Sunday April 8, 7:30 PM
Justice prevails. The NY Islanders are in the playoffs. The Habs and Leafs are out. Ted Nolan returns to Buffalo. Andrew Raycroft returns to no man's land. Bob Gainey goes back to the drawing board.
I don't think I'll get much argument that the Islanders deserve a playoff spot ahead of Montreal and Toronto but what about Tampa Bay? Yes I know they have the Rocket Richard winner and MVP candidate (If I had a vote it would go to Sydney Crosby #1) in Vinny Lecavalier and another 100 point scorer in Martin St Louis but other than them plus Brad Richards and Dan Boyle what else have they got? Not to mention being saddled with embarrasingly bad goaltending, again. One day after being told that he's going to be "their guy the rest of the year", Johan Holmqvist lasted 16 minutes against the Florida Panthers. The Lightning are the worst team in the playoffs. Both the Habs and Leafs would do a better job against the Devils than what we're about to see from Tampa.
What to make of The Habs Jekyl & Hyde season?
I don't mind embarassing myself so let's go back to opening night:
Thursday October 5, 8 PM
Has it really been six months since The Canadiens were eliminated by the eventual Stanley Cup champion Carolina Hurricanes? Six months since Bob Gainey said one goal losses are tough but in playoff hockey one goal is a lot? Six months since Saku Koivu, worried about his future, was ambushed by a TVA reporter who demanded to know why he didn’t speak French? Six months since Michel Bergeron put his foot in his mouth? Six months since Gainey said if players are looking for some “spice” in their life they’d consider Montreal as a a hockey home not an NHL outpost? Six months since Hurricanes President Jim Rutherford said the Habs were his teams toughest opponent during their run to the cup?
Rutherford wasn’t simply being diplomatic. Justin Williams, Dan Marouelli and Dennis LaRue made sure Rutherford could spend the summer celebrating rather than rebuilding.
Gainey? He discovered an ongoing problem as GM and no-longer-coach. While Montreal may in fact be the “spiciest” city in North America, NHLers would rather work elsewhere.
High taxes and character assassination just don’t make it onto the radar screen of agents and their clients. Sergei Samsanov? May the force, and 3.5 million a year, be with him (I love the signing, even at an overblown price. The Habs are getting him at just the right time. He’s 27).
So which comes first-a long playoff run or the signing/acquisition of a true marquee player? Hopefully Gainey can find out as soon as this season. If not, you have to wonder how much patience he’ll have in trying to fill out a championship roster while striking out more often than a 40 year old virgin. All the Tom Hicks money he spent/wasted in Dallas is no doubt beginning to look more and more appealing.
Count me among those who believe the Canadiens can improve from a season ago. Even if Cristobal Huet is not a Roger Crozier trophy winner this season, he’ll have to morph into an AHL goalie not to improve on the Jose Theodore performance of a year ago.
The addition of Janne Niinimmaa gives the team six solid defensemen. In fact, you can argue that even at 2.5 million per year Niinimmaa IS the sixth defenseman. Markov, Souray, Rivet and Dandenault are all players most general managers would love to have. And in Mike Komisarek the Canadiens finally have the combination of size, strength, toughness and mobility that was most recently disguised as Zarley Zalapski. Mark Streit, a fine skater and power play asset, is now a more reassuring number seven (#8 with Francis Boullion) while Patrick Traverse finds himself- more appropriately-back in the minors.
I like the forwards, save for a glaring hole down the middle. But if the talented, speedy crop of made-for-the-new-NHL skaters continue to draw penalties, the Canadiens will rely on a power play unit that was among the best in the NHL a year ago(#5 overall). The “loss” of Ribeiro may hurt the second unit, but should be offset by more ice time for Perezhogen and Latendresse.
Ryder, Higgins, Plekanic, Perezhogen, Samsanov, and yes, Radek Bonk should all improve on their offensive numbers of a year ago.
The penalty killing wasn’t very good a year ago but neither was the goaltending until Huet wrestled the job away from Theodore. And it’s hard to believe that a hockey staff that features Gainey, Guy Carbonneau, Doug Jarvis and Kirk Muller can’t turn the PK unit into
something a lot more formidable.
Which brings us to ? & The Mysterians….
http://96tears.net/
Can Saku Koivu play 70 + games? Can he see properly for all 70 games or does he become the most effective disabled player since “One Eyed” Frank McGee?(You mean you haven’t watched Hockey: A People’s History?).
Will Latendresse actually contribute beyond the odd power play/4th line shift? And if he doesn’t, will he get enough work to avoid turning into, in the words of Mike Farber, Ginette Reno?
Can Andre Markov finally put it all together? Or will he pack it in and head home to Russia?
Will Sheldon Souray break a years’ supply of composite sticks on opening night? And if he does, will that give him time to ghostwrite “The Dave Stubbs Story”?
Will Herb Zurkowsky get kicked off the Als beat only to resurface at the Bell Center to torment Guy Carbonneau?
Can Bonk and Mike Johnson click often enough to make headline writers drool? (Johnson, Bonk…c’mon, use your imagination…)
And the 6.4 million dollar question: Is Cristobal Huet for real?
Habs finish 6th. Meet and beat Carolina in first round of playoffs.
Melnick’s Eastern Finish:
Buffalo-speed, coaching, came so close a yr ago & Ryan Miller
NYR-goaltending, speed & a bionic shoulder for Jagr
Carolina-grit, experience, Erics & Cam Ward
NJ-Brodeur, Lamierello & Julien (where’s Larry?)
Ottawa-solid core of 5-6, will look for a G by X-mas
Montreal-will win it for Don Matthews (oops, sorry)
Boston-Toivenen wins Calder, Chara wins nothing
Philadelphia-Bobby Clarke & Ed Snider walk into a bar….
Tampa Bay-Will reacquire Buhlin Wall
Atlanta- Hartley 1st coach in east to be fired after trade request by Kovalchuk
Pittsburgh-Crosby, Staal, Malkin and…Thibeault???
NYI-Nolan sends Garth Snow to Muckler on X-Mas morning
Toronto-Fergy Jr 1st Gm to be fired, replaced by Tie Domi
Florida-Ed Belfour punches out Jacques Martin, or Alex Auld, or Denis Potvin…
Washington-Gainey offers McPhee a 15 for 1 deal for Ovechkin; Alex prefers DC
Hit & Miss, huh? I figure my batting average is at least as good as Thomas Plekanic's face-off percentage (48.3). I thought in "My New NHL" Samsanov and Kovalev would score 55-60 goals between them. They totalled 27. Samsanov needs a new mirror in the off season. And a new stationary bike. Love handles and a nine goal season at 3.5 million a year is not a good combination. Kovalev? I'm very disappointed. I believe he was playing hurt for much of the season but that certainly does not explain his disappearing act the final week. Unless there's something else in play that we're not aware of Kovalev will not likely be given the chance to spar with Carbonneau, a la Samsanov this year.
The coach made mistakes. Forget about the choice of goaltenders saturday night in Toronto. (But please don't tell me that Cristobal Huet played well. ) The Habs horrid five on five play all season is at least a measure of coaching, not getting the right people on the ice at the right time. Saku Koivu spends too much time on the penalty killing unit, where he was again in the 3rd period saturday night when he took his final bad penalty of the season. (Anyone blaming saturday's loss -or the season-on Koivu is an idiot or a racist. Maybe both. In the last eight games of the season he scored 15 points.) Carbonneau's ref-baiting didn't help as the Habs swooned at Christmas time but he did eventually learn to bite his lip more often. All in all a bumpy rookie ride but let's remember that he heads an entire staff that prior to this season combined for zero days of NHL head coaching experience.
The General Manager? Nobody should ever have to go through what Bob Gainey had to endure this season. It's hard to tell if the death of his daughter Laura hampered his GM duties in any way. Bert Raymond of Le Journal De Montreal believes it did and devoted an entire column to the subject following the trade deadline. I was fortunate to run into Gainey a couple of months back as his family was celebrating the engagement of his daughter Anna. It was heartwarming to see the family (including son Steve whos own brief NHL carer is now over) enjoy themselves. Raymond, and others, point to Gainey's lack of movement at the trade deadline as proof that he was paralyzed by grief. I don't see it that way. But it's difficult to read Gainey at the best of times. His refusal to speak publicly following the deadline was unfortunate. I'm going to assume he'll have something to say early this week as once again management and coaches will try to explain what went wrong. The trade of Craig Rivet to San Jose made this edition of the team worse. No follow up move and not dressing Josh Gorges on deadline day in New York had a predictable result. Sheldon Souray admitted the team was "distracted". Ganey's refusal to add a goaltender, especially with free agents-to-be Ed Belfour and Curtis Joseph available for draft picks, cost his team. Not until Jaroslav Halak went back in goal did the Canadiens start to take off again. But there were points to be won that David Aebischer couldn't. (For Murray Wilson to go on Satellite Hot Stove on Hockey Night In Canada and explain away the non-move by saying hindsight is 20-20 and Aebsicher had been playing well was beyond disingenuous.) Ribeiro for Niinimaa worked out horribly. Watching a once key NHL defenseman struggle as Niinimaa did reminded me of Rob Ramage here in Montreal at the end of his career in 1993. As poorly as he played Ramage at least got to see his team win a Cup. With Gainey and Carbonneau both behind the bench for the second half of last season, somebody had to tell them what Pierre McGuire told us on the air. That for all his experience and popularity with teammates, and as good a career as he's had, Niinimaa's best days were way behind him.
Let's cut to (cue Ennio Morricone) The Good, The Bad and The Ugly:
Good: Koivu, Chris Higgins, Thomas Plekanic, Andrei Markov, Mike Komisarek, Halak, Andrei Kostitsyn, Mark Streit, and, well, okay with a strong finish...Ryder
Bad: Mathieu Dandenault, Francis Boullion
Ugly: Samsanov, Kovalev, Aebischer
That leaves a few others who fit somewhere in between:
Radek Bonk-Mike Johnson-Alex Perzhogen was one of the best lines in the league...for a month.
Bonk had a good year. Johnson was terrific in the first half, faded badly in the second. Perezhogen is a mystery. Created almost zero offense.
Guillaume Latendresse proved he is going to be a factor in the NHL. But not today. Can the Canadiens afford to have both Steve Begin and Maxim Lapierre down the middle? Who are Josh Gorges and Michael Leighton? Will we find out?
Cristobal Huet will be next season's Jose Theodore. At half the salary.
Sheldon Souray just had one of the most mind-boggling black and white seasons in NHL history.
I'd take him back but not at five million per season.
Gainey's to do list:
Dump Samsanov (to Chicago) and Kovalev(easier said than done); Re-sign Markov and maybe even Bonk but only at less than half his current salary. Add size up front and on the blueline. Boullion and Dandenault are useful players, but they play way too many minutes. Trade Huet and perhaps Ryder if, as usual, the free agent market dries up.
Should be a hot week on the air, or a week full of hot air,so let me get this out of the way. Blame it all on Jeffrey Loria and David Samson.
Melnick MVP Voting:
1. Sydney Crosby
2. Roberto Luongo
3. Martin Brodeur/Vincent Lecavalier
5. Joe Thornton
6. Nicklas Lidstrom
7. Scott Neidermayer
8. Rick DiPietro
9. Danny Heatley
10.Thomas Vanek
Sunday, April 8, 2007
Thursday, April 5, 2007
How To Lay An Egg In New York
Thursday April 5 10:30 PM
I forgot to add something to my mini-guide to a good time in New York City. While there are any number of terrific spots for an omelette, not just the Empire Diner; where does one go to see the actual process of laying an egg? Back up to the Catskills? Across the Hudson River to New Jersey? Staten Island? Nah, just head to 33rd & 7th Avenue, whenever the Montreal Canadiens are in town.
Rotten eggs don't smell as bad as The Habs' performance at Madison Square Garden tonight. For the umpteenth time this season the Canadiens began a game as if they were protecting a four goal lead. No forecheck, no body slams, no speed, no passion. Jaroslav Halak did his part to keep them in the game, far longer than they should have been. This was the same kind of mis-match that had resulted in a 7-2 Rangers victory over the Maple Leafs last sunday night. Which might say a lot more about Halak vs Andrew Raycroft than anything else at this point. Which is one reason I stay with the kid saturday night.
There were a lot of villians with white sweaters tonight. But Halak was not among them. Perhaps if Cristobal Huet had stood on his head and faced a barrage of shots you'd think more seriously of starting him in Toronto but the Rangers had a total of eight shots on goal and really tested him just once, a good shot but from well out by Sean Avery. I didn't like what I saw from Huet before he got hurt. I like a lot of what I've seen from Halak, even with the poor road record.
As for the real villians? As an Alex Kovalev fan let me state the obvious. I thought he'd be a big factor tonight, maybe even the difference. Instead it looked like Alex was thinking about his next flight log. Seems to me he lost interest after Michael Ryder failed to get him the puck, when that was clearly the play, after Kovalev had established position in front of Henrik Lundqvist, only to watch Ryder hang onto the puck (turning into Richard Zednick before our eyes, huh?), circle the net, but once again fail to get a shot while losing possession and watching the puck slide towards his own net.
Saku Koivu created plays. Chris Higgins worked hard but again with no result. Thomas Plekanic and Andrei Kostitsyn, so strong down the stretch, were barely visible. Guillaume Latendresse might soon find himself on a milk carton. Francis Bouillion handed the Rangers their second goal. And you can't be caught in a Boullion-Jagr match up, which the Habs were, twice. Credit to Tom Renney.
So here we go. Canadiens-Leafs on a Saturday night in Toronto. The most playoff-like non-playoff game since, well, what St. Patrick's Day night here in Montreal? Last March when the Habs swept the Leafs in back to back games and Darcy Tucker was forced to eat Kovalev's forearm? Or do we have to go all the way back to the last legit playoff match up in April 1979 when the Canadiens defeated Toronto en route to their fourth straight Stanley Cup.
Koivu always plays well against Toronto. I don't worry about him. Kovalev has to bounce back. If not, he's bounced himself right out of town. Higgins is overdue. The kids (Plekanic, Kostitsyn, Lapierre) will once again be a factor. Mike Johnson is going home. Latendresse must wake up, especially against a bigger, more physical team. Carbonneau has to play match ups, as difficult as that is on the road. Keep Bouillion away from the Sundin line.
Even though the Leafs are still the more desperate of the teams, the Habs have to play just as desperate. Not wait around to see how Toronto starts. I think Montreal will be fine. They've laid their egg. Only thing worse is to follow up by playing like the proverbial chicken with its head cut off. Hopefully Ryder will be the only Hab to go that route.
There is another possibility of course. And it might be the most just at this stage. Leafs beat the Habs in regulation. Toronto reacts as if they've won the Cup. The Islanders follow up tonight by winning their final two games against Philadelphia and an -already- clinched New Jersey Devils. They get in. Leafs and Habs wind up together afterall. On the outside looking in.
Favorite Leafs from 1979 Montreal-Toronto playoff series:
1. Dan Maloney
2. Mike Palmateer
3. Tiger Williams
4. Lanny McDonald
5. Darryl Sittler
I forgot to add something to my mini-guide to a good time in New York City. While there are any number of terrific spots for an omelette, not just the Empire Diner; where does one go to see the actual process of laying an egg? Back up to the Catskills? Across the Hudson River to New Jersey? Staten Island? Nah, just head to 33rd & 7th Avenue, whenever the Montreal Canadiens are in town.
Rotten eggs don't smell as bad as The Habs' performance at Madison Square Garden tonight. For the umpteenth time this season the Canadiens began a game as if they were protecting a four goal lead. No forecheck, no body slams, no speed, no passion. Jaroslav Halak did his part to keep them in the game, far longer than they should have been. This was the same kind of mis-match that had resulted in a 7-2 Rangers victory over the Maple Leafs last sunday night. Which might say a lot more about Halak vs Andrew Raycroft than anything else at this point. Which is one reason I stay with the kid saturday night.
There were a lot of villians with white sweaters tonight. But Halak was not among them. Perhaps if Cristobal Huet had stood on his head and faced a barrage of shots you'd think more seriously of starting him in Toronto but the Rangers had a total of eight shots on goal and really tested him just once, a good shot but from well out by Sean Avery. I didn't like what I saw from Huet before he got hurt. I like a lot of what I've seen from Halak, even with the poor road record.
As for the real villians? As an Alex Kovalev fan let me state the obvious. I thought he'd be a big factor tonight, maybe even the difference. Instead it looked like Alex was thinking about his next flight log. Seems to me he lost interest after Michael Ryder failed to get him the puck, when that was clearly the play, after Kovalev had established position in front of Henrik Lundqvist, only to watch Ryder hang onto the puck (turning into Richard Zednick before our eyes, huh?), circle the net, but once again fail to get a shot while losing possession and watching the puck slide towards his own net.
Saku Koivu created plays. Chris Higgins worked hard but again with no result. Thomas Plekanic and Andrei Kostitsyn, so strong down the stretch, were barely visible. Guillaume Latendresse might soon find himself on a milk carton. Francis Bouillion handed the Rangers their second goal. And you can't be caught in a Boullion-Jagr match up, which the Habs were, twice. Credit to Tom Renney.
So here we go. Canadiens-Leafs on a Saturday night in Toronto. The most playoff-like non-playoff game since, well, what St. Patrick's Day night here in Montreal? Last March when the Habs swept the Leafs in back to back games and Darcy Tucker was forced to eat Kovalev's forearm? Or do we have to go all the way back to the last legit playoff match up in April 1979 when the Canadiens defeated Toronto en route to their fourth straight Stanley Cup.
Koivu always plays well against Toronto. I don't worry about him. Kovalev has to bounce back. If not, he's bounced himself right out of town. Higgins is overdue. The kids (Plekanic, Kostitsyn, Lapierre) will once again be a factor. Mike Johnson is going home. Latendresse must wake up, especially against a bigger, more physical team. Carbonneau has to play match ups, as difficult as that is on the road. Keep Bouillion away from the Sundin line.
Even though the Leafs are still the more desperate of the teams, the Habs have to play just as desperate. Not wait around to see how Toronto starts. I think Montreal will be fine. They've laid their egg. Only thing worse is to follow up by playing like the proverbial chicken with its head cut off. Hopefully Ryder will be the only Hab to go that route.
There is another possibility of course. And it might be the most just at this stage. Leafs beat the Habs in regulation. Toronto reacts as if they've won the Cup. The Islanders follow up tonight by winning their final two games against Philadelphia and an -already- clinched New Jersey Devils. They get in. Leafs and Habs wind up together afterall. On the outside looking in.
Favorite Leafs from 1979 Montreal-Toronto playoff series:
1. Dan Maloney
2. Mike Palmateer
3. Tiger Williams
4. Lanny McDonald
5. Darryl Sittler
Wednesday, April 4, 2007
Weekend in New York
Wednesday April 4, 7:30 PM
Very tempted to head back to New York for tomorrow nights' Habs-Rangers showdown. On somebody else's dime of course, so it's not happening. Will definately look at organizing some kind of Team 990 excursion, perhaps later in the baseball season when Pedro Martinez returns to the Mets rotation.
A decade ago, CIQC radio organized a contest/trip to New York to watch the Expos take on the Yankees at Yankee Stadium. I hosted my show from the pressbox but at 7 PM I left The Bronx to head to Manhattan. Six years ago I drove down with Shaun Starr for the Expos-Mets series that had been pushed back because of 9/11. Instead of attending all four games at Shea, I took the opportunity to spend thursdsay through saturday drinking/dining and experiencing so much of what the city has to offer. Starr, a big baseball fan himself, had never been to New York and quickly realized that Manhattan was more interesting than whatever the Expos or Mets were doing in Queens and decided to hang with me. We watched the friday night game from an Irish bar while finally making it to Shea for the series finale on sunday afternoon. Jeffrey Loria joined us for a moment, waving a copy of that nasty cartoon in Le Journal de Montreal.
Like the old slogan, I Love New York. Perhaps I'd feel differently if I actually lived there but I really don't think so. There's a rhythym and an energy to the city that I absolutely feed off. It's almost chemical. Maybe I lived a previous life in Greenwich Village but I believe I am more of myself when I'm there than anywhere else, except perhaps in a radio studio. It feels like home.
I have great respect and admiration for my late sister who was an aritist and aspiring actress. Not content to remain in Montreal she decided to move to New York while in her 30's and lived there, not without some difficulty, until the day she died in July of 1998. She too adored the city. Maybe it's in our blood.
I'm often asked how I can afford to head down as often as I do. It's not easy. But there are ways, especially with a small group of people, where you can enjoy the scene for less than you think. Here's a bit of a guide:
When I'm alone I stay in a small (closet sized) but very clean room in the Union Square area. I don't need space in a hotel room where I am only going to sleep and shower. It's a short walk to The Village and SoHo and so many of the places I like to hang out at including the Strand bookstore where I once ran into Willem Dafoe loading a crateful of used books into the back of a friends pick up truck. www.strandbooks.com
The Virgin Megastore is located in the heart of Union Square. Why wait weeks for a CD in Montreal when it's already on display at Virgin? And like The Strand you could spend hours browsing through cd's, dvd's, boxsets and books that you can't possibly find here at home.
http://www.virginmegamagazine.com/default.asp?vms=7
If it's import, hardcore, punk or "special" recordings you're looking for than head a few blocks south to Thompson. I've spent way too much money in there over the years on many recordings that are becoming obsolete as Dylan and Neil Young are now releasing their own bootleg series.
Among the food places to hit in The Village are John's Pizza and Arturo's. The pizza at both joints are made in coal ovens, which no longer exist anywhere else in the city. It's the best pizza I've ever had. John's is on Bleeker Street (and in midtown) and is strictly about the pies (no slices). Arturo's is much more of a hang out with a variety of fabulous Italian food.
http://www.johnsofbleeckerstreet.com/
http://nymag.com/listings/restaurant/arturos/
If it's a burger you want head to another legendary joint, The Corner Bistro on West 4th. If you're still thirsty head to Hudson and 11th where The White Horse Tavern awaits as it has since 1880, with a wall-sized image of Dylan Thomas who drank himself to death at the establishment in 1953.
If you're a music fan a stroll down to Prince Street in SoHo is a must. The Morrison Hotel Gallery features astonishing portraits of some of the greatest names in music history shot by some of the greatest photographers in music history.
http://www.morrisonhotelgallery.com/
Last weekend, before I headed to Woodstock, I attended a couple of small shows. Rocky Votolato is an interesting singer-songwriter who can remind you of early Springsteen or perhaps Jakob Dylan. I have a couple of his cd's but had never seen him. So I headed to The Knitting Factory in the TriBeca section of Manhattan. Jam packed and over heated I was hoping it was worth the trek. It wasn't. He sang in barely a whisper, played in virtually the same key the entire set and accompanied himself with a recorded rythym section. The place went nuts. I went up to the Rodeo Bar at 3rd and 27th to catch Elana James and The Continental Two. This was old time country music at its best with no cover.
www.rockyvotolalo.com
www.knittingfactory.com
www.rodeobar.com
www.elanajames.com
Last friday in New York was a fabulous day. Sunny and 68 degrees. I decided to take the opportunity to do something I had never done before. Walk across the Brooklyn Bridge.
It's a mile walk each way but there is a subway stop on site if your feet give out. Even without the World Trade Center the views on the bridge are breathtaking. I don't know why I waited so long.
http://www.endex.com/gf/buildings/bbridge/bbridge.html
Later that night I attended The Allman Brothers show at the Beacon Theatre. I'm a big fan of both guitarists, Warren Haynes and Dereck Trucks, but on this night my seats were too far off to the side to fully appreciate their work. Besides I had been terribly distracted prior to the show at Yogi's, another legendary spot, a block north of the Beacon. So prior to the end of the first set I headed back. And stayed until my empty stomach forced me a couple of blocks north to Big Nick's. After sampling everything in their kitchen I headed back to Yogi's and waited for the post show crush while dancing the night away to umpteen renditions of "Whipping Post" that poured out of the jukebox while Knob Creek was poured into me. A great night.
www.allmanbrothersband.com
www.beacontheater.net
http://newyork.citysearch.com/profile/36628417/new_york_ny/yogi_s.html
http://bignicksnyc.com/
Closing time meant a 50 block cab ride to the Chelsea Hotel, made famous by the aformentioned Thomas, who collapsed in his room after his drinking binge at The White Horse; Thomas Wolfe, Bob Dylan, Leonard Cohen, Janis Joplin and countless other artists/writers and bohemians. The place is huge, filled with valuable and not so valuable artwork on every available wallspace with some surprisingly affordable rooms. The lobby itself is a show of eccentrics by eccentrics. And dogs are constantly being walked in and out. The staff is very friendly. And the room? By Manhattan standards it was almost earily quiet.
http://www.hotelchelsea.com/
Woke up Saturday morning to a breakfast at The Empire Diner. Don't remember walking in. But I do remember sitting at the counter, waiting for an omelette while coming to the rescue of a waiter who couldn't figure out the name of a former Met who's picture he had taken the night before. It was Ed Kranepool. The Met, not the waiter.
http://www.nyc-architecture.com/CHE/CHE004-EmpireDiner.htm
Then it was up to Woodstock. The rest, as Red Fisher would say, you know.
Other NYC locations worth checking out:
Music: Irving Plaza, Mercury Lounge, Red Lion (live music till 4 AM), Joe's Pub, The Living Room, Bowery Ballroom, Town Hall, Supper Club, Blue Note, Iridium Jazz Club (Les Paul every monday night), BB King Blues Club
Comedy: Comedy Cellar, Gotham, Caroline's
Always be observant in New York. Among the famous I've seen and met:
Bruce Sprinsgteen
Vinnie "Mad Dog" Lopez (original E Street drummer)
Patti Smith
Harvey Keitel
Jesse Malin
Rufus Wainwright
Steve Van Zandt
Amos Lee
Conan O'Brien
Jerry Seinfeld
Barry Shenk (Simpson DNA lawyer)
Bill Walton
George Recile (Dylan's drummer)
John Riggins
George Steinbrenner
Charlie Rangel (Congressman)
David Dinkins (Former mayor)
Favorite NY Rangers:
1. Eddie Giacomin
2. Glen Sather
3. Bobby Rousseau
4. Steve Vickers
5. Dave Maloney
6. James Patrick
7. Nick Fotiu
8. John Davidson
9. Adam Graves
10 PJ Stock
Very tempted to head back to New York for tomorrow nights' Habs-Rangers showdown. On somebody else's dime of course, so it's not happening. Will definately look at organizing some kind of Team 990 excursion, perhaps later in the baseball season when Pedro Martinez returns to the Mets rotation.
A decade ago, CIQC radio organized a contest/trip to New York to watch the Expos take on the Yankees at Yankee Stadium. I hosted my show from the pressbox but at 7 PM I left The Bronx to head to Manhattan. Six years ago I drove down with Shaun Starr for the Expos-Mets series that had been pushed back because of 9/11. Instead of attending all four games at Shea, I took the opportunity to spend thursdsay through saturday drinking/dining and experiencing so much of what the city has to offer. Starr, a big baseball fan himself, had never been to New York and quickly realized that Manhattan was more interesting than whatever the Expos or Mets were doing in Queens and decided to hang with me. We watched the friday night game from an Irish bar while finally making it to Shea for the series finale on sunday afternoon. Jeffrey Loria joined us for a moment, waving a copy of that nasty cartoon in Le Journal de Montreal.
Like the old slogan, I Love New York. Perhaps I'd feel differently if I actually lived there but I really don't think so. There's a rhythym and an energy to the city that I absolutely feed off. It's almost chemical. Maybe I lived a previous life in Greenwich Village but I believe I am more of myself when I'm there than anywhere else, except perhaps in a radio studio. It feels like home.
I have great respect and admiration for my late sister who was an aritist and aspiring actress. Not content to remain in Montreal she decided to move to New York while in her 30's and lived there, not without some difficulty, until the day she died in July of 1998. She too adored the city. Maybe it's in our blood.
I'm often asked how I can afford to head down as often as I do. It's not easy. But there are ways, especially with a small group of people, where you can enjoy the scene for less than you think. Here's a bit of a guide:
When I'm alone I stay in a small (closet sized) but very clean room in the Union Square area. I don't need space in a hotel room where I am only going to sleep and shower. It's a short walk to The Village and SoHo and so many of the places I like to hang out at including the Strand bookstore where I once ran into Willem Dafoe loading a crateful of used books into the back of a friends pick up truck. www.strandbooks.com
The Virgin Megastore is located in the heart of Union Square. Why wait weeks for a CD in Montreal when it's already on display at Virgin? And like The Strand you could spend hours browsing through cd's, dvd's, boxsets and books that you can't possibly find here at home.
http://www.virginmegamagazine.com/default.asp?vms=7
If it's import, hardcore, punk or "special" recordings you're looking for than head a few blocks south to Thompson. I've spent way too much money in there over the years on many recordings that are becoming obsolete as Dylan and Neil Young are now releasing their own bootleg series.
Among the food places to hit in The Village are John's Pizza and Arturo's. The pizza at both joints are made in coal ovens, which no longer exist anywhere else in the city. It's the best pizza I've ever had. John's is on Bleeker Street (and in midtown) and is strictly about the pies (no slices). Arturo's is much more of a hang out with a variety of fabulous Italian food.
http://www.johnsofbleeckerstreet.com/
http://nymag.com/listings/restaurant/arturos/
If it's a burger you want head to another legendary joint, The Corner Bistro on West 4th. If you're still thirsty head to Hudson and 11th where The White Horse Tavern awaits as it has since 1880, with a wall-sized image of Dylan Thomas who drank himself to death at the establishment in 1953.
If you're a music fan a stroll down to Prince Street in SoHo is a must. The Morrison Hotel Gallery features astonishing portraits of some of the greatest names in music history shot by some of the greatest photographers in music history.
http://www.morrisonhotelgallery.com/
Last weekend, before I headed to Woodstock, I attended a couple of small shows. Rocky Votolato is an interesting singer-songwriter who can remind you of early Springsteen or perhaps Jakob Dylan. I have a couple of his cd's but had never seen him. So I headed to The Knitting Factory in the TriBeca section of Manhattan. Jam packed and over heated I was hoping it was worth the trek. It wasn't. He sang in barely a whisper, played in virtually the same key the entire set and accompanied himself with a recorded rythym section. The place went nuts. I went up to the Rodeo Bar at 3rd and 27th to catch Elana James and The Continental Two. This was old time country music at its best with no cover.
www.rockyvotolalo.com
www.knittingfactory.com
www.rodeobar.com
www.elanajames.com
Last friday in New York was a fabulous day. Sunny and 68 degrees. I decided to take the opportunity to do something I had never done before. Walk across the Brooklyn Bridge.
It's a mile walk each way but there is a subway stop on site if your feet give out. Even without the World Trade Center the views on the bridge are breathtaking. I don't know why I waited so long.
http://www.endex.com/gf/buildings/bbridge/bbridge.html
Later that night I attended The Allman Brothers show at the Beacon Theatre. I'm a big fan of both guitarists, Warren Haynes and Dereck Trucks, but on this night my seats were too far off to the side to fully appreciate their work. Besides I had been terribly distracted prior to the show at Yogi's, another legendary spot, a block north of the Beacon. So prior to the end of the first set I headed back. And stayed until my empty stomach forced me a couple of blocks north to Big Nick's. After sampling everything in their kitchen I headed back to Yogi's and waited for the post show crush while dancing the night away to umpteen renditions of "Whipping Post" that poured out of the jukebox while Knob Creek was poured into me. A great night.
www.allmanbrothersband.com
www.beacontheater.net
http://newyork.citysearch.com/profile/36628417/new_york_ny/yogi_s.html
http://bignicksnyc.com/
Closing time meant a 50 block cab ride to the Chelsea Hotel, made famous by the aformentioned Thomas, who collapsed in his room after his drinking binge at The White Horse; Thomas Wolfe, Bob Dylan, Leonard Cohen, Janis Joplin and countless other artists/writers and bohemians. The place is huge, filled with valuable and not so valuable artwork on every available wallspace with some surprisingly affordable rooms. The lobby itself is a show of eccentrics by eccentrics. And dogs are constantly being walked in and out. The staff is very friendly. And the room? By Manhattan standards it was almost earily quiet.
http://www.hotelchelsea.com/
Woke up Saturday morning to a breakfast at The Empire Diner. Don't remember walking in. But I do remember sitting at the counter, waiting for an omelette while coming to the rescue of a waiter who couldn't figure out the name of a former Met who's picture he had taken the night before. It was Ed Kranepool. The Met, not the waiter.
http://www.nyc-architecture.com/CHE/CHE004-EmpireDiner.htm
Then it was up to Woodstock. The rest, as Red Fisher would say, you know.
Other NYC locations worth checking out:
Music: Irving Plaza, Mercury Lounge, Red Lion (live music till 4 AM), Joe's Pub, The Living Room, Bowery Ballroom, Town Hall, Supper Club, Blue Note, Iridium Jazz Club (Les Paul every monday night), BB King Blues Club
Comedy: Comedy Cellar, Gotham, Caroline's
Always be observant in New York. Among the famous I've seen and met:
Bruce Sprinsgteen
Vinnie "Mad Dog" Lopez (original E Street drummer)
Patti Smith
Harvey Keitel
Jesse Malin
Rufus Wainwright
Steve Van Zandt
Amos Lee
Conan O'Brien
Jerry Seinfeld
Barry Shenk (Simpson DNA lawyer)
Bill Walton
George Recile (Dylan's drummer)
John Riggins
George Steinbrenner
Charlie Rangel (Congressman)
David Dinkins (Former mayor)
Favorite NY Rangers:
1. Eddie Giacomin
2. Glen Sather
3. Bobby Rousseau
4. Steve Vickers
5. Dave Maloney
6. James Patrick
7. Nick Fotiu
8. John Davidson
9. Adam Graves
10 PJ Stock
Monday, April 2, 2007
Saturday Night at Levon's
Monday April 2 7:30 PM
As most of you know I'm a big music fan. Always have some tune in my head. Right now I'm hearing Positively Fourth Street by Dylan, thinking about Claude Julien and Lou Lamoriello. I take vacation time around the Jazz Fest and try to book time off whenever I see an artist I admire booked into a small club in New York or Boston. Live music is an addiction of mine (along with caffeine and potato chips) that can be costly but healthy. It often provides me the same spiritual lift that many people get through organized religion. This past weekend I visited the church of Levon.
Levon Helm is one of the founding members of The Band. A Rock and Roll Hall of Famer who still lives close to where the group created such great music in the late 60's and early 70s. Music From Big Pink is one of the seminal albums of the 60s ("It changed my life" said Eric Clapton), and it actually still exists. The house where The Band lived is located in Saugerties near Woodstock, New York. It was painted pink. Apparently still is. Most people hear Woodstock and think of the music festival in 1969. But the festival was actually held about 35 miles away in Bethel. Woodstock already had a long history of attracting artists, musicians and writers long before Bob Dylan and The Band moved in. While Robbie Robertson and the late Richard Manuel eventually moved away, Garth Hudson, the late Rick Danko and Helm all stayed.
Today Levon lives about a five minute drive from the center of town. I was among a group of about 150 music fans who got to hang out in his home on saturday night as part of his continuing Midnight Ramble sessions. I'd call it heaven. Once you arrive on his property in the woods, friends and neighboors outfitted with "Helmland Security" t-shirts hand you your tickets and direct you to a parking spot. And it's nothing but good vibes for the rest of the night.
I first read about the Midnight Ramble in the Sunday New York Times about a year ago. It sounded almost too good to be true. Levon Helm is creating a lasting impression of the power of live music (in an era that relies so heavily on packaging and all that is phony) similar to what he grew up experiencing in sheds and open fields and front porches in his home state of Arkansas; not to mention the old medicine shows that used to roll into his and other southern towns. Throw in fans from across the world who show up for this event, many bringing food and drinks for all to share, and you have an evening that is simply unforgettable.
I urge you to make a pilgrimmage.
http://www.levonhelm.com/midnight_ramble.htm
Got a chance to walk around the town for a couple of hours prior to the show. There's certainly no shortage of "Woodstock Nation" memorabilia (almost expected to find some of the bad brown acid from the festival freeze dried and on sale, along with a Jimi Hendrix plastic cast) but what struck me was how many burned out casualties seemed to be walking around, most looking just like the Dennis Hopper character in Apocalypse Now. Bill Lee suggested that they've all been pickled.
That's not to say it's not a neat spot. It's located in the Catskill Mountains. Beautiful and peaceful. A refreshing way to wind up a weekend after spending a couple of enjoyable but frenzied nights in Manhatten including a night at The Chelsea Hotel following a concert by The Allman Brothers.
More details to follow. Enjoy the matzoh.
Favorite Jewish musicians:
1. Bob Dylan (Zimmerman)
2. Elvis Presley (Original family name was Pressler): http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elvis_Presley
3. Lou Reed
4. Warren Zevon (father was Jewish gangster)
5. Leonard Cohen
6. Joey Ramone
7. Dan Bern
8. Paul Simon
9. Steve Wynn
10. Kinky Friedman
11. Ramblin' Jack Elliott (Adnopoz)
12. Mike Bloomfield
13. Al Jolson
14. Lucy Kaplansky
15. Jackie Wilson (converted)
As most of you know I'm a big music fan. Always have some tune in my head. Right now I'm hearing Positively Fourth Street by Dylan, thinking about Claude Julien and Lou Lamoriello. I take vacation time around the Jazz Fest and try to book time off whenever I see an artist I admire booked into a small club in New York or Boston. Live music is an addiction of mine (along with caffeine and potato chips) that can be costly but healthy. It often provides me the same spiritual lift that many people get through organized religion. This past weekend I visited the church of Levon.
Levon Helm is one of the founding members of The Band. A Rock and Roll Hall of Famer who still lives close to where the group created such great music in the late 60's and early 70s. Music From Big Pink is one of the seminal albums of the 60s ("It changed my life" said Eric Clapton), and it actually still exists. The house where The Band lived is located in Saugerties near Woodstock, New York. It was painted pink. Apparently still is. Most people hear Woodstock and think of the music festival in 1969. But the festival was actually held about 35 miles away in Bethel. Woodstock already had a long history of attracting artists, musicians and writers long before Bob Dylan and The Band moved in. While Robbie Robertson and the late Richard Manuel eventually moved away, Garth Hudson, the late Rick Danko and Helm all stayed.
Today Levon lives about a five minute drive from the center of town. I was among a group of about 150 music fans who got to hang out in his home on saturday night as part of his continuing Midnight Ramble sessions. I'd call it heaven. Once you arrive on his property in the woods, friends and neighboors outfitted with "Helmland Security" t-shirts hand you your tickets and direct you to a parking spot. And it's nothing but good vibes for the rest of the night.
I first read about the Midnight Ramble in the Sunday New York Times about a year ago. It sounded almost too good to be true. Levon Helm is creating a lasting impression of the power of live music (in an era that relies so heavily on packaging and all that is phony) similar to what he grew up experiencing in sheds and open fields and front porches in his home state of Arkansas; not to mention the old medicine shows that used to roll into his and other southern towns. Throw in fans from across the world who show up for this event, many bringing food and drinks for all to share, and you have an evening that is simply unforgettable.
I urge you to make a pilgrimmage.
http://www.levonhelm.com/midnight_ramble.htm
Got a chance to walk around the town for a couple of hours prior to the show. There's certainly no shortage of "Woodstock Nation" memorabilia (almost expected to find some of the bad brown acid from the festival freeze dried and on sale, along with a Jimi Hendrix plastic cast) but what struck me was how many burned out casualties seemed to be walking around, most looking just like the Dennis Hopper character in Apocalypse Now. Bill Lee suggested that they've all been pickled.
That's not to say it's not a neat spot. It's located in the Catskill Mountains. Beautiful and peaceful. A refreshing way to wind up a weekend after spending a couple of enjoyable but frenzied nights in Manhatten including a night at The Chelsea Hotel following a concert by The Allman Brothers.
More details to follow. Enjoy the matzoh.
Favorite Jewish musicians:
1. Bob Dylan (Zimmerman)
2. Elvis Presley (Original family name was Pressler): http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elvis_Presley
3. Lou Reed
4. Warren Zevon (father was Jewish gangster)
5. Leonard Cohen
6. Joey Ramone
7. Dan Bern
8. Paul Simon
9. Steve Wynn
10. Kinky Friedman
11. Ramblin' Jack Elliott (Adnopoz)
12. Mike Bloomfield
13. Al Jolson
14. Lucy Kaplansky
15. Jackie Wilson (converted)
Saturday, March 24, 2007
The Terry Ryan Flu
Saturday March 24 3 PM
My head hurts. Not a hang-over hurt. Not a normal headache. More of a dull ache. Maybe it's a withdrawl sympton. I've been off the air for over a week. Haven't had a Guinness or Jamieson since last sunday. Been away from Terry Ryan since later that night as he, in the words of the late Danny Gallivan "gingerly negotiated his way" down the ice- filled steps of my place, a St. Johns Leafs hockey bag flung over his left shoulder, another bag of jeans, t-shirts, cd's and dvd's he purchased while in Montreal flung over the same shoulder, while his right hand clutched a pair of hockey sticks he used to help lead the Melnick in the Afternoon team to the first ever Team 990 Molson-Ex Hockey Challenge Championship three days earlier.
Now he was gone. In an Atlas taxi heading to the airport. And my head started to hurt. Ryan-itis?
Long before I got to know him, I always liked Terry Ryan. What was not to like? A big winger with a bigger heart who could fight and score. Yeah, there were players the Habs probably should have selected (most notably Jerome Iginla) instead of using the 8th overall pick in the 1995 draft on Terry. http://www.hockeydb.com/ihdb/draft/nhl1995e.html
But how many players across the country were coming off the kind of season Ryan had for Tri-City? Playing on the same team as Daymond Langkow and Sheldon Souray, Ryan scored 50 goals, 110 points in 70 games while racking up 207 penalty minutes. He added another 27 points including 12 goals in 17 playoff games.
When he first joined the Habs Terry impressed, if not with his skating, then certainly his willingness to mix it up. He has a tape of me from the the old "Habs This Week" tv show I used to host suggesting that he might one day develop into a Rick Tocchet style player. Not exactly cherry picking his opponents, among Terry's early NHL dance partners was Tie Domi. Unfortunately that moment might be his lasting NHL legacy. NHL totals: 8 games, 0 points, 36 PIM. What happened? It's a tale better left told by Terry himself. Suffice to say the Ron Corey move of canning Jacques Demers and Serge Savard didn't help.
I met him over breakfast last summer while he was in Montreal for a ball hockey tournament. Turned out we share a love of sports and music. Very similar tastes. He also tells a great story.
And he was interested in radio. So he agreed to join me every monday at 4:10 from his home/office or on the road somewhere in St. John's. We talk, surprise surprise, hockey and music.
Looking for any reason at all to return to Montreal Terry jumped at the chance to play in The Team 990 Molson Ex Challenge. Especially as it lead into St. Patrick's Day weekend. While there seemed to be an awful lot of trash talk in our studio leading to the event (most notably by PJ Stock) I've always subscribed to the wonderful quote from who knows where (if anybody knows the source please pass along) "When you lose say little, when you win say less".
Based on the quote I should stop right here. But a bit of background info. I used to play hockey regularly (weekly, usually friday nights, saturday mornings at 3 or 4 AM) in my 20's; semi-regularly( once or twice a month, whenever a team needed a goalie) in my 30's, and almost never since I turned 40 (the odd charity game-last one I played in was five years ago, I think we(I) got beat the Alouettes, most of whom were very hung over and nasty on the ice. I do remember Shaun Starr playing defense, farting his way through most of his shifts, while Jacques Demers coached from our bench). Even though I didn't play much I skated often, especially with my kids, as I lived across the street from Westmount Arena for nearly a decade. I was very much looking forward to playing in the Molson Ex Challenge. Until I started to prepare for it. Lifting weights wasn't the hard part, although I did feel unusually gassed after three sets. Then I hopped onto my stationary bike in an attempt to peddle through the new John Fogerty concert DVD, The Long Road Home (It's terrific; Fogerty hardly looks or sounds like a guy in his 60's), or at least 20 minutes of it. One song in and I started to feel dizzy. Then I nearly fell right off. A completely blocked left ear was obviously affecting my balance. I tried the same exercise the next day with the same result. A call to my doctor eventually led me to an ear specialist who told me what I already knew except that it could last six weeks. Following a return visit the following week I was sent to the Audiology department at the Jewish General Hospsital for more tests (which included repeating taped messages of a soothing voice: "Say the word....castle" (I thought the word was hassle), "Say the word...tick" (I thought it was tit but realized it couldn't have been, I took a wild guess and said tick). Turns out I do have some permanent hearing loss, due mostly to aging and way too many concerts. Ear plugs are definately in my near future, perhaps as soon as this friday as I'm scheduled to catch The Allman Brothers at The Beacon Theatre in New York.
While I continued to work on the air, terribly over-compensating for my left ear blockage by blasting my headphones to the max, I was beyond uncomfortable. While many of us have worked or tried to work through various illnesses or injuries, I could no longer do my job properly because I could not hear myself. Kind of like a musician without a stage monitor.
And any hopes of making myself feel better by playing some hockey and running PJ Stock into the crossbar were dashed when "Who'll Stop The Rain" seemed to be turning into "Strawberry Fields Forever". I resigned myself to not playing. But I wouldn't miss the event. So I made my Bell Center coaching debut. How many men can say they stood where Guy Carbonneau stands and own a perfect record?
Special thanks to our Twin Towers on defense, Martin Paulhus and Paul Lambert, nearly 300 pounds of skill and muscle. Our second defense pair was right out of Molson headquarters, Geoff Molson with converted right winger Bradley Ogier, who once played against Chris Pronger in high school.
Team Marinaro might have had a Luongo in goal (Leo, very good) but nobody played better than our own 40 year old Triple D Domenic "Dominator" Durante who played up to his nickname.
Successful coaches know when to change on the fly and play matchs ups when possible. These guys made it so easy for me, all I really had to do was chew on some ice:
Marc Lussier, career beer leaguer Mark Bartholomew, longtime teammates Chris Hoffman and Anthony "Tony" Granato, Julien "The Comet" Francis, Bill "Vassy" Vassilas, Robert Varillo, and our regular contributors; Lorne "The Advisor" Rubin (better than any other freelancer), Andie "She's really getting dressed with us?" Bennett (and UNdressed!) and our captain Terry Ryan.
Marinaro has apparently been whining about not getting much rest between games. Each game was 24 minutes. That's a total of 24 minutes. Running time. Wonder what John Torterella would say?
Anyway, it was a great event. A mini fantasy camp for everybody involved. Special thanks to Molson's, The Bell Center (especially security and zamboni staff) La Cage Aux Sports and our on ice officials: Kevin Mitchell, Kevin Rechil, Derek Widgington and Tommy Carkovic. Look forward to defending the championship-while playing-next year.
Back to Ryan. His on ice mission now accomplished (I left the dressing room prior to the first game to let Terry adress his teammates. His remarks were apparently Messier-like in depth and inspiration. Grown men and women will be weeping for years whenever they're asked about it.) Terry's actual work was just starting. Shmoozing with the masses before running into old friends deep into the night at Hurley's, co-hosting Friday morning editions of The Stock Exchange and The Montreal Forum (thoroughly embarrassed by his teams' 0-3 mark, PJ Stock shipped off to Boston for the weekend), guesting with Stephen Brunt and others at our annual St. Patrick's Day blow out at Hurley's, discovering people and places and bodies he never knew existed while arriving in time for a saturday breakfast show at McKibbins with Joey Elias, heading to the Bell Center early enough prior to the Habs-Leafs match up to catch up with old friends Ron MacLean and Don Cherry, hanging out in their studio for a period before heading into a private lodge run by relatives of Marinaro, meeting up again at Hurley's following the game with a few members of the Canadiens family in the not-yet-officially-opened-for business brand new wing of the Pub (it's going to be gorgeous) on the second floor, resting up just long enough to land with a thud on The Team 990 float for the parade on sunday, taking the microphone during a computer malfunction, imploring hundreds along Ste Catherine and Fort to "Visit the Ryan's this summer in St John's!!!". And then his work was done. Oh, to be 30 again.
With Ryan safely (?) back home, my condition seemed to worsen. While I detected some movement in my ear tube (when sneezing) the rest of my body seemed to be telling me that I had done enough damage for awhile. I couldn't move for the week. Literally.
I slept. I shuffled to the sofa. I read. I ate. I watched hockey. I shuffled back to bed. I read more about Conrad Black than I ever thought I would. I read about a new 36 hole golf course going up in Israel adjacent to the Sea of Galilea. Craters from Hamas attacks will be turned into sand traps. I listened to music. Neil Young at Massey Hall 1971 is sensational. The new Rickie Lee Jones (The Sermon On Exposition Boulevard) is inspiring. The Stooges first cd in 30 years (The Weirdness) sounds like...The Stooges! If you like guitar heroes check out Joe Bonamassa. His latest is an all blues effort with help from Jason Bonham. Yes, they cover Zeppelin. http://www.jbonamassa.com/index2.htm
At least I still had an appetite. But I still can't hear out of my left ear. Next week will mark the magic 6 week period since I first noticed the blockage. I'll remain off the air until it clears up, or until the Canadiens clinch a playoff spot, whichever comes first.
Amazing what above average goaltending can do for a team, huh? Or, in the case of the NY Islanders without Rick DiPietro and the Habs prior to Halak II, below average goaltending. No deep mysteries. No wondering why the team is so listless (A Hall of Fame broadcaster recently went on tv to suggest that a friend of his, who has season tickets at ice level, complains that players in the penalty box show no emotion! The surest sign yet that there must be a coaching/leadership/chemistry/talent problem on the team.)
Over the years I have grown a very high tolerance level, as is a necessity in this business, for those who might sound off base on a particular topic. Everyone is entitled to an opinion should be printed on business cards for anybody in talk radio. But I must confess there is one topic I have virtually no time left to discuss, clearly no patience for and frankly, at this stage, no respect for anybody who buys into the Saku Koivu is not a real captain bullshit. It's enough to make my head throb, again. We all get e-mails from listeners who want to know why, after 10 years without winning "anything", I continue to support Koivu in the manner in which I do. As if simply by having the 'C' on his sweater gives him the power to carry everybody on his back and all the way to what...a Stanley Cup? Can anybody tell me which team Koivu has been a part of while he's been here that should have gone further than it did? You want him to, at some point, "guarantee a win" in a key game, a la Messier, who by the way, spent the last seven years of his career OUT of the playoffs?
If you have yet to figure out what kind of competitor, talent, spirit and leader this man is than you're either blind, ignorant or simply prefer to take out your frustrations on the most visible player(s) available, outside of the goaltender, without regard to facts or evidence.
It was very gratifying then, as part of lie-on-my couch week, to hi-lite PVR material which included tributes to Koivu on TSN and HNIC. The occasion was Koivu being cancer free for five years. And how he has helped and inspired so many others, without lifting a Cup.
That's character. That's leadership. That's a winner. In more than three languages.
My head hurts. Not a hang-over hurt. Not a normal headache. More of a dull ache. Maybe it's a withdrawl sympton. I've been off the air for over a week. Haven't had a Guinness or Jamieson since last sunday. Been away from Terry Ryan since later that night as he, in the words of the late Danny Gallivan "gingerly negotiated his way" down the ice- filled steps of my place, a St. Johns Leafs hockey bag flung over his left shoulder, another bag of jeans, t-shirts, cd's and dvd's he purchased while in Montreal flung over the same shoulder, while his right hand clutched a pair of hockey sticks he used to help lead the Melnick in the Afternoon team to the first ever Team 990 Molson-Ex Hockey Challenge Championship three days earlier.
Now he was gone. In an Atlas taxi heading to the airport. And my head started to hurt. Ryan-itis?
Long before I got to know him, I always liked Terry Ryan. What was not to like? A big winger with a bigger heart who could fight and score. Yeah, there were players the Habs probably should have selected (most notably Jerome Iginla) instead of using the 8th overall pick in the 1995 draft on Terry. http://www.hockeydb.com/ihdb/draft/nhl1995e.html
But how many players across the country were coming off the kind of season Ryan had for Tri-City? Playing on the same team as Daymond Langkow and Sheldon Souray, Ryan scored 50 goals, 110 points in 70 games while racking up 207 penalty minutes. He added another 27 points including 12 goals in 17 playoff games.
When he first joined the Habs Terry impressed, if not with his skating, then certainly his willingness to mix it up. He has a tape of me from the the old "Habs This Week" tv show I used to host suggesting that he might one day develop into a Rick Tocchet style player. Not exactly cherry picking his opponents, among Terry's early NHL dance partners was Tie Domi. Unfortunately that moment might be his lasting NHL legacy. NHL totals: 8 games, 0 points, 36 PIM. What happened? It's a tale better left told by Terry himself. Suffice to say the Ron Corey move of canning Jacques Demers and Serge Savard didn't help.
I met him over breakfast last summer while he was in Montreal for a ball hockey tournament. Turned out we share a love of sports and music. Very similar tastes. He also tells a great story.
And he was interested in radio. So he agreed to join me every monday at 4:10 from his home/office or on the road somewhere in St. John's. We talk, surprise surprise, hockey and music.
Looking for any reason at all to return to Montreal Terry jumped at the chance to play in The Team 990 Molson Ex Challenge. Especially as it lead into St. Patrick's Day weekend. While there seemed to be an awful lot of trash talk in our studio leading to the event (most notably by PJ Stock) I've always subscribed to the wonderful quote from who knows where (if anybody knows the source please pass along) "When you lose say little, when you win say less".
Based on the quote I should stop right here. But a bit of background info. I used to play hockey regularly (weekly, usually friday nights, saturday mornings at 3 or 4 AM) in my 20's; semi-regularly( once or twice a month, whenever a team needed a goalie) in my 30's, and almost never since I turned 40 (the odd charity game-last one I played in was five years ago, I think we(I) got beat the Alouettes, most of whom were very hung over and nasty on the ice. I do remember Shaun Starr playing defense, farting his way through most of his shifts, while Jacques Demers coached from our bench). Even though I didn't play much I skated often, especially with my kids, as I lived across the street from Westmount Arena for nearly a decade. I was very much looking forward to playing in the Molson Ex Challenge. Until I started to prepare for it. Lifting weights wasn't the hard part, although I did feel unusually gassed after three sets. Then I hopped onto my stationary bike in an attempt to peddle through the new John Fogerty concert DVD, The Long Road Home (It's terrific; Fogerty hardly looks or sounds like a guy in his 60's), or at least 20 minutes of it. One song in and I started to feel dizzy. Then I nearly fell right off. A completely blocked left ear was obviously affecting my balance. I tried the same exercise the next day with the same result. A call to my doctor eventually led me to an ear specialist who told me what I already knew except that it could last six weeks. Following a return visit the following week I was sent to the Audiology department at the Jewish General Hospsital for more tests (which included repeating taped messages of a soothing voice: "Say the word....castle" (I thought the word was hassle), "Say the word...tick" (I thought it was tit but realized it couldn't have been, I took a wild guess and said tick). Turns out I do have some permanent hearing loss, due mostly to aging and way too many concerts. Ear plugs are definately in my near future, perhaps as soon as this friday as I'm scheduled to catch The Allman Brothers at The Beacon Theatre in New York.
While I continued to work on the air, terribly over-compensating for my left ear blockage by blasting my headphones to the max, I was beyond uncomfortable. While many of us have worked or tried to work through various illnesses or injuries, I could no longer do my job properly because I could not hear myself. Kind of like a musician without a stage monitor.
And any hopes of making myself feel better by playing some hockey and running PJ Stock into the crossbar were dashed when "Who'll Stop The Rain" seemed to be turning into "Strawberry Fields Forever". I resigned myself to not playing. But I wouldn't miss the event. So I made my Bell Center coaching debut. How many men can say they stood where Guy Carbonneau stands and own a perfect record?
Special thanks to our Twin Towers on defense, Martin Paulhus and Paul Lambert, nearly 300 pounds of skill and muscle. Our second defense pair was right out of Molson headquarters, Geoff Molson with converted right winger Bradley Ogier, who once played against Chris Pronger in high school.
Team Marinaro might have had a Luongo in goal (Leo, very good) but nobody played better than our own 40 year old Triple D Domenic "Dominator" Durante who played up to his nickname.
Successful coaches know when to change on the fly and play matchs ups when possible. These guys made it so easy for me, all I really had to do was chew on some ice:
Marc Lussier, career beer leaguer Mark Bartholomew, longtime teammates Chris Hoffman and Anthony "Tony" Granato, Julien "The Comet" Francis, Bill "Vassy" Vassilas, Robert Varillo, and our regular contributors; Lorne "The Advisor" Rubin (better than any other freelancer), Andie "She's really getting dressed with us?" Bennett (and UNdressed!) and our captain Terry Ryan.
Marinaro has apparently been whining about not getting much rest between games. Each game was 24 minutes. That's a total of 24 minutes. Running time. Wonder what John Torterella would say?
Anyway, it was a great event. A mini fantasy camp for everybody involved. Special thanks to Molson's, The Bell Center (especially security and zamboni staff) La Cage Aux Sports and our on ice officials: Kevin Mitchell, Kevin Rechil, Derek Widgington and Tommy Carkovic. Look forward to defending the championship-while playing-next year.
Back to Ryan. His on ice mission now accomplished (I left the dressing room prior to the first game to let Terry adress his teammates. His remarks were apparently Messier-like in depth and inspiration. Grown men and women will be weeping for years whenever they're asked about it.) Terry's actual work was just starting. Shmoozing with the masses before running into old friends deep into the night at Hurley's, co-hosting Friday morning editions of The Stock Exchange and The Montreal Forum (thoroughly embarrassed by his teams' 0-3 mark, PJ Stock shipped off to Boston for the weekend), guesting with Stephen Brunt and others at our annual St. Patrick's Day blow out at Hurley's, discovering people and places and bodies he never knew existed while arriving in time for a saturday breakfast show at McKibbins with Joey Elias, heading to the Bell Center early enough prior to the Habs-Leafs match up to catch up with old friends Ron MacLean and Don Cherry, hanging out in their studio for a period before heading into a private lodge run by relatives of Marinaro, meeting up again at Hurley's following the game with a few members of the Canadiens family in the not-yet-officially-opened-for business brand new wing of the Pub (it's going to be gorgeous) on the second floor, resting up just long enough to land with a thud on The Team 990 float for the parade on sunday, taking the microphone during a computer malfunction, imploring hundreds along Ste Catherine and Fort to "Visit the Ryan's this summer in St John's!!!". And then his work was done. Oh, to be 30 again.
With Ryan safely (?) back home, my condition seemed to worsen. While I detected some movement in my ear tube (when sneezing) the rest of my body seemed to be telling me that I had done enough damage for awhile. I couldn't move for the week. Literally.
I slept. I shuffled to the sofa. I read. I ate. I watched hockey. I shuffled back to bed. I read more about Conrad Black than I ever thought I would. I read about a new 36 hole golf course going up in Israel adjacent to the Sea of Galilea. Craters from Hamas attacks will be turned into sand traps. I listened to music. Neil Young at Massey Hall 1971 is sensational. The new Rickie Lee Jones (The Sermon On Exposition Boulevard) is inspiring. The Stooges first cd in 30 years (The Weirdness) sounds like...The Stooges! If you like guitar heroes check out Joe Bonamassa. His latest is an all blues effort with help from Jason Bonham. Yes, they cover Zeppelin. http://www.jbonamassa.com/index2.htm
At least I still had an appetite. But I still can't hear out of my left ear. Next week will mark the magic 6 week period since I first noticed the blockage. I'll remain off the air until it clears up, or until the Canadiens clinch a playoff spot, whichever comes first.
Amazing what above average goaltending can do for a team, huh? Or, in the case of the NY Islanders without Rick DiPietro and the Habs prior to Halak II, below average goaltending. No deep mysteries. No wondering why the team is so listless (A Hall of Fame broadcaster recently went on tv to suggest that a friend of his, who has season tickets at ice level, complains that players in the penalty box show no emotion! The surest sign yet that there must be a coaching/leadership/chemistry/talent problem on the team.)
Over the years I have grown a very high tolerance level, as is a necessity in this business, for those who might sound off base on a particular topic. Everyone is entitled to an opinion should be printed on business cards for anybody in talk radio. But I must confess there is one topic I have virtually no time left to discuss, clearly no patience for and frankly, at this stage, no respect for anybody who buys into the Saku Koivu is not a real captain bullshit. It's enough to make my head throb, again. We all get e-mails from listeners who want to know why, after 10 years without winning "anything", I continue to support Koivu in the manner in which I do. As if simply by having the 'C' on his sweater gives him the power to carry everybody on his back and all the way to what...a Stanley Cup? Can anybody tell me which team Koivu has been a part of while he's been here that should have gone further than it did? You want him to, at some point, "guarantee a win" in a key game, a la Messier, who by the way, spent the last seven years of his career OUT of the playoffs?
If you have yet to figure out what kind of competitor, talent, spirit and leader this man is than you're either blind, ignorant or simply prefer to take out your frustrations on the most visible player(s) available, outside of the goaltender, without regard to facts or evidence.
It was very gratifying then, as part of lie-on-my couch week, to hi-lite PVR material which included tributes to Koivu on TSN and HNIC. The occasion was Koivu being cancer free for five years. And how he has helped and inspired so many others, without lifting a Cup.
That's character. That's leadership. That's a winner. In more than three languages.
Friday, March 9, 2007
After A Week Like This...
Friday March 9, 8:45 PM
Just another week in Habland....
La Presse devotes six pages in it's monday sports section to "L'Affaire Kovalev", printing what it says is a word for word transcript of an interview a Russian journalist says she conducted with Kovalev on his birthday (Feb 24)... Kovalev is critical of Guy Carbonneau and some teammates, especially the French ones... La Presse says it heard a portion of the interview....Francois Gagnon offers up a vigorous defense of his paper on The Team 990 morning show, saying the paper has the conversation on tape...Kovalev denies everything, then addresses his teammates before they publicly go to bat for him, some suggesting there is no chemistry problem on the team (Saku Koivu: "Best room we've had in 10 years")...Out of nowhere Jack Todd emerges, describing La Presse as "brave" and a journalist he's never met or read as "courageous"...Todd then returns to work on his life story, entitled "One New Adventure In The Cuckoo's Nest"...PJ Stock, a frequent critic of Kovalev, demands a copy of the so-called taped interview...A veteran Russian journalist, who also happens to be Kovalev's biographer says he doesn't believe the story, and the publication it originally appeared in "constantly makes things up"...The journalist in question says a lot of what appeared in La Presse is not what Kovalev told her, that there must have been something "lost in the tanslation"...Stock and Gagnon battle it out on 110%....Making the best use of a prop in public since Russian Premier Nikita Kruschev banged a table at the UN with his shoe, Stock pulls out a black cassette ('The Best of Boston" had been taped over), taps it on the table and asks Gagnon for proof that Kovalev said what La Presse had reported....Gagnon, for the first time in his professional life cannot get a word in...Stock, outnumbered four to one, makes like Henri Richard versus the Bruins in Boston circa 1959 and wins a unanimous decsion over all of his opponents...Gagnon finally gets to speak (yell) off the air as he chases Stock down the hallway...TQS staff alert security as Stock turns to face Gagnon and fires back...Enrico Ciccone, warming up in the Green Room for his appearance the next night, begins to stretch...Stock manages to get into his Anglo car without further incident...calls a radio friend to tell him that "It got ugly"...Kovalev is described in print as "The Godfather of the Russian Mob" inside the Canadiens dressing room....Andie Bennett reports to pratice and is besieged by the media, wanting to know what had happened between Stock and Gagnon...Gagnon, supposedly enjoying time off with the wife and kids rips Stock in his blog...Pierre McGuire calls in from Edmonton wanting to know what happened between Stock and Gagnon...Stock reluctantly appears on the air at six, obviously angered by Gagnon's blog...Gagnon appears on the air, as scheduled, the next morning at 8:05...says he shouldn't have said that La Presse had a tape, and was hopeful that he and PJ could laugh about the previous night...Dave Stubbs interviews Yvan Cournoyer and Richard for The Gazette...both legends suggest media coverage of Kovalev is out of control and could scare players away....Cournoyer suggesting the French press could "demolish" Montreal as a hockey city...The Habs play the surging Thrashers in Atlanta...29 minutes into the game they trail 6-0...Kovalev is nearly invisible...Carbonneau "gets tough" at practice...Rejean Tremblay bookmarks everything for future use in "Lance et Compte"...
Meanwhile...in New york Chris Simon tries to slice off Ryan Holweg's head with his stick....
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FOdGMaaV-8A
I'd suspend Simon for the rest of the regular season (15 games) , the playoffs, plus 10 games next season.
Time to prepare for some much needed levity at the Irishman of the Year Breakfast. Don't forget we'll carry it live beginning at 9 AM.
Favorite Drinks:
1. The Macallan, 12 years old
2. Jack Daniels Single Barrel
3. The Macallan, 25 years
4. The Macallan, 10 years (60% alcohol!)
5. Knob Creek
6. Tequila (Cuervo shot)
7. Johnny Walker Blue
8. Guinness
9. Heineken
10.Dr.Pepper
-The worst thing about some men is that when they are not drunk they are sober.
William Butler Yeats
Favorite Irish Musicians:
1. Van Morrison
2. U2
3. The Pogues
4. Rory Gallagher
5. The Chieftains
6. Thin Lizzy
7. The Undertones
8. The Clancy Brothers
9. Luka Bloom
10. Sinead O'Connor
-The most beautiful music of all is the music of what happens
Irish proverb
Just another week in Habland....
La Presse devotes six pages in it's monday sports section to "L'Affaire Kovalev", printing what it says is a word for word transcript of an interview a Russian journalist says she conducted with Kovalev on his birthday (Feb 24)... Kovalev is critical of Guy Carbonneau and some teammates, especially the French ones... La Presse says it heard a portion of the interview....Francois Gagnon offers up a vigorous defense of his paper on The Team 990 morning show, saying the paper has the conversation on tape...Kovalev denies everything, then addresses his teammates before they publicly go to bat for him, some suggesting there is no chemistry problem on the team (Saku Koivu: "Best room we've had in 10 years")...Out of nowhere Jack Todd emerges, describing La Presse as "brave" and a journalist he's never met or read as "courageous"...Todd then returns to work on his life story, entitled "One New Adventure In The Cuckoo's Nest"...PJ Stock, a frequent critic of Kovalev, demands a copy of the so-called taped interview...A veteran Russian journalist, who also happens to be Kovalev's biographer says he doesn't believe the story, and the publication it originally appeared in "constantly makes things up"...The journalist in question says a lot of what appeared in La Presse is not what Kovalev told her, that there must have been something "lost in the tanslation"...Stock and Gagnon battle it out on 110%....Making the best use of a prop in public since Russian Premier Nikita Kruschev banged a table at the UN with his shoe, Stock pulls out a black cassette ('The Best of Boston" had been taped over), taps it on the table and asks Gagnon for proof that Kovalev said what La Presse had reported....Gagnon, for the first time in his professional life cannot get a word in...Stock, outnumbered four to one, makes like Henri Richard versus the Bruins in Boston circa 1959 and wins a unanimous decsion over all of his opponents...Gagnon finally gets to speak (yell) off the air as he chases Stock down the hallway...TQS staff alert security as Stock turns to face Gagnon and fires back...Enrico Ciccone, warming up in the Green Room for his appearance the next night, begins to stretch...Stock manages to get into his Anglo car without further incident...calls a radio friend to tell him that "It got ugly"...Kovalev is described in print as "The Godfather of the Russian Mob" inside the Canadiens dressing room....Andie Bennett reports to pratice and is besieged by the media, wanting to know what had happened between Stock and Gagnon...Gagnon, supposedly enjoying time off with the wife and kids rips Stock in his blog...Pierre McGuire calls in from Edmonton wanting to know what happened between Stock and Gagnon...Stock reluctantly appears on the air at six, obviously angered by Gagnon's blog...Gagnon appears on the air, as scheduled, the next morning at 8:05...says he shouldn't have said that La Presse had a tape, and was hopeful that he and PJ could laugh about the previous night...Dave Stubbs interviews Yvan Cournoyer and Richard for The Gazette...both legends suggest media coverage of Kovalev is out of control and could scare players away....Cournoyer suggesting the French press could "demolish" Montreal as a hockey city...The Habs play the surging Thrashers in Atlanta...29 minutes into the game they trail 6-0...Kovalev is nearly invisible...Carbonneau "gets tough" at practice...Rejean Tremblay bookmarks everything for future use in "Lance et Compte"...
Meanwhile...in New york Chris Simon tries to slice off Ryan Holweg's head with his stick....
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FOdGMaaV-8A
I'd suspend Simon for the rest of the regular season (15 games) , the playoffs, plus 10 games next season.
Time to prepare for some much needed levity at the Irishman of the Year Breakfast. Don't forget we'll carry it live beginning at 9 AM.
Favorite Drinks:
1. The Macallan, 12 years old
2. Jack Daniels Single Barrel
3. The Macallan, 25 years
4. The Macallan, 10 years (60% alcohol!)
5. Knob Creek
6. Tequila (Cuervo shot)
7. Johnny Walker Blue
8. Guinness
9. Heineken
10.Dr.Pepper
-The worst thing about some men is that when they are not drunk they are sober.
William Butler Yeats
Favorite Irish Musicians:
1. Van Morrison
2. U2
3. The Pogues
4. Rory Gallagher
5. The Chieftains
6. Thin Lizzy
7. The Undertones
8. The Clancy Brothers
9. Luka Bloom
10. Sinead O'Connor
-The most beautiful music of all is the music of what happens
Irish proverb
Wednesday, March 7, 2007
Of Awards, Playoff Races, Goalie Coaches & 110%
Wednesday March 7, 7:45 PM
Let me get this out of the way before I forget, yet again.
The first Team 990 Sports Personality of the Year luncheon was a tremendous success. We couldn't have pulled it off without the incredible spirit of cooperation from the staff at Place D'Armes Hotel. Most of the tables were purchased without a moment of hesitation. Many thanks to Bill Hurley, Gerry O'Regan, Peter & Jerry Kakkaroubous, Peter Bitharas, Nigel & Carmine at Champs, Christine Pickrell and the entire Pickrell clan at Westmount Florists, Lorne Rubin, Lloyd Fischler, Gary Silverman, Ed Langton, Peter Pisoto, Steve Traynor, John Gillman, George Fontopolous, Roy Halpin, Spiro Krallis, John Christofaro, Linda Nolet, Mike Chiasson,The Montreal Alouettes, The Montreal Impact, The Montreal Royals, Rodger Brulotte, Randy Tieman, Ron Reusch, Arpon Basu, Jimmy Montgomery Sr, Bruce Roberts, Dino Cerasa, Donald K Donald, GEG, Warner Canada and many others.
But the man who deserves the most love is Noel Butler who conceived the idea during a drunken stupor at another fundraiser at some other radio station. Noel pulled off the biggest single day in the six year history of the station while working on a floss-string budget.
Some Hi-lights: Otis Grant putting an end to speculation that he's fueding with former longtime manager/trainer Russ Anber by explaining that Russ is the only man-other than himself-to ever touch his genitals...Anber, on crutches, poking fun at Tony Marinaro...Peter Dalla Riva, dryly but effectively warning Russ what happens to those who make fun of Italians...then presenting the Coach of the Year Award to the wrong Tony Iaucaduca(long story)...Denis Casvant presenting the Female Athlete of the Year Award to a ravishing Charline Labonte of McGill... Elliott Price & Brulotte comiserating on the loss of baseball...Shaun Starr presenting the Community Volunteer Award to a shocked Trevor Williams...Joey Elias travelling in from Ottawa to be with us making 200 people laugh...then heading right back to Ottawa via Via but not without putting out an SOS for Ms. Labonte...PJ Stock accepting the only award voted on by The Team 990 listeners, which went overwhelmingly to Saku Koivu, and delivering his brief address in French only...and Pierre McGuire bringing the room to a standstill with his keynote speech on life, success and leadership, ending it to a standing O....And the food was amazing...Oh yeah, all this happened on my Dad's 82nd birthday.
Wait till next year.
Perfect segue, huh?
I believe the Canadiens lost the opportunity to go to the playoffs at the trade deadline(see earlier posts). While they sit just one point out of 8th place as I write this I feel even more strongly about them not getting in as I did prior to the start of the season when I thought they'd make it. I also thought Sergei Samsanov and Alex Kovalev would scoree 55 to 60 goals between them.
Looking at the schedule of not only the Habs but their main competitors as well, keeping in mind the various moves that were made on or prior to february 27th, the Canadiens appear to need a minor miracle to make it. They've already lost winnable games to the Rangers and Bruins. One of the best indicators of the relative strength of a team is goal differential. Only the Bruins have a worse mark in that department than the Canadiens. And then there's goaltending.
Can I be the first to ask not how hard he works but just how effective Rollie Melanson is as a goaltending coach? Is it just me or has every goaltender he's worked with at the NHL level gotten worse instead of better? Jocelyn Thibeault. Jeff Hackett. Jose Theodore. Cristobal Huet. David Aebischer. See a pattern here?
It figures that with four days off between the loss in Boston and tomorrow night in Atlanta some firestorm at Camp Habitant was going to develop. I've seen enough of these in nearly 30 years but it's usually a tabloid involved. Oops, La Presse sports is a tabloid.
Rule #1 in journalism: Consider the source. I'm playing catch up on this Kovalev "he said she said" story but what I do know sounds awfully murky to me. What saddens me more than anything is that the debate has degenerated into yet another French-English battle, specifically Francois Gagnon vs PJ Stock. If I had never seen 110% before I would have thought that PJ's performance on tuesday night was out-of-control and over-the-top. But the more I watched it online earlier today( http://www.tqs.ca/emissions/110/) the more I admired PJ's stance. He was giving those guys a taste of their own medicine. And he finally figured out that you can dominate a show by not taking a breath. Afterwards, off the air, as we discovered earlier today, Gagnon told producers he'll never again appear on the same show as PJ. And then the two raised the audio level of debate to Blue. With TQS Security on stand-by.
Kovalev and Samsanov have had lousy years. That much is obvious. I happen to think the coaching staff shares at least some of the blame. There was no chemistry going all the way back to training camp when Mike Ribeiro played between them. Thomas Plekanic's season was going nowhere until he was taken away from them. A crucial part of coaching is getting the most out of your players. In this instance, we'll find out by this time next year if Guy Carbonneau could have/should have done more with these guys or if they both suddenly morphed into Mariusz Czerkawski.
This much we do know: Both were free agents. Both decided to sign with Montreal. Saku Koivu, who's been booed at home, decided to re-sign, with a no-trade clause (I still think he's nuts). Craig Rivet, who saw-and read- his share of misery (remember Rejean Tremblay writing, "Who the fuck is Craig Rivet?") loved playing here. As difficult as it is for Bob Gainey to attract free agents, why are some members of the media so anxious to rip apart some of the few guys who choose to be here? And is the level of vitriol, let alone criticism, the same for players who are french? I think it's a fair question. I have to search for a meaningful answer.
Stephane Richer was a flake. Terrifically talented to be sure but his heart simply wasn't into playing every night. Did he ever get it a la Koivu and Kovalev? I don't remember if he did. What I do remember is certain Francophone media members rejoicing when Rejean Houle commited yet another blunder and sent Lyle Odelein packing to re-acquire Richer. (Richer played less than 80 games in his second tour with the Habs. Odelein won a Cup in Jersey).
Pierre Turgeon was even more talented than Richer. But posessed even a smaller heart. Yet some in this town tried to turn him into Jean Beliveau II. As he was under- producing in a playoff series one spring a member of the Canadiens organization said I should back off from criticizing Turgeon because he was "Playing with the flu". When I mentioned this to a member of the coaching staff I was told "He's not playing with anything...he's playing LIKE shit". Or, to quote from the wonderful Gare Joyce book "When The Lights Went Out (How One Brawl Ended Hockey's Cold War And Changed The Game):
A Former Canadiens star says that his old team's problems in the mid-90's started with Turgeon, the most skilled player in the line up at the time. "You're never going to win", he said, "When your captain has the balls of snow peas."
Page 295 http://www.randomhouse.ca/catalog/display.pperl?isbn=9780385662741
Claude Lemieux, three years into his NHL career, had managed to alienate everybody. Teammates, coaches, officials, even some fans (ask former bartender Noel Butler). Yet Rejean Tremblay writes that Pat Burns (French mother) is subconsciously biased against french players.
The decline of Jose Theodore was chronicled in a much more accurate manner in the english media.
Michel Bergeron? Hey, I give him credit. Couldn't win in the playoffs as an NHL coach. Couldn't keep his job as a radio analyst. So he gets born again as a French Don Cherry. Applauded and admired by many of the same people who think Cherry should be banned from radio and tv.
Double standard? Pas ici.
Entre les lignes
P.J. Stock reproche aux médias francophones et aux partisans qui parlent la même langue qu’eux d’être constamment sur le dos des vedettes surtout si elle ne parle pas français. Ce doit être pour ça qu’il a passé les trois premiers mois de la saison à décrier Guillaume Latendresse, à dénoncer ses moindres erreurs et à rire de tous ceux qui l’appuyaient alors qu’il défendait bec et ongle son ami Sergei Samsonov qui souffrait de l’incompréhension des journalistes, des amateurs et de son coach… En passant P.J. ce ne sont pas les anglophones du West Island qui t’ont adulé quand tu jouais à Victoriaville et qui t’ont rendu l’hommage suprême de retirer ton chandail l’automne dernier. Et ce ne sont pas juste les partisans du West Island qui t’ont appuyé quand tu mettais plus de cœur sur la patinoire, les rares fois que tu y posais les patins, à Montréal que les 17 autres joueurs qui t’y accompagnaient. Et ce ne sont pas juste des anglos du West Island qui t’écoute à la radio et qui se demande comment tu peux aujourd’hui leur cracher dessus… Think about it…
http://www.cyberpresse.ca/article/20070306/CPBLOGUES02/70306070&blogdate=20070306&cacheid=20070306
Let me get this out of the way before I forget, yet again.
The first Team 990 Sports Personality of the Year luncheon was a tremendous success. We couldn't have pulled it off without the incredible spirit of cooperation from the staff at Place D'Armes Hotel. Most of the tables were purchased without a moment of hesitation. Many thanks to Bill Hurley, Gerry O'Regan, Peter & Jerry Kakkaroubous, Peter Bitharas, Nigel & Carmine at Champs, Christine Pickrell and the entire Pickrell clan at Westmount Florists, Lorne Rubin, Lloyd Fischler, Gary Silverman, Ed Langton, Peter Pisoto, Steve Traynor, John Gillman, George Fontopolous, Roy Halpin, Spiro Krallis, John Christofaro, Linda Nolet, Mike Chiasson,The Montreal Alouettes, The Montreal Impact, The Montreal Royals, Rodger Brulotte, Randy Tieman, Ron Reusch, Arpon Basu, Jimmy Montgomery Sr, Bruce Roberts, Dino Cerasa, Donald K Donald, GEG, Warner Canada and many others.
But the man who deserves the most love is Noel Butler who conceived the idea during a drunken stupor at another fundraiser at some other radio station. Noel pulled off the biggest single day in the six year history of the station while working on a floss-string budget.
Some Hi-lights: Otis Grant putting an end to speculation that he's fueding with former longtime manager/trainer Russ Anber by explaining that Russ is the only man-other than himself-to ever touch his genitals...Anber, on crutches, poking fun at Tony Marinaro...Peter Dalla Riva, dryly but effectively warning Russ what happens to those who make fun of Italians...then presenting the Coach of the Year Award to the wrong Tony Iaucaduca(long story)...Denis Casvant presenting the Female Athlete of the Year Award to a ravishing Charline Labonte of McGill... Elliott Price & Brulotte comiserating on the loss of baseball...Shaun Starr presenting the Community Volunteer Award to a shocked Trevor Williams...Joey Elias travelling in from Ottawa to be with us making 200 people laugh...then heading right back to Ottawa via Via but not without putting out an SOS for Ms. Labonte...PJ Stock accepting the only award voted on by The Team 990 listeners, which went overwhelmingly to Saku Koivu, and delivering his brief address in French only...and Pierre McGuire bringing the room to a standstill with his keynote speech on life, success and leadership, ending it to a standing O....And the food was amazing...Oh yeah, all this happened on my Dad's 82nd birthday.
Wait till next year.
Perfect segue, huh?
I believe the Canadiens lost the opportunity to go to the playoffs at the trade deadline(see earlier posts). While they sit just one point out of 8th place as I write this I feel even more strongly about them not getting in as I did prior to the start of the season when I thought they'd make it. I also thought Sergei Samsanov and Alex Kovalev would scoree 55 to 60 goals between them.
Looking at the schedule of not only the Habs but their main competitors as well, keeping in mind the various moves that were made on or prior to february 27th, the Canadiens appear to need a minor miracle to make it. They've already lost winnable games to the Rangers and Bruins. One of the best indicators of the relative strength of a team is goal differential. Only the Bruins have a worse mark in that department than the Canadiens. And then there's goaltending.
Can I be the first to ask not how hard he works but just how effective Rollie Melanson is as a goaltending coach? Is it just me or has every goaltender he's worked with at the NHL level gotten worse instead of better? Jocelyn Thibeault. Jeff Hackett. Jose Theodore. Cristobal Huet. David Aebischer. See a pattern here?
It figures that with four days off between the loss in Boston and tomorrow night in Atlanta some firestorm at Camp Habitant was going to develop. I've seen enough of these in nearly 30 years but it's usually a tabloid involved. Oops, La Presse sports is a tabloid.
Rule #1 in journalism: Consider the source. I'm playing catch up on this Kovalev "he said she said" story but what I do know sounds awfully murky to me. What saddens me more than anything is that the debate has degenerated into yet another French-English battle, specifically Francois Gagnon vs PJ Stock. If I had never seen 110% before I would have thought that PJ's performance on tuesday night was out-of-control and over-the-top. But the more I watched it online earlier today( http://www.tqs.ca/emissions/110/) the more I admired PJ's stance. He was giving those guys a taste of their own medicine. And he finally figured out that you can dominate a show by not taking a breath. Afterwards, off the air, as we discovered earlier today, Gagnon told producers he'll never again appear on the same show as PJ. And then the two raised the audio level of debate to Blue. With TQS Security on stand-by.
Kovalev and Samsanov have had lousy years. That much is obvious. I happen to think the coaching staff shares at least some of the blame. There was no chemistry going all the way back to training camp when Mike Ribeiro played between them. Thomas Plekanic's season was going nowhere until he was taken away from them. A crucial part of coaching is getting the most out of your players. In this instance, we'll find out by this time next year if Guy Carbonneau could have/should have done more with these guys or if they both suddenly morphed into Mariusz Czerkawski.
This much we do know: Both were free agents. Both decided to sign with Montreal. Saku Koivu, who's been booed at home, decided to re-sign, with a no-trade clause (I still think he's nuts). Craig Rivet, who saw-and read- his share of misery (remember Rejean Tremblay writing, "Who the fuck is Craig Rivet?") loved playing here. As difficult as it is for Bob Gainey to attract free agents, why are some members of the media so anxious to rip apart some of the few guys who choose to be here? And is the level of vitriol, let alone criticism, the same for players who are french? I think it's a fair question. I have to search for a meaningful answer.
Stephane Richer was a flake. Terrifically talented to be sure but his heart simply wasn't into playing every night. Did he ever get it a la Koivu and Kovalev? I don't remember if he did. What I do remember is certain Francophone media members rejoicing when Rejean Houle commited yet another blunder and sent Lyle Odelein packing to re-acquire Richer. (Richer played less than 80 games in his second tour with the Habs. Odelein won a Cup in Jersey).
Pierre Turgeon was even more talented than Richer. But posessed even a smaller heart. Yet some in this town tried to turn him into Jean Beliveau II. As he was under- producing in a playoff series one spring a member of the Canadiens organization said I should back off from criticizing Turgeon because he was "Playing with the flu". When I mentioned this to a member of the coaching staff I was told "He's not playing with anything...he's playing LIKE shit". Or, to quote from the wonderful Gare Joyce book "When The Lights Went Out (How One Brawl Ended Hockey's Cold War And Changed The Game):
A Former Canadiens star says that his old team's problems in the mid-90's started with Turgeon, the most skilled player in the line up at the time. "You're never going to win", he said, "When your captain has the balls of snow peas."
Page 295 http://www.randomhouse.ca/catalog/display.pperl?isbn=9780385662741
Claude Lemieux, three years into his NHL career, had managed to alienate everybody. Teammates, coaches, officials, even some fans (ask former bartender Noel Butler). Yet Rejean Tremblay writes that Pat Burns (French mother) is subconsciously biased against french players.
The decline of Jose Theodore was chronicled in a much more accurate manner in the english media.
Michel Bergeron? Hey, I give him credit. Couldn't win in the playoffs as an NHL coach. Couldn't keep his job as a radio analyst. So he gets born again as a French Don Cherry. Applauded and admired by many of the same people who think Cherry should be banned from radio and tv.
Double standard? Pas ici.
Entre les lignes
P.J. Stock reproche aux médias francophones et aux partisans qui parlent la même langue qu’eux d’être constamment sur le dos des vedettes surtout si elle ne parle pas français. Ce doit être pour ça qu’il a passé les trois premiers mois de la saison à décrier Guillaume Latendresse, à dénoncer ses moindres erreurs et à rire de tous ceux qui l’appuyaient alors qu’il défendait bec et ongle son ami Sergei Samsonov qui souffrait de l’incompréhension des journalistes, des amateurs et de son coach… En passant P.J. ce ne sont pas les anglophones du West Island qui t’ont adulé quand tu jouais à Victoriaville et qui t’ont rendu l’hommage suprême de retirer ton chandail l’automne dernier. Et ce ne sont pas juste les partisans du West Island qui t’ont appuyé quand tu mettais plus de cœur sur la patinoire, les rares fois que tu y posais les patins, à Montréal que les 17 autres joueurs qui t’y accompagnaient. Et ce ne sont pas juste des anglos du West Island qui t’écoute à la radio et qui se demande comment tu peux aujourd’hui leur cracher dessus… Think about it…
http://www.cyberpresse.ca/article/20070306/CPBLOGUES02/70306070&blogdate=20070306&cacheid=20070306
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