The Montreal Canadiens' fans voiced their displeasure about the events of the last few weeks on the Olympic stage, but they didn't choose the best way to do it.
Earlier this season, the Bell Centre crowd took to jeering the American national anthem in response to Donald Trump’s tariff policy, but the booing had died down. On Thursday night, as the Montreal Canadiens took on the New York Islanders, Cherylyn Toca barely got through the first lyrics before the boo birds manifested themselves.
One can wonder what motivated the return of the jeers; was it the fact that Team Canada lost to Team USA in the gold medal game? That’s highly doubtful, as it would be very poor sportsmanship. Could it be because of the above-mentioned tariff policy? That would be surprising since the crowd had gotten over it.
The likely answer is that the crowd did not appreciate the “joke” made by President Trump about the fact that he had to invite the women’s Olympic hockey team to the State of the Union address speech if he didn’t want to be impeached in his congratulatory call to the men’s team, and the players’ reaction to it.
Since the Montreal Victoire was created, the team has enjoyed strong support in town, and there’s no need to prove that women’s hockey has a lot of fans in town, making the reaction far from surprising. However, that may not be the most constructive manner to react. Speaking to the media recently, American captain Hilary Knight said:
I just thought the joke was distasteful and unfortunate, and the way women are represented it’s a great teaching point to really shine light on how women should be championed for their amazing feats and not I have, or anybody has to sit in front of you and explain someone else’s behaviour, it’s not my responsibility. But what is, is shifting the focus and shifting the narrative of this amazing accomplishment that we all did together. Granted, the men’s and the women’s team did it together, and that is super special; it’s never been done in our program’s history, and it's something we’re extremely proud about, but these women are amazing, and whatever is going on should never outshine or minimize their work and our success on the world stage. This was THE best American women’s hockey team, the best American team we ever put together on the world stage when the lights have been the brightest ever, and so I think everybody felt that through the tournament. I want to celebrate, I want people to be remembered for that, the legacy of this team to be remembered, and I’m trying to really shift the narrative on and really focus on championing what we’ve done and accomplished the last two and a half weeks together.
The American Women’s Team already reacted in the best possible way, refusing the President’s invite, and while they cited reasons why they couldn’t attend, those were merely excuses. What fans can do now is champion women’s hockey as Knight said it should be, attend Victoire games, and spread the word on how great an experience those games are. Those who were annoyed by either the joke or the reaction to it should direct their hostility towards those responsible, the players who were actually in that locker room, laughing at it.
The Canadiens have three American players on the roster, Jayden Struble, Lane Hutson, and Cole Caufield. The latter has already spoken out about that, stating he finds it disrespectful and that it bothers him. The crowd should take that, along with the fact that Hutson and Caufield have big roles on the team, into consideration; it makes no sense to antagonize players who have committed to the Canadiens long term and are giving everything they have for the Sainte-Flanelle.
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