Well, I suppose that I have to say I’m not the least bit surprised at this bit of news. The famous sign in the Canadiens dressing room that once read “No Excuses” has now vanished from it’s former place on the wall.
The #habs have removed the slogan “No Excuses” from the wall of their locker room. What should they replace it with? pic.twitter.com/O07ee32c0a
— TSN690 Montreal Fans (@TSN690MTL) August 23, 2016
I wrote about how the team went completely against that motto after the end of last season, and now it seems they’ve decided to give up on it altogether. Really not surprising, since they built a rather impressive wall of excuses to hide behind after last season’s collapse.
They probably could have saved themselves some work, and simply just added a comma to the sign. Changing it from “No Excuses” to “No, Excuses” would have had a similar effect, although I suppose it wouldn’t have worked on the French translation.
For the last few weeks I’ve been trying to promote an air of positivity among my fellow fans. I do believe that there is much to be excited about this year, and I’m hoping to continue promoting that in the days and weeks to come.
I am ready to let go of the past and keep focusing on the future, because I think that’s what the fans need right now.
This little bit of news, however, is just disappointingly comedic. I wouldn’t say it’s angering, because if anything they almost had to take it down after reinforcing their foxhole with excuses. A far too belated retraction of their hypocrisy, if you will.
And after all, the foxhole buddies have jobs to protect. Jobs that could potentially be on the line this year. They surely cannot afford to have a big “No Excuses” sign in their dressing room if things go south again and they need to justify not being fired… with excuses.
I say this is disappointingly comedic because I now feel vindicated for that earlier piece I wrote on the matter, and it makes me laugh in a bit of a sad way. I didn’t want that. When I write from a negative stance about the Canadiens I want them to prove me wrong. I want them to do something that makes me eat my words, because I truly want them to succeed.
And if they don’t, I’d be very interested to see which direction they could take from there. Think about what this says to the fanbase; they had a big sign saying “no excuses,” they made a bunch of excuses, and then they took it down as if nobody would notice.
Do they think that the fans wouldn’t pick up on that? Do they think that their hypocrisy would just go unnoticed? Do they think we’ll all forget that it was once their credo if and when they jump back behind the excuse wall?
Please understand that I am very excited for this year. I see good things. I believe that we will see a much better showing. I hope that they don’t have to dip back into the excuse pool to justify a bad showing. I really don’t want to see that.
But by removing that sign, they have confirmed to me that they are as hypocritical as I thought them to be.
NO EXCUSES, right?
Except for when said excuses are too good to pass up, I suppose.
They have answered my titular question from back in April. What happened to “No Excuses” is they could no longer handle their own hypocrisy. I suppose you can call that progress.
