The insult, The insult and bettman

DAY

What did we hurt ourselves by liquidating two magnificent professional clubs that were the Nordiques (1995) and the Expos (2004) in less than 10 years.

We had paraded for a long time with our Stanley Cups, with this team of the beautiful and old capital with nationalist colors which went to daringly steal magnificent talents from the communist regimes of the East.

In addition, Quebec was going to become one of the most spectacular in the NHL. And our big stars here, we loved them very much. The Lafleurs, Bossys, Lemieux, Bourques, Roys, Brodeur, Lecavaliers, St-Louis and more. We were big and we were big.

It's as if one day Americans, like Gary Bettman, said to themselves: “OK, enough is enough. We're going to put the little Franco bastion in its place.”

Since then, the blows of the ruler on the fingers have not stopped and we regularly go from insult to insult.  

WE PAY AGAIN

Insufficient population, puny dollar, unappealing cold, modest TV rights and get it. The haters have had their hands full too for not respecting a lower-wage Canadian Football League and a miraculous stalwart like Saputo who took 25 years to almost kneel to MLS.

< p>Meanwhile too, Montreal almost lost its Grand Prix being treated cavalierly by Bernie Ecclestone, another condescending. Add the utter failure of the attempt to bring an electric F1 grand prix. Another slap on the nose, the Crashed Ice crowned the Quebec camp. 

Don't forget that Quebec was also disdainfully turned around when we wanted to organize the 2002 Olympics. We instead favored Salt Lake City, a city of barely 200,000 people.  < /p>

It was pathetic to see how Eric Girard, the Minister for the Nordics, was received rudely in New York when he went to beg Bettman to listen to him. We would have received it in the porch or the garage and we would have had the same impression. 

Okay, Bettman is posting extraordinary numbers. He filled the pockets of his shareholders, the owners, but that does not authorize him to humiliate a city like Quebec, a jewel of America which has indeed marked the recent and ancient history of the National League. . It has become insulting.

PORTRAIT OF THE NHL

We can talk about the weakness of the Canadian dollar, but seven clubs live off it and that is in the economic picture of this league.

Why shouldn't Quebec be given another chance when Winnipeg had this opportunity and is doing very well even if it barely attracts 15,000 fans? per game?  

It is the Canadian teams that generate the most profit and 2 of the 5 richest clubs in the NHL are Toronto and Montreal.

We must respect the nature of this sport, its history and its origins. Three teams in California, two in Florida and possibly two others in Texas where we have never seen a snow bank, but no club in Quebec where the biggest amateur hockey tournament in the world is held, where we can attract more of 17,000 people at a junior game and where we had developed what had become the most virulent rivalry in the NHL.

WITHOUT RESPECT

Bettman may be good with bank accounts and where I find him really exceptional is that he does all this without respecting a sport he has never played, it is obvious, that he does not respect. 

That hockey doesn't survive in the desert, that's normal. 

If there were as many people at the Coyotes matches as there are at the Remparts, there would be no problem. 

From the enclave  

• If you ask Gaston Pellerin, the big boss of the Lac Blanc outfitter (Saint-Alexis des Monts), how you are, he will will answer that it's going so well that it has too many solutions and that it lacks problems.
• It is precisely 4600 people per game (not 5000) who could enter the Mullet Arena in Tempe, Arizona. Pathetic.
• Erratum from myself, last week. The director of SÉPAQ Mastigouche is not Francis Charbonneau, but Francis Desjardins.
• Condolences to the children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren following the death of Lise, wife of Henri Richard. A wonderful woman, playful and loved by all. A beautiful person.
• Over the past season, Nick Suzukiwas sent to shootouts 7 times and scored 5 times.

Nick Suzuki

• Do you like fish and game? You need to get your hands on the book From nature to your plate written by Julien Cabana, our hunting and fishing columnist. Over 100 recipes. A masterpiece, a collector's item.
• Happy birthday to the Montreal Alouettes, which were founded on May 20, 1946. They are 77 years old in camp at Trois -Rivers.
• It was also on May 20 that the longest home run in the history of the Olympic Stadium in Montreal was hit. Willie Stargel,of the Pittsburgh Pirates, catapulted a shot from pitcher Wayne Twitchell535 feet from home plate. 
• My old friend Yvon Lambert celebrates his 73 spring today. Probably a little cold…or two to celebrate.

Yvon Lambert

• Like the Bell Center house announcer, Michel Lacroix, Mathieu Joseph, of the Ottawa Senators, is now a member of the Kanawaki Golf Club.
• Did you know that before 1912 the Kanawaki golf club was the Outremont golf club?
• At the sumptuous Balmoral club in Morin-Heights, the conditions are already optimal even if the terrain has only been accessible for a week. Returning are famous members like Robert Charlebois and his family, Ron Fournier and Luc Dionne.
• The Murray Bay Golf Club in La Malbaie is the 3rd oldest club in North America. Founded in 1894, it was in 1928 that we stopped seeing cows in the field. Be aware that the President of the United States, William Howard Taft, was a member there.