It was one of those confrontations unique in the sports world.  The media grilling the president of the Montreal Canadiens about the French-Canadian talent-base on the province's hockey team which in the off-season was reduced to three. 

During the answering process, Pierre Boivin, expecting the question and clearly armed with research from his media relations department, came up with a statistic certainly made a few of us sit up and take notice.   In a league that employs 700 regulars, there were only 43 Quebecers who played 41 games or more.   That's six percent if you're counting and about the same percentage as the league's contingent of Czechs or Swedes.  It also averages out to less than two Quebec-born players per NHL team.  Five of the seven Quebec-born members of last season's Canadiens played 40 or more games. 

All of this sent us back into the history books. In the 91 year history of the NHL there have been  750 Quebec-born players including English Quebecers such as Dickie Moore and Gump Worsley.  162 of the 750 played 500 games or more.  Quebecers make up ten percent of the membership in the Hockey Hall of Fame. 

The percentages have been historically consistant.  It's the Canadiens position within the league that has changed.  Since 1970 the Habs have been unable to control the ethnic makeup of the club.  The draft, expansion and free agency all have contributed to the demise of the so-called "Flying Frenchmen". 

The Canadiens slipped badly last season.  General manager Bob Gainey felt a housecleaning was in order and eleven starting players disappeared from the roster including four of the seven Quebecers.  Of the four, only Alex Tanguay could be considered an "impact" player. 

Those who argue about these things say that Gainey could have signed a couple of Quebec born free agents during the summer.  They have a point.  But in the end none of those available apparently fit into his view of how the team should be reconstructed. 

To say the Canadiens are completely indifferent to the French fact would be wrong.  They traded up so they could draft Guillaume Latendresse three years ago.  They drafted West Islander Louis Leblanc in the first round this year.  They have been very busy signing undrafted and late developing Quebec Major Junior players such as Danny Masse and David Desharnais.  Problem is those players are not in the here and now of the team. 

In 1909, the founders of the Canadiens charged Jack Laviolette with the task of assembling a team in the old NHA made up primarily of French Canadians.  The "Flying Frenchmen" were born.  The image lasted into the 1980's.  Now it's legendary.  Part of a byegone era.  Circumstances dictate that those days are gone forever.     .  Latendresse, Laracque and Lapierre.  They're our Flying Frenchman and we'll have to live with that for now.