Just a magnet for free agents

posted by Mike Boone at 10h21 EST on Apr 22


They say Daniel Brière's wife didn't want him to sign with  Montreal.

Is it any wonder?

If you're the one who has to take care of children and go to the supermarket and maintain a home on an even keel while your spouse concentrates on his job for eight months, would you want to move to a city where they trash store windows and burn police cars AFTER A WIN??????

It calls to mind what's carved on W.C. Fields' tombstone:

"On the whole, I'd rather be in Philadelphia."

Or Phoenix or San Jose or Dallas or Anaheim or Carolina ...

It doesn't have to be sunny. Just civilized. 

Sign with Montreal?

What, the offer is better than Baghdad's?

 

 




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Comments

Yawn. Who...Gives...A....#%^%.. Stop making stories out of nothing please, stop feeding the fire. Boone: "What, the offer is better than Baghdad's?" Comparing this in anyway to whats going on in Iraq is an insult to anyone in this world who deals with real problems rather then an isolated bunch of immature behavior. You guys need to a get grip, seriously.

Habsgirl's picture
Why didn't Briere's wife want him to live in Montreal. Does she live there? Those long distance marriages work well I hear, especially if your man is a prick.

Chuck's picture
Ba-zing!!! :) . . . ______________________________________ "All bow down before the Komisaurus Rex!"

yeah, i'm sure hockey players love experiences like this: http://youtube.com/watch?v=6n2cAJnCFJM

Chuck's picture
I hope that his "fans" feel cool after that. Did they really think that he would appreciate that crap? What makes people think that it would be all right to pound on the hood of someone's Porsche... especially someone that you show admiration for? . . . ______________________________________ "All bow down before the Komisaurus Rex!"

Chorske's picture
He had to drive out of his way to get to Ste Catherine from where the players exit the Bell Centre. My guess is that he won't be using that route again after games. Anyone who lives in MTL knows that Ste Catherine is a zoo at the best of times, and a quagmire to be avoided at all costs after playoff victories. Rookie mistake. BTW. Cameras on cell phones are the pits.

Chorske's picture
So now we're blaming Briere's WIFE too? Man, do we ever need to build a bridge and get over this guy. He had a million reasons to sign elsewhere: MTL had a bad history with FAs; high taxes; a poor short term outlook that most pundits felt didn't include a playoff run; big media pressure; etc etc. I can't imagine Briere or his wife were thinking back to the 93 riots, lol. As embarrassing as the riot was, that is stretching it. Riots or no, the team is classy and is winning again, the city is beautiful and cosmopolitain and mad about hockey. That's gotta be worth something to prospective FAs. Watching that vid, there's a few sh*theads who deserve a serious baton beating. Maybe I'm getting conservative in my old age, but I thought the cops were overly restrained.

Chuck's picture
I thought that the cops showed a lot of restraint, too. Long before the trouble started, I was chatting with a few of them and they were amiable and happy to talk about the game, etc. I asked one of them about the riot gear, and she said, "it's a large group of rowdy people. You've got to be ready for anything, just in case." While walking back to my car, I noticed that fire trucks were staged on the side streets not far from the action. That was when I realized that the authorities thought that they might really have their hands full. Needless to say, I wasn't about to hang around to see what happened next. . . . ______________________________________ "All bow down before the Komisaurus Rex!"

Habsgirl's picture
Oh..."she said"...was SHE cute in her riot gear Chuckie....so transparent. LOL!

Chuck's picture
Actually, she was quite cute! Then again, I have a thing for women in uniform, so what do I know? :) We neen more women cops here in Ontario! . . . ______________________________________ "All bow down before the Komisaurus Rex!"

Gormdog's picture
Haha, i guess we're oh-so-different. You couldn't have paid me to leave the area.

Chuck's picture
That made you part of the problem. That's nothing to laugh about. . . . ______________________________________ "All bow down before the Komisaurus Rex!"

Habsgirl's picture
Did you leave with the cute riot cop's number Chuck at least? I'm just teasing you Chuck. Don't get upset. I agree with you. People need to calm down, show class and restraint. I agree with what you wrote. We want to show the world how to win. I just thought it was funny when you wrote SHE. Hahahaha.

Chuck's picture
Hahaha... no, sadly no phone number, I'm afraid. She was too busy getting her game face on, I guess. She was with another 6 or 7 cops when we were chatting, and at least another three of them were women. I'm liking the hiring practices of the Montreal police! . . . ______________________________________ "All bow down before the Komisaurus Rex!"

Chorske's picture
They're talking about bringing in some pretty strict rules about hanging around Ste Catherine street on game nights. I don't understand how a city that can party responsibly 99.9% of the time can't celebrate major hockey victories without torching buses or cop cars. I don't know how, but we need to find ways to turn partying on ste catherine into something positive- like the Red Mile in Calgary (RIP).

Aside from the stupidity of destroying property to "celebrate" anything, I am so embarrassed these morons were rioting to "celebrate" a first round victory! It used to take a cup to get a hab fan's attention. I know it's been a while since '93 but it's sad that even the hooligans have sunk to Maple Leaf fans' expectations.

Chuck's picture
You do have to remember, though, that most of the crowd were late-teens to early 20's. They would have barely entered elementary school the last time the Habs won the Cup. This was their first real time to celebrate anything. Gather outside of the Bell Centre after the game to wave flags and cheer the team into the second round? I had no problem with that, as long as everything was kept civil. . . . ______________________________________ "All bow down before the Komisaurus Rex!"

Habsgirl's picture
I teach high school. I love my students but they are angry about their world. It's an entitled generation. They love to have a reason to set a cop car on fire. I agree with Chuck. Cheer, wave a flag, be respectful but keep the teen angst under control. No one needs to see it. Save it for your parents' living-room. They have to love you. We don't want to see it. We don't have to love you and we don't need to put up with it.

The Teacher's picture
Yup, an entitled generation is right. "One face-off, one battle, one shift, one period, one game, one series at a time." "Are the Habs ready to pay the Price?"

Chuck's picture
So true. At that age, it's time to learn to suck it up and deal with the fact that the world won't bring everything to you on a silver platter. And getting angry and trashing stuff certainly isn't going to help your cause or earn you any sympathy, either. . . . ______________________________________ "All bow down before the Komisaurus Rex!"

Chuck's picture
I'm not sure what's more idiotic: torching police cars, or doing so while in full view of the TV cameras. I hope that the cops confiscate every inch of videotape and nail as many of those thugs as possible. Jerks like that give my hometown and the Canadiens a bad name. I'm not impressed. . . . ______________________________________ "All bow down before the Komisaurus Rex!"

Mattee.'s picture
Shame on those guys. Like really, what exactly is going through your head? "Yay we won! Let's go break stuff in celebration?" It's disgusting, For the first time in my life, I was ashamed to put on my jersey this morning (I still did). Even when we lost to T. last year I was more proud. We finally had something good for CBC to talk about and we go and pull something stupid like that.

Ian Cobb's picture
You can be sure that tonight the Toronto CBC guys will milk this story all night during the games. Black eye on my home town globally for sure, I hope they bring out the tasers for these drunken bastards.

24 Cups's picture
Ian - It was part of the Global News 6pm broadcast - not their sports report but their news section. They stated that the story and video had been shown worldwide. Their angle was that it would hurt Montreal's reputation as a world class city and subsequently impact on summer tourism. Nice timing. Sad to say, but there was no mention of the outcome of the game (other than Montreal won) and certainly no mention of Carey Price's heroics. The next question is what consequences will these guys receive? The Original 24.4 Cups

Habsgirl's picture
Oh yes...Toronto will be showing Montreal in a poor light if they can. Don't let them.

ajpursell's picture
Did the torch riots in Paris and London hurt their tourism?

yathehabsrule's picture
CityTV in Toronto had it in their news as well... http://www.bleacherreport.com/users/2098-Kevin_van_Steendelaar

showey47's picture
i agree ian. Tsn,cbc,sportsnet,don cherry etc. will make this their top story as long as the habs are still in the playoffs. We all know that those idiots go out of their way to find something negative to say about the habs. I watched the video on tsn and it was disgusting and disturbing. It is very embarassing to us real hab fans that a bunch of holigans used this as an oppurtunity to riot and create chaos.

JasonM's picture
Absolutely. I'm embarassed that this has happened. There are no excuses for this and I hope the police uses force next time, use tear gas and beat on some people and show some authority. I can't believe there were so many people "watching" people commiting crimes and not caring. That video really confirms that most of the people who did this were young hooligans, HAB "FANS" dressed in Hab colors and not random people who took advantage of the situation. THIS SHOULD NOT HAVE HAPPENED. I hope they make some kind of organization for identifying people off the footage gathered and have justice be served. This isn't funny at all, it's people like ME who have to pay for the 16 cop cars that need to be replace, people like me who can't even get tickets to Hab games because they get sold out to retards like this get them. Bullshit.

Gormdog's picture
Big difference between "watching" and not caring Jason. It's mob mentality, i'm sorry, but us citizens are not responsible enough for the actions of a few bad seeds to warrant us getting rocks thrown at us. Clearly you weren't out there, and are just listening to what the news tells you, because everywhere you went there were people chastizing those who were vandalizing, booing them, but definitely not resorting to violence to solve violence, that's what full gear cops are for. True Habs fans, everywhere, were telling these guys to get a life. I don't know what selective footage you saw, but take it from me, it was mostly NOT Habs fans who were doing the dirty work on the night. Watching Global News deosnt make you an expert Jason, true habs fans all over the area were doing what they reasonably were expected to do, which was chastize the rioters and looters but ultimatly not physically responsible for stopping these nutcases... We shoudl resort to their game? Maybe toss a Molotov cocktail at a pack of 16 year olds running around tossing bottles... that's what you want?

JasonM's picture
When there's 100 people watching a handful of people doing what they are doing they aren't being helpful in any shape or form. Hanging around, "BOOING" and "CHASTIZING" does absolutely jack. Cops come around and see 100+ people around a scene of the crime and don't care if you did it or not, extra bodies around not doing anything, taking picture, videos only complicate things. Booing and chastizing won't prevent taxpayers like to take the repair bill, will it? I truly hope the next time such a thing happens they use force, tear gas, rubber bullets, whatever they use on those who perform these type of dishonorable actions and those who stand around and complicate things. End of discussion.

Chuck's picture
My question to you would be, "Why did you hang around and watch in the first place?" Sure there's the curiosity factor, but at some time common sense has to kick in telling you it's time to get out of there... say, when you're getting rocks thrown at you. I would have also thought that cops in full riot gear forming up their lines might have also been another subtle hint. . . . ______________________________________ "All bow down before the Komisaurus Rex!"

Gormdog's picture
I'm a journalism student, what can i say, news attracts me. I wanted to see what was happening to my neighborhood, to see it for myself and not through skewed news reports and videos on Youtube. I figured, at the least, I would add to the massive amounts of people chastizing the vandals, and maybe, against my better judgement, lend a hand if things truely got out of hand (i tried to stop some guys from lighting a cop car on fire, but debates where one side throws insults while the other throws rocks is hardly a fair fight). I guess in the midsts of a mini war, i still wanted to represent my Habs pride with good ol clean fun, like the hundreds of other true fans who stuck around and cheered on the boys till the wee hours of the morning without picking up a single brick...

Chuck's picture
News attracts you... well, take it from someone that actually works in the media: unless you had a camera, audio recording device, or were putting a notepad to good use, you were just getting in the way, and were being the news instead of reporting it. The cops had a job to do and they don't give a crap about your intentions. You were merely part of the crowd that they have to disperse. Chastizing the vandals? Why do you think they were doing what they were doing in the first place? They were doing it to show off and to get a rise out of everyone around them. It's all gang mentality. By sticking around and watching the procedings, all you did for them was to validiate their actions. Good ol' clean fun ended as soon as the first brick was thrown. After that, there was nothing to represent. All you ended up doing was getting in the cops way and gave them another person to deal with instead of allowing them to deal with the real troublemakers. . . . ______________________________________ "All bow down before the Komisaurus Rex!"

Sbah Reverof's picture
Just watched the TSN newsreel; pathetic and shameful. Whether it was the work of a few or many makes no difference. It happened here last night, and I am ashamed for this city. Whatever else we do or accomplish, sadly, this is the message sent out to the world. Kinda depressing, really.

VladIsMyDad's picture
The video posted to http://www.tsn.ca/nhl/ made me sick to my stomach. Absolutely disgusting.

Gormdog's picture
That's too funny vlad. At the three minute mark, i see me, and my buddy, moving swiftly away from the cops... we were walking down st Catties, looking at the carnage, and suddenly noticed there were no more poeple around... We look up, and are in no mans land, betweem a thousand yelling fans and 200 police. We noticed some guys getting clubbed on the sidewalk (2:50 into the video), and then the cops lined up. When you see the camera pan to the area where the cops are walking (3:05) you see me in my habs jersey walking away with my buddy on roller blades... And yeah, it was sick out there. I had to witness it for myself, not cause trouble

Chuck's picture
Unfortunately, being there to witness it for your self DOES cause trouble. The cops don't know you from Adam, and hanging out being a tourist puts you in the same boat as the guys that actually did it. In that situation, the cops have to treat everybody as suspect... even the people that think that they're doing no harm. The smartest thing to do would have been to leave the area, and not to artificially swell the numbers of the crowd that the cops had to disperse. And it wasn't funny. . . . ______________________________________ "All bow down before the Komisaurus Rex!"

Gormdog's picture
Sorry, but i guess we have different senses of humour. I'm sorry, but the last thing i expected was to end up on TSN, looking like the leaders of la resistance. I was just tring to get through st catties and see the carnage, nothing more. I figured i'd be on the news, and i was, commenting on the disgraceful actions that had just happened in the city (hard to find a passionate and articulate Habs fan at 2 am in the morning after rioting)... Just didnt expect to be on the other side of the coin too :P

Chuck's picture
Well, now you know. Consider it a life lesson. . . . ______________________________________ "All bow down before the Komisaurus Rex!"

sidhu's picture
I'm hoping our first place finish in the East, getting the most goals in the league, and marching through to the second round (at least) will overcome the stupid actions of a very small subset of Habs fans. It wouldn't surprise me if the Habs organization did something classy in response to the fact that some poor Bruins fan(s) got beat up.

PattyBoy31's picture
after the bruins did what to that habs fan that got suckered? i agree though, the organization should and will do SOMETHING

likehoy's picture
markov snubbed for norris.

Sehs's picture
As good as he is, I don't think he's at Lidstrom's level as far as defensive play goes... The guy finished like +40.

Chara nominated.

yathehabsrule's picture

The Teacher's picture
NOT. Were you watching the series? "One face-off, one battle, one shift, one period, one game, one series at a time." "Are the Habs ready to pay the Price?"

Sehs's picture
Wee I got tickets again! Four in the blue for game 5... assuming there is one... which there should... right? :P

Cops aren't angels, Teach; this must be true even in the black and white world where you're living.

I agree with most of the posters (for once). Come on, Boone, the city is alright. There are retards who look to cause trouble everywhere, in every city. They need to get jobs. Perhaps Soviet's idea of forced labor camps was that bad overall. :)

RJ's picture
There are people who act like idiots in all pro sports cities. I live in Boston and when the Patriots and Red Sox won, there were riots and bad behavior galore. As for Briere, there were riots when the Flyers won in 1974 and 1975. Has the likelihood of that prospect lessened over time? Hardly!

Garbo's picture
Enough about the riot already, get it over it. That's three or four posts now that I read about it, after seeing it on the front page of the paper.

Ian G Cobb's picture
Free Agents--Hum Bug!! Don't you know we are developing our own on the farm now, not like the other losers that try to buy the cup.

Ian G - How long are you going to stay on the bandwagon this time, lol.

Ian Cobb's picture
Never gotten off, I was upset with there poor effort in Boston.

cautiousoptimist's picture
I'd have a good chuckle if after Atlanta's ridiculous demands of Higgins, Lapierre, Pacioretty, a pick and someone else whose name escapes me, we get Hossa this summer for nothing. 1. www.flickeringpictures.com - not a hockey site, but still kinda neat 2. Josh Gorges on Montreal's attack: "They're comin', they're comin' and they keep comin'. Just line after line, wave after wave..."

TOEmastro's picture
we have a spinach patch in the making down there, we have a team for the next 20 years! although a 50 goal scorer would be a nice addition at the end of the season

SlySil's picture
Mike, You're usually the voice of reason in my books but this time, I must respectfully disagree. Its all about the Benjamins and winning or else no one would sign with Manchester United, Liverpool, AC Milan, Juventus or The NY Yankees where the fans in those cities have been known to cause a minor social mishap or two after or during a game....

Hammer's picture
Please Mr. Boone, give the hyperbole a rest. When you start bringing in the Briere family and juxtapose it against this thuggery of the night, you are reaching. I for one live in western Canada, Calgary to be specific but have an affinity for the great city of Montreal.You have a beautiful city, wonderful history, unbelievable culture and a passion for hockey and life that you could bottle and sell to 99% of the rest of the country. To start thinking and chiming in print the rationale for free agents going elsewhere and attempt to surmise that it must be because there will possibly be riots after a win, does the team, community and your city a disservice. There are always going to be social degenerates and it is up to the Sortie to put in place security so the other 99 % percent of the Wonderful sports fans can enjoy the after game socializing. In the end Sir, I would rather take my chances walking down St. Catherine street, then tking my chances walking down Philidelphias equivalent.

Wayne's picture
Brilliant! I agree, riots or otherwise, I love that city! As for pressures on hockey spouses shopping??? Gimme a break, "please don't speak to me while i'm having my manicure". I'm sure it happens but rarely. I'm pretty sure that, whichever neighbourhood players choose, the neighbours would respect a tolerable level of privacy. No, the main reason players (mostly high caliber) don't come is because they have a choice. But I prefer to call them candy-asses.

dysonsphere's picture
Well put Hammer.

MikeL's picture
Who needs free agents when we draft like we do?

Habhopeful's picture
Question for Mr. Boone... Are they still having the Gazette Loge Tickets Giveaway??Im still waiting for my phone call...lol... "12 'Till 25" "If I wanted to hear from an ass, I would fart..."

Habhopeful's picture
My god, take a look at the footage on www.tsn.ca/nhl.com of the rioting, its ****ing sad, I'm only 22 and thats sad in my eyes, I enjoy a good time and will go downtown next game to party it up but as far as all that is concerned not my thing, Thats horrible, as far as the rioters not being hab fans, I clearly see Hab fans everywhere, but i know what some people mean when they say there just idiots and punks looking for a reason to riot and loot... "12 'Till 25" "If I wanted to hear from an ass, I would fart..."

Jrod McStitsyn's picture
The TSN footage shows a bunch of degenerates not even wearing the colours, but leather jackets, baggy pants and Yankee hats. Shame on them and the rest of us can move on.

Wayne's picture
.... yeah, tight pants made my butt look big.

ZepFan2's picture
"Thats horrible, as far as the rioters not being hab fans, I clearly see Hab fans everywhere" Any moron can purchase a team jersey. Doesn't mean they're real fans.

Exit716's picture
Mr. Boone are you saying the Habs have to only sign bachelors as UFA's?

cautiousoptimist's picture
The looting ticked me off too, but come on, you're much more likely to get shot in Philly, where Briere signed, than in Montreal. Or pretty much any other American city. 1. www.flickeringpictures.com - not a hockey site, but still kinda neat 2. Josh Gorges on Montreal's attack: "They're comin', they're comin' and they keep comin'. Just line after line, wave after wave..."

doug's picture
If THAT isn't the truth. Went to University of Pennsylvania for med school, which is in Philly. When I wasn't seeing gunshot wounds in the E.R. I was attempting to avoid them on the way to and from school. There's hyperbole and then there's melodrama.