Now that the head is gone, maybe the stench will go away too.

Apparently there may be a God. Boivin, he of the we only hire French here, left the Montreal Canadiens to pursue outside interests. 

http://habsinsideout.com/main/36526

Pierre Boivin was an interesting character. He openly advocated the French first policy for hiring of coaches, General Managers and we must assume players. As a result, he artificially constrained the talent pool the Habs could leverage. 

Was it a corporate policy? Was it his policy? Who the hell knows. The reality though was that the Montreal Canadiens, once famous for being a class act, were now famous for their reverse discrimination.

Look, if the Greeks can be coached by a German, then the Habs can be coached by a non-Francophone. And when Greece won the Euro Cup, no one cared where Otto came from, just that he was there and that Greece won. 

But the problem with Boivin's stance is that it provided cover for the uglier elements of French Quebec. Those elements spent 11 years trashing Saku Koivu, the only bright spot on the Habs. Those elements advocated that Montreal draft Francophone (or is it pure-laine?) players regardless of talent after the fourth round. Those elements trashed AK because he's not French. 

Boivin created a culture where being "French-First" was acceptable. And if the President of the Habs said it was okay to be French first about the Coach and the GM, the rest of the province probably was wondering why we were not following that principle to its logical conclusion and go all the way?

So Good Bye Boivin! Maybe your departure will see a shift away from the poisonous culture you helped create...