I've had it with Guy Lafleur. In his latest ill-thought-out critique of the team that still pays him to represent it as an ambassador, he says Rejean Houle should have traded Saku Koivu years ago and expresses the opinion that Koivu should just go away and play with his brother.
I know all the Lafleur lovers are going to chime in here and protest, "But he's GUY! And he has a right to express his opinion!" Boo friggin' hoo. The man is a convicted criminal who's been forgiven every social misstep he's ever made because he was a great hockey player in his day and a local boy to boot. He's lucky he still has a spot in the hierarchy of Habs icons, after the way he's behaved and the manner in which he regularly slags the team. Now he's abusing the celebrity he won by playing for the Canadiens by calling them down.
I do have an understanding of the impulse to forgive a childhood hero. I've always had a soft spot for Patrick Roy, despite his dumbass behaviour at times. But, enough's enough. People became fans of Guy Lafleur because they were first fans of the Canadiens. So, hearing him diss the team that made him famous and continues to employ him is classless, petty and annoying.
Not only that, but his opinions are stupid and consistently negative. Last year's team made up of "four fourth lines" won the conference. And, I'd love to know why Koivu should have been traded years ago, when he was the best player on the team most of the time. Or why Rejean Houle, with his history of fantastic value received in trades, would have turned the team around by trading Koivu.
I remember Guy Lafleur as a fading star. By the time I started watching hockey closely, it was already 1984. To me, and to many who don't remember the man in his heyday, he's nothing more than one more negative voice criticizing my favourite team. The only difference is that he's a negative voice who should know better. The Canadiens get enough crap from the rest of the world. They don't need it from guys they pay to be their public face, and of whom they build statues and monuments.
I know Lafleur is entitled to his opinion. I just wish, for once, he'd keep it to himself.
About Me
- J.T.
- My name is Leigh Anne Power, and I am a Habs fan. I'm kind of obsessed, so even though the world doesn't need another Habs blog, I can't help it. If you choose to follow this blog on Twitter, it's at @habsloyalist. The link's below.
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The H Does Not Stand For Habs by Leigh Anne Power (J.T.) is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.
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The H Does Not Stand For Habs by J.T./Leigh Anne Power is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License.
The H Does Not Stand For Habs by J.T./Leigh Anne Power is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License.
16 comments:
Guy, like Barry Bonds, Roger Clemens and Pete Rose, has now earned the title of "Talented Jerk".
No you Shut up....who the hell you think you are....
You are crossing the line...very bad post. Very disrespectfull....
Your words are strong but your position makes sense.
Homme de Sept-Iles
@superman:
And who is Lafleur respecting, exactly? He made his living and his fame from the Canadiens. He's worshipped as a hockey god by people like yourself. But he feels the need to ridicule the hand that still feeds him? The team that YOU cheer for? Bah. Go away and learn some class, Guy. You think Jean Beliveau would lower himself to say the things Lafleur does?
Except for the quality of the writing, this looks like a post that was written by one of numerous morons on the Habs Usenet group.
I'm very disappointed you have tried to match their wit, spirit and anti Frog attitude.
You obviously don't have a clue who the man really is and what he has done and still does for the people of this Province. Nobody is even close to achieve half of what he has done for the sick kids, the elderly and for the fans in general, in the last 40 years.
Lafleur is as honest today as he was honest when he pissed blood for the Habs, for a meager pitance, back in the 70's. To him, diplomacy not only rimes but also equals hypocrisy.
Back to my solitude.
Oh, the irony of seeing J.T. being called disrespectful and told to shut up for giving her opinion on this topic; it is delicious.
Where did this idea of Saku Koivu wanting to go to Minnesota to play with his younger brother come from? In the interviews that I have seen and read with Saku, he has stated that due to their age difference, he and his brother never got to play together, and they hardly know each other.
Removing this emotional quality from the trade, what are we left with? Minnesota is not a team on the cusp of winning anything. The only bonus I can think of is that the move would make following their sons easier for the Koivu Brothers' parents.
My point is that Guy Lafleur, in this reference to the Saku-to-Minnesota story, is making scandalous statements based on nothing. I have no idea why he would do that.
Denis, I was waiting for you to slam me for this. You've got the biggest chip on your shoulder about language, you look for insult where there is none even remotely intended. Do you honestly think if I were "anti-Frog" (a hideously insulting term, by the way) that I would be such an avid fan of the Montreal Canadiens? How much easier would it be to cheer for any other team, in which language isn't always cropping up as a divisive issue? What other team has to consider language even down to hiring a coach?
I'm not talking about Lafleur and his French heritage, or what he did/does for charity. I'm talking about the classlessness of his working for an organization, then publicly insulting it and its employees. I'm a Montreal Canadiens fan and I hear enough crap about my team. I don't care if Guy Lafleur visits ten hospitals a day. I just want him to shut the hell up insulting my team.
And it's not hypocrisy on his part to say "no comment" or "I don't think it's my place to talk about Saku Koivu." That's just class.
What about Koivu and his contributions to Quebec society and time spent visiting the sick and dying? Nobody jumps to defend him because he's NOT French. Defending everything French just because it IS French is just as nasty as criticizing it for that reason.
Enjoy your solitude.
JT, you rock. Lache pas! :-)
Well aren't we all a little testy tonight? I did grow up watching the Canadiens in the seventies and Lafleur was my hero but it does seem as though he has an axe to grind with the team. Maybe he resents today's players or specifically Koivu, you know Lafleur never was captain of the team. Just because he was a great player doesn't mean he can't also be a jerk. I'm with you JT he needs to stop all the negativity. And who the hell calls himself Superman. Sounds like this guy thinks as much of himself as Lafleur does.
Guy Lafleur's commentaries rarely educate and usually only add to the confusion that is the new era Montreal Canadiens but I doubt that his partial and often shallow opinions would irritated us as much as it does if we had an inner confidence about the direction of our team and about our present organization's vision and habilities to make us grand and to keep us grand.
Except in some imagination Gainey has failed to convinced through his work, he has not brought in the excellent men needed to make a difference and increase our whealth from within.... our Pro Scouting staffs as not yet find an undrafted player worthy of the NHL..... our youth developpement within the big club is improvised and unstructured..... even the Big Club performances itself has not benefitted from his ill-decision of hiring his friend Carbo as a coach of the Montreal Canadiens..... a downgrade from a professional coach like Julien if ever there was one.
Gainey brought notoriety but failed to delivers the goods in all sort of ways, from the subtle to the flagrant and all in between.... Lafleur at time be an annoyance to the organization but at least he is not questionning their legitimacy as I do here and in that sens he still is a good boy.
Does the H stand for H'irony?
The writing is quality, but it reminds one of something written by Usenet morons. Wit and spirit are often coupled with racism. Public displays with the ill and elderly grant a free pass to publicly criticize your former employer's current employees. Honest diplomacy is an oxymoron.
Why doesn't Jean Beliveau run into these situations? We'll never know.
I'm with you, J.T!
Very well written. I agree on everything you wrote.
Lafleur is just one more big mouth fading star who can't resist dissing the Habs. The only way he can remain in the spotlight is to spout off about the Habs and of course, the Montreal media is right there to gobble up all the crap he spews out.
Is it only in Montreal that this sort of crap happens where former players and coaches of the team feel the need to publicly criticize and critique, pretending that their opinion matters anymore.
And of course, the Montreal media can't resist running with the story like a bunch of pathetic journalists working for the Enquirer.
Dear Has-been, washed up Guy, you were great once but now, just fade away or better, go away.
Take some lessons from Mr Beliveau on how to be a gentleman and ambassador of the Habs.
If your blog had a "Like" button, I'd click it!
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