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French Immersion
This is French Immersion, a daily blog about sports - and society - in Quebec, where the personal, the political and the athletic are often indistinguishable. The idea is to present the aerial view, peer into the darker corners of the distinct society's psyche (in a way that hopefully won't be as pretentious as that phrase sounds) and hopefully spin a few wacky and wonderful yarns on topics ranging from soccer, to short-track speed skating, to goon leagues, to the national obssession that is the Montreal Canadiens. Join in, comment, praise, denounce, Sean Gordon loves a good argument.
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Monday, November 23, 2009 10:44 AM

And lo the sun began to shine

Sean Gordon

Well, that wasn't so bad, now was it?

You'll have to excuse our morose maundering from last Friday, that's what we get for dressing in black and having a few too many double espressos at the local café while leafing through Sartre.

Yes people, the Habs won! They won! An actual game! Against a good team!Then they almost won again! Against a good team!

Our guy Carey is back to his demanding, "take this puck and shove it" best, and it's becoming clear no amount of injury trouble will derail the great Montreal juggernaut. Marc-André Bergeron out in the final two minutes! Ryan O'Byrne for the Norris!

Nothing could possibly go wrong.

Now if only they could figure out a pretext for getting Comrade Georges out of the lineup. Speaking of which, sticking out a knee on Kronwall ain't going to to do much for solidarity among the brave NHLPA proletariat, now is it Mr. Shop Steward? It looked to us an obvious attempt to injure, but Laraque insists he didn't mean anything by it, and given his water buffalo-esque grace on skates that could even be true.

Maybe the league will help Jacques Martin along in his roster-assembling duties, there's speculation this morning in the Quebec media that Laraque will be suspended for four or more games.

The plucky Habs are back on the ice this morning, FI will be there to collect some pithy observations from your favourite hockey players.

And the fun didn't stop there this weekend, what with the Als winning big and all.

It's a good job that wagering is prevented in the French Immersion complex - we'd have taken a bath this weekend.

Today comes word that the interminable Canadian Grand Prix saga (yawn) will be resolved this week.

Add in the Laval Rouge et Or loss, and it's all coming up aces for Montreal sports.

Forgive us our lack of sympathy for the football powerhouse to the east, Quebec City's been getting a little big for its britches lately, anyway.

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Sean Gordon

Sean Gordon

Sean Gordon covers sports in the Globe and Mail's Montreal bureau, and admits to being a long-suffering Newcastle United supporter.

Raised in Ottawa, he studied political science and economics at McGill University, where he discovered the wonder that is Forum hot dogs, and journalism at the University of Regina, where he developed an unreasonable attachment to the "other" Riders.

Prior to joining the Globe in 2008, he covered crime, politics and sports, at various points, for the Calgary Herald, Montreal Gazette and Toronto Star, and during 15 years in newspapers has written on topics ranging from rodeo cowboys to street gangs in Haiti.

In a previous life he covered sovereignists, federalists and autonomists in Quebec's National Assembly, rode the buses during two federal elections as a Parliamentary correspondent, and followed Barack Obama during the Democratic primaries.

Gordon cut his teeth as a sports scribe covering the oft-lamented Montreal Expos, and has been to the Grey Cup, the World Junior Hockey Championship, the Stanley Cup playoffs, the Rugby World Cup and too many amateur sporting events to mention.

His twin career highlights are meeting Nelson Mandela and narrowly avoiding death by an errant Vladimir Guerrero batting-practice home run at spring training 2001.