blocker

Yup....I don't care for Milbury either, but I'm glad there are no charges.

You too.

I don't get TSN, but I do have the NHL network. We won't get as many games as you guys, but we'll get some. My boy, Zemgus, won't be on unless Latvia makes the final rounds.

Agreed. I've never heard anyone say a bad word about Jagr as a person. Remember when he was learning English? Somebody stuck a microphone at him and he said "Elvis has left the building.".

My nine year old has a game on Christmas Eve. She told me that "you don't have to go.". But, I know that she'll look for me in the stands. And, more importantly, I want to be there. Her Dad and his brother always had games on Christmas Eve. We made our holiday plans accordingly. I had a stash of badges, souveneir hockey sticks or whatever to exchange for gifts Sometimes, those games were in a Montreal suburb. We'd approach the Champlain bridge, see all the lights and drive into that brightness. It was magical fun. Some people, (my in-laws) would tut-tut over games played on Christmas Eve. To me, it just added to the joy.

I've told this story before, and You're probably sick of it. But, one of the perks of being old is that we're expected to bore people. I'm at a tournament in Essex Junction, Vt. Teams from the eastern states of the US, and the eastern provinces of Canada. I'm standing with a group that includes some of my Quebec counterparts. We've had a few pops. I start to holler instructions to the players and the officials in my "French". My friends laugh, so I continue to yell. This woman in the row in front of us, turns to stare at me. I look at her, she looks at me and says sniffingly "Stupid frog".

Jack..... I bought a lot of our hockey equipment from a family store in the eastern townships of Quebec. They were mostly French-speaking, but bilingual. I ordered things in my fumbling French, and they would kindly correct any errors I made. I dealt mostly with the Mrs. One day, I'm explaining our needs, and I can feel a dawning fluency. It's like all of a sudden, I'm Maurice Chevalier, and the French is flowing from me. I'm on a roll. I decide to make a joke. I know that French cuss words usually make some reference to the church, so I speculate upon the habits of the priest. Mistake. Her kids who were there thought it was funny, but she sure didn't.

Rod...... I married into a French-Canadian family. I have many French friends and hockey cohorts. But, I want to tell you a story. I was on the board of a regional league in Quebec. The meetings were conducted in French. I can usually understand French if the speaker speaks slowly and distinctly and if the issues are fairly simple. However, sometimes I need help. Occasionally, one of my friends would explain something to me in English. At one meeting, this guy interrupted a speaker, and demanded a vote that meetings no longer be interrupted so that matters could be explained to someone too stupid to learn French. The vote was taken and his proposal was defeated. I knew that my purpose in being there was to provide exposure to a better level of hockey for the kids, so I kept my face straight and took it. But, I'll never forget it.

They also crapped on Mike Keane. But as Brelic mentioned the treatment of Koivu, after he played his heart out and donated so much money to the hospitals was terrible. I listened to an interview with a writer from Le Journal this morning. He said that he was "willing to give" Cunneyworth two or three games to prove himself.

"The incident was witnessed by one of our most respected memebers. If blocker said it happened (which, by the way was before this went public) that's good enough for me." Thanks for the kind words. But, to set the record straight, I wasn't there. I repeated the account from someone who did see it.

Hey Oz.... That's the incident I was talking about. I dunno what the exact provocations were for Milbury's actions. But, I've been involved with youth hockey for forty plus years, and I've never seen (or expect to see) an "adult" grab a child. The police are now involved. I hate this kind of story, but it happened and light should be shown upon it.

We moved here in 1968. My oldest son was 5. A friend who was part of the local infant hockey program invited our participation. My son had seen hockey on TV and liked it. So, we started. The hockey rink was in an old brick railroad building. No compressors, pumps, stands, piping. Just an ancient drafty building with pigeons in the rafters, shitting upon the unreliable sheet of ice below that existed because of frigid temperatures and no artificial help. Hockey was fledgling, and our total number of players and parents were no more than fifty people. The next year, the founder of our hockey group managed an agreement with some banks and the local high school to build an arena upon land ceded to the school. We were to build and maintain a rink. Manage it for 15 years, (until the mortgage was paid off), and then give the complex back to the school. So, I plunge in. I had the task of getting 50 plus families to sign a mortgage. I thought it would be a case of me begging and cajoling my fellow parents into a pretty iffy proposition. I was surprised. People were eager to help. I don't remember anyone refusing to indebt themselves. So, we built the rink. That winter, and for a number of years after, it was the kid's social center. We provided family memberships for 25 dollars a year. That 25 bucks gave a family unlimited access to public skating, a spot on a hockey team, and figure skating lessons. Hockey players got jerseys and socks, goalie equipment if needed, and midget age players got hockey pants. Figure skaters were guaranteed at least one dance in the annual ice show. Since then, we've sent hockey players to colleges, division 1 through 4. We've had kids go to the AHL and the NHL. I'm very proud of what we've done. A salient thing is the fact that so many people here now revolve their lives around hockey. On a Saturday morning, a drive around the community shows cars loading with hockey bags and sticks. The sports complex is full of the same kind of cargo. It's what people do now. I helped to change things, and I helped hockey. When you get to be my age, that's a comforting thought.

I, like everyone else, don't know how to fix the head injury problem. But, I do know of two things that could be done today that would lessen the chances of concussions. 1: Disallow all hard plating on pads. 2: Enforce the use of mouthguards. I'm not saying that those two actions would solve much, but they are things that could be done that would help.

Well, I think sometimes they take short naps between long snaps.

Who knows who or what is on the table. But, Gill's value to Montreal has diminished somewhat since he's no longer the one and only partner for Subban. And, Flyers have a history of trading for cheap replacements to plug anticipated holes. Pronger may be out and although Gill is not nearly as good, he does have a veteran's presence. I dunno, and I don't like to speculate, but I really wouldn't be suprised to see Gill coming here. And, if he does, that reveals the extent of Pronger's injuries.

I dunno what really happened last year. But, I do know that guys who make it to the NHL on the grit and hustle of a Richards don't change. I'd take him on my team anyday. And, if he had a down year, I'd look long and hard as to why.

I've watched Terry Murray coach for a number of years now. I think he's beginning to lose it, because I saw his head move the other night.

My problem is that I live in the US, and the WJHC is overlooked in our media. Thank Christ, we live close enough to Canada to get CBC.

Mike Mibury is one of the coaches for the Boch Blazers. It's a team out of Dedham, Mass. in the New England Hockey League, (the league in which my grandkids play). He helps with his son's peewee team, (12 year olds). The Blazers had their own outdoor winter classic game, on Dec. 9, (yesterday). They invited a team called the Boston Jr. Blackhawks to play an exhibition at the Larz Anderson rink in Brookline. Milbury sh!t all over the game. He screamed at opposing players. He grabbed and shook a kid from the Blackhawks. The Blackhawk boy was having problems with Mike's kid, who was out of control. Mike's son told someone, (one of the mothers, maybe his own), to f**k off. I'm told there is a video, but the people who have it have declined to have it aired. He screwed over BC. Did an awful job with the Islanders. Is a terrible, annoying "analyst". Was, at best, a mediocre player. Yet, he's given a TV gig that we would kill for. The older I get, the less I understand.

Well, Spacek hasn't done anything much since Coal Miner's Daughter. I know, I know... I made that joke before.

It's always seemed to me, that Ruff values nasty confrontation over winning.

Van........ The number 6 kid you have listed, (Zemgus Girgensons) is my Latvian "Grandson". He billeted with my son and my grandchildren. He's a great kid. He might have benefited more by playing in the OHL, but his Dad selected the USHL. I watched him play in the New England Hockey league two years ago, and he dominated. But, it was difficult to assess his abilities because the competition was pretty spotty. I think he's a pistol. Not just because he's one of mine, but he shows an understanding of the game. He goes to the places on the ice where the puck will end up and he's able to find open spots. He hits and enjoys the contact. The downside is that He hasn't played in a league such as the OHL. The plus is that whenever he's played in tournaments, he's done very well. He has some connections to the Flyer organization. My son and John LeClair were teammates, and are friends. John has had lunches with "Z" and his Dad. Probably won't happen, but Zemgus would make a very good Flyer.

I asked him who "they" were. He said "all of them". I didn't push it too much, his Dad is better suited for that job. I dunno if anyone actually said it. But, that's his perception.

Hey Jack.... I should have said something like that.

The other day, there's a long lull between games. One of the Dads and his son come to keep me company while I drink coffee and read the paper. We're making idle talk, when out of the blue, the kid says "They think I'm soft.". We try to reassure him, but it's hard going. Especially when you don't know what caused him to say such a thing. I didn't want to make him feel any worse. Every once in awhile, some kid says something that haunts.