​
Those who read my rants about the world of hockey know I dont mince my words and the latest NHL grand design really sets me off.
 
I have a reputation of being a hockey classifist and in my long career have designed a couple of hockey shirt doozies (THN award winning Les Moines de Bretay and the Horney Steedz just to name a couple)
 
I cried over the "shirt pipings" that were introduced to NHL hockey with the arrival of Reebok on the scene. but somehow the good designs of the Blackhawks, Bruins, Rangers etc stood firm and who really cares about shirt  design of the Avs, Predators, Blues, Caps etc.
 
Now however the Germans of Adidas had the great idea to impose their "long standing hockey know how" on the NHL. Couldn't they stick with football or handball?
 
Judge for yourself:

I never really used to hate the Penguins, on the contrary, when they were a pitiful franchise in those pre Mario days.
Even during  the glorious Mario, JJ, Ron Francis, Paul Coffee years I used to like them and wanted them to go a long way in the playoffs.
They were the underdogs, in a city down on its luck, with a great hockey logo, great colour scheme, and a hockey barn called the Igloo.
What was there not to like?  Hey  and they managed to play a guy by the name of Zarley Zalapski!

Then they played the team I genuinely cared for in the Cup Finals: The Minnesota North Stars who had Mike Modano. The Stars like most Minnesota franchises (bar the fabulous Twins)  were crushed when it came to win with the title in sight. I took sides against the Pens and that feeling never really left me even in the later years with the great Martin Straka in the line up. 

But one of the reasons for my distaste of the Penguins is  Sidney Crosby who is so hard to like. Canada’s golden boy, and NHL’s Poster Child he rubs me the wrong in every way possible. Why can’t he be more like Jonathan Toews, Joe Thornton, dare I say Alex Ovechkin,  His on ice whinging is legendary. There were players before who I hated: Billy Smith, Al Secord, Rick Tocchet but they were mostly two bit players. Never did one think that Wayne, Mario, Bobby, Gordie, Jean, Guy were anything but flawless. Sidney is making it so hard to appreciate despite his undoubted skill set.

But there is another thing that rubs me the wrong way and that’s the Pens extended love affair with the dreadful shirt design of the Crosby era. The Penguins wore these for almost 10 years before thankfully ditching them for good last season. These were just plain hideous.




















Just to show how ugly these are when you compare them to the fantastic uniforms worn by the Penguins last night versus the Flyers.
These are nothing short of spectacular looking  game shirts being at the same time modern, classic, mean and special with tribute to the Steelers (justifiable tribute it is too) all at the same time…

Reggie Dunlop: Oh you cheap son of a bitch. Are you crazy? Those guys are retards! 

McGrath: I got a good deal on those boys. The scouts said they showed a lot of promise. 

Reggie Dunlop: They brought their fuckin' TOYS with 'em! 

McGrath: Well, I'd rather have em playin with their toys than playin with themselves



Dear reader of the Coaches Corner - 

Slap Shot the movie was released on February 25th - 1977. Here is my tribute to this Classic.

the time I first saw Slap Shot in the summer of 1977 in a Geneva movie theater the movie premiere served as PR opportunity to present the „new line up“ of the Geneva Servette HC to the press and to the sponsors.
Clearly the club management did not preview the film. Us the players lined up before the big screen ahead of the screening were introduced in the manner of the ubiquitous Jim Carr:  "And here from Mile 40 Saskatchewan - where he now runs a donut shop, number 10, former penalty minute record holder for the years 1960-1968 inclusive, Gilmore Tuttle“:  
"And here no 2 the young and promising Defenseman from Wetzikon - Paul Pojdl" (they butchered the prononciation of my name like only the French can)

Needless to say after the screening the mood has somewhat changed and everybody dissed the movie.  BUT it was like throwing pearls to pigs. The movie escorted me on many hockey trip and
I must have seen it 3 dozen times since then if not more. My kids asked what my favorite movie was and I said without batting an eye: Slap Shot. They of course wanted to see it but at pre-teen years I thought for the sake of my marriage showing the movie would not be the best idea. I think the kids saw it anyway and of course didn’t think it was all that funny like me when I saw it a 19 year old swiss rookie.

When I in 1985/86 agreed to play for the Danville Dashers of the less than reputable Continental Hockey League all that I have  seen in this movie became life imitating art. On ice brawls spilling over to the stands, dire provincial Illinois town of Danville where the State Penitentiary was the main job provider, the Owner who was a sleaze bag and probably a child molester,  Minnesota born goalie who slept in his van to save money and of course lotsa a groupies.

The reception of the movie at the time of its release wasn’t great. Gene Siskel gave it a mediocre review back when and the Wall Street Journal tagged it „foul mouthed and unabashedly vulgar“.
However in the 2007th 50th Anniversary Issue GQ named Slap Shot as a top 30 Men Movies. Who are we to argue.

So what makes Slap Shot so endurable and lovable?  Lets start with the obvious: Paul Newman for one, at the height of his powers and looks. He was simply amazing. You never doubt him being a player and even when discounting his skating ability thinking he must have been a helluva passer, because we know, a goon he was not.

Behind of all this is the book written by one Nancy Dowd and I would love to thank Nancy for putting together this beauty. Her lines, quotes are hockey folklore.
She ought to be in the Hockey Hall of Fame. Nancy has done some uncreditted script work for the NORTH DALLAS 40. Her brother Ned Dowd inspired the story behind Slap Shot with his experience as a minor league hockey player. Nancy got an Oscar, but not for Slap Shot but for 1979 movie Coming Home. Nancy where are you…..

Then of course we need to acknowledge the movie’s director George Roy Hill who has directed a big budget  successes: THE STING and BUTCH CASSIDY AND SUNDANCE KID  with Robert Redford and Paul Newman before
Slap Shot and THE WORLD ACCORDING TO GARP and others after. George Roy Hill is a Minnesotan and so I like him already. He studied music at Yale. He loved flying and had his own license.  Hockey was given to him into the cradle. George sadly passed in 2002. The London Rangers pay their respect to this man who took on this project, convinced Paul Newman to learn to play hockey and take this role on. Paul later wrote that Reggie Dunlop was his favorite role.

The casting is nothing short of perfect. The characters are real be it  Jim Carr the play by play, Dickie Dunn (Emmet Walsh)  the journalist, and sleazy Chief GM Joe McGrath perfectly played by Strother Martin just to name the few. There is not
one role that would not be up to the level. The Hanson Brothers, Denis Lemieux, and the team owner Anita McCambridge (you know Reggie could have if he wanted to….) are all spot on. Nick Brophy’s portrayal as the drunk hockey player who wets himself on ice goes uncredited. 

Did you know that Nancy Dowd had a small role as Andrea and her brother Ned was playing Ogie Oglethorpe!!!!!

Now where is the legacy of the Slapshot? Slapshot 2 was a disaster. Best of the lot was Miracle (about the USA team winning gold) - Kurt Russel makes the movie with the portrayal  of Herb Brooks worth watching.  Mystery Alaska has some nice
touches and ideas but is forgettable. The Mighty Ducks killed the film career of Emilio Estevez. The Goon  and The Guru were just dire!

So where are the new ideas. Well there is a great movie called  RED ARMY, a documentary about the great Russian teams of the 70 and 80s, there is a apparently a movie in the making about the California Seals. But lets face it our sport is underrepresented and if it weren’t for a Gordie Howe shirt being worn in Ferris Bueler’s Day off or the Wayne’s World tribute to the Black Hawks and Stan Mikita  hockey doesn’t get a fair shake. Where is on ANY GIVEN SUNDAY for a hockey playoff saga????? 

Frankly I simply don’t think a movies like Slapshot and Blazing Saddles can be made today 

McGrath: Well, I'd rather have em playin with their toys than playin with themselves 
Reggie Dunlop: They're too dumb to play with themselves. Boy, every piece of garbage that comes into the market and you gotta buy it! 
McGrath: Reg, Reg, that reminds me. I was coachin' in Omaha in 1948 and Eddie Shore sends me this guy who was a terrible masturbator, you know, couldn't control himself. Why, he would get deliberate penalties so he could get over in the penalty box all by himself and damned if he wouldn't... you know…

Reggie Dunlop: You know, your son looks like a fag to me. You better get married again, 'cause he's gonna wind up with somebody's cock in his mouth before you can say "Jack Robinson“.
Anita McCambridge: How dare you. How DARE you!

It is just last week that I wrote my tribute to the Greatest, the athlete of the 20th Century, Muhammad Ali. I am glad he received the recognition in his death by everyone.


But you know that when the  BBC finds it important to report the death of a hockey player, that hockey must be special. Indeed Gordie Howe was the Muhammad Ali, the Babe Ruth or Jolting Joe, or Michael Jordan of our sport, ice hockey. Nice of BBC to recognise possibly the greatest Canadian sports figure.

I watched with pleasure the 2016 NHL All Star Game in Nashville. A great little 3 on 3 shinny tourney and great skills displayed by 1st time All Stars Dylan Larkin, Niclas Backstrom and PK Subban ( yeah whats with that) couldn't cover up the heavy handedness and moronic attitudes of the NHL (as if we needed any more proof of that).

They have set up rules for the qualification/selection and when they got a result they didn't like they have tried to discourage and alter the process they have set up, when an also ran - "goon" John Scott -  by the will of the fans - got selected to take part in an All Star game. Not just to participate, he got the most votes of any All Star. His own team Phoenix then disowned him throughout this process, trading him to  Montreal who demoted him to the farm rather raising above the ridiculous and embracing the situation. So TheCoyotes rather had no player at the All Star Game than A John Scott selected by their fans! shame on you Coyotes! And the League is so out of touch, and so fake - it is frightening! They started to support  him only after they realised the shot them selves in the foot and that John Scott was decided to attend and to make his family and fans proud.

And so it ended with the Hockey fans who would not be denied whether the NHL liked it or not.

I must applaud all the NHL All Star players who of course knew how sensitive the issue was and supported the so Charming John Scott at every turn. Their collective middle finger to the NHL top brass was only thinly veiled. A Jagr salute to you!
      
And now that we are on the Jagr subject:  I want to highlight PK Subban who decided to make a fitting tribute to hockey legend Jaromir Jagr that Jaromir Jagr is by putting on a 68 shirt, a Beyonce wig and a old Jofa lid and the Jagr salute to win the penalty shootout exhibition.....and Jaromir for having a great laugh about it, saying: I called my mum to give her hard time for not telling him he had a younger brother!!!!! this was an absolute gem!

So here the insider blog on the John Scott saga quote/unquote - from  puck daddy yahoo blog(wyshinsky):

NASHVILLE – John Scott, captain of the Pacific Division All-Stars, sat on the bench between Taylor Halland Johnny Gaudreau. Their team was leading the final game of the NHL’s new 3-on-3 mini-tournament. The fans would vote on the event’s Most Valuable Player, an honor that included a new car. 

Three Twitter hashtags flashed on the Bridgestone Arena video screens, revealing the three MVP candidates selected by the NHL. They were goalie Roberto Luongo of the Atlantic Division, Hall and Gaudreau.
John Scott, who scored twice in the preliminary game and was the single most popular player in Sunday’s tournament, had been snubbed.

“I was sitting next to Johnny and Taylor on the bench, and I said, ‘You guys better give me that van, because I need it,’” said Scott, whose wife is expected to deliver twins this week, to go along with their two young daughters.

What happened next was the epitome of Scott’s surreal All-Star journey: The NHL thudding, clueless reaction to his unexpected popularity; the fans rallying to defend the people’s champion; and the off-script, utter chaos that support causes.

They booed. Loudly. They chanted “JOHN SCOTT!”, loudly. Ther screamed “MVP!” whenever Scott touched the puck.

They pulled out their phones inside the arena, as others did around the world while watching the NHL All-Star Game on Sunday, and tweeted “#VoteJohnScott” again and again and again.

And so it ended as it began: With a fan vote. With people – for various reasons – shoving a career enforcer with five goals in 285 career games to the top of the All-Star voting leaderboard. With the NHL seeking to subvert or deny that will, either through disregard or disqualification. With those fans’ voices growing louder, more defiant, and eventually forcing the NHL to acknowledge the man and the movement.

So the same organization that told John Scott to reconsider his All-Star status because of what “his daughters would think” now had to reconsider their own decision on Scott, as his daughters watched from the stands.

As the Pacific Division won the All-Star Game tournament, 1-0, the NHL had to acknowledge that Scott received the most Twitter votes – although, like with the initial fan vote that got him into the game, no totals were revealed – and was the 2016 NHL All-Star Game Most Valuable Player. (They also probably knew that anyone not named “John Scott” from the Pacific Division team would have been lustily booed by the Nashville fans.)

With that, Scott was lifted off the ice by Drew Doughty and Brent Burns in celebration.

AND.....
The All-Star Game is no longer the solemn meritocracy it was 30 years ago. It’s on its fourth format change in 16 years. Its players are chosen to check boxes on team representation and positional need.

So it’s actually OK if a player like John Scott – who’d never be considered among the elite talents of the NHL but embraced the All-Star experience in ways they could never hope to – wins a fan vote and participates in the game. 

That should be the lesson learned here for the NHL, which played a strange role in this fairy tale: antagonist, gatekeeper, snobbish, stubborn, but ultimately essential for Scott’s transformation from a “joke” candidate insurgent to a populist victim of nefarious corporate scheming.

He doesn’t become a cult hero if they didn’t attempt to deny him his achievement. His legion of fans doesn’t become an army if they don’t actively try to prevent this underdog tale to play out, from the moment the fan vote ended to the Coyotes trading him to an AHL fate to an NHL evoking his family in an attempt to guilt him out of the game,

Were it not for the NHL’s fervent desire to see that he wouldn’t be an All-Star, Scott wouldn’t have been one, and certainly wouldn’t have had the fan support to force them to rewrite their MVP script.

“I never believed I’d be in All-Star Game, score two goals, have the fans behind you like that,” said Scott. “I thought I was going to be in the background. Enjoy it behind the scenes. And it definitely didn’t turn out that way. I loved it. It’s probably the coolest thing I’ve ever done in hockey, for sure.”

Who know who else thought it was cool?

The coolest guy in the NHL.

“You know what, he truly deserved it. That’s the funniest thing. He deserved it. The fans voted for him and he deserved it. He played good,” said Jaromir Jagr, 43-year-old future Hall of Famer with the Florida Panthers.

“If somebody’s very unwanted, he becomes [a] hero. That’s why I love it. There was the story. The guy was unwanted from the NHL and I think from the NHL, whatever happened today I think it’s probably [one of] the best stories to happen at All-Star Game.”

If JJ thinks this is cool who are we to argue!!!!!!

Coach

Great article on TSN.
http://i.tsn.ca/story/?id=567483

The coach is back for the 2015/16 season with his strong opinion on the state of hockey in the world. These views do not represent the general opinion of the London Rangers as a club.....

Chicago won the Stanley cup and one must say deservedly so. Most teams were left wanting and found short in one position or the other. Rangers lack of any scoring, Tampa's  lack of experience in crunch situations offered the solid Hawks an advantage they were far too experienced to let go to waste. Depth scoring, solid if not brilliant goaltending and possibly the best hockey player in the Pros right now on D, with Duncan Keith and the cup was deservedly back in the Windy City.

​Let me dwell on Duncan Keith if I may here. All the talk about Carey Price, Alexander Ovechkin, Vladimir Tarasenko, Henrik Lundquist etc - if you had to have one player on your team it would have to be Duncan Keith. He  won the Playoff MVP with a performance that would be reminiscent to those classic ones of Bobby Orr. I know I am committing a sacrilege, but this is the plain truth. 

Will the Hawks come back to compete? The odds are in this experts opinion against them. Playing deep into the summer, the exhilaration of the Cup win, the loss of Saad, Johnny Oduya, Patrick Sharp etc and the issues around Patrick Kane make me skeptical, but if they do they are the closest we have come to see in Dynasties in the post Habs, Islanders, Oiler era.

The likely pretenders, Ducks and Habs - I think the challengers will be the Caps, Pens or Lightning. That's that.

Jersey advertisements

Adidas who owns Reebok is taking over - the era of NHL shirt ads is upon us. Whether we want it or not. Of course I hate it, being brought up in Ol'time hockey era, but the NHL is starving for more revenues and this is just another way to garnish more cash for the owners. Hasso Plattner for example understands Euro soccer culture and shirt ads, he may not understand hockey so well and may think it a brilliant idea to have Red Lobster ads in the crest instead of a stick crunching shark.

The issue here is that the Commish is ball-less and he doesn't want the NHL to be the first Major League Sport to have uniform ads. if NBA or Baseball or Pro Bowling goes with shirt ads then the NHL will follow quicker than you can say Hattrick, but Bettman and his crew are pussyfooting around.

I mean if you can rename  the Penguins perfectly superb home arena , the  Igloo, Consol Energy Center you know that nothing is sacred. The Ducks' Pond - the anemic Honda Center?!!   Go figure.......and Montreal there's no need to remonstrate. So thank God the Rangers did not quite sell out yet and MSG is MSG.

3-3 in the OT

Well we have a problem with too many games going into shootout showdowns. the Fans seem to enjoy these, the coaches not so much. So who do we play hockey for - the coaches?  What the f...????

It is just the matter of time until the coaches figure out how to cancel each other out at 3 vs 3 and the scoring will dry up. the 3-3 scoring in pre-season trials was not spectacular.
So let me get me ponder a bit on the subject ....if in 3-3 there is a penalty on one team, the team getting the advantage gets to play 4 on 3. If 2 men get called then the team with the advantage will get to play 5 on 3.  I have a much better Idea - lets play one on one!!!!!!!   Can you imagine Jonathan Toews and Sidney Crosby going mano a mano!?  PK Subban vs Alex Ovechkin?  Or do you put in Milan Lucic against Brad Marchand?

THAT is a spectacle I pay dearly to see.  Skill vs stamina.  Does the coach rest his key player for the OT to let him lose? 

Mr. Commissioner I have a far better idea and it works well elsewhere in Hockey and soccer. Reward  a regulation win with 3 points, and OT and shootout wins with only 2, OT /shootout losses with zero points, and trust me you will have far fewer OT games!  Simple!
World Cup of Hockey

​Another  brilliant idea from the people who bring you the NHL. the Best of Canada, USA, Russia, Czech Republic, Sweden, Finland, and then.....wait a minute.......The best of the Rest. Make a team of  Poles, Latvians, Japanese, Koreans, Slovaks, Danes and Noggies.

Mold them into a coherent unit under the moniker - BEST OF THE REST and play them against Canada!    I cannot imagine a more daft idea -yes actually 3-3 in OT is just as bad.....

Who makes this stuff up. The NHL business development department no doubt!

Coach 

Alas, another summer and another opportunity to look back on what was and what could have been… if only!

So the Rangers choked at the finish line.

Losing in overtime, games when they were ahead with comfortable leads into 3rd.
Congrats to the Kings, they were very, very good.

My previous complaint that the Rangers were lacking a true no 1 stud center were sadly prophetic.
Richards ending the final on 4th line (2nd year in a row) and Nash really being unlucky.
Gabby was a stud and it is just typical that he would come to kill us off.
GM Sather has really no one else to blame but himself.

So I reckon we would have been 1 – 2 weeks away from competing, like the last time Jags almost won the scoring title.
But no – you would be wrong.
We completely retool. Doing the same thing over and over again expecting a different result is true insanity.

Remember – we dumped Nylander and got Gomez and Drury. Rangers went from contenders to pretenders.

Yeah we also signed Redden (34 years for what 7 meg a year for 5 years)!

You would think we would learn the lesson BUT you would be wrong! Sather couldn’t sign a 24 year Stralman, the young swedish stud  D for 5 years  for 4.5 with Lidstromian potential… so we spent 4.5  signing dinosaurian Dan Boyle who is 38.

Have we learned nothing????

Taking about Boyle, Brian Boyle also signed with Tampa for 1.5?

You are kidding me.

We couldn’t find  1.5 bucks to sign this guy, a heart and soul gritty player. Really disappointing but it wouldn’t be so disappointing if we pick up some good guys.

Lee Stempniak, Tanner Glass, Matthew Lombardi are here to replace Pouliot, Boyle, Dorsett and Fast/JT Miller to replace Richards.

I am blue!

Look for another 20 year Ranger drought.

Lets’ go Rangers.

Yes 20 years since my Rangers won the cup getting the 54 year monkey off the back.
Could it be possible that the 20 year anniversary bring a repeat. Let me tell you we were hopeful.
After the Pens I was confident we could go all the way. Montreal and even the Kings had nothing we couldn’t

Deal with. It was our destiny.

Secrectly I was pining for a Hawks/Rangers final. Somebody tell me when was the last original 6 final? Quick – Anyone?

1979  Rangers vs Montreal. I was there at Game 1 at the Forum. No doubt this would be our year.
Well we know how it ended. But I cannot be disappointed when you get this far, all small things make the difference.
I can tell you that the reasons we lost was because Dan Girardi made a howler in Game 1 OT!

That was the difference. All would have followed. We were the better team, despite many saying otherwise.
Rangers led most of the time against the Kings. They lost in 3 OTs.
I am not blaming Dan Girardi who was an absolute stud on D. but in 2nd OT he was pooped and I just observed that phenomen and no sooner the puck was in the back of Lundquists net.
We can talk about Nash not scoring and and lack of physical toughness. Rangers win game 1 in LA and there would have been a different outcome.
I give Rangers a ton of credit for this playoff run. We did not expect it. Next year will be harder, expectations will be up there with the impossible to please NY crowd.

We need to fix one or two things:

1)      Rangers need a  true no 1 center.  They were without one since Michael Nylander and even he looked good

Because The Jaromir was such a stud, then.  So going back even further  1994 Messier?  Can’t win without

A stud center. Could we get Thornton, Getzlaf, Kopitar, Toews?  Probably not. So draft only….but we have no ace up the sleeve

2)         Keep the D together!    Stralman was a stud as were McDonagh, Staal and Girardi. Klein is solid but we need more

Goals from the blue line!!!!!!!  Gonchar, Zidlicky or similar would do us a world of good on PP.

3)        Keep Boyle, Zucc, Dom Moore, Haglin, Dorsett but I would shop Stepan, and possibly resign Callahan.

Lets go Rangers Looking forward to 2015