Saturday, May 31, 2008
Fragility of life jumps out at us again
I hate motorbikes. I never rode one, never will. My brother Mike owned several but thankfully not long after a cross Canada tour he rid himself of the last one and has been in cars ever since. He did have one spill, an accident in Ottawa in which he went flying but was basically uninjured. He was fortunate. Not so much for Luc Bourdon who died tragically May 28th. Officials are now speculating that a very strong gust of wind hit Bourdon and forced his bike into the path of an oncoming tractor trailer. Game over immediately. It’s when you sit back and wonder about the coincidences in these types of accidents that you sometimes are convinced there is a higher power involved. I don’t know, for whatever reason God must have needed a kid with all heart and a tremendous appetite to succeed. Why would the gust come up at that time, why was there a truck coming the other way, why anything at all at that precise moment? The agony of trying to determine what happens mere seconds either way can drive you crazy. Imagine the family. I’ve lost numerous friends to accidents. So many, I can’t even count them all and when we lose an athlete who has in a brief time captured our hearts for me at least it brings home many of the other needless deaths including people like Neil Janz on a motorbike just last summer or my very good friend Mike Doyle on a ski-doo two winters ago. It’s very tragic and upsetting. Condolences to the family and friends of Luc Bourdon, may he rest in peace.
The Penguins answered a lot of people in game three first by scoring, secondly by winning the game or more appropriately hanging on. If you could bottle what element of desire Gary Roberts has and transpose it in the bodies of twenty young men you’d have the ultimate dynasty. In his prime he could score fifty, rack up 200 pim’s and play twenty minutes a night. He’s half that player now but with eight to nine minutes of ice time per game he is by far the most effective player with the least amount of time in this entire playoff – at forty-two years of age. Will this series mirror Ottawa-Anaheim last year in which the Senators won game three and battled gamely in game four only to lose before bowing out in five or are these young Penguins poised to put their mark on the 90th Cup final in NHL history? My head says Detroit wins tonight, my heart says Pittsburgh. So, when in doubt go with your heart, I mean what kind of trouble has that ever got us in?
I appeared on a local TV station with former Montreal Canadien Murray Wilson on Monday May 26th. Wilson indicated that he’d be surprised if Pat Burns re entered the coaching fraternity of the NHL. Despite a successful run as one of Ken Hitchcock’s assistants at the recently completed World Championship and with rumours abound that Burns may have his hat in the ring for the Senator job Wilson feels that his recent triumphant battle with cancer was extremely draining and that he is just not up for the rigors and the stress of the job. We will soon know. Other names that are in the mix include Pat Quinn, Bob Hartley, who we believe have at least interviewed for the job. Craig Hartsburg, Kevin Dineen, Pete DeBoer who supposedly was on the short list last season, my choice of Randy Cunneyworth and now possibly John Tortorella from Tampa Bay. The core of the Senators needs to win yesterday. With Alfredsson in the mix they’ve got maybe two seasons so a real ball breaker coach is what’s needed which means I’d relent on my original choice of Cunneyworth and agree that Tortorella would be a prime choice if he was available – pending a no go from Pat Burns At some point, somebody is going to give Cunneyworth a shot and they’ll be a better team for it.
If I were a Leaf fan right now I’d be livid at Mats Sundin. After he accepted the Mark Messier Award stating that, “perhaps the Leafs were not his only option” going forward for next season. Are you kidding me? He doesn’t wave his no-trade, states he does not want to be a rental player, wants to finish his career in TO and then says this? Speculation is that he was quite miffed at being asked to waive his no trade in the first place. With all due respect to Sundin and he deserves a ton of respect for the way he’s played during this current three year hiatus from the playoffs but he needs to understand that interim GM Cliff Fletcher was trying to improve the club. Dealing Sundin would have paid huge dividends and Sundin could have simply resigned in the off season. It’s not like he played his whole career there ala Steve Yzerman or Joe Sakic. Sundin was in Quebec for four seasons including a playoff stint in 1993. Granted he has more than made his mark on Toronto including breaking long standing records held by the likes of Darryl Sittler and Dave Keon but if I were a Leaf fan I would be extremely upset that he seemingly has misplaced their loyalty, put his ego first and has clearly not looked at the big picture.
A small group of historians picked the Miracle on Ice as the number one international hockey story over Team Canada 72. Actually the second story they picked was Henderson’s goal in game eight which to me is a huge slap in the face and ignoring the totality of the comeback and Henderson’s goal scoring in game’s six and seven. Granted the theatre of game eight can never be duplicated. If you compare it to the Miracle game – Canada was down 5-3 after two periods. Clearly the officiating was extremely bias, the off ice officials as well – they did not even turn the goal light on after Yvan Cournoyer had scored to tie the game at 5-5 leading to the whole debacle involving Alan Eagleson, the Soviets then declare they will take victory in the series due to the goals for over the eight games only to have that yanked from them in the last minute by THEE goal. Team Canada 72 was about the last three games, not one game. It was about heroics and a never-say-die attitude. It was about a man who for whatever reason took this opportunity to score three of the biggest goals in the history of the sport. It’s about another man, Phil Esposito who played the best twenty minutes of hockey anywhere, any time in the third period of game eight. I wonder where these historians were from. Let me guess. What a complete and utter joke. Case in point, to justify their selection, after it was announced one of the European minion’s states, ‘we’re glad it was an Olympic moment selected as the number one.’ Sure you were Alexi. Because that means it wasn’t something favouring Canada who you hate. That’s okay. We get the picture we always have that’s why for every single time in every single event that Canada wins, which is many, guys like me remember comments like yours. Otherwise you can just go to sleep every night hearing Foster Hewitt. ‘Henderson has scored for Canada.’
The Penguins answered a lot of people in game three first by scoring, secondly by winning the game or more appropriately hanging on. If you could bottle what element of desire Gary Roberts has and transpose it in the bodies of twenty young men you’d have the ultimate dynasty. In his prime he could score fifty, rack up 200 pim’s and play twenty minutes a night. He’s half that player now but with eight to nine minutes of ice time per game he is by far the most effective player with the least amount of time in this entire playoff – at forty-two years of age. Will this series mirror Ottawa-Anaheim last year in which the Senators won game three and battled gamely in game four only to lose before bowing out in five or are these young Penguins poised to put their mark on the 90th Cup final in NHL history? My head says Detroit wins tonight, my heart says Pittsburgh. So, when in doubt go with your heart, I mean what kind of trouble has that ever got us in?
I appeared on a local TV station with former Montreal Canadien Murray Wilson on Monday May 26th. Wilson indicated that he’d be surprised if Pat Burns re entered the coaching fraternity of the NHL. Despite a successful run as one of Ken Hitchcock’s assistants at the recently completed World Championship and with rumours abound that Burns may have his hat in the ring for the Senator job Wilson feels that his recent triumphant battle with cancer was extremely draining and that he is just not up for the rigors and the stress of the job. We will soon know. Other names that are in the mix include Pat Quinn, Bob Hartley, who we believe have at least interviewed for the job. Craig Hartsburg, Kevin Dineen, Pete DeBoer who supposedly was on the short list last season, my choice of Randy Cunneyworth and now possibly John Tortorella from Tampa Bay. The core of the Senators needs to win yesterday. With Alfredsson in the mix they’ve got maybe two seasons so a real ball breaker coach is what’s needed which means I’d relent on my original choice of Cunneyworth and agree that Tortorella would be a prime choice if he was available – pending a no go from Pat Burns At some point, somebody is going to give Cunneyworth a shot and they’ll be a better team for it.
If I were a Leaf fan right now I’d be livid at Mats Sundin. After he accepted the Mark Messier Award stating that, “perhaps the Leafs were not his only option” going forward for next season. Are you kidding me? He doesn’t wave his no-trade, states he does not want to be a rental player, wants to finish his career in TO and then says this? Speculation is that he was quite miffed at being asked to waive his no trade in the first place. With all due respect to Sundin and he deserves a ton of respect for the way he’s played during this current three year hiatus from the playoffs but he needs to understand that interim GM Cliff Fletcher was trying to improve the club. Dealing Sundin would have paid huge dividends and Sundin could have simply resigned in the off season. It’s not like he played his whole career there ala Steve Yzerman or Joe Sakic. Sundin was in Quebec for four seasons including a playoff stint in 1993. Granted he has more than made his mark on Toronto including breaking long standing records held by the likes of Darryl Sittler and Dave Keon but if I were a Leaf fan I would be extremely upset that he seemingly has misplaced their loyalty, put his ego first and has clearly not looked at the big picture.
A small group of historians picked the Miracle on Ice as the number one international hockey story over Team Canada 72. Actually the second story they picked was Henderson’s goal in game eight which to me is a huge slap in the face and ignoring the totality of the comeback and Henderson’s goal scoring in game’s six and seven. Granted the theatre of game eight can never be duplicated. If you compare it to the Miracle game – Canada was down 5-3 after two periods. Clearly the officiating was extremely bias, the off ice officials as well – they did not even turn the goal light on after Yvan Cournoyer had scored to tie the game at 5-5 leading to the whole debacle involving Alan Eagleson, the Soviets then declare they will take victory in the series due to the goals for over the eight games only to have that yanked from them in the last minute by THEE goal. Team Canada 72 was about the last three games, not one game. It was about heroics and a never-say-die attitude. It was about a man who for whatever reason took this opportunity to score three of the biggest goals in the history of the sport. It’s about another man, Phil Esposito who played the best twenty minutes of hockey anywhere, any time in the third period of game eight. I wonder where these historians were from. Let me guess. What a complete and utter joke. Case in point, to justify their selection, after it was announced one of the European minion’s states, ‘we’re glad it was an Olympic moment selected as the number one.’ Sure you were Alexi. Because that means it wasn’t something favouring Canada who you hate. That’s okay. We get the picture we always have that’s why for every single time in every single event that Canada wins, which is many, guys like me remember comments like yours. Otherwise you can just go to sleep every night hearing Foster Hewitt. ‘Henderson has scored for Canada.’
# posted by Liam Maguire @ 7:38 AM 
