Good on Peterborough

Good to see Peterborough put on such a good show for Hockey Day in Canada yesterday.   Watching the snippets of the Pete’s game at the Memorial Centre and the people skating on the canal brought back some good memories.

I’ve had enough of Don Cherry though.  Well past his best-before date.   The man has so very little of substance to say about hockey that goes beyond “tough guys are salt of the earth” that he’s not really interesting.  Even the clothes are old.   The game evolves and he doesn’t.  Move on CBC.

Roger Doucet

One of the things I’ve always loved about the anthems sung at hockey games is how the crowd and players all break into action before the last verse is complete.  The players on the ice start to move and the fans start to cheer, clap, scream etc.  It’s game-on baby now that the anthem has been sung.   The wait is over.   A beautifully sung anthem starts the game on a great note.

No one did it better than Roger Doucet.  Remember him?  He was the anthem guy at the old Forum in Montreal and no one sang with as much gusto as this cat.  He did a bilingual version of the anthem and it was a beautiful thing.

I was out for dinner tonight at a neighbour’s place and we stumbled upon his memory somehow.  I never saw him live but I do remember him belting it out on the TV and when he was done, the voice of Danny Galivan kicking in to stir the excitement to a boil before the puck dropped.

Molson Golden TV Ad – Missing in Action

Like most guys my age who grew up interested in hockey, Hockey Night in Canada was a staple on the tele on Saturday nights.  If I recall, the Leafs often had a Wednesday night game as well.  Typically, the main advertisers were oil companies (Esso), car companies (Ford) and beer companies (Molson’s).   Some things never change I guess.

Do you remember the Molson Golden commercials that showed bunch of oldtimers finishing up their shinny match and heading for the dressing room.? Once there, one of the boys is noticed as missing in action and someone yells down the hall back out to the ice for him.  His reply?  “I’m comin’, I’m comin’, I’m working on my shot”.   I looked all over for this sucker on the internet but no luck.  A figment of my imagination perhaps?

Here’s one that isn’t quite as funny but perhaps will bring you a chuckle nonetheless. 

“The Savardian Spinorama”

A truly great phrase from the late Habs Colour man Danny Gallivan to describe Serge Savard, the Hab’s defenceman from the 70’s, as he would do a 360 to evade an oncoming fore-checker.