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French Sens, Trouba and Gudas at the Bell Centre and Avalanche GM vs. Kent Hughes

 Maxime Truman
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French Sens, Trouba and Gudas at the Bell Centre and Avalanche GM vs. Kent Hughes
Credit: Getty Images

“The pool of Senators fans who live in Gatineau is important to us. We have to take care of it.”

Next thing you know: the organization buys advertising on Facebook (restricted to the Québécois territory)…and inserts four or five French mistakes (syntax or spelling).

Soygez… des premiers répondants soirée… décembre 11… prenez vos billets…

We can even add to this list the expression sapeur-pompiers, used in France but not in Quebec. Artificial intelligence doesn’t distinguish between French from France and French from Québécois!

How to make a false effort for French à la sauce Sénateurs…

Unfortunately, French too often eats a cr*ss in Ottawa, in the words of a friend who worked there for a few years.

Some Internet users have pointed the finger at Sylvain St-Laurent, former journalist turned Senators Communications Director (whose mandate clearly includes bringing the Sens organization closer to its French-speaking fans in Quebec). However, Facebook ads don’t go through Sylvain. At the Canadiens, do you really think Chantal is in charge of Facebook ads(which don’t please my colleague Jean Trudel, by the way)? Nah! It comes from the marketing and/or Web department…

But then, as a former Groupe Habs manager told me: another Montreal manager once proposed at a meeting to abolish the French-language version of the team’s website. Unfortunately, French is far from being respected as it should be by many of the country’s English speakers…

Especially when an organization (like the Senators) isn’t rolling in dough, has revenues in CAD but spends a lot in USD and a large majority of its fans speak English. Except that, when you’re advertising in French, you either do it right or you don’t. That’s it. That’s it.

Ducks vs Canadiens
The Ducks will be at the Bell Centre tonight to take on the Canadiens. They’ve just suffered two thaws in front of their fans (4-1 against the Golden Knights and 5-1 against the Wild) and will now begin a four-game series in the East.

The Ducks (10-12-3) have the same number of points as the Habs, but with two games in hand. Even so, the Canadiens are favourites for one of the few times since the start of the season – even at home, the Montrealers often have the higher odds – and you’d think tonight’s game would be an “easy” one for the Habs.

But watch out! The Ducks players – who are 5-3-2 on the road this season – went wine-drinking at the Palma last night.

For some reason, all but one of the teams that visited the Palma the night before a game won their duel with the Canadiens in 2024-25. Will this crazy statistic continue tonight?

Jacob Trouba is expected to play his first game with his new team.

Will Josh Anderson (revenge) or Arber Xhekaj throw down the gloves with him?

Will Radko Gudas and Jacob Trouba form a defensive duo worthy of the ’90s?

We’ll see, as the Senators’ French manager would say!

Don’t trade with the Avalanche again, Kent!
Marc Bergevin had his faults: he offered overly lucrative contracts to certain players with whom he fell in with the staff… he let valued and useful players go(Allo Phil Danault!)… he was unpleasant at the end of his reign in Montreal…

But he won eight or nine deals that he completed out of ten. He was a real pain in the ass.

Max Pacioretty vs Nick Suzuki, Tomas Tatar and a second-round pick…

Phillip Danault and a pick that became Alexander Romanov vs. Tomas Fleischmann and Dale Weise…

Shea Weber vs P.K. Subban…

Jeff Petry vs. two picks (not first round)…

Thomas Vanek vs. pretty much nothing…

From memory, only the Drouin vs Sergachev trade left a negative mark.

Kent Hughes has the upper hand in 50% of his trades. #InTheAverage

Except that when he trades with the Avalanche, he just doesn’t have it, Kent.

Sending Artturi Lehkonen in return for Justin Barron and a second-round pick (Carter George) already ranks in the bad-trade column. Justin Barron’s nonchalance will probably prevent Barron from becoming a quality NHL defenseman.

And giving away a first-round pick (Mikhail Gulyayev), a second-round pick (Ethan Gauthier) and Gianni Fairbrother for Alex Newhook (still looking for his first assist of the season, after 27 games, even though he’s playing on the team’s top line) is a movethat’s getting old…

When Chris MacFarland calls you, Kent, to find out the price of Jake Evans, don’t answer. Or hang up right away. You know the old adage: two’s company, three’s a crowd…

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