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> > Do the Quebecois use the name "Habs" for the team, or is this > > name an Anglicism rejected by Les Canadiens? So far as I know, "Les habs" (drop the 'h') is used by francophones. > Which reminds me of something else I was wondering (and about > which the museum exhibit was unclear): The exhibit mentioned that the > Canadiens were started because someone or other (sorry, hockey fans, I'm > fuzzy on just exactly who) wanted to see a Francophone team. Does this > mean that Francophones were not, um, welcome on the Anglophone teams? If > so, how unwelcome _were_ they? Were they prohibited outright from > belonging to Anglophone teams, or was it just "not done"? (Is that a > distinction without a difference?) Frankly, I've never heard this before. My understanding is that the French & English & Irish (this is before the francophone, anglophone, allophone, hold the phone era) always played together. The main beef used to be that the owners and coaches, until quite recently, were always English. But my knowledge of hockey history is breaking down here and I'm off on a much needed holiday, so no time for research. I bet Anthony Pare knows more about this or Ann Beer can ask her husband (sorry Mark). I should add that the versions of history published by our government and its offshoots (including school texts) have a decided slant. A bientot, Mieke