Poor Len `ere. Last night I was watching the Boston v Columbus game on Hockey Night in Canada, and I got to thinking about that Don Cherry (aka Donless Cherry -- that's what Ron Maclean calls him), who was all dressed up for May the 4th (geddit?) and talking about "When I had the Bruins and Bobby Orr..." And I got to thinking, why isn't Don Cherry in the National Hockey League Hall of Fame?!Wikipedia calls Donald Stewart Cherry (born 5 February 1934) "a Canadian ice hockey commentator". He is more than that. He is THE Canadian ice hockey commentator. Along with Ron Maclean, he co-hosts the "Coach's Corner" intermission segment on Hockey Night in Canada, the longest-running show on Canadian TV. He is a Canadian icon, known for his outspoken manner, his nationalistic opinions [How does he get away with it, nowadays? Ed.] and his flamboyant dress (see pic). Those Edwardian shirt collars must be damn uncomfortable.
Don toiled for years with the AHL Rochester Americans, and was called up for one (1) game with the Boston Bruins, the only game he ever played in the NHL. He went on to coach the big bad Bruins for five seasons, during which he had the good fortune to have on the team Bobby Orr, one of othe greatest -- Don says THE greatest -- defencemen ever to play the game. He never lets us forget it (see above).
Mr Cherry was voted the seventh greatest Canadian on a CBC television special called, errr, The Greatest Canadian (duh). In March 2010, his life was dramatized in a two-part made-for-TV movie, Keep Your Head Up, Kid: The Don Cherry Story, based on a script written by his son, Timothy Cherry. In March 2012, CBC aired a sequel, The Wrath of Grapes: The Don Cherry Story II. And yet the selectors for the NHL Hall of Fame keep passing over him. I can't understand it.
Don Cherry IS famous, for:
- coaching Bobby Orr (see above)
- being a Canadian nationalist
- disliking European-born players, especially "chicken Swedes"
- loving Canadian guys in uniform: soldiers, cops and hockey player
- owning a succession of white bull terriers, all named "Blue"
- turning down an offer of appointment to the Canadian Senate
- other stuff
But what Don is most famous for, IMHO, is something that happened forty years and five days ago, on the evening of 10 May 1979. The Bruins were playing in the seventh game of the NHL Stanley Cup semi-finals against arch-enemies, the Montréal Canadiens. The series was tied 3 games each, and the winner of the 7th game would go on to play for Lord Stanley's silverware. Boston was ahead 3-1 going into the third period and looked to be on the verge of victory. The Habs responded with goals from Mark Napier and Guy Lapointe to tie the game. With just under four minutes to play, Rick Middleton managed to bounce a puck off the arm of goaltender Ken Dryden and into the net to take a 4-3 lead. Here's what happened next.
With only 2:34 to go, the Bruins were caught on a sloppy line change -- too many men on the ice... two-minute penalty! Changing the lines is the coach's responsibility, so, as Don Cherry later told the Grope and Flail, "It was my fault. The guy couldn't have heard me yell. I grabbed two other guys trying to go over the boards. That would have made eight on the ice. Might as well have let them go."
Not wasting an opportunity, Montréal coach Scotty Bowman put out his elite power-play unit: Guy Lafleur, Larry Robinson, Serge Savard, Steve Shutt and Jacques Lemaire. Unlike Don Cherry, all five players are in the Hockey Hall of Fame. Lafleur scored the a beauty, beating Gilles Gilbert on the short side, to tie the game at 4-4. In the overtime that ensured, les Glorieux went on to win. They would then beat the New York Rangers to win yet another Stanley Cup.
Later that May, Bruins GM Harry Sinden fired Don Cherry. But here's the thing. To this day, a clip of Don responding to the derision of the Montréal crowd is still included in the intro to every "Coach's Corner". He's a classy guy, an asset to the game and to Canada, and should damn well be in the Hall of Fame, EH!
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