Get woke, go broke! Ron MacLean cancelled!

Our National Sports (As Long As It's Hockey) Editor, Poor Len Canayen, has some excellent breaking news! 

Canadian hockey fans are rejoicing today at the announcement by Sportsnet that they will see less of Ron MacLean next season. Hometown Hockey, the much-unloved show featuring the biggest woke3st pussy in sportscasting, has been cancelled!

For those who never saw the show, it was what marketers called a line extension of the popular "Coach's Corner" segment of Hockey Night in Canada, which featured MacLean as straight man to Don Cherry, the real star of the little between-periods show. For eight seasons, Hometown Hockey travelled to a different part of Canada each week. It originally aired on Sundays but was eventually moved to the graveyard of Monday night, where it died.

The official reason given for the cancellation is that the weekly production was "an expensive line on the corporate ledger" and became tough to justify in a time where the sports media industry is undergoing change and cuts. Yah, shure.

What really happened was that Canuck hockey-lovers were incensed by MacLean's betrayal of Don Cherry after he (Cherry) got busted by the PC police for calling out, just before Remembrance Day of 2019, "you people" who ought to be wearing poppies to honour those who gave their lives for freedom, but aren't doing so. Click here to see the video.

The snowflakes, SJW's and pro-immigration lobby dropped the shithammer, and the CBC (the propaganda arm of Canada's Liberal government) put pressure on Sportsnet to get rid of Cherry. Which they did. On Remembrance Day itself. See: "The Hockey Guy comments on Don Cherry's firing" (includes video), WWW 11/11/19. 

MacLean's grovelling apology -- "I should have caught that sooner" -- the following Saturday was enough to gag a maggot. But what followed in the 2 1/2 years since was even worse. 

"Coach's Corner" was cancelled, of course, since it was impossible to find anyone (not even the perpetually over-refreshed Brian Burke), who could call BS when he saw it as could Don Cherry. Ron MacLean now hosts a between-periods panel, as well as the rest of the show, and devotes himself assiduously to promoting inclusivity, diversity, women's hockey, the contribution to the sport of those wonderful BIPOCs, etc etc. 

HNIC is just as woke as all get out, and that same wokeness pervaded Hometown Hockey, where there were no real hockey guys like Kelly Hrudey or Kevin Bieksa to tell MacLean how full of politically correct shit he is. 

So Hometown Hokey [misspelling intentional. Ed.] is gone. Get woke, go broke! But the malady lingers on. MacLean will still be a fixture on Saturday nights, at Hockey Night in Canada. He says a new contract has not been finalized but has been agreed to "in principal". 

Yah, shure! Don't stay tuned.I predict that, as sponsors wake up to the fact that more and more viewers take a 15-minute beer-and-bathroom break during the intermissions, they'll start putting pressure on Sportsnet to "revamp" HNIC PDQ. As Sam Goldwyn said, "If you want to send a message, go to Western Union." 

Poor Len Canayen: Habs off to a good start

The National Hockey League's 2021 season -- shortened to just 56 games -- got under way this week. Here's our National Sports Editor, Poor Len Canayen, with his take on how our favourite team, the Montréal Canadiens, are doing.

Tank youse, Hed. I'm very happy to talk about the new look Canadiens. The players GM Marc Bergevin added to the roster over the summer are fitting in nicely, to the point where, in last night's 5-1 victory over the Edmonton Oilers, I couldn't see a single "weak link". Not one!

Goalie Carey Price put on a clinic, as he is wont to do when facing star players like the Oilers' Connor McDavid. He will be helped, this year, by having a reliable backup, Jake Allen, acquired from the St. Louis Blues during the off-season. I expect to see Allen carrying a bigger share of the workload than his predecessors, giving Price a chance to rest. Perhaps we'll see Allen in the rematch against the Oilers tomorrow night.

Price will also be helped by having a bigger and better defence corps in front of him. The Habs' top four defencemen -- Captain Shea Weber, Ben Chiarot, Jeff Petry and new hire Joel Edmundson -- average 6' 3.5", and can all shoot as well as hit. Petry had two goals last night. The third pairing is Brett Kulak and rookie Alexander Romanov. Romanov got lots of minutes in his first game against the Leafs on Wednesday, and showed no "stage fright" whatever, then or last night. He's a keeper!

New additions to the forward lines are Josh Anderson and Tyler Toffoli, both of them experienced and talented. And strong and tenacious. Anderson, in particular, looked impressive against both Toronto and Edmonton. If he can avoid reinjuring his shoulder, he should be good for 20 goals.

The usual suspects -- holdovers from last season -- all did well, particularly Tomas "Tuna" Tatar, who potted two last night. Young Jake Evans, who I had on the "possible trade" list in my yearend review, seems to be maturing and gaining self-confidence, and may find himself a regular centering the third or fourth line. Paul Byron is still incredibly fast, and made a really nice play last night to set up Tatar's second goal. 

I can't find enough good things to say about this year's edition of la Sainte Flannelle. But for a couple of questionable penalties, they should have won Wednesday's game against Toronto, and last night's victory over Edmonton was entirely convincing.  Right now they're 1 for 2, with 3 points out of a possible 4. I won't start planning a Stanley Cup parade just yet, but I do predict they will finish 1st or 2nd in the NHL's Northern/Canadian division. Lifetime pct .975.

Chatter around the old hot stove... 

 * The NHL, (((Gary Bettman))) Prop., sold the naming rights for the four divisions in the realigned league. Large corporations have paid small fortunes so the NHL will refer to the Eastern Division (for example) as "MassMutual East". The rest of us will snicker behind our hands and just call them Central, East, West, and... errr... Northern.

 * Actually, real hockey fans north of the World's Longest Undefended Border (TM) will refer to the Northern Division as the "Canadian Division", which is what it is, since all the Canadian teams play in that group. Is it possible that the Canadian team owners could work up the courage to secede from the now misnamed "National" Hockey League entirely? Canuck fans hope so!

 * Speaking of Canada... Hockey Night in Canada, seen on Saturdays, has got so "woke" that it should be renamed "Hokey Night in Canada". Last night's telecast started with a tribute to Willie O'Ree, the first black Black player in the NHL. They now have a token black (but not too black) guy on the intermission panel, and a Sikh (who appears without his turban) doing commentary from Edmonton. No women last night, but I expect when games originate in Montréal we'll see Cassie Campbell, who at least knows what she's talking about. Remember: Get woke, go broke!

Al Strachan on social media and being deplatformed

Left-wing Hollywood celebrities are expressing their collective love of Big Brother after Twitter announced that it has permanently banned President Donald Trump. Breitbart News reported that Twitter kicked the president off its platform late Friday because, "After close review of recent Tweets from the @realDonaldTrump account and the context around them we have permanently suspended the account due to the risk of further incitement of violence."

Yes, the Alphabet people have "deplatformed" the President of the United States, not just temporarily, but forever! They must be afraid that his campaign for re-election in 2024 will start on January 21st, as indeed it will, with or without Twitter!

Someone who knows a lot about being deplatformed is Al Strachan, a journalist and former columnist for the Toronto Sun, the Globe and Mail, and Montreal Gazette. For a time, he was a regular panelist on Hockey Night in Canada, from which he managed to get fired, not once but twice, for ruffling the feathers of the elites. I've just read (and recommend highly) his latest book (of seven), Hockey's Hot Stove (Simon & Schuster 2020). Here's what he has to say about social media.

Social media could have been such a wonderful addition to our lives. It could have prompted the exchange of information. It could have encouraged participation in worthwhile activities. It could have created friendships and promoted worthy causes. Some of those positive attributes were realized -- sporadically. But really, what social media does more than anything is allow for the exchange of vitriol.

No society in history has ever been so adamant in its demands for tolerance -- yet, it seems, no society in history has ever been so intolerant. We are a modern society and have the technology to prove it. But when it comes to social media, the mind-set is positively medieval. Or should I say media-evil?

Suspicion is aroused and someone on Twitter shouts, "Kill the witch. Kill the witch." Moments later, #killthewitch hashtags are springing up all over the site. Backgrounds are hastily researched and alleged witchlike transgressions that occurred twenty-give years ago are being posted and retweeted. Memes appear, Cartoons appear. By the end of the day, the verdict is almost unanimous. The transgressor deserves to be tortured and executed.

The Middle Ages are back. Bring on the Spanish Inquisition. We are repeatedly told by people on social media that we must accept all forms of alternate lifestyles in the name of tolerance. Fine. But anyway who asserts a contrarian opinion is vilified.

All very true. And now, it seems, politically incorrect opinions are not only not tolerated, but not to be expressed. Period. Freedom of speech is dead in Alphabetland. Forget about Twitter. But there is a bit of good news. Consider an alternative, Parler.com. They invite you to "Speak freely and express yourself openly, without fear of being 'deplatformed' for your views. Engage with real people, not bots. Parler is people and privacy-focused, and gives you the tools you need to curate your Parler experience."

And this just in (thanks to Agent 17): Predictably, the usual suspects when it comes to Internet censorship -- Amazon, Apple and Google -- have removed Parler from their app stores, but you should be able to sign up directly by cllcking on the link above

VIDEO: Toronto Sun talks with Don Cherry about "You people"

SportsNet's firing of Don Cherry from the "Coach's Corner" segment of Hockey Night in Canada has dominated the news in Canuckistan since it was announced on Sunday. Even the never-Trumpers at the CBC were forced to talk about it ahead of reports from the witch-hunt. All the (((controlled media))) ran short interviews with "Grapes", but only the Toronto Sun gave him over ten minutes to say his piece in full. Here's the video.



Further reading:
"Poor Len Canayen calls Cherry firing an insult to Canadians", WWW 12/11/19.
"Don Cherry was both right and wrong", by Tarek Fatah, Toronto Sun, 13/11/19.

1-minute video: Pro-Don Cherry protest, Toronto, Nov. 13th

"Mike from Simcoe-Grey County-Clearwater Township" is another of the tens of thousands of Canadians outraged by the firing of Canadian icon Don Cherry from the "Coach's Corner" segment of Hockey Night in Canada. He's spreading the word of a protest to be held tomorrow, November 13th, at 1300 EST, at the SportsNet studios in the heart of the Little Green Apple (Woke Mayor John Tory, Prop.)



It's too far for Walt to attend, but I'll be there in spirit, and wish all you fans of free speech (and foes of political correctness) the best of luck. You'll need it!

Poor Len Canayen calls Cherry firing an insult to Canadians

Ed. here. Poor Len Canayen called to say that when he saw we were posting a video with comments from The Hockey Guy on Don Cherry's firing for political incorrectness, he wondered how we could do it since he hadn't made any video. Then he realized there's another "hockey guy". Now our hockey guy wants to speak for himself. Over to you, Len....

Tank youse, Hed. And tank youse for including me in the last paragraph of your introduction to The Other Hockey Guy's video. I do agree, and have to say that I watch THG regularly and appreciate his hard work and fair comments, even though he's no fan of La Sainte Flannelle. Now den, about the craven decision of SportsNet et al. to get rid of Don Cherry just because he said something that might be perceived as "divisive" or "offensive" to some people... I think booting him and Coach's Corner off Hockey Night in Canada is shameful and stupid!

What's really stupid is that by pandering to the multiculti crowd and caving to the PC police, Rogers/SportsNet/CBC/HNIC have managed to alienate 1000s of Canadian hockey fans -- the kind of people who actually watched (note past tense) "Coach's Corner". When Don Cherry referred to "you people" -- note: that's the term he used, not "immigrants" -- he wasn't talking about your typical Canadian hockey fan. "Those people" don't watch HNIC. They don't like hockey! They prefer football (not real football but the kind where you can't use your hands), basketball, and, dare I say it, cricket. No hockey for them.

If you don't believe me, keep your eyes open when the TV cameras pan across the crowds at the hockey games. (This applies not just to Canada but the Excited States of America.) You'd more likely see a black bear or brown bear in Nunavut than you would a person of colour at a hockey game. The people you see in the stands are the kind of people who watch Don Cherry... and wear poppies.

They may not always agree with Donless, especially when he rabbits on about "when I had Bobby Orr", but they respect his right to speak his mind (or his mouth). Freedom of speech is what Canadians, Americans, Brits, Aussies, even the French, fought and died for. But nowadays free speech is not for the unorthodox or anti-orthodox. Shame!

VIDEO: The Hockey Guy comments on Don Cherry's firing

SportsNet fired Don Cherry today. On Remembrance Day. Because he was politically incorrect enough to call out people who ought to be wearing poppies to honour those who gave their lives for freedom, but aren't doing so. See "Don Cherry calls out people who won't wear a poppy", WWW 10/11/19.

What happened is simple to explain. All the lefties, SJWs, refugee-huggers and other "right-thinking people" blitzed the Canadian Broadcast Standards Council, Hockey Night in Canada, SportsNet (which owns and produces HNIC), and the Canadian Broadcorping Castration (which airs it), and Rogers (the cable monsters who own SportsNet) to complain about Donless attacking immigrants, when he never entered that word or anything like it. What he said was "You people...", and of course that means he's a white nationalist, racist bigot, yada yada yada.

Predictably, everyone caved, including Don's "Coach's Corner" second banana, Ron MacLean, who made a fulsome, gag-inducing on-air apology. SportsNet said its arrangement with Mr Cherry was terminated effective immediately, then thanked him for his decades of service. Blech. The makers of Budweiser (the alleged beer), who sponsored the segment said they respected SportsNet's decision.

So it's farewell then, Donald S. Cherry, Canadian icon. Poor Len Canayen, who knows well Mr Cherry's dislike of the Montréal Canadiens, says he will miss you. So will hundreds of thousands of Canucks, including The Hockey Guy. Here's his take on the whole sad affair.

VIDEO: Don Cherry calls out people who won't wear a poppy

In Canada, tomorrow, November 11th, is Remembrance Day -- the day on which Canadians honour the many thousands who paid the ultimate price in foreign wars for the freedom and prosperity which the Great No-longer-white North enjoys today.

Because Canadians lost a proportionately higher number of young men and women than countries like the UK and the USA, it's a big deal in Canada. For ten days now, members of the Royal Canadian Legion have been selling poppies, which patriotic Canadians are urged to buy (for a loonie or two) and wear on their lapels to honour those who went to fight for their country and never came home.

In rural Canada, nearly everyone wears a poppy. (Why a poppy? Read "In Flanders Fields", a touching poem by Lt-Col. John McCrae, who was there.) In the Toronto conurbation, where native-born Canadians are in the minority, not as much. The inimitable Don Cherry had something to say about that on the "Coach's Corner" segment of Hockey Night in Canada last night. Here's the clip.



Predictably, Mr Cherry is already being attacked by the SJWs and multiculti wienies in Canuckistan's (((controlled media))) for "singling out" immigrants, although he never used that word. What he said (in case you can't understand the accent) was, "You people … you love our way of life, you love our milk and honey, at least you can pay a couple bucks for a poppy or something like that. These guys paid for your way of life that you enjoy in Canada, these guys paid the biggest price."

Mr Cherry made his comment prior to running his annual Remembrance Day video montage, where he is seen walking through a military cemetery in France, visiting the graves of Canadian soldiers who went to battle in World War I and never returned.

Footnote: No comments are allowed on the CBC News online report of this story. Your comments are welcome here! Just click on the headline and Walt's post will open in a new tab, with the comments window at bottom.

UPDATE ADDED 11/11/19: Click here to sign the "Support Don Cherry" petition!

VIDEO: Don Cherry for NHL Hall of Fame!

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!

VIDEO: TV commercials of the year

Acidulous readers ["assiduous", shurely! Ed.] of WWW know that Walt likes, from time to time, to post TV commercials which are funny or creative or stupid, or any two of those three. Every now and then we give out our TV commercial of the year award. Click here to see who won the prestigious "Wally" for 2017.

Since that post is only a month old, you may be surprised to see "TV commercial of the year" in today's header. Ah, but I didn't say what year! The year is, in fact, 1962. Murray Westgate compares a 1919 headlamp with modern Atlas products which improve visibility, such as Arctic wiper blades, solvent, ice remover and headlights, sold at Imperial Esso gas stations across Canada. Spoiler alert! Mr Westgate wasn't really an Esso dealer, just a pitchman, but what a fine pitchman he was!



Murray Westgate was there for the start of television in Canada in 1952. With a welcoming smile, friendly eyes and soothing baritone, he was Canada's original TV pitchman. Dressed as a neighbourhood Esso station attendant -- complete with crisp black bow tie and peaked cap -- he extolled the virtues of Imperial Oil in live 90-second commercials, broadcast during Hockey Night in Canada, the country's longest-running TV show.



Mr Westgate also introduced the Hot Stove League -- the panel really did sit around a wood stove -- and it wouldn't have been viewed as unusual for him to become part of the hockey talk. He'd also do the sign off at the end of the night. The HNIC telecasts broadcasts had about two million viewers every Saturday night, remarkable for a country of about 14.5 million at the time when Canada was still the Great White North.

Now he is celebrating a milestone of his own, turning 100 today! Walt and Poor Len [and Ed.! Ed.] wish Murray a HAPPY CENTENARY!

Footnote from Ed.: I have unable to verify the accuracy of the old story that Mr Westgate, arriving for work one night a little tired and emotional, told viewers to drive into their "nearby Imperial Asshole station".

Rogers hockey ratings tank, Poor Len gloats

Poor Len, again. Forgive me for indulging in a bit of schadenfreude, but I can't help saying "I told you so" after reading "Rogers’ early-season TV ratings down sharply for NHL, Maple Leafs" in today's Groan & Wail.

A couple of years ago, Rogers outbid the Canadian Broadcasting Corpse for the Canadian broadcast rights for all NHL games, for 12 years. It then "leased" some of the games to CBC, RDS and other networks, but retained control of which games would be shown on Hockey Night in Canada, which it now owns, and SportsNet, its ridiculously expensive pay channel.

Then, because Toronto is Canada's biggest TV market, Robbers decided to foist games featuring the Maple Laffs on the entire nation, relegating Canada's team -- the Montréal Canadiens -- to "regional markets", i.e. the French-language networks (TVA and RDS) and (sometimes) English broadcasts in Québec and Atlantic Canada. I have complained before about the blackouts of Habs games from the Québec-Ontario border westward, and predicted Robbers would rue its, Conn-Symthian, francophobic bias.

And so it has come to pass. (Lifetime pct .990.) The Glob reports that NHL TV ratings are down across the board on average for Rogers for the first seven weeks this season. According to Numeris, Canada's only broadcast ratings service, combined ratings for the Leafs on all the Rogers-connected networks that carry them -- CBC, Sportsnet and City -- are down 30 per cent from October 7th through November 21st.

The Eastern games on Saturday’s Hockey Night in Canada, which usually feature the Leafs (on CBC) and some other team, not the Habs, on City, are down 19% from the same period last year. From October 7th through November 21st, an average of 1,771,500 viewers saw the prime-time Hockey Night Eastern game, a drop of 412,500 from last year’s 2,184,000.

Dontcha love it? I do. I hope Robbers lose their blue-and-white shirts.

Canada's team MIA from "Hockey Night in Canada"

Poor Len Canayen here. It's the eve of Canadian Thanksgiving and I'm NOT giving thanks to Canada's sports media for discriminating against Canada's team in the National [sic] Hockey League, the Montréal Canadiens.

For over sixty years, Hockey Night in Canada, has been a must-watch programme on CBC. Indeed, it's probably the only programme that over a million Canadians watch with any regularity. Last night was the first Saturday of the NHL's 2015-16 season, with all seven Canadian teams in action. Le Canadien -- the only team with fans right across Canada, from Squamish to Dildo, were playing at Boston. But which two games did HNIC treat viewers to? Ottawa at Toronto, and... wait for it... Edmonton at Nashville!

The Ottawa v Toronto game wasn't bad, featuring a remarkable comeback by the Leafs to force a shoot-out, which they lost. But the Edmonton v Nashville match-up was by all accounts a total snorefest. The game at Boston, however, was more of a slugfest -- traditional when the Habs meet the Bruins -- with 20 minutes in penalties and two goals in the final minute. Les Glorieux emerged triumphant, 4-2.

So how come Canadian viewers didn't get to see that? I will explain... and condemn! Back in 2014, the NHL (G. Bettman, Prop.) sold the Canadian TV rights to Canada's biggest cable company, Robbers [Rogers, surely! Ed.], which thus acquired HNIC. The CBC, faced with the loss of its top revenue generator, grovelled abjectly enough to be given a "lease" on the Saturday night staple, but Rogers retained control of the property, which it also distributes on its own City-TV channels.

We're not just talking English TV here. Robbers also got the rights to all French programmes, which it divided between TVA and RDS, with Société Radio-Canada left out of the picture. That didn't really matter, since SRC had ceded the estimable Soirée du Hockey to RDS years ago. However, with Robbers controlling distribution, the French channels, which had previously been available right across the Great Not-so-white North, have been blacked out everywhere west of Québec and a small chunk of eastern Ontario.

It gets worse. Rogers -- greedy bastards that they are -- forced Bell, which distributes TV signals by satellite and fibre-optic cable, to go along with its national/regional lineup, all designed to force subscribers to pay an extra over C$200 per season for an "all hockey all the time" package called NHL Centre Ice.

1000s of Canadiens fans west of Québec (most of whom can understand at least some French) refused, and were belatedly offered what Bell/Rogers call the "NHL French package" for only C$60. For that, you're supposed to be able to get all... all... of the Habs games on TVA and RDS, on two channels featuring "Le forfait LNH en français". Was the Montréal game on either of those channels last night? Err, no. Was any game shown? Err, no. The "LNH gratuit" appeared to be a CCTV video of the inside of a coal bin at midnight.

Having complained to Bell and got no satisfaction, I am now going to fire a rocket in the direction of the CRTC. And to Robbers, which has put all its HNIC eggs in the Maple Laffs basket, I say: I hope you lose your blue shirts!

VIDEO: Habs defeat Cinderella Senators, advance to second round

Poor Len Canayen here, with a couple of thoughts about the NHL playoff series between the Montréal Canadiens and the Ottawa Senators -- the ones people like, not the ones who infest Parliament Hill.

The hard-working Senators [not the ones who infest, etc. Ed.] did their best, last night, to prolong the series, outshooting La Sainte Flanelle 43-20. Sadly for them, Carey Price -- hereinafter TBGITW (The Best Goalie In The World) -- stopped all 43 of the Sens' shots, whereas Ottawa's Craig Anderson, no slouch himself, allowed one to get by him. Result: Montréal 2 - Ottawa 0. (The Habs second goal was scored into an empty net with 3/10ths of a second left.) Montréal wins the series 4 games to 2, and goes on to the second round against either Tampa Bay or Detroit.

To call Carey Price TBGITW is, IMHO, no understatement. Here's just one example of the several "saves of substance" he made last night.



Naturally, Hockey Night in Canada selected TBGITW for a quick post-game interview, before he left the ice. Mr. Price was his usual modest self, attributing the win to the hard work of his teammates and a couple of lucky bounces. He might have mentioned a quick whistle in the second period which resulted in an Ottawa goal being disallowed, but we won't quibble about that.

What burned my ring last night was the way TPWMNBC -- The Player Who May Not Be Criticized, a.k.a. P.K. Subban -- inserted himself in the interview to make sure viewers knew who the real star was, is, and will always be, as long as the Montreal Gazette's alleged sports writers (Hello, Dave Stubbs!) think the sun, moon and stars shine out of Subban's arse.

Stubbsy will have a hard time singing the praises of TPWMNBC in relation to last night's game though, for Subban contributed nothing to the Habs' win. (That's him, #76, lying on the ice in front of Price in the video clip.) But, by jumping into the interview, he did manage to answer the question posed here just under a year ago. That article has drawn quite a few hits this month. Real hockey fans know who the real heroes are.

"Hockey Night in Canada" -- errr, not so much any more

Poor Len Canayen here. [What? Still?! Ed.] The sun is setting. Night is falling. Soon it will be Saturday night -- Hockey Night in Canada.

Notice from Rogers, Bell TV and the Canadian Broadcorping Castration. Some restrictions apply!

Due to a sweetheart deal between Rogers and the National Hockey League (G. Bettman, prop.), Hockey Night in Canada will no longer be offering games featuring Canada's team -- the Montréal Canadiens -- every Saturday as it did for the last century. Instead, the Canadian content will be provided by the Toronto Maple Laffs. Viewers who wish to see a real team are welcome to subscribe to NHL Centre Ice, at a modest extra charge. Call Rogers or Bell for details, and have your platinum credit card ready.

But never fear. HNIC is committed, as always, to viewer choice...as long as the viewer makes the same choice as Mr. Bitchman. There is a second game available on Rogers/Bell's basic service. Tonight, if you don't want to watch Toronto lose, you can watch Team Crosby (aka the Pittsburgh Penguins) play the Brooklyn Islanders. [That happens next year! Ed.] Some choice.

It makes my bleu-blanc-et-rouge blood boil. I have a good mind to write to someone, but I don't know who. Obviously G. Bettman doesn't give two shits for what the fans want, only for whatever brings in the most revenue. How could a New York Jewish lawyer think like that?!

VIDEO: Greatest "Hockey Night in Canada" intro EVER!

This is for all you hockey fans, particularly supporters of the Montréal Canadiens and the Toronto Maple Leafs. Just a totally awesome video. Sound up.



Yes, it's Luciano Pavarotti singing "Nessun Dorma".

Hockey Night in Canada: Cole must go!

Walt has a word for Bob Cole, who does the play-by-play on Hockey Night in Canada's Saturday night games from Montréal. STUPID! That's the word...

Last night, at the beginning of the second period, a Colorado player did a dastardly deed and the referee immediately signalled an infraction. Quoth "Old King" Cole, "That's the first penalty of the game." That in spite of the presence in the penalty box of another Colorado player who'd been sent off at the end of the first. And get this. Cole said it twice! STUPID!

The colour commentator, former player Garry Galley -- Cole never played the game, it seems -- made an oblique reference to Montréal's "five-on-three power play" a few seconds later, but it took a couple of minutes before Cole twigged and apologized for his egregious error.

Later in the period, Cole completely missed a penalty to the Habs for delay of game. STUPID. This time Galley took the fall for it, lamely remarking that he should have said something about the Canadien player clearing the puck over the glass "and that's why the whistle went on that last play".

Bob Cole is 187 years old. He is visually challenged to the point where glasses can't help any more. It's time for him to wend his way to the home, before they come and get him.