Quebec clearly has concerns other than COVID

Of all the shortages that have emerged across the globe this year and attracted high-level political attention, the most astonishing may be this: the scarcity of Quebecers in professional hockey.

Forget worries about pasta shortages (the Canadian harvest of durum wheat is down by almost one-third), and the soaring prices of poultry (the staple of Montreal’s famous rotisseriechicken outlets), and beef (the star of the popular steak frites joints that dot the city). The problem raised last week by François Legault, the premier of Quebec, is the lack of successors to Marcel Dionne (pictured), Mario Lemieux, Luc Robitaille, Mike Bossy and Guy Lafleur — the five leading goal scorers from Quebec in NHL history.

There now are 51 Quebecborn players in the NHL — about 7 percent of the league’s roughly 721 players, according to statistics parsed by the website Quanthockey. Ontario, with 171 players, far outpaces Quebec and now accounts for the most professionals from one province in the league. The difference is not merely explained by Ontario’s larger population, writes David M. Shribman of The New York Times.

Canada leads the NHL with 43 percent of players compared with 26.4 percent of players born in the United States, but within Canada the province of Quebec is singing a sad song. Where have you gone Denis Savard ?A nation — and Quebec considers itself a nation, with a provincial legislature called the Assemblée nationale — turns its lonely eyes to you. Indeed, today there are more players on NHL rosters from Sweden (86) than from Quebec.