Canadians: Woman in Hockey Operations: ‘We’re getting there’

Groupe CH’s Head of Sports and Entertainment, France Margaret Bélanger, spoke the day after the announcements were made regarding health measures introduced by the Quebec government, as well as about the place of women in NHL hockey operations, during the broadcast. 5 to 7.

Belanger is no stranger to the arrival of Chantal Matchabe within the Saint Flannel organization.

“Everyone loves the same things from Chantal. She is a professional, she is someone who is coming from the hockey world. I think she has been in the hockey world for 38 years, starting as a statistician at Voisins de Laval. She is respected by everyone, she knows the NHL from the inside out. Frans Marguerite is the youngest of Walter Bellanger’s four children. His mother, Margot, of course. She knows all the markets, knows how other teams work. She was also able to provide us with a media perspective for our organization.”

With the arrival of Chantal Machabe on the communications team at Canadians and the recent appointment of Emily Castongue as the assistant general manager at Canucks, one has to wonder if the Habs will not present an opportunity for a woman on the hockey team’s decision-making team. .

“I think these suggestions were made by Jeff Molson as a result of the changes the day before when talking about diversity. I think that message was heard by Jeff Gorton and Kent Hughes. Chantal’s arrival certainly brings us diversity close to our hockey department. Furthermore, I applaud the appointment of Emily Castonguay. “At the Vancouver Canucks. Yeah, I think we’ll also come with diversity. I can’t talk about a specific deadline because these are decisions in the hockey business, but in my opinion we’re moving towards that and I really hope so.”

Back to Montreal behind closed doors

Thus, the next three games will be presented to Canadians behind closed doors, much to the chagrin of the Montreal organization.

“We have already contacted those who have tickets for these three games which will be offered behind closed doors. So they will be compensated because the matches are not taking place for them. As for season ticket holders, they will be able to refund or even credit or refund this money to their account. Thousands of people.”

From February 8, the Canadian will be able to welcome about 500 fans. When asked about such a low crowd, Frans Marguerite Belanger had no clear answer as to the big surge that would come in the fairly near future.

“The conversations we’ve had so far have only been to figure out the next steps to be able to welcome backers from the closed doors that we’re currently experiencing with greater capacities. We very much hope to be able to open up to more people. Five hundred people at the Bell Center are very, very few people. Five hundred. A person in a room of 1,000 and 500 people in a room of 21273, it’s hard to understand the logic.”

With only 500 fans at the Bell Center, it’s legitimate to wonder if it’s really worth opening the doors to the lodging enclosure to just a few fans.

“That’s a great question. We ask ourselves the same question and look at all possible scenarios. With 500 people, opening our doors is the same big costs because we have to respect protocols in terms of security, there are clean-up costs and costs to users, etc. We are looking In these options.Also, under contract, we must allow the hostel owners access to their hostel.Ms. Bellanger explains of the headache this limited capacity presents.

Canadians would like Quebec to imitate Ontario in order to adjust its data in order to accept more spectators in their stands.

“In Ontario they will reach 50% capacity around mid-February before they go full capacity in March as already announced. We also want to have more people at the Bell Center, we are missing our fans.”