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Jets assistant coach Pascal Vincent (right) says he was surprised to get a call from Winnipeg prior to the 2011-12 season. He says he didn't know anyone in the organization. (WAYNE GLOWACKI / FREE PRESS ARCHIVES)

MONTREAL -- The French-English debate that swirls around the Montreal Canadiens is a minefield at the best of times.

It has little or nothing to do with the Winnipeg Jets but the Jets, with their two coaches of varying French-Canadian descent, have been drawn into the periphery of the matter recently.

On Wednesday, head coach Claude Noel and assistant Pascal Vincent appeared to have passed the first test of dealing directly with the media here. Both addressed reporters after the Jets' morning skate at the Bell Centre, Noel mostly about the NHL game last night against the Canadiens and Vincent, because his Montreal roots and his French-speaking background have led his name to be tossed about in recent stories about the Habs' coaching situation.

That's mainly because interim coach Randy Cunneyworth, who took over from fired Jacques Martin in mid-December, does not speak French.

Politicians and at least one nationalist group here in Quebec have taken issue with the matter, including one group last month that accused Noel and the Jets of deliberately not speaking French and shielding Vincent from questions.

Vincent politely declined to go anywhere near the Habs' issues on Wednesday

"It was more about what's going on with me, personally, going from the juniors to the NHL," Vincent said. "And how's the team progressing, stuff like that.

"Of course there's some questions about their situation but I'm not here to comment on what Montreal Canadiens do. I'm here to support Claude Noel and the Winnipeg Jets to win the hockey game. I care about today. What's going to happen two years, three years down the road, you know what, that doesn't even exist in my life.

"What happens today is the only thing. We're getting ready for the game tonight, getting ready as best as we can to win that game."

Vincent, the 40-year-old from Laval, had been an elite coach and manager in the QMJHL for a decade when the Jets hired him as an assistant last summer.

He said Wednesday that was an important event not just for himself, but because he was hired without a tangible connection to the Jets organization.

He told French reporters that was encouraging for all junior coaches, including those from Quebec.

Later, in English, he confirmed his feeling on the matter.

"I feel lucky and privileged," Vincent said. "When you coach major junior, your goal is to move up to the next level, just like the players. You know how it works. It's through people you know most of the time but in my case, I didn't know anybody.

"I didn't know the GM, one trainer, nobody. Didn't know Claude Noel. When I got the call, it was quite a surprise."

As for Noel on Wednesday, he disarmed a horde of reporters with opening remarks in French, explaining why he was more comfortable talking about hockey in English.

That's in large part because though he grew up near the Ontario-Quebec border, he spent more than 30 years living in the U.S. before moving to Winnipeg in the fall of 2010 to coach the AHL's Moose.

"It's difficult to express myself in the language of hockey (in French)," Noel said in French.

Local reporters asked him if he considered it important that the coach of the Canadiens spoke French.

Noel laughed loudly and said he wasn't going anywhere near the question.

tim.campbell@freepress.mb.ca

Republished from the Winnipeg Free Press print edition January 5, 2012 D2