‘I’m A Star in New York…….I’m a Star in ???’

With a 1-0 victory over the Montreal Canadiens – and our local boy Brendan Gallagher – the New York Rangers sealed a 4-2 Eastern Conference series championship paving their way to the Stanley Cup finals for the first time in twenty years. Twenty years? Could it be that long since I felt the tear gas sear my nostrils after a Rangers victory?

The front page of today’s Globe says it all with a picture of a spent Brendan Gallagher, and an exhausted Andre Markov, moments after the game finished. They left it all on the ice and it wasn’t enough. At this time of year, through 3 rounds of the playoffs, there are times when a team just has nothing – has no edge and no push. Last night it was so for the Canadiens who didn’t really mount much of an attack against a team that looked fresh all night.

Bravo to Alain Vigneault, a terrific coach, who is now going to his second Stanley Cup final in 5 years. He does have his work cut out for him, though, facing either the Chicago Blackhawks or the LA Kings in the finals.

For fans in the big markets of LA and NY, and for the business mandarins at the NHL head office in NYC this is the perfect storm – a US rating blockbuster with us Canadians slaves to game with a choice of watching two somewhat unloved teams or doing handwork. But for us Canadians there is a certain lament seeing the last- I mean only – Canadian team leave the playoff race.

If LA wins I am going to name this the ‘Patsy Gallant’ Cup Finals. Patsy, if you recall, created a rocket of hit song in the late 70’s called ‘I’m a Star in New York….. I’m a Star in LA’. A Montrealer herself, Patsy won numerous awards for the song – the only problem being a controversy where it was alleged by many that she had borrowed the melody from a Quebecois song about nationalism. Ouch!

Can’t wait to see what happens tonight!

Memories of ’72

It’s not the Canada Russia series of which I write but the vivid memories of watching the Montreal – New York Rangers semi-final series in 1972 in the living room with my good boyhood friend Robert MacGregor. Robert was one of my hockey teammates and this series, and the Rangers in particular, were of interest to him and his family because his uncle, Bruce was playing for the Rangers.

As I recall Bruce MacGregor was primarily a fore-checking and penalty- killing specialist for the Rangers. From our community in Edmonton, he played junior for the Edmonton Oil Kings before starting his career in Detroit, onto play for the Rangers, and after his playing days were over he became a respected senior hockey executive for the Edmonton Oilers for many years.

That same Ranger team had a gutsy and energetic player called Glen Sather, another Albertan like Bruce, coming from the tiny Alberta town of Wainwright, located about 3 hours east of Edmonton. More interestingly it was just an hour or so down the road from Viking, Alberta where a bunch of brothers were playing in a small community rink learning their craft at the same time.

I used to travel highway 13 in Alberta as part of my route selling soap and diapers to grocery stores for Procter in Gamble in the mid-1980’s – my first job out of university. I remember the loving embrace of Wainwright, with it’s sign reading “All Peddlers report to the town office”. I remember too driving through the small town of Killam, with a sign that read “Slow Down ….We love our Children”. Unfortunately right below that sign was the town sign “Killam” and below that “population 500 or so”. Of course I would read it as

‘Slow down, we love our children…..Killam’.

I used to sell to the IGA in Viking and it was very exciting to find that Mrs. Sutter worked in the store. Every time I visited the store I would make sure I would connect with her and ask her about the boys. As a mother of 7 she seemed very nonplussed by the fact that six of her seven boys were playing in the NHL at the same time. I remember her talking about family things like Darryl’s recovery after a bad facial injury stemming from the Leaf’s Paul Higgins wanton high stick, or her joy that the twins – Rich and Ron – had gotten her a satellite TV so she could catch some of their games.
Boy if only I had six kids in the NHL I could somehow justify to my wife that my watching hockey every night on TV was considered family time.

I was struck by the way she shared the stories – her plain speaking manner. It was delivered in the even keel tone not too dissimilar to the press conferences her son, LA Kings coach, Darryl, holds today – a tone that leaves you wondering if they were talking about picking rocks from one of the local fields rather than speaking about another Islanders Stanley Cup championship for Duane and Brent.

It still strikes me today that for the Sutters, hockey was and is really just another part of life, it’s something that you just did every day. I marvel at the contrast- those who pursue it with such passion and combustion while for others it seems to arrive as naturally as early morning sunrise on the Prairies. I wonder too if that is the way it went for the Staals, and the Plagers of yester year.

The Rangers won that series upsetting the defending Stanley Cup Champion Canadiens sporting a rookie (technically) goalie by the name of Ken Dryden who had led them to the cup they year before beating Bobby Hull and the Blackhawks. The Rangers defeated the Habs and the legends like Lemaire, Savard, J.C. Tremblay, Henri Richard and Yvan Cournoyer – going on to play against Bobby Orr and the Bruins where they lost in 6 games.

Hopefully, tonight Montreal can reverse that result, score some goals with the quiet confidence one would have in picking clean a field of rocks on the prairie, evening up their series,before bringing it back home finishing it off at the Bell center. One more step on their way to the Stanley Cup final. A Stanley Cup final where they just might run into Darryl Sutter. And I can hardly wait for the press conferences!

‘Two Years……Less a Day’

The other night as I looked over at the list of candidates for the position of President of our local South Delta Minor Hockey Association, I couldn’t help but notice that my name was the only one on the list.

In chairing our Annual General Meeting as Interim President of the SDMHA, I found it tough to withdraw at that point and besides I had looked forward to a night of electioneering and campaigning.

I had dreams of Michael Wilson walking across the convention floor past John Crosbie coming to me, like the young Joe Clark, to be crowned as the new leader of the Progressive Conservatives. Or a young John Kennedy almost winning the US Vice Presidency in 1956 as young first term senator -not knowing that years later Marilyn Monroe would be singing “Happy Birthday Mr. President” to me. I had a dream.

But without the fireworks and the ‘Vote for Pedro’ sloganeering, it was left to Kellie, our energetic and efficient board Secretary, to move my election to one of acclamation, asking the same question 3 times.
(The meeting was held in Tsawwassen after all, and half of us will likely miss hearing 1 or 2 of the questions!)

“Are there any other candidates from the floor that would like to put their name forward for the position of President? ”

Suddenly it was if people’s hands had been nailed to the sides of their chairs, the annual report suddenly looked like an absorbing novel, and adults started sending emails home to their kids with reminders to feed the cat.

With thoughts of Pierre Elliot Trudeau’s line ‘that you shouldn’t trust anyone who really wants to be the Prime Minister’ …..I accepted my sentence….er… nomination saying.

“I am honoured to serve as the President of the South Delta Minor Hockey Association for a term of …two years less a day”.

Now as I sit at my home office at Tim’s central in downtown metropolitan Tsawwassen I can see that the signs have been taken down, the volunteers have gone home with hangovers from a post-election celebration – a beer at the Rose & Crown – and all that remains are the encouraging words from my family

“Dad, does that mean you still have to go to all of those meetings?”

and the congratulatory emails from fellow members

“Well done Murray -so does that mean that there is going to be an A-3 Peewee team this year?”

Goalies & Coaches

There were three signature moments that led to the demise of John Tortorella’s reign as coach of the Vancouver Canucks.

The first, and most salient, was the first intermission attack on the Calgary Flames dressing room. (after that does #2 and #3 really count!)

But they do.

The second came when he publicly berated Alex Edler and then Jannik Hansen on the bench, showing to all his team that he was a bully, that he would play favorites because they knew he would never do this to the stars – the Sedins, Kesler, Luongo. This behavior would be toxic to the general psyche of the team.

Strike three was a singular act of helplessness – a long bomb of ‘I will show the world that I have a serious team in contention here’- in which he puts Eddie Lack in net for the Heritage Classic game in Vancouver, publicly humiliating Roberto Luongo, a goalie who served the organization and his team significantly over his years in Vancouver. Again, it would have left every player wondering how they might be treated when an important event would occur for them….like playing in front of your hometown, your friends and your family. If the guy who gets to play – Eddie Lack himself – questions the move, as a coach you must know that you you are on an island alone looking for a ‘Wilson’ if he is even around.

It is interesting to contrast this situation to the current line up of goalies and their coaches in the Stanley Cup semi-finals. Three of the four goalies – Lundquist, Quick, and Carey Price – all represented their countries in the Olympics. They represent excellence in goaltending and in their character.

In a story in the Globe and Mail this morning you read about the 4 remaining coaches – their Stanley Cup pedigree – their experience (all in their 50’s) – and their contrasting styles. All them able to build the trust and manage the physical, mental and emotional energy of their teams. You see a picture of Darryl Sutter, giving instruction, in probably very direct terms to Marian Gaborik – pointing to the ice, his other arm wrapped firmly around Gaborik’s shoulder – one arm telling him not to miss his *&^%$# assignment , and the other one saying ‘I respect you as a person, as a hockey player and more importantly as someone on my team’.

You look at the goalies and these coaches and you see some of the ingredients for success in winning a Stanley Cup.

And in looking back to that outdoor game in March between Ottawa and Vancouver you see a coach, his hold on his team slipping away, desperate to show his players, his management, anyone for that matter, that he was still in charge. The contrast is stark.

Oil Kings win Memorial Cup!

This year I made sure to go to a few Vancouver Giants games with special focus on watching a couple of teams that I knew would be in the hunt for the Memorial Cup – the Portland Winter Hawks and the Edmonton Oil Kings.

Like the Vancouver Giants are to my boys, the Edmonton Oil Kings are to me. They were the heroes of my earliest years in hockey. To see them win the Memorial Cup yesterday over the Guelph Storm brought me back to a time when in 1971 I listened as the heroes of that team – Phil Russell, Tom Bladon, John Rodgers, and of course Darcy Rota – play against Guy Lafleur and the Quebec Remparts.

The games weren’t televised in that day and age when our cable provider was, as one my former hockey goalies called it ‘TFC'(CBC and not-CBC) …so it was broadcast on the radio – ‘the theatre of the mind’ as a former business colleague related to me from his days in the radio business. I can still see the lime green leather encased radio on my dresser as I listened to the game. (Hey, it was the late 70’s and some of the designers had probably tuned out and tuned in while designing the radio!)

I missed the game yesterday sitting at the PCAHA AGM listening to the need to change clause 7, subsection 4, sentence 5, word 3 from “puck” to “pucks”.
But beside me was a new acquaintance, the Director of hockey from one of our local hockey associations. Not only was he a fellow ‘Tsawwassenite’ but he was a former Oil King goalie with the 1971 Memorial Cup team. Upon further research I found out that he also knew my older brother, Jim, through junior hockey in Edmonton. What a coincidence!

After my new friend Jack and his colleague, Eric, left to watch a graduate of their hockey program, Griffin Reinhart, play in the Memorial Cup, I heard from my other friends at the table from North Delta. They were excited to follow the Memorial Cup as well because one of their graduates, Tristan Jarry, was backstopping the Oil Kings in net that day!

For me its a hockey mosaic that extends across generations and across geographies and it connects us as family and as friends – old and new. It was a great day for hockey – it was actually a delicious day of hockey all around!

A Great Game made better by a Great Moment

I looked around the room at the PCAHA AGM as we listened to the narrative shared before a special award was announced for a Midget C team from Abottsford BC. Grown men wiped tears from their eyes as did I.

The narrator read

‘In the finals the PCAHA Midget ‘C’ division the Abottsford Midget ‘C’ team had defeated the Langley Midget ‘C’ team to win the championship. At one end of the ice sticks and gloves were strewn in celebration of a championship, while at the other end one team took the loss in an unusually tough manner with most of the kids driven to tears at a profound loss. But it wasn’t just the loss of the game, it was the thought of losing a game dedicated to the memory of a teammate who died during the season.

This fact was relayed to the Abottsford captain during the traditional handshake, whereupon the Abottsford captain came back to his dressing room and he and his teammates decided that they would instead give the championship trophy to Langley. With his team behind him, and a knock at the door, the assembled Abottsford team gave their trophy and championship to Langley’

Three boys and their coaches from the Abottsord team accepted a special award from the PCAHA for this selfless act – for taking a great game and making it even better.

The audience gave a standing ovation……..many with tears in their eyes.

Arrest made in murder of Hockey Mom

All of us in the minor hockey community were horrified when a hockey mom from Surrey was killed outside the local Surrey arena as she was picking up her son after he refereed a game.

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/british-columbia/man-charged-in-hockey-mom-death-to-appear-in-bc-court/article18840621/#dashboard/follows/

Yesterday, at the PCAHA annual general meeting we held a moment of silence for the people of the hockey community who we lost or were taken from us in the past year. Julie Paskall was mentioned by name. Little did we know that a prime suspect in the case had been arrested.

Community Hockey

I would get up on a weekend morning, have breakfast and head out in my winter clothing wearing my toque, the blade of my hockey stick slotted through between the boot and blades of the skates that were carried over my shoulder. Like some little ‘hockey hobo’ I would head down the two blocks from our house on 64th street in Edmonton to the Highlands Community Center on 62nd street.

There I would spend a day of play — either on the rink of our massive outdoor ice rink surrounded by pillows of snow or playing shinny on the shiny new hockey rink that my dad and our church janitor, Horace Atkins, helped build.

It was at this community rink that I learned to skate; learned to play shinny; learned to play hockey; and most importantly…..just learned to play with others.

At any given time on the hockey rinks there would be 2 or 3 games. One lengthwise game for the older boys, another slower lengthwise game for the medium boys, and of course a cross-ice game for the little tykes. There were no parents, no one really around, other than all the kids working amongst themselves to choose the teams, define the rules, keep score, and settle the disputes. And it all worked. Somehow we avoided colliding with one another, working it all out ourselves and when there was some sort of impasse we got the ‘big guys’ to settle a dispute amongst us ‘smaller guys’.

Sometimes all the games would be called to a halt in the middle of a snowy day and everyone would grab a shovel or use their sticks to help remove the snow from the rink. If some hockey widows are wondering why their husbands sit glassy-eyed in front of the TV during a snowy Winter Classic, they just need know that they are not watching the game, but feeling the water pellets freeze on their eyebrows, or feeling their ears warm as they pull their toque back down after a dash up the ice with the puck.

This morning as I again sit in my office in at Tim’s Central in metropolitan downtown Tsawwassen I am going through the documents – the minutes & motions for two important meetings as part of my role as Interim, and possibly, President of the South Delta Minor Hockey Association.

Today’s meeting is the annual general meeting of the Pacific Coast Amateur Hockey Association (PCAHA), the governing body for all hockey associations in the west coast of BC – a body that stretches from Chilliwack up to Whistler. It’s the second biggest association after the Ontario Minor Hockey Association (OMHA) where I played my hockey as a teenager in Hamilton Ontario.

The second and more important meeting is the Annual General Meeting (AGM) of the South Delta Minor Hockey Association (SDMHA) where I will be putting my name forward to serve as president for ‘two years….less a day’.

Hockey governing bodies like the BC Hockey, Hockey Canada and the ones mentioned before, play an important role in structuring and organizing the ‘hockey experience’ for all the participants & members of these associations. They are essential to the effective functioning of minor hockey.

But amongst the clauses, subsections, codicils, and a couple ‘notwithstandings’ that we will cover over the next two days you can be rest assured that this little ‘hockey hobo’ will continue to fan the flames of a fire that started some 40 odd years ago on the outdoor rinks in the Highlands on the east side of Edmonton- making sure that the true spirit of the game, the soul of the little tyke who loves hockey and loves to ‘play’, is not forgotten.

Dustin…..the Win!

Last night goaltender Dustin Tokarski, in his second game in the NHL, backstopped the Montreal Canadiens to a 3-2 overtime victory over the New York Rangers putting the Canadiens right back in their Eastern Conference final series.

Tokarski was the difference in a game where the Canadiens were outshot 35 to 22 by the Rangers coming up with several key saves to give Montreal to at least have the chance to win it on a deflection off Alex Galchenyuk’s leg in overtime.

Therrien’s choice of Tokarski was a gutsy one, but not without precedent for the Canadiens, as this is a team with a history of riding on the wings of it’s rookie goaltenders – think Patrick Roy – and even a ‘pre-rookie’ goaltender – Ken Dryden – to Stanley Cup success.

The psychology of choosing a goaltender is perhaps one of the most complex aspects of the game for coaches. Because of the central importance to team success many decisions a coach makes on a goaltender has nothing to do with the goaltender’s play itself. Rather it has to do with the play of the rest of the players around the goalie, their discipline and focus on protecting their own net, that little extra motivation they have for helping out their rookie teammate.

That was made evident the other day in a great interview I heard on the weekend on Team 1040 in which radio host Bob ‘the Moj’ Marjonivich interviewed Jeremy Roenick. In one part of the interview Roenick was asked about the play of Jonathan Quick, specifically his ability to bounce back after the initial shellacking by the San Jose Sharks in the first series the Kings played.

Roenick, who played for LA coach Darryl Sutter when Sutter coach in Chicago talked about Sutter’s possible motivation in pulling Quick in one of the games in the first round series. Roenick went on to say of Sutter

“Well I played for him for two years” he said.

Laughingly he went on

“And he could be spiteful. I could just hear him talking to his team during the intermission. ‘If you guys aren’t going to play decently in front of your goalie and protect him then I am not going to let him suffer from YOUR POOR PLAY'”

In the same vein Michel Therien had a choice to make between his back up goaltender Peter Budaj and his AHL affiliate goaltender, Dustin Tokarski. With the loss of Carey Price I am sure his choice of Tokarski was as much about the play of his goaltenders as it was a reminder to his team that defense will win the series.

Benning new Canucks GM!

Sung to the tune of ‘Benny and the Jets’ by, who else, Elton John, coming to Rogers Arena, September 13th…..6 tickets baby!

Hey Jim shake this team together
The spotlights put on you in all this summer weather
We’ll fill those empty seats again
If you turn it all around
Gonna play terrific hockey all around the town
Hey Johnny & Mikey have you seen him yet
Oh but you’re so ‘phased out’

Benning and the Vets
Oh but he’s good and he’s wonderful
Like Henrik and Danny Sedin
He’s ran the Bruins group
In his designer suit
You know I read in Sportsnet Magazine………oh

Benning and the Vets
Benning ..Benning… Benning and Vets.

http://www.cbc.ca/sports/hockey/nhl/jim-benning-to-be-named-canucks-gm-report-1.2649328