‘Soupçon of pleasure’: Canadiens’ re-embrace of francophone roots front and centre in playoff victory

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The Montreal Canadiens hit a low point on May 10, 2021: the first time in the team’s century-plus history that they featured no Quebec players in their lineup. For the franchise of Richard, Béliveau and Lafleur, this was a scandal, and the nadir of a long decline in the Habs’ historical role as the national team of French Canada.

Well, that was then. On Monday night in Buffalo, the Canadiens won Game 7 of the playoffs’ second round with goals from Zachary Bolduc and Phillip Danault, the first time in 47 years that two Quebeckers scored in a Game 7 for the Habs. A niche statistic, perhaps, but meaningful enough to be noted by the Montreal media, and symbolic of a renaissance in the team’s francophone character.

This year, the bleu, blanc et rouge have featured six Quebec-born players in Bolduc, Danault, defenceman Alexandre Carrier, goalie Samuel Montembeault, Mike Matheson and Joe Veleno – the last two being anglophones from the West Island who nonetheless speak excellent French. Throw in head coach Martin St. Louis and Alexandre Texier, the latter a product of Grenoble, France, and the dressing room overflows with the language of Molière.

In the past, this would not have been news. Businessman Ambrose O’Brien founded the Canadiens in 1909 explicitly to appeal to French-speaking Montrealers, with an emphasis on recruiting francophone players.

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That marketing philosophy turned out to be brilliant hockey strategy, as generations of players from Maurice Richard to Jean Béliveau to Guy Lafleur to Patrick Roy brought the franchise a record 24 Stanley Cups.

Uncannily, each of those players also managed to incarnate the soul of Quebec as it developed over the years: the Rocket’s silent fire during the Great Darkness of the 1950s, le Gros Bill’s stately self-confidence during the Quiet Revolution, the Flower’s panache in the nationalist 70s, Saint Patrick’s combative insouciance in the referendum years of the 80s and 90s.

It wasn’t just the stars who were francophone, either. As recently as 1993, the last year the team won the Cup, no fewer than 14 of its players were Quebeckers. As the author Brendan Kelly observes in his recent book Habs Nation, the general manager at the time, Serge Savard, still prioritized homegrown talent. He would be the last person in his position to do so for decades.

Some observers of the team, including Mr. Kelly, believe it’s no coincidence the Canadiens fell from glory around the same time they drifted from their francophone roots. Local players skate with the passion of their people when they don the Sainte-Flanelle, the thinking goes.

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But one barrier to the Habs dressing more Savards and Cournoyers in the modern era is that the province is simply producing fewer of them. The share of Quebec-born players in the NHL has declined sharply in recent decades, as has their quality. There were just 61 in the league this season, compared with more than 100 every year for most of the 1990s. No Quebecker was among the NHL’s top 50 scorers this season, either – a far cry from the not-so-distant days when virtuosos such as Mario Lemieux and Luc Robitaille filled up those lists with ease.

The slippage of Quebec hockey talent prompted then-premier François Legault to strike a committee on “relaunching” the sport in the province in 2021.

More significant for the Habs was the appointment, soon after, of Kent Hughes as GM. Another West Island boy with good French, he seems to understand the value of having a francophone presence on the team. Hiring St. Louis was a stroke of genius, not just because he seems to be a skillful bench boss but because he’s a good communicator in both official languages.

“For the last few years, they’ve been more sensitive to their community,” said Benoît Melançon, a University of Montreal professor emeritus of literature and diehard Habs fan.

In addition to drafting and trading for more Quebeckers, the Canadiens have made a push to show off their linguistic nous in other ways. Lane Hutson and other American stars have appeared in commercials brandishing a few words of French, and after seven years in Montreal, captain Nick Suzuki finally gave his first “interview” in French this season, although it was a stilted affair that showed less effort on his part than past Ontario transplants such as Bob Gainey, Ken Dryden and Larry Robinson once made.

Winning has showered the organization with goodwill anyway, after consecutive playoff showings with a charismatic young team. Few Québécois supporters mind that their best players are imports, even if there’s a natural identification with players who share their language, Melançon said.

“I’m in love with Lane Hutson, he’s a genius, he does unimaginable things – I prefer watching him to Phillip Danault,” he acknowledged. But, he added, if Hutson spoke French, “maybe I’d have a little extra soupçon of pleasure.”