Inside Montreal captain Nick Suzuki’s crash course in French
Montreal Canadiens captain Nick Suzuki has learned French in bits and pieces over time. He knows enough to show his gratitude when he’s at the grocery store or grabbing coffee at a drive-thru. He has seen how saying “Merci” after interviews can go a long way with the fans.
There are the one-liners he and his teammates have used with the athletic trainers and the equipment staff during everyday interactions. He has also had the chance to ask friends a few questions and pick up a few phrases that help him in his everyday life.
Now there is a plan in place to ensure Suzuki and every Canadiens player who wants to learn French will have that opportunity. The Canadiens are reinstituting a voluntary French language program for their players that will be taught by former Canadian Olympic high jumper Alain Metellus, who had his first meeting with the players on Jan. 10.
“It’s been awesome,” Suzuki said about having a voluntary French program. “[Canadiens vice president of hockey communications Chantal Machabée] has done an amazing job and really encourages guys to use French. That motivates us and it makes us feel comfortable being able to do that.”
Machabée was hired by the Canadiens after spending 32 years at French broadcaster RDS as a sports reporter who covered the team. She said the decision to reinstate the program came from Canadiens owner Geoff Molson who, along with Machabée, believed that having more players who spoke French would allow them to have an even stronger connection with fans.
“It goes a long way with people,” Machabée said. “It shows them that you really care about the team, the city and the fans. People in Montreal really appreciate that.”
When Suzuki was named captain before the season, there were Quebec politicians who called on the 23-year-old to learn French. Suzuki said he took French classes growing up, which was part of the curriculum back home in London, Ontario.
Suzuki said he started to relearn French after his rights were traded to the Canadiens as part of the Max Pacioretty deal with the Vegas Golden Knights. He had a membership to Babbel, an online language program. He used it at first but stopped for a few years before using Babbel again in the summer.
“You can type your answers and you can speak your answers into your phone and it will tell you if you are saying it right,” Suzuki said. “It has not been an everyday thing. We’ve been pretty busy (with the season), and I like doing it to relax when I have down time.”
Machabée began the search for a tutor prior to the season starting. She was gathering résumés when a mutual acquaintance told her about Metellus. What stood out about Metellus, who grew up in Montreal, was the idea the team could have a tutor who could teach them French in a way that was more relatable rather than the traditional approach.
Another detail Machabée said she appreciated about Metellus was he could connect with players about what it means to be an athlete with media obligations trying to learn a new language.
Metellus, who speaks English and French, also lived in Germany. He learned how to speak German and was able to parlay his knowledge of foreign languages to teach English and French in a corporate environment.
“I know what it feels like to learn a new language from scratch,” Metellus said. “What it feels like is when you say something is insurmountable. It’s like being right-handed and being asked to write with your left hand. You think it is impossible.”
Metellus said the key to learning a new language is realizing a person’s native language is not the standard.
“I often tell people, ‘This new language is just different,'” Metellus said. “The perspective changes and you have to have the right angle. If you have the wrong one, you are always going to be pissed off.”
So what is it like to be the captain of the Canadiens who is also trying to learn French at the same time?
Just ask Brian Gionta. The longtime NHL right winger grew up in Rochester, New York, before spending four years at Boston College. Gionta spent seven seasons with the team that drafted him, the New Jersey Devils, before coming to Montreal. He spent five seasons in Montreal and was captain for four of them.
Gionta and his wife sent their children to a French immersion school. They befriended one of the mothers at the school, who also turned out to be a foreign language tutor, and she taught Gionta and his wife.
Gionta said learning French came with its challenges. He admitted there were times when his French was probably not the strongest. But he still wanted to show he was making the effort whether it was greeting the media in French before doing an interview in English or when he spoke a few lines on opening night to announce the team.
“The fans were great. My five years in Montreal were probably the best of my career,” Gionta said. “We had a great experience with it. The fans, the media, the organization. All of it was great to myself and my family. … I was not necessarily worried about trying to win people over or worried if I lost a few people if I was not good at it. But it was about trying to do the best I could in the culture that is Montreal.”
Machabée shared the anecdote of how Suzuzki met Pittsburgh Penguins captain Sidney Crosby when they were at the NHL player tour in Las Vegas before the start of the season. She said Crosby told Suzuki how he did not speak French when he played in juniors for the Rimouski Oceanic but was able to learn.
She recalled how Crosby told Suzuki everyone in Rimouski was patient with him and how they appreciated his effort with learning French. Machabée then pointed out how it was a skill Crosby can continue to use because he has established close relationships with current and former teammates, such as Marc-Andre Fleury, Kris Letang and Max Talbot, who are all native French speakers who grew up in Quebec.
Suzuki, who spoke to ESPN earlier in the season, said he has never done an entire interview in French. He has opened and closed interviews in French. But he does eventually want to reach a stage in which he can do a full interview in French.
“I spoke French when I was named captain, but that was just a sentence at the beginning and end of interviews,” Suzuki said. “I am not there yet but would eventually like to get to that point.”
Metellus wants the same thing for Suzuki and any Canadiens player who is interested in learning the language. Metellus said he wants to get a feel for everyone’s proficiency level and also find out what they want to work on.
From there, he will work with the Canadiens’ communications staff to establish a schedule that works for the players. They’re still working through certain details like whether they will do individual or group sessions. Either way, Metellus said the plan is to have in-person sessions when the team is in Montreal while doing remote sessions through videoconference whenever they are on the road.
“When the general public sees that a Montreal Canadiens player is improving their French or making the effort to learn it, the respect goes to the moon,” Metellus said. “The general public will really, really appreciate that. They are going to say, ‘At least he is making an effort,’ and that is what people want to see. If I am able to play a part in that, then, it’s all good in the hood.”
COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. — NHL deputy commissioner Bill Daly said that if the league’s players feel the quality of the ice at the Olympics in Milan is unsafe, “then we’re not going to play.”
“It’s as simple as that,” Daly told reporters after the NHL board of governors meetings on Monday.
Daly told league owners Monday that he didn’t believe construction issues with the Olympic ice hockey rink were “insurmountable.”
The main hockey arena in Milan is scheduled to be finished Feb. 2. The women’s hockey tournament begins three days later, and the men’s tournament, with NHL players set to participate in the Olympics for the first time in over a decade, begins Feb. 11, leaving very little wiggle room.
The Olympic arenas will feature three games a day for nearly three weeks, which will challenge the resiliency of the ice. Daly categorized the updates the NHL and NHLPA received last week as positive, but said the league was upping its efforts to help see through the arena.
“We have offered and they’re utilizing our ice experts and technicians and outside providers,” Daly said. “We’re basically moving everybody there to try to help get this done in a way that’s acceptable for NHL athletes. And I’m cautiously optimistic it will be fruitful.”
The NHL will have ongoing access to the ice. That will include being on site for a test event scheduled for the main rink from Jan. 9-11.
On Monday, the IIHF acknowledged the two rinks in Milan would be about 3 feet shorter than a standard NHL rink (196.85 feet by 85.3 feet, instead of 200 feet by 85 feet) — which goes against the agreement the NHL and NHLPA signed with the IIHF in July.
Daly said the league found out about the skewed dimensions last week, and he was not sure how it happened. Some federations were made aware earlier, but Daly said nobody raised the issue to him and the league did not notice the difference in several site visits because it wasn’t anything “perceptible to anybody. It’s not like people bring tape measures there.”
But the NHL and NHLPA are willing to look past that for now — though they will insist the rink for the 2030 Olympics in France is built to NHL standards.
“The players association has canvassed the players and apparently they did not believe it to be a big issue, health and safety issue or a competitive issue,” Daly said.
The Pittsburgh Penguins and Nashville Predators played games on a similar-sized rink last month at the Global Series in Sweden; the solution was to move the lines so the missing ice was accounted for in the neutral zone rather than either offensive zone. Daly said they did not receive any feedback from players after those games.
Organizers have insisted there is no Plan B for the Olympic hockey tournament to be held elsewhere if the rink is not ready. Daly said the NHL also doesn’t have a contingency plan yet if it decides the ice is not suitable.
“I mean, it kind of is what it is,” Daly said. “Having said that, if you’re faced with that being the reality, then you have to think about what you do next. “
The NHL will go dark for a two-week period during the Games. Asked if it was possible to reconfigure the schedule if necessary, Daly said he wasn’t sure yet.
“Well, I can’t tell you exactly what we do,” he said. “What I’d say is, I think in emergency-type situations like that in the past, I think we’ve responded appropriately, came up with good solutions and I have no doubt that we’ll be able to come up with good solutions if we’re faced with that.”
-
Kristen Shilton
Charlie McAvoy is on the road to recovery and close to rejoining the Boston Bruins’ lineup.
Boston’s top defenseman has been sidelined since taking a slap shot to the face from Montreal Canadiens defenseman Noah Dobson on Nov. 15. McAvoy suffered what he recently described as a “linear fracture” to the left side of his face that included, he said, “some displacement, and I lost a lot of teeth on the bottom.”
The blueliner was instructed not to eat solid foods until at least six weeks after suffering the injury. He lost 20 pounds in the first week and a half afterward while relegated to a liquid diet. McAvoy said on Monday that he’s mending nicely now though and, after shedding his noncontact jersey at practice, was looking forward to getting back to work with the Bruins.
“Every day I feel better,” he said. “We’re getting it back. We’re getting the chance to do more, skate more, skate longer, and work out off the ice. All those things. We’re making strides, and I’m healing on the fly.”
McAvoy will be on Boston’s upcoming three-game road trip starting on Tuesday in St. Louis, although it’s still unclear when he’ll get the green light to suit up.
“We’ll see,” said McAvoy when asked if he would be ready to face the Blues. “Going on the trip with the expectation and hoping that some point along the way on the trip I’ll be able to get back in.”
It’s not the first time McAvoy has missed time with a significant injury — he just had shoulder surgery in February after getting hurt while representing Team USA at the 4 Nations Face-Off — but this particular ailment was something entirely new.
“It’s been one of the weirdest injuries I’ve ever had,” he said last week. “The feeling of having so much trauma in your mouth. It’s a wild feeling. But we’re doing everything we can to get back fast.”
McAvoy has been forced to consume only what could be made in a blender. He tried some creative options at first — including pulverized chicken and vegetables — but called that a “nonstarter” and carried on with classic soft foods.
“Soups have been my go-to,” said McAvoy, who has gained back about half of the weight he lost. “Early on a lot of milkshakes and ice cream.”
Considering the force of Dobson’s shot — which knocked McAvoy directly onto his back — the Bruins’ blueliner admitted he “knew right away I was in trouble” and is grateful to finally have enough energy to anchor Boston’s backend again.
McAvoy has 14 points in 19 games this season, while pacing the club in ice time with 23:46 per game. The Bruins are 4-5-0 since McAvoy went down and are currently second in the Atlantic Division.
McAvoy isn’t the only injured party Boston hopes to get back soon. David Pastrnak — the Bruins’ leading scorer — has been out since Nov. 26, but he will be on Boston’s road trip as well with sights set on a return.
-
Sports2 years agoStory injured on diving stop, exits Red Sox game
-
Sports3 years ago‘Storybook stuff’: Inside the night Bryce Harper sent the Phillies to the World Series
-
Sports2 years agoGame 1 of WS least-watched in recorded history
-
Sports3 years agoButton battles heat exhaustion in NASCAR debut
-
Sports3 years agoMLB Rank 2023: Ranking baseball’s top 100 players
-
Sports4 years ago
Team Europe easily wins 4th straight Laver Cup
-
Environment3 years agoJapan and South Korea have a lot at stake in a free and open South China Sea
-
Environment1 year agoHere are the best electric bikes you can buy at every price level in October 2024