Denis Potvin, Marcel Dionne, Luc Robitaille and Mario Lemieux have all been captains of the National Team during the last 30 years or so.
I guarantee you that all of them have used "les osties d'Anglais" instead of "person who happens to speak another language than mine" at some point in their career.
Hell, show me a francophone who hasn't uttered "les osties d'Anglais" at some point in his/her life and I'll show you a francophone who is mute.
Sure, it's different: they're public figures. But I want to be able to keep on calling you guys "osties d'Anglais" if it strikes my fancy, so I'll let the hockey teams in my garage league call us "****ing frenchies" as we beat them, and, by extension, Ladislav Nagy or Shane Doan do it as well.
Did we need Coderre to launch an ostie de law suit? No.
Should Hockey Canada have waited until that was settled to name a defendant as Captain? I thought they did, but apparently they did not.
Have I actually heard about this from any of my RL friends? No.
For me, the ultimate mystery remains: why did Jack Layton join the fray? It's not as though the NDP stands to gain anything in Quebec, because there is nothing the NDP can do to win votes in Quebec.