Twitter fan, sports fan Mayor Coderre: ‘You have to be real’
In seven hours, the Canadiens would announce that centreman David Desharnais was their 2014 nominee for the Bill Masterton Memorial Trophy, an annual award recognizing the NHL player voted to best exemplify the qualities of perseverance, sportsmanship and dedication to the game.
But on Wednesday afternoon, Mayor Denis Coderre was sitting in his Hôtel de Ville office in Old Montreal, facing the music about his Twitter volley fired at Desharnais five months earlier, a tweet that instantly circled the hockey world.
Locked in a gruesome slump last Nov. 10, having registered one assist in the Canadiens’ first 17 games, Desharnais was in the crosshairs of many critical, acidic Habs fans.
And those were the polite ones.
Coderre, of course, was the mayor-elect of Montreal, so his opinion carried somewhat more weight than the fans attending It’s His Turn To Be Hated Institute.
“Âllo? Un billet simple pour Hamilton pour David Desharnais svp…. #HabsDC” tweeted Coderre, who was watching the Canadiens game with his wife, Chantale Renaud, in the Bell Centre’s Cage aux Sports restaurant.
And then came the flash of light and the mushroom cloud on the Habs horizon.
Desharnais said nothing about it at the time, and his season would turn a corner to make him the productive, dangerous centre on the team’s top line between wingers Max Pacioretty and Thomas Vanek.
But Pacioretty (a close friend of Desharnais), defenceman Josh Gorges and coach Michel Therrien all took public exception the next day with Coderre’s remark.
Then, and now, Coderre explained that his tweet was that of a frustrated fan.
“It was retweeted (hundreds of times) and we all know what happened,” Coderre said Wednesday, addressing the firestorm his few words touched off. “I put a focus on something, but clearly I’m a fan and that’s it.
“It’s over now. I like David. I haven’t talked to him, but I should. It was just pure emotion.”
Coderre said he has since spoken to Canadiens owner Geoff Molson about the matter “and all was good.”
“The beauty of it is that even if (the team) was talking against me, they showed a solidarity, all talking together, ”Coderre said. “Iknow Max and David are really close.
“I need to get a life, eh?” Coderre joked about his huge presence on Twitter. “But I love to share with people. Twitter is media, but it’s social. It’s about dialogue. If it’s an infomercial, they’ll change the channel.
“I don’t have assistants tweeting for me. You have to be real, you have to connect, you have to live with what you’re writing. That’s it.”
It’s a fine line, Coderre understands, especially with thin-skinned Canadiens fans in this town.
“I’m there to add my own little comments sometimes,” he said, then he laughed. “OK, all the time. But Twitter is outreach. I love the spontaneity.
“The thing with David is I was just mad. You have to be careful as mayor (that night as mayor-elect). To be honest, I have to refrain. I’ve got to be careful, I know. But I’m myself. I’m just a fan. Many cartoons of me include a Habs logo.”
Coderre has been known to rush to burning buildings in Montreal and tweet photos of the city’s firefighters at work; The Gazette recently published one such shot.
The mayor will carpet-bomb Twitter with photos of himself at public events large and small, cheerleading one minute, meeting civic leaders the next.
Coderre could probably pick up the phone any night and call Molson for a seat in a Bell Centre loge, but he prefers the arena bowl with the crowd.
He’s been to four or five games this season.
“You don’t watch a game from up in a loge,” he sniffed. “And the hotdogs are better in the stands.”
As a boy attending 1970s games in the Forum, Coderre loved Guy Lafleur and Yvan Cour noyer. He believes firmly that defenceman Guy Lapointe’s No. 5 should be retired to the Bell Centre rafters.
“Maybe it’s my political sense, but to see little Henri Richard working so hard. …” Coderre said. “We’ve always had great captains. Bob Gainey played with two separated shoulders.”
Coderre believes that this season’s team is “special,” speaking about GM Marc Bergevin’s mindset and how Therrien is getting what he is from this roster.
Should the Canadiens draw the Lightning in the first round of the playoffs, as seems likely, Coderre will be on the phone to his Tampa counterpart, Bob Buckhorn, to make a wager. Coderre immediately considers Montreal’s poutine against a few Cuban sandwiches, but will give it more thought.
“But I’m just preparing myself for Boston,” Coderre said of a possible second-round matchup. “I want them badly. I liked Bobby Orr a lot, but I’m against the Bruins.”
He starts to laugh again then begins to poke some gentle fun.
“Don Cherry is still whining about Boston’s (1979) toomany-men penalty. That’s his problem. It defines the man we understand now. We beat you, Don. Live with it. Get over it.”
Coderre suggests that, as mayor, he’s a little like Canadiens goalie Carey Price in that he’s his team’s last line of defence.
“Like Carey, I try to cover all the angles,” he joked.
It’s possible that Coderre will tweet about Desharnais again before season’s end, like the rest of Canadiens fans overjoyed by the line that little Davey is centring.
“They’re ready for the playoffs,” Coderre said. “Every time I have the opportunity, I don’t hide that I’m a fan of the Canadiens.
“If I’m Bergevin, I resign Andrei Markov. And I do everything I can to keep Vanek. (They are free agents at season’s end).”
As mayor, he’s asked, how about a personal talk with Vanek to sell him on the many benefits of Montreal?
Coderre sees the opening, like a rushing forward splitting the defence.
“Want me to tweet it?”