Sometimes, a web search is revealing not for what you find — but what you don’t find.
Search Pierre-Karl Péladeau, for instance, and you’ll get thousands of hits. No surprise there: Péladeau is one of the half-dozen most prominent individuals in this province — president and CEO of Quebecor, billionaire, former politician, husband for a time of celebrity talk-show host Julie Snyder.
Add a single word to the search, however, and the results change dramatically. “Pierre-Karl Péladeau Alouettes” yields a few stories from March 10, 2023, when Péladeau rescued the orphaned Alouettes from the clutches of the league and disinterested or clumsy ownership.
The next round of stories, eight months later, is usually illustrated with a photo of Péladeau hoisting the Grey Cup after the Alouettes upset the Winnipeg Blue Bombers in the championship game.
Rarely if ever has the owner of a sports franchise kept such a low profile while enjoying such quick success — especially not an owner with Péladeau’s profile. He has checked all the boxes on my personal guidelines for the best ownership: Local, deep pockets, hires the right people (or in this case, leaves them in place) doesn’t meddle on the sports side.
It works. Saturday afternoon at Percival Molson, the Alouettes will attempt to replicate last year’s feat when they stomped the heavily favoured Argonauts in Toronto and humiliated toxic quarterback Chad Kelly.
This year’s Eastern final will feature the same two teams in drastically different circumstances. Although they staggered to the finish line, the Als finished with a 12-5-1 record, best in the league. After a dominant start to the 2024 campaign, they have not been the same team since quarterback Cody Fajardo missed six games in mid-season.
That the Alouettes were able to absorb a series of injuries on the offensive side and still finish with the league’s best record is mostly due to Noel Thorpe’s defence and marauding linebacker Tyrice Beverette. (Beverette should be the East Division nominee for the league’s Most Outstanding Player award over an especially ludicrous pick, even by CFL standards: Hamilton quarterback Bo-Levi Mitchell.)
The Als-Argos tilt isn’t about awards, obviously, it’s about winning — and it’s going to be tough. Kelly may be obnoxious but he can play — the Argonauts punished the Ottawa Redblacks, 58-38, in the East Division semifinal with Kelly throwing four touchdown passes.
If there’s a wager you can take to the bank, it’s that the Argos won’t put up 58 points on the Alouettes defence. For the Alouettes to make it to the Grey Cup, however, Fajardo is going to have to perform near the level he reached in the post-season last year.
Win or lose, you’d hope that someone in the NHL head office has taken note of Péladeau’s competent stewardship of the Alouettes. Long before he bought the Alouettes, Péladeau had proven himself in the sports world when he presided over the construction of the Centre Vidéotron in Quebec City, bringing it in ahead of schedule and under budget.
The Canadiens and the Nordiques once waged the nearest thing to war you can find on the ice, a rivalry so intense that for a time it eclipsed the Canadiens and Bruins. Sadly, I don’t believe we will ever see the return of the Nordiques.
But if Gary Bettman wants to know how Péladeau performs as a team owner, all he has to do is ask the Alouettes.
Meanwhile, speaking of owners: The Canadiens, you may have gathered, are not having a good start to the season. They are floundering, in the throes of a five-game losing streak. All is not lost but it’s unlikely the Habs will be “in the mix” nor will they, as this columnist sadly predicted, make the playoffs.
This season is going to tax the patience of everyone — fans, media and Geoff Molson himself.
Rebuilds take time and this one is barely into its third season. If Molson gives in to public pressure to fire someone (in the eyes of those baying for blood, anyone will do but the heat at the moment is on Martin St. Louis) then the rebuild is essentially doomed. I don’t believe he will. Molson has learned on the job and now is the time to put that experience to use.
That said, a rare blunder by the Jeff Gorton/Kent Hughes team was on display Thursday night in New Jersey. Last June, the Canadiens dealt a tall, mobile, reliable right-shot defenceman named Johnathan Kovacevic to New Jersey for a fourth-round pick in 2026.
Thursday, Kovacevic (who has a cap hit of $766,666 on a three-year deal originally signed with Winnipeg) was a towering presence in every critical situation. He was a plus-3 in 18 minutes on the ice, solidifying his status as a top-4 defenceman on a bona fide contender.
Hughes was trying to clear room in the lineup for younger, highly-rated blue-liners like Logan Mailloux when he made the deal. But Kovacevic himself is only 27 and, until the end of this season, eminently affordable.
Even Sam Pollock made mistakes. But nothing is more painful than misjudgments made with players who were on your roster.