Francophone Group Plans Protest at Canadiens Game

... and the Habs' already woeful season takes a turn for the absurd.

A Quebecois sovereigntist group plans to stage a protest during an upcoming Montreal Canadiens home game over the promotion of Randy Cunneyworth, a unilingual Anglophone, to the position of head coach last week. Cunneyworth is the team's first unilingual head coach in nearly three decades, a point that has not been overlooked by those who care as much about les bleus, blancs, et rouges as they do about preserving the province's unique linguistic heritage. As such, the group Mouvement Quebec francais has issued a news release decrying the "anglicization" of their beloved Habs, pointing not just to Cunneyworth replacing the (bland, marginally competent, but fluently bilingual) Jacques Martin, but also the fact that the Habs only ice three Francophone players (Mathieu Darche, Louis Leblanc, David Desharnais) and the Bell Centre plays only English music. The protest group will gather outside the Bell Centre on Jan. 7 and hand out Quebec flags to fans on their way in to check out the Canadiens taking on the Tampa Bay Lightning (who, coincidentally, happen to have a francophone head coach and five francophone players).