Ok, ok,, I mean, ya know, they’re high school dropouts….

youtu.be/5rifXMCI-fI

R.I.P. Clark Gillies 

https://www.sportsnet.ca/nhl/article/islanders-legend-hall-famer-clark-gillies-dies-67/

...can't wait around all day for Russ to post about Pennsylvania   .... 52,000+ teddy bears:   https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c76I7i8DShY

Hershey Bears ,,,, long time franchise in the chocolate town.

(oh Russ, where are you…?)

This popped up on Facebook.... Boy! talk about opposite ends of the spectrum.   

The accompanying text: Montreal’s ’76-77 team won 39 of it’s final 40 regular-season games, still holds the record for most points with 132, outscored opponents by 216 goal and went 12-2 in the playoffs on the way to the second of four consecutive championships.
Ten Canadiens recorded 50 points or more. Ken Dryden’s 10 shutouts led all NHL netminders.
The Canadiens finished 20 points ahead of the Flyers, second overall in the NHL and 49 points ahead of the Norris Division runner-up, Los Angeles Kings.

Edit: Looks like the photographer needed a wider angle lens.  I wonder how many of that group had ties to the TeePees. 

Well, a thin thread, but I, a TeePees fan, practiced at U of Guelph with Dave Farago, a former team mate of Doug Riseborough with the Guelph Mad Hatters. Also watched Pete Mahovlich (Maholovich to Foster Hewitt) do his thing against the Jr. Blackhawks (successor to the TeePees) when he played for the Hamilton Red Wings. & I might add the St. Catharines Junior Blackhawks brass went and stole Drummondville, PQ native Marcel Dionne right from under the Canadiens nose.

Ahem,,,, that should be “Canadiens’ nose” with the app-hoss-tro-fee , lest the ghost of my long-suffering English high school teacher Mrs. Lindsay should take it upon herself to haunt my midnight hours……

..... by moving my dentures during the night.      

Perhaps after all the TeePees info, you’ll relish a bit o’ baseball from , yep, St. Catharines…

It's a welcome respite..... I guess. I wasn't even aware that they existed.   https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/St._Catharines_Blue_Jays

I guess the best ball around here now [a far cry from the good old days] is the WCBL   https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Western_Canadian_Baseball_League.

I haven't taken in any games, as a late night drive home from Yorkton or Melville doesn't appeal to me, and to boot, my wife isn't a baseball fan.  So then I'm  thinking, why not use the soon-to-be-ready Surfside? Then I look into the ^^ link further and see: "The Yorkton Cardinals and Melville Millionaires have been on a leave of absence since the 2020 season and are not scheduled to participate in 2022."   With all the outrage I can muster: "Sheeesh!!" 

.... and another one courtesy of Facebook and/or NHL Memes:

Kane to the floundering Oilers,,, good luck with that.
sportsnet.ca/nhl/article/despi...ose-kane/

... never say never..... having said that, Kane never was one of my favourites, but I generally hold out hope that guys can change.  

I hope things work out for everybody ... and McDavid is very entertaining to watch, so if the team gains some measure of respectability, maybe they'll be on the boob tube more often.

Red Green,, “We’re men but we can change if we have to”
I got them on Sportsnet Now online in 5 minutes against da Preds... will submit a full report later,, film at 7 am....

err, he's not playing yet,, heresay (!) says he's in Edmonton now or on the way. Another media vague report,, is there no mercy!!

At 1:04 ……. Abbada, abbada, dat’s all folks
youtu.be/nfR5_t9_sew

.... pretty nifty!!   He does what Coach Owen says favours the goalie ..... make a slow looping approach.   For real players [in contrast to the "unreal" ones] I say speed down the middle third of the ice.... have some idea before you start.  Watching guys go for a Sunday [la-de-da??] skate while they try to come up with a plan gets me talking to the TV.

'Way back I had a classmate that had played for the Wheat Kings. In describing Fran Huck of the Regina Pats, he'd shake his head in resignation along with "... more moves than you can shake a stick at."   [Sorry, Mrs. Lindsay.]

One of our intermediate teams had a better-than-average goalie.  We usually ended practice with one-on-one... if you didn't score you got to be a scraper operator [yes scraper, not Zamboni].   We were never short of operators.  

An interesting snippet, accompanying a pic of "The Turk" taken from ”Crossing The Line, The outrageous story of a hockey original” [Sanderson's book???] via Hockey Beast, via Facebook:

"As we skated around Madison Square Garden with the Cup, the Rangers fans threw garbage at us, and I remember thinking how anxious I was to get out of there.

It was sad. After the game, we got dressed and left to take our bus back to the hotel. The fans were rabid. Cops had to circle the bus in order to allow us to board and leave.

The New York fans were screaming and swearing at us as we walked through the crowd to get onto the bus. I was carrying a leather bag. A kid broke through the ring of police, ran up to me and yelled, ”Sanderson, you’re an a**hole.”

He then tried to stab me with a knife. I held my bag up to block the blow and he stabbed the bag. A cop stepped up and clocked him with a billy club. Bang! Dropped him like a stone.

Relieved, I turned to the cop and said, ”Hey, thanks.”

The cop said, ”Look, I think you’re an a**hole too, but I’m just doing my job.”

        - - - - - - - -  - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -- - - - - - - - - - - - - - --

'Way back we we won a playoff series in the opponents rink.  That team and their fans had a few jerks [well, more than our team/fans], so shortly after the final buzzer our coach had us skate stops-and-starts.     ... A fair bit of hearty booing, some garbage (?)  tossed ... including a couple of rubber chickens.  IT WAS GREAT!!!   

.....an almost-legitimate connection to the OP.... and considering his h-u-g-e sphere of influence.... https://www.hockeyfeed.com/nhl-news/don-cherry-issues-a-statement-on-the-trucker-convoy-headed-to-ottawa?fbclid=IwAR3TekVhRkvTRebvGVmLSyn3FrS6ZwUFpZ64PmG2SQqr-NLWEHqQw4JC2LE

.... gone but not forgotten????? 

Good for DC/MD,,,, he despises liberal , pinko, limp-wristed, fancy-pants truckers too.
Another hockey expert waxing tough on freedoms… argh
youtu.be/-3ZnEweWUH0

... or, otoh, I figure it's possible [or even probable??] that most of the opposition is simply from people are opposed to measures that aren't justified by public health / medicine / stats. / ethics.   For a sizable faction, pinko, limp-wristed, fancy-pants, etc.  is totally irrelevant.   Heck. that ^^ faction is probably a "vast majority" ..... that's 50%+! isn't it?

Some hearsay for the mill.... I knew a lawyer in Roblin who knew/knows Wally..... several years back he told me his respect for Theoren tanked because, as he saw it, Theoren fabricated/exaggerated stuff about Wally in order to boost book sales.  As for me, I dunno.... I'm just spreading gossip.  

Wally? Who dat?
I respect Theo for blowing the lid off the Graham James thing, but if he quit all his boozing and dope his personality seems to be unchanged,, but those are just optics from where I sit. I think Sheldon Kennedy is more solid.

...  his pappy.     ... and the buzz on the street is that he was an [almost?] "sure thing" until he blew out a knee at age 17, I think it was.  Who knows how that might have affected his life choices?   ... not me.

Blowing out a knee isn’t enough to send someone into alcoholism. But who knows?

from Theo's book

"Fleury, now 41, says he was particularly vulnerable to James’s psychological manipulation because had little in the way of a family support system: his father was an alcoholic and his mother was addled by prescription sedatives. James easily convinced them he was the best thing to ever happen to their son, Fleury adds, just as he had done with Kennedy’s single mother. “I had rarely seen them like this—happy,” he says. “Their boy had made it. My dad was no longer a worthless drunk and my mom drugged out and helpless.”"

... maybe a factor though??   Dunno, everybody [and their background/upbringing] is different..... and like I said I'm just wondering out loud.  I, otoh, while assuredly NOT an up-and-comer, blew mine out when I was an accomplished/successful  23ish year old man-of-the-world.     

Terry Brown from Trenton and a former team mate of “Cheech" John Garrett (Ya, name dropping again) drove me into the boards a tore up my shoulder at U go G ,, my later hockey was a gingerly-approached affair.