a $2.5 million cap hit; however, the chances the Ducks move Koivu are slim to none.

But Koivu would be a perfect fit for the Flyers.

The former 1993 first round pick has nine goals in 37 games with Anaheim this year. He’s no longer the player he was five or six years ago, but Koivu can still put the puck in the net.

Last season, he scored a respectable 15 goals at the age of 36 playing on the second line in Anaheim. This year, the Ducks are in the middle of a fluke season where they fired long-time coach Rndy Carlyle only to replace him with Bruce Boudreau.

Another valuable asset Koivu would bring to the Flyers is in the faceoff circle. The Finnish center has won 52.3 percent of his faceoffs; only Giroux has won more than 50 percent of his draws for the Flyers.

Koivu also would add a veteran leader with playoff experience. He has 55 points in 60 career playoff games with Montreal and Anaheim.

The Flyers focus will be on defense at the trade deadline. If they make a trade, expect it to bring in another defender to solidify a blue line that’s experiencing unacceptable breakdowns.

Whether it’s on the level of Nashville’s Shea Weber or Ryan Suter or someone like Carolina’s Tim Gleason or Bryan Allen, the Flyers appear destine to acquire another defenseman.

But adding a defenseman will not cure all the Flyers problems; it’ll be a giant step and make the team a more formidable contender, but it won’t stop all the bleeding.

If the Flyers can work the magic and acquire a defenseman like Gleason and also bring another forward into the fold, their chances for a deep playoff run would be greater.

Koivu just seems like a player who would be a welcomed addition to the Flyers roster.

Of course, this is just wishful thinking.

Teemu Selanne of the Anaheim Ducks celebrates along with Saku Koivu as Koivu scores his hat trick goal late in the third period against the Dallas Stars at the Honda Center on January 10, 2012 in Anaheim, California. (credit: Bruce Bennett/Getty Images)

ANAHEIM, Calif. (AP) - Teemu Selanne only considered the open net for a fleeting moment before flipping a deft pass back to Saku Koivu.

Selanne easily could have scored his 652nd career goal, but the Finnish Flash couldn’t pass up the chance to facilitate his longtime Olympic teammate’s second career hat trick in the Anaheim Ducks’ third straight victory.

Koivu scored two of his three goals on slick setups by Selanne in the third period, and the Ducks beat the Dallas Stars 5-2 Tuesday night to extend their longest winning streak in nearly three months.

Koivu scored the tiebreaking goal with 10:28 to play and added an empty-netter with 53.7 seconds left, completing the 37-year-old former Montreal captain’s first hat trick since Nov. 18, 2002.

“So he’s probably not going to get the third one,” the 41-year-old Selanne cracked. “There was no way I would take the shot myself. I knew Saku had a chance to score a hat trick. I’m so happy for him. You don’t see that very often. Usually he’s the passer.”

A runaway victory over a Pacific Division rival was sweet, but the Ducks will take whatever success they can get at the halfway point of their hugely disappointing season. Even after this strong finish to a six-game homestand, the Ducks (13-22-6) are still three points out of 28th place in the 30-team NHL standings.

Jeff Deslauriers made 26 saves in his first NHL appearance in nearly two years for Anaheim, which hadn’t won three straight since starting the season 4-1.

“There’s nothing we can do with the past,” Koivu said. “There have been a lot of positive things in the last little while, even though we haven’t won all the games. We’re scoring goals now, and not allowing a lot of goals. We’re feeling good, and it’s showing.”

Luca Sbisa also scored for Anaheim, and Matt Beleskey added his first goal of the season with 5:20 to play.

Steve Ott and Alex Goligoski scored 64 seconds apart early in the third period to tie it for the Stars, but Selanne grabbed a loose puck and sped past two defensemen before screening both Stars from Koivu, who put Anaheim ahead 3-2.

“They’re an experienced group, and they know how to win,” Dallas captain Brenden Morrow said of the Ducks. “They had a mediocre half of the season last year, too, before they became the best team in the league, so we never take them lightly.”

Selanne made two exceptional passes to Koivu in his 1,300th NHL game, becoming the 52nd player to reach the milestone. Selanne, who scored his 650th career goal in the Ducks’ last game, is just the second Finn to play 1,300 games, joining Teppo Numminen.

Kari Lehtonen stopped 21 shots for the Stars, who had earned a point in each of their past six meetings with Anaheim, including two wins earlier this season.

“I think we hit four posts in the first 20 minutes, so if one of those goes, maybe we’re not pushing so much to try and get those goals in the third,” Dallas coach Glen Gulutzan said. “I didn’t mind our game altogether. … We just couldn’t get anything to sink there, and I thought they took it to us a little bit.”

With All-Star starter Jonas Hiller and backup Dan Ellis both sidelined by injuries, the Ducks recalled Deslauriers from their AHL affiliate in Syracuse, N.Y., earlier Tuesday to suit up alongside Iiro Tarkki, who got his first NHL victory Sunday.

Deslauriers hadn’t appeared in the NHL since April 11, 2010, when he lost to Anaheim while playing for the Edmonton Oilers. The Ducks signed him during the following offseason, but the 27-year-old hadn’t appeared in a game with Anaheim despite shuttling up to the NHL several times last season as an emergency backup.

“Everybody makes me feel like part of the family,” Deslauriers said. “They played their hearts out tonight.”

The Stars played without center Mike Ribeiro, who missed his first game of the season with a slightly torn ligament in his right knee. Defenseman Sheldon Souray returned from a six-game absence with an injured ankle.

Dallas outshot the Ducks in the first two periods, but trailed 2-0 after Sbisa’s exceptional goal from the far boards midway through the second period.

Ott ended Deslauriers’ shutout bid 1:39 into the third period with an unscreened slap shot that the Anaheim goalie simply missed. Goligoski then put another mid-range shot cleanly past Deslauriers, and Ducks coach Bruce Boudreau chewed out his team during a timeout.

Instead of slumping their shoulders, as they’ve done so often this season, the Ducks attacked. After Selanne set up Koivu’s goal, Beleskey scored his first goal since Jan. 15, 2011, by swatting home a bouncing rebound of Andrew Cogliano’s shot.

(© Copyright 2011 The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.)

Also Check Out:

• In Memoriam: People We Lost In 2011
• Top Sports Stories Of 2011
• Top News Stories Of 2011
• Man Kills 3-Year-Old Grandson Over Parenting Concerns
• Kim Kardashian Comes To Dallas To Help Sister Khloe

There was a sense among the 12,152 in attendance and tens of thousands more watching on KDOC-TV that this game was far from over. Sure enough a banged up Dallas squad responded with two quick goals just 63 seconds apart to knot it up at 2 with over 17 minutes of clock to go. True, the heads went down but they stay down. Our Ducks showed the resiliency they had displayed in the back2back wins against the Islanders and the Blue Jackets. Deslauriers kept his cool. The skaters earned some scoring chances until Saku Koivu put our guys ahead midway through the third. Matt Belesky added an insurance (1 down 8 more to go zseller and Koivu completed his hatter with just 54 ticks remaining.
Tweet of the Game goes to nhl.com’s Curtis Zupke for catching this quote:

Koivu scored the tiebreaking goal with 10:28 to play and added an empty-net goal with 53.7 seconds left for the longtime Montreal captain’s second career hat trick.

Jeff Deslauriers made 26 saves in his first NHL appearance in nearly two years for Anaheim, which hadn’t won three straight since starting the season 4-1.

Luca Sbisa also scored, and Matt Beleskey added his first goal of the season with 5:20 to play.

Base Cards

• Daniel Sedin, Canucks
• Michael Ryder, Canadiens
• Jason Pominville, Sabres
• Jason Spezza, Senators
• Saku Koivu, Canadiens
• Henrik Sedin, Canucks
• Alexander  Semin, Capitals
• Pavel Datsyuk, Red Wings
• Martin Brodeur, Devils
• Vincent Lecavalier, Lightning
• Rick DiPietro, Islanders
• Jordan Stall, Penguins
• Patrick Marleau, Sharks
• Nicklas Lidstrom, Red Wings

SP Notables

• Jean-Sebastien Giguere, Ducks – 1050/1999

Getzlaf to Washington for 21 year old John Carlson is a trade I make all day long. Carlson, a pending RFA, is as close as it gets to a young Chris Pronger. Alongside the 20 year old Cam Fowler, our blue line would anchored for the next 6-7 years at least. To make this trade and even out the money we could take pending UFA Alexander Semin. Frankly, I wouldn’t care if Semin walked so long as we lock up Carlson.

Getz plus a pick or prospect even Toni Lydman to Nashville for Shea Weber with the caveat that we can lock up Shea for 5 years. Weber will be looking upwards from $7million and he’s worth it by current salary and cap standards.

Historical equivalents: Arbitrator mandated Scott Stevens to New Jersey for signing Devils RFA Brendan Shanahan.

Jonas Hiller. No secret that teams with issues between the pipes include Tampa Bay Lightning, Toronto Maple Leafs, Ottawa Senators. The Flyers are questioning themselves concerning the wisdom of signing Ilya Bryzgalov. One player from each team who could certainly make an impact both on the ice and in the room include Steve Downie, Keith Aulie and Jared Cowen. I’m not suggesting a straight-up swap. Just suggesting players we might target from those teams.

Chicago, according to GM Stan Bowman is in the market for a top 4 D-man and secondary scoring. A package of Teemu Selanne and Toni Lydman must be looking very good right about now. Prospect Dylan Olsen is the key. Dave Bolland is a guy who can anchor a great checking line. We might have to take say pending UFA Andrew Brunette to make the money work. Toss in Viktor Stalberg who Teemu would replace and we could have a deal.

Goalies we would do well to target are Boston’s Tuukku Rask and Vancouver’s Cory Schneider.

These are trade ideas and not rumors. Well enough fun for one day. Must get back to work.

The famed numbers and names of the Bell Centre rafters (Photo courtesy of John Walker)

But before that, let me say that I should probably write this post in French. I’m a French Canadian, born and raised in French Montréal, who has always used English only when necessary–until late 2009, when I decided to move to Toronto. I should write this blog post in French, because it’s about Le Canadien de Montréal and its decision to name Randy Cunneyworth its interim head coach. But if I did write it in French, I would be alienating my 5-person readership–and I don’t want to do that. 

In my 26 years, I have witnessed the last glory years of Les Glorieux, those of Vincent Damphousse, Pierre Turgeon, and even Jean-Jacques Daigneault. I was there when rookie Patrick Roy guided the team to the 1986 Stanley Cup, but I can’t say that I remember anything. I did, however, witness the 1993 Stanley Cup, the team of head coach Jacques Demers, defenseman Éric Desjardins, forward Brian Bellows and the 10 straight overtime wins. Seven-year-old me thought it was wonderful, and this likely explains why I tried so hard for so long to become an NHL player. For 26 years at the Fall, I have witnessed the optimism that comes with a new hockey season.

I understand what La Sainte Flanelle means to us Québécois. Hockey has traditionally been and still is, thanks to Sidney Crosby’s goal heard around the world North America, Canada’s game–and no team is as storied or has been as successful as Monréal’s Canadiens. Quebec sports fans bleed bleu, blanc and rouge, and define themselves according to the performances of the Bleu, Blanc, Rouge. If the Habs win, fans are validated in their passion and their belief that God created Quebec so that it could rule hockey.

Yet, I have also witnessed other things such as the last game of Patrick Roy; the famine years of Brian Savage, the greatest 30-goal scorer to have never scored 30 goals in a single season; the botching of draft picks (e.g. Andrei Kostitsyn over anybody in the 2003 entry draft), or the passing up on local talent (e.g. David Fischer over Claude Giroux in the 2006 draft) before finally choosing Ladies Love Louis Leblanc in the first round of the 2009 draft; and the 10-year reign of the non-bilingual team captain, Saku Koivu.

Lest we forget, Cunneyworth isn’t the first head coach of Les Habitants who doesn’t speak French. The last was Al McNeil during the 1970-1971 season. But in prior cases, the CH was winning Cups and could do no wrong–or at the very least, the team had players like the Richard brothers, Jean Béliveau or Yvan Cournoyer to address the media at press conferences. This year’s team, in comparison, has Mathieu Darche or LLLL.

There’s a misconception of the Canadiens organization as being something more than the private corporation it really is. Private corporations will look to maximize profit and if in looking to do so, the team happens to win Stanley Cups or represent the ‘fait français‘, all the better. But it doesn’t need to be pursuing either–it only needs to follow the dollar sign.

Where is the next Jean Béliveau? Here in 2009, with ambassador Jacobson (Photo courtesy of US Mission Canada)

Finally, there’s Christine St. Pierre, Quebec’s Minister of Culture, Communications and the Status of women, who hopes the Habs can fix (read: hire a man who speaks French) this as swiftly as possible. Some are surprised to see her speak out on anything related to sports, but not me. Politicians appeal to emotions–St.Pierre is selling electors on the premise that she cares about them because she cares about Le Canadien, just like them. And well, if you believe that, I have a bridge to sell you. She is putting herself in line with the important issues of the day in order to gain public support. And then, she will move on.

The Québécois who oppose the hiring of Randy Cunneyworth probably fear that it would lead to the quick death of French in Québec. French heritage and culture will be threatened as soon as they tolerate a non-bilingual at the head of their beloved Canadien de Montréal. I say this may well be the case, but I say French is equally as threatened when CH games are broadcast on RDS, where the quality of spoken French is laughably poor.

That being said, the real tragedy isn’t the hiring of an Anglophone as the team’s head coach but rather having let Tampa Bay hire then-head coach of the Hamilton Bulldogs, Guy Boucher, in 2010. Boucher was groomed to become Montréal’s head coach for the next 10-12 years and would have been given every possible opportunity to succeed. But when Boucher was ready, Martin’s team had overachieved that year, and lost in the Eastern Conference finals–which made his own firing impossible to justify, despite little indication that Martin would still be with the team just five years later.

St. Pierre probably doesn’t realize that the Canadiens made Cunneyworth only their interim head coach–which only means that the hiring of Patrick Roy as the team’s head coach for next season will be delayed by a few months. Once Roy has become the new head coach, and failed at it much like everyone since Demers, then what? At the very least, he’ll get to explain himself in French to all of Québec, and all of Québec will manage to understand him. Obviously, that trumps on-ice results.

The best part about this story is next week’s demonstration, held to protest the Canadiens’ “policy of anglicization.” Montréal, that evening, plays the Tampa Bay Lightning and the Francophone head coach the team never should have let go.

Randy Cunneyworth, the Canadiens’ interim coach is probably glad to be on a six-game road trip as it takes him out of the firestorm his hiring sparked in Montreal. (Photo by Brian Jenkins/Icon SMI)

By Stu Hackel

Fewer and fewer things in this world make sense, it seems, especially at first glance. The real essence of stuff often lies beneath the surface, requiring examination and context to become clear. The appointment of Randy Cunneyworth as coach of the Montreal Canadiens and the outcry among Quebec’s Francophone majority because he cannot speak French qualifies as one of those things.

It’s a situation that brings to mind a line from the great phrasemaker of our time, Bob Dylan, and his song “One Too Many Mornings” –  “You are right from your side, and I am right from mine.” In fact, there are a number of sides in this little drama.

From a purely hockey side, we all can agree, teams wants the best personnel — players, coach, GM, scouts, you name it. To place restrictions like language on a hiring seem contrary to that goal. Why shrink the talent pool? Sports should be a meritocracy. It seems so simple.

But nothing in the real world is simple. You can try all you want to offer simple explanations and impose simple solutions on complex situations, but you’ll miss the mark. It is a fruitless enterprise. And when it comes to Club de Hockey Canadien, we are talking about some serious complexity.

This is a hockey organization with not only an unmatched history of success but a franchise whose founding in 1909 and earliest identity was as “the French team” in its city, even though its founders and subsequent owners have not been French, and sometimes not even Canadians. While the Canadiens’ fan base spreads around the world, those who come to the games and watch in the team’s TV market — its primary benefactors — remain overwhelmingly French.

For most of their history, the Canadiens’ roster was filled with French players who became the heroes of the city and the province — and nothing has ever captured the unique connection between the sport, the team, its identity and that hero worship better than Roch Carrier’s brilliant 1979 short story “The Hockey Sweater,” which was turned into an award-winning animated short a year later.

A great deal has changed since the late 1940s, the period Carrier wrote about, and a great deal more has changed from when he wrote it 30 years later. But what hasn’t changed is the importance of the sport and this team to the province. Actually, its importance has grown. The Canadiens are probably the single most important institution in Montreal, maybe in all of Quebec.

Because French is the first language spoken by 80 percent of the province’s population, those who live there say they now want the Canadiens’ coach — who is perhaps the most visible and scrutinized person in the province — to communicate with them in their own language. Saku Koivu’s tenure as captain during the last decade was similarly controversial. A cancer survivor and an undersized warrior, Koivu was as heroic a figure as you could find, but he spoke no French publicly and reportedly didn’t make much of an effort to become comfortable speaking it. That didn’t sit well with some.

“I do not think it is necessary that the guy is perfectly bilingual, but he must be able to address people as Bob Gainey or Scotty Bowman did, for example,” writes Norman Flynn on RDS.ca. “Their level of French was acceptable and people understood and accepted. The fans appreciated that an English speaker tried his luck with the language of Molière….It’s like if you buy an item and the instructions are in English only. It’s just a matter of respect.”

However, Flynn admits, if a proven superstar Anglophone coach were available, he would be acceptable to the fans, an opinion seconded by Marc Antoine Godin of La Presse on Monday night during TSN’s regional telecast of the Canadiens’ game in Boston. At least among some, there’s flexibility on this issue. A first-time NHL head coach like Randy Cunneyworth, however, doesn’t fall into that superstar category.

This emphasis on language may mystify some. But it is the currency of all political discourse in Quebec. Some have called it illogical at best, draconian at worst. It may or may not be a vehicle used to deflect attention from more basic economic issues as well as a cover for political motives, but its place in day-to-day life cannot be argued.

“I wouldn’t expect anyone who doesn’t live here to understand the importance of respect for the language spoken by an overwhelming majority of the team’s fans,” wrote Mike Boone on The Montreal Gazette’s Hockey Inside/Out blog. “Many Montrealers – including some of my best friends – don’t get it. Yes, you can hire the best candidate for the job in 29 NHL cities. It’s different here. There are important political, cultural and historical issues at play. That’s just the way it is … and that’s the way it will be, unless Gary Bettman moves the Canadiens to Las Vegas.”

Those “many Montrealers” who Boone mentions are yet another side of the story. These Anglophones, who often comment that Quebec’s language laws make them victims in their home province, just want to cheer for their hometown team. The language issue is already an irritant to them and at a time when some believe anti-English sentiment is on the rise in the province, it’s being extended into sports.

They often cite the world of soccer as an example of how they’d like the Canadiens to operate, where the national origin or language of the manager seems not to matter one bit, not only for club teams, but national teams as well.

The problem with that, of course, is that in some circumstances, soccer team decisions can be something other than merit-based. In the Scottish Premier League, for example, Celtic’s Catholic identity and Rangers’ Protestant identity with their team’s respective fan bases inform many of their personnel decisions, and you wouldn’t expect to see a Croat play for Red Star of Belgrade.

This sort of thinking is not something alien to the U.S., either. Notre Dame’s Catholic identity – to use an example that quickly comes to mind — has meant the head coach of its football team often had to be of that faith, although two of their greatest, Knute Rockne and Ara Parsegian, were not. But whenever the position becomes vacant, calls are renewed for the new coach to be Catholic.

In one sense, this is grossly archaic and out of step with an inclusionary society. In another, it reflects a team and an institution’s self-image and character, things that make a team unique, and give it color and life.

The Canadiens have a side in this issue, too. This problem with their new coach arose because they built a team that had short-term success that now seems unsustainable. They spent heavily on veterans who have become prone to injury and not produced this season up to past standards (and in the case of Scott Gomez, haven’t produced for three years) while their emerging young core is not yet quite strong and consistent enough to pick up the slack. Faced with the strong possibility that a playoff spot was slipping from their grasp, they did what five other NHL clubs have done this season: They fired their coach, Jacques Martin, and hoped a new face and voice would fuel a turnaround.

Cunneyworth is certainly qualified for the job from a hockey standpoint. He was a hard-working player for six different NHL teams over the course of an 866-game career, and was respected enough to captain the Ottawa Senators. His AHL record behind the bench in both Rochester and Hamilton was exemplary. He had been an NHL assistant in Atlanta before being one in Montreal, so he was already part of the organization.

That last factor was key, said Marc Antoine Godin on TSN’s Canadiens telecast Monday night. (video). Godin believes that Martin’s dismissal involved a very large contractual payout for getting fired prior to the last year of his deal. Confronted by the distinct possibility they’d miss the playoffs and the resulting revenue (which has been estimated at $5 million per game), the Habs were forced to replace him with an interim coach, someone already under contract, perhaps because the GM, Pierre Gauthier, is interim now too, as Godin points out. Hiring a new bilingual coach like Marc Crawford, Bob Hartley or Patrick Roy from outside would involve a new contract that would extend a few years, and if a new GM comes in and wants his own coach, that’s a lot to pay for two men not to coach the Canadiens. So the plan is to get through this season and start fresh.

Too focused on fixing the team, perhaps the Canadiens’ executives didn’t expect the larger reaction that hiring Cunneyworth would provoke. “We didn’t do an external search,” Gauthier said. “We need to compete immediately.” Asked about Cunneyworth’s lack of ability to speak French, he replied, “For the moment that’s the situation, but that doesn’t mean that it can’t change. Languages can be learned.” Those answers proved unsatisfying.

With the city and province figuratively ablaze in the aftermath, Habs owner and CEO Geoff Molson moved to douse the flames with a statement that Cunneyworth was only guaranteed his job until season’s end. “Although our main priority remains to win hockey games and to keep improving as a team,” Molson said. “it is obvious that the ability for the head coach to express himself in both French and English will be a very important factor in the selection of the permanent head coach.”

“It’ll be pretty tough sledding (for Cunneyworth) without a grasp of French,” Scotty Bowman told Chris Stevenson of The Ottawa Sun. The bilingual Bowman harkened back to his own experience holding down the toughest coaching job in the NHL during the 1970s, saying, “In my day, we didn’t have the (media) scrums after the games they do today. It’s a much more complicated position than it used to be.”

In fact, the Canadiens’ coach can address the press multiple times daily, especially on game days, and ordinarily fields questions in both languages. There may be no more competitive NHL media market than Montreal.

Coincidentally, as Buffalo GM, Bowman drafted Cunneyworth for the Sabres out of junior hockey. “I’m sure he recognizes this opportunity,” Scotty says. “I don’t think the people there expect more than a working knowledge. I think if he can pick up just a working knowledge, they’d welcome him with open arms. I hope he can do it.”

It’s unclear at the moment whether Molson’s reaffirming of the team’s link to its fans and their language will quiet the critics, which include Quebec’s culture minister. Losing to the Bruins on Monday night certainly won’t help matters, and with the Canadiens traveling to Chicago, Winnipeg, Ottawa, Florida and Tampa Bay before coming home, the partisans could reignite before the next game at the Bell Centre on Jan. 4.

All this is toughest on Cunneyworth, who has a side in this, too. He’s earned a shot to be an NHL head coach. There are only 30 of these jobs and, despite the extraordinarily adverse circumstances, he’s probably happy to get a chance to prove what he can do. He’ll have to prove he’s a superstar behind the bench and make the playoffs to keep this job, but he might have had to do that anywhere else he took over as an interim NHL coach.

But he’s not anywhere else. He’s coaching the Montreal Canadiens. And he doesn’t speak French. Just how he can learn it while trying to turn this team around is a mystery.

Here’s Zimmy’s folky original version.

And here he is countrified with Johnny Cash.