It’s a funny thing with weddings. They are the most special day for the people immediately concerned, the bride, groom and their immediate families, yet they subject themselves to an audience of guests who will either have a great time or be cynically critical of the couple and the festivities. Usually, it appears like a gargantuan effort for everyone to have a great time. Maybe YOU wouldn’t be the critical type, but I know I could.

The London Rangers Hockey Club is a big and ever changing family. New guys arrive, many leave and even some return. Despite this inevitable reality when living in a transient city, I can say we genuinely care for one another and despite all the vicious slashes, cheap shots and below the belt vitriol, there is a real sense of comradery amongst the guys.

When one of us gets married, he can choose to invite all other Rangers, much to his future spouse horror. Others do it quietly so the fellow team mates would not know about it – this way he is safe from the jokes and “well-meaning” advice from the other jaded marital warriors.

There have been memorable IHI/London Ranger weddings in the past – Rob Corkum’s in the Cotswolds a decade or so ago, or that of our former keeper and London Ranger HoFamer Tom Wills who married Katy a few years back in eastern Moravia.  To this very day we dissect these events, reminisce stories and fibs and all share a laugh, usually at the grooms expense. Over time, these tales have come to represent more than just another guy getting hitched and most likely having to miss a few extra skates a season for marital duty… these stories have become part of London Rangers folklore.

Few guys have the nerve to subject themselves to so many years of abuse.

It was therefore very courageous of Rangers long standing member and one of our core guys, Scott Johnston to marry publically in front of the team, and marry the one person hockey players never agree with… a hockey referee.

So, most of us players attended with our wives and partners and did our part in congratulating the newlywed couple. This event however, was so significant that I felt I needed to make a social commentary.

Joy Tottman is our very own international hockey referee with a resume more accomplished in the sport than any member on the team. Purely out of love for her now husband and sheer pity for the rest of us hacks, she makes the effort every Tuesday night to come out and ref.  Despite the continual verbal abuse and the on ice assistance we give her, Joy puts aside the moronic discourse and laughs as she beats our forecheck down the ice.

It is also true that in the past I have not seen eye to eye with (m)any referee and Joy is no exception.

Let me rephrase that – Joy was no exception.

I have behaved abominably toward the girlfriend of a close friend, referee or not, and that in itself is inexcusable. I treated her as I would have any other referee, possibly falling into a stereotype pitfall.  No heat of combat really can stand as excuse for my intolerable on ice behaviour.

So first and foremost I wanted to apologize to Scotty for being disrespectful to his fiancée. I also want to thank him and Joy to include me in the wedding despite my indefensible behaviour.  I made public apologies before and I relapsed again into shameful behaviour. But I pledge here that I will be good!

Now this wedding was a resounding success. Not only did we celebrate Joy and Scott’s great and happy occasion, but this wedding was a celebration of the sport we so love… game ticket style invitations, VIP passes for the guests, Stanley Cup style wedding cake, pucks, hockey themed table assignments, etc…  it was a genuine stroke of genius.

We all loved it. And the food was excellent, drinks abundant, great music – all that a good hockey crowd wants. But above the game like atmosphere, more than anything, the wedding was so warm and heartfelt, sincere bonhomie prevalent. Such feeling I really only saw in memorable movies such as The Diner or The Hangover.

This leaves me with one last thought: If a guy like me who has been so boorish can be invited to Joy’s wedding, then surely we should invite former “disgraced” members back into our club. Hockey may be the best game, but it is not a perfect world (…except when Scooter scores splits the D and dekes the goalie for a doozy).  People who are distanced or who have fallen out with the club should be welcomed back and embrace this big London Hockey family. If this wedding taught me anything, it is that if a no nonsense referee can welcome me to sit at her wedding dinner table and not in the penalty box for a night, we need to look past the trivial things like who’s wearing the stripes or jersey colour because our game is short and we should all be able to enjoy it together.

Coach

Each year the game is slightly different, the constant tinkering with the game makes us forget if there ever was a base line when the game was perfect.

Yes we are all nostalgic for the 80’s when Isles and Oilers dominated. The hockey was cruel, vicious and fun. But the players were the poor cousins of the Pro athletes from the other Major leagues.  Their money was comparatively lousy.  With the increased TV coverage, the players got paid much better and the league started tinkering with the rules to make it more appealing to the viewers in the borsht belt. No more tomahawk chops, no more climbing into the stands with your skates on a la Terry O’Reilly.  Mandatory helmets for all, then visors for increased safety; all sorts of confusing goal crease rulings to manufacture more goals for the TV viewers and  weird “distinct motion skate to the puck”  ruling etc. etc. etc.

When you think the rules couldn’t get any sillier, you got the puck over the plexi penalty. Can someone please explain to me what that is all about? Shooting the puck outside the plexi has the same effect as icing it.  The game is whistle dead. You drop the puck again. But in the instance of icing there is no penalty and in the instance of shooting the puck over the plexi there is one. To make the matter even more complicated, if the puck is deflected off a player or the boards, or the referee then there is no penalty –if the puck goes out straight from the players stick, there is a penalty.  A joke right?

Now the league comes up with the helmet removal penalty before the fights. What is that all about?????  As of now you are not allowed to remove helmets before fighting?

What’s next?  You won’t be allowed to ditch the stick, gloves, mouth guard  or elbow pads????? So in the preseason two players in the most gentlemanly of fashion mutually removed their helmets before their fight in order to avoid the additional 2 minute penalty. Good on them!  I would have loved to hear the little discussion between them:

“Hey you ugly mug, you wanna dance? Any time you motherless child! But first can you remove my helmet before I pummel you? I swear I won’t suckerpunch you.

Promise? Ok then, would you do the same for me please? But of course. That’s awfully nice of you!”

So now we will have another rule that will prohibit players removing of each other’s equipment!!!!! Are you serious ???  So no hanky panky on the ice gents!

You certainly won’t be able to remove each other jockstraps….before going toe to toe……and that brings me to the full circle now that Sean Avery has come out of the locker room. You won’t be able to suggestively touch each other on ice either and most importantly, you are no longer able to do the entertaining Avery sabredance to mindfxck the opposing goalkeeper. That loop hole has been also closed –it’s even called the Avery rule!

I kind wish Roger Neilson was still coaching and coming out with new gimmicks how to embarrass the League by out thinking them!

Let’s play hockey!

A Long chapter of London Rangers history has come to an end.  Tom the Goalie Wills is leaving these shores to become a die hard New York Rangers fan. Becoming  a Rangers fan will come naturally  to Tom, he is used to years of futility both being now a former Leafs fan and a player for the IHI/London Rangers both of whom  are well dressed and good looking, in a burly sort of way, bunch of has beens and never weres.

It has been years since TW came in to play for the  IHI, 17 years I reckon.  Well my memory is no longer what it used to be so I say it is too long to remember.  I remember him as a chubby, smart ass kid. Tom has been in fact a very cerebral kind of goalie, a change from the previous couple we had. They were neither very memorable for their goaltending nor that sharp.  Tom would get under player’s skin, so to speak:  f.ck with your minds!, he used to say.  This certainly worked a treat on me. But his on ice antics were memorable –  I have been fortunate to witness him stonewalling the overwhelming Finns in a 1-1 draw in those early years in Marianske Lazne. The same team went on to the finals that year.  They simply couldn’t believe how a bunch of misfits could stifle these smooth skating and passing Finns. Much like the current NY Rangers the goalkeeper gave us instant cred, we suddenly had a shot at winning every  game. And that is no mean feat, especially since  we had plenty of guys who could self implode at any given moment…  Roger, and
…. Roger and  Ted Brezina and Art Rubin……..and hmmmm I guess, yours truly.

Talking about cerebral, TW is a very money savvy guy, given his accounting background paired with the very wholesome Canadian upbringing. He knew how to spend pennies wisely:
Buy a suit or maybe a car, or plan a wedding. We all can learn from this guy.

Few people know but Tom was also part owner of the defunct pro franchise London Racers. You would be right in thinking that  he couldn’t be  the guy designing those fab hockey shirts we could hardly afford, NO, he was the clever guy telling Roger and I that we were Skint. Roger and I were all heart, Tom was all about hard facts!

While working a full time job as a fund manager Tommy played full time hockey in his UK pro come back  –  first for the Haringay Racers and then  later on when he was traded for a bag of pucks  to the hallowed West London power house the  Slough Jets franchise.  Their fans still ask for autographs anytime he happens to venture anywhere near Heathrow Airport!

His official UK life time winning record wasn’t much to write home about, but he was a consummate Playoff performer, When team he played for actually managed to get into the playoffs. The numbers  really only tell half the story. You need to understand that Roger Black and Steve Fullan were playing D!

2000-01  Haringey Greyhounds  EPIHL 13 6.75 .849 |
2001-02  Haringey Greyhounds  EPIHL 8 7.94 .870 |
2002-03  Haringey Racers  EPIHL 33 7.41 .855 |
2003-04  Slough Jets  EPIHL 3 3.33 .884 |                               Playoffs 2 4.00 .884
2004-05  Slough Jets  EPIHL 28 3.50 .891 |                            Playoffs 7 2.15 .932
2005-06  Slough Jets  EPIHL 1 11.84 .667 |

Willsy’s legacy: can’t think of many really. Other than knowing never to invest into hockey. I am certainly a much thriftier guy after many  years of interaction with Tom. But the London Rangers battle cry:  Goon’m!  is vintage Tom’s and Rangers will stick with it  for as long as the club exists.

The last time two of the original six teams squared up in a battle for Lord Stanley’s Cup was 1979.
It was the Rangers and the Canadiens.
The first game of that final in Montreal was  incidintaly the first NHL game I saw  – live.

In 1979 – As a young buck during the Swiss off-season I was touring North America following the play offs.
From NYC where I saw the series decider between the Rangers and the Islanders. The euphoria in the Big Apple was electrifying. I watched the game in an Irish bar on Lexington Avenue, as if I needed any more prodding to become a life long Rangers fan, that celebration did it for me.
The Habs/Bruins series continued and so I was heading north towards Boston.  As I drove past the old Yankees stadium in the Bronx I remember the light billboard outside:  Well done Shero’s Heroes!  Get the Cup!
Once the Habs took care of the Bruins I  game or two later I made short term plans to travel to Montreal, a Stanley Cup pilgrimage for this young Czech Swiss convert.

Of course I went to see the Forum  to soak in  some of the aura. I remember vividly – it was a Sunday morning and the game was to take place in the late afternoon. It must have been 10 or 11 am when all of a sudden the ticket office door opened and with fresh tickets for sale. I got my Golden Ticket! To this date I am failing to comprehend that. I was way up in the nosebleeds. I remember seeing the old boxy TV screens overhead to watch replays.

At the time I played for the Geneva Servette team in the Swiss League and it was already in the news that Jacques Lemaire was going to finish his NHL career and move to Switzerland and play for the small market team of Sierre. His buddy Jacques Plante, was living nearby and I guess he set it up for Jacques Lemaire. So I knew going into this game than come fall I would need to play against Jacques Lemaire.

I must have been the only Rangers fan in the building that day. Rangers won that game, what a night!
I still have the programme from that game, HoF line ups:

Habs

6 Pierre Mondou
8 Doug Risebrough
21 Doug Jarvis
25 Jacques Lemaire
28 Pierre Larouche
10 Guy Lafleur
11 Yvon Lambert
12 Yvan Cournoyer (Captain)
14 Mario Tremblay
15 Rejean Houle
20 Cam Connor
22 Steve Shutt
23 Bob Gainey
30 Pat Hughes
31 Mark Napier
3Brian Engblom
5 Guy Lapointe
17 Rod Langway
18 Serge Savard (Acting Captain)†
19 Larry Robinson
24 Gilles Lupien
27 Rick Chartraw
29 Ken Dryden
1 Michel Bunny Larocque

Rangers

6 Tim Bothwell D
30 John Davidson G 25 6-3 205 -/L 5 February 27, 1953 20-12-5, 3.52 GAA
23 Lucien DeBlois RW
2 Andre Dore D
10 Ron Duguay C
77 Phil Esposito C
3 Dave Farrish D
22 Nick Fotiu LW
4 Ron Greschner D
15 Anders Hedberg
16 Pat Hickey LW 25
17 Eddie Johnstone
26 Dave Maloney D
12 Don Maloney LW
25 Mario Marois D
27 Mike McEwen D
14 Don Murdoch RW
11 Ulf Nilsson C 28  injured in final
31 Doug Soetaert G
19 Dean Talafous RW
18 Walt Tkaczuk C
5 Carol Vadnais D
8 Steve Vickers LW 27

Tonight the Series starts and I am torn. I don’t particularly care for the Bruins, but they have Jags and I would like to see Jags get one more. He deserves it.

What a story book career.

So you ask how did it go with Jacques Lemaire that following season. Well, I was meant to shut him down away from home and I failed. We had a coincidental minor.

I blew the ice re-entry as I was in awe of lemaire, I missed my clue. Then during the return game at home  we won and I was killing penalties against  him…

Go Hawks!

Get used to that notion.

Like many other topics in hockey this is one  I can talk about with competence. Until the  2013 World Championship Final loss to Sweden the Swiss were the  unbeaten sensation. They beat Canada, Czechs twice, Sweden once and the USA on the way to their deserved silver medal. It is a notion we need to get used to. I actually think the Swiss will edge the Czech for the foreseeable future. Many Czech youth coaches are now working in Switzerland. The money in the Swiss National Liga is very good. Who cares it’s not the Stanley Cup,  I hear you say? Well I have news for you Doubters.

 Hockey in Switzerland is just very very popular. Always was.   Games in Bern will regularly sell out with 18000. People from all corners of tiny Switzerland will travel to game of Bern and or Zurich. Cities such as Davos, Zug, Bern and Zurich are extremely affluent and will now bank roll hockey as the main town attraction. Geneva is finally building a proper hockey arena to replace the 1950’s arena that is completely wrong for the purpose. The newly promoted Lausanne where hockey is tradition will be no exception. The world HQ of Neste, RJR and the IOC nearby they will have a sell out every game. The rivalries  between Lausanne and Geneva, Lausanne and Fribourg will be ones to savour. The Swiss system Is edging closer and closer to a closed professional league.

 The Swiss do nothing very quickly but they are thorough.

 The Swiss youth hockey  programme is in fact excellent. The Zurich Lions have one of the best integrated systems in the world. From the runts to a farm team in Zurich that plays one league down from the Elite team it is very, very good system. Many young Russians, Latvians come to Switzerland to play youth hockey and get an international education. They will grow up being Swiss. It just goes to say that Slava Bykov’s son Andrey  who is a very good player didn’t make the WC line up (He may be injured, I don’t know) The Zurich Lions have beaten Chicago Blackhawks in a preseason game  in Zurich the year the Hawks won the Cup. Exhibition, I hear you say, maybe? I was there and Zurich played well, Chicago was beaten fair and square. The Swiss league had a cap on foreign players  (4 if my memory serves me) and so all clutch situations the coaches would rely on import players and the swiss never really grew up to learn responsibility. Then came the WCs and they had to do it for themselves and they always struggled. Well this has clearly

 Changed.

 The Swiss NHL pioneers were David Aebischer and Martin Gerber who arrived in the NHL 15 years ago. Then there were the unsuccessful draft picks of such as Michael Riesen / Oilers (12G) and Reto von Arx in Chicago (19G). But all of sudden there is good number of Swiss players playing major  juniors, getting recognition, being drafted and sticking around in the Show. That is a good thing. The work the Swiss do is  starting to pay dividends. You wouldn’t know this but 22 swiss born players have played in the NHL. The Swiss  even have a quality captain of a NHL franchise in Mark Streit who has already 491 NHL games under his belt!

 So lets look who is in the show and who are the next Swiss prospects waiting to show what they can do. We have the aforementioned Mark Streit, Luca Sbisa /Ducks, Roman Josi /Preds, Yannick Weber and Raphael Diaz for the Habs, Damian Brunner/Wings, Sven Baertschi /Flames and of course Jonas Hiller / Ducks. The next players to come to the NHL: Look out for Reto Berra the Swiss goalie, Sven Andrighetto and Tanner Richard. Undrafted Mirco Muller born in 1995 is 6’3 D man who has a complete game and is playing for the Kloten Flyers.

 As they say in Zurich Hopp Schwiiz!

I can’t help but think that a  shorter  regular NHL is a positive and that with fewer games, each becomes heckofalot more Meaningful and therefore entertaining.   48 games may not  be not enough but 80+ are probably too many hockey games. So why not draw some lessons from this.

Apparently the hockey outdoor season is going to be  enhanced to 6 games – 4 more that we had until now. The idea is simple…..60-80.000 bums in the bleechers more than in an arena that’s big bucks  for the league and the clubs. Don’t think the NHL has lost the sight that this is business first and foremost. If they can make us feel nostalgic  with a warm and fuzzy around the holidays In the process so the better.

6 games in the great outdoors,  every player will be giving their platitudes about growing up in the old days wanting to play On the frozen pond….regardless if he is 19 and hails from Stockholm where there are no frozen ponds to speak of.

It looks like business is going to kill the special hockey atmosphere the Winter Classics were.  Pretty soon all games will be Played outdoors and we will have to pay premium to watch the games inside the comforts of the Bell Center or MSG.  That’s another great Idea, like airline food. Take it away and then ask money for what you used to provide regularly and for free. So apparently A game is scheduled for the Dodger Stadium as well.  Next year expect games in Tampa and Phoenix……

I take issue with the The Telegraph’s resident sports expert Jonathan Liew view of  (ice)hockey.
I will admit that to the untrained eye hockey is a difficult sport to follow, despite the advances of High Definition television. Hockey is a fast sport…….no – it is the fastest team sport. Puck travels at 114 miles / hour (184 kms) but unlike in golf, the hockey projectile is aimed at humans, who are using their bodies to stop it from entering  the goal. How unusual?

Like Rugby Hockey is a blood sport, but it’s faster. It’s a man sport, even when played by women. I feel that the writer is not fair in his assessment as it is just as difficult to follow a tennis volley or service going at 200 kms/hour, or a teed of golf ball. You need replay to appreciate the  what just happened.

Well hockey is not dissimilar, but it has added spice with team play, combination of basketball and the grit of rugby. The author bemoans  “befuddlement” by the rules and the calls from the reporters. We have been in Britain for 20+ years and I am still trying to come to terms with Cricket. Now that’s a strange game…….oops, Sport.   I am bowled out in 3 overs.

Hockey is the greatest sport on earth and its Britains loss that they don’t appreciate it as much as the Canadians, Czech, Swedes, Finns, Latvians, Swiss, Germans, Americans…

Hockey is growing and by the latest count there are some 1.5 million registered players world wide. The author would be excused to know that ice hockey is played in India and that the indian national team won their first game last year. 46 countries are involved in the annual world championships…..Mongolia being the last ranked team. Many nations have not yet qualified for the WC: Algeria, Kuwait, UAE, Morocco, Malaysia, Saudi Arabia, Thailand, India, Singapore, Macau, and Oman…

The list is growing

Perhaps perceived as a comical move in retaliation to an ass kicking, the act of defecation in another man’s hockey equipment only cries out the need for psychotherapy. I am in 100% agreement of this guy getting the boot and having no refund – in fact, banning his ass for life was a great move. Acts of revenge in hockey need not to take place by means of fecal matter, but on the ice whether through your play or throwing it down. What this guy did not only cost him his dignity and respect, but more importantly, it cost his team two points.

Click the glove to read the story…

The news of Brian Burke being relieved of his General Management and team President duties for the Toronto Maple Leafs took many by surprise right at the outbreak of the season. One cannot help but think there is more behind the firing than purely lack of Leaf playoff success and a sub-par product on the ice! I guess only time will tell what the true motivation behind MLSE taking action was, but my guess has Burkey pinned in a much greater set of complicated circumstances than merely the Leafs lack of Lord Stanley…

This brings me to the video of the week! I discovered this beauty while pursuing YouTube looking for a replay of Burke’s farewell conference. Obviously, everyone who watched this press conference live had comparable thoughts swimming in their head similar to what this guy dubbed! Definitely worth a watch and provides a good laugh!

Well the holiday break was great and after spending some quality time with those outside of hockey, it’s time to get back to reality and focus on the return of the NHL.

With week one nearly complete, there have been little surprises beyond expectation and it will no doubt be a couple more weeks before the pond hockey tempo evaporates. That being said, many of the guys who were active playing overseas or in the AHL clearly have their legs beneath them, pushing those still in training camp mode to play a little harder! Speaking of which, video of the week is for Jaromir Jagr, a Czech legend who scored twice, assisted on the game-winner and had a hand in all four goals in his Dallas Stars debut – a 4-3 victory against the Phoenix Coyotes last Saturday night. Jagr, who had been playing in our native Czech Republic during the lockout clearly still has what it takes at 40!

Side note: Jagr is the NHL’s active leader in goals, assists and points.

I hope he brings back the mullet.