Bilbo bags one

Until recently, the biggest excitement in the history of Mosinee, Wisconsin (pop. 3,988 in the 2010 census) came on May Day, 1950, when local residents acting as communist invaders seized control of the town. These were the darkest days of the Cold War, when the unhinged fanatic Sen. Joe McCarthy of Wisconsin was whipping up …

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The morning after the night before: Wait – Waite?

It’s as strange as Montreal without nightlife.             A day after goaltender Carey Price spends time working on a separate sheet of ice with goalie coach Stéphane Waite, after the organization decides Price should go back in nets against Ottawa despite his early season struggles.             Waite is fired. And his firing is announced after …

The morning after the night before: the Carey bomb goes off in Winnipeg

It was time for Carey Price to do what GM Marc Bergevin suggested in a franglais phrase to make a Tongue Trooper weep:          “Steppez-up!”          If any player on the Canadiens roster needed to steppez in Winnipeg Thursday night, it was Price.          Instead, all he managed to do was to steppez on a …

The War Room Warriors strike again as the Habs lose …

Carey Price, as Mike Farber observed, made the big saves Tuesday night against Ottawa – but couldn’t make the little ones.             And that wasn't the half of it. Against an Ottawa team that is something less than the 1980s Oilers, Claude Julien coached not to lose, as he has far too often this season. …

Claude Julien on thin ice – and the weather is getting warmer

In February of 2004, I made my first Canadiens trip in a couple of years. A smashed hip and a couple of surgeries had kept me off the road and a pair of games in Florida, followed by a stint at spring training seemed like the perfect way to get back in the swing.          …

The Price isn’t quite right…

Those inane Google questions that pop up whenever you try to search something are, if nothing else, sometimes a key to what people are thinking.             When I checked Carey Price’s stats Friday, I found two beauties: Is Carey Price the greatest goalie in the history of hockey?Is Carey Price still good?             Mind you, …

Here ya go, Red – the players

My great and good friend, the late, much-missed Red Fisher, was a skeptic. He did not deal in rumours, he did not put up with fools and he was rarely if ever misled about the quality of a hockey team.         Red was the most influential journalist in the history of the game for many …

After 31 years, the bitter memories remain: on the massacre at the Poly and its aftermath

It was late on a December afternoon, the early winter dark a gathering gloom, a light, wet snow beginning to fall.          I was in the large, well-lit newsroom at the old Gazette building on St. Antoine St., writing a city column on crack dealers working the area near the Georges-Vanier Métro when I saw assignment editor Catherine …

COVID-19: A nurse’s words point to the depth of the lie

The words came from Jodi Doering, an ER nurse in South Dakota, and they were posted on Twitter over the weekend.  In her own quiet way, Doering proved once again that what is most simply stated is often what is most profound:  “I have a night off from the hospital,” Doering wrote. “As I’m on …

One last blog MMQB – & then it’s back to the future

&&&&& this will be the last blog version of the Monday Morning Quarterback for the foreseeable future. I will go on blogging here at jacktoddbooks.wordpress.com but I will return to my old space in the Gazette sports pages beginning next Monday – part of a new and old crew of columnists that includes three brilliant …