You can have your Corsi – Jeff Petry got juju eyeballs

Between the third period and the beginning of the overtime Thursday night, a fat moon rose through a haze of streaky cloud over Montreal. It was St. Jean Baptiste. There were intermittent bursts of fireworks. Cars roared past decorated with the Canadiens flag in one window and the Quebec fleur-de-lys in another. It was a …

Young King Cole is a Merry Young Soul

After the 4-1 victory over the Las Vegas Mar-a-Lagos Tuesday evening, the cameras followed Cole Caufield as the Canadiens celebrated.             There was no real reason for it. Caufield had scored another sniper’s goal, this one on a hard, quick shot off a feed from Corey Perry but three other Canadiens had scored and, as …

Maybe it’s time to admit it – the Canadiens can play

They have won in Toronto. They have won in Winnipeg. Now they have won a game in Las Vegas to seize the home-ice advantage as they head back to Montreal for games Friday and Sunday.             At some point, we are going to have to concede that these Canadiens can play a little shinny and …

Hockey in the Air-Conditioned Nightmare

A guy I once knew boasted that he had seen everything Europe had to offer, even though he had never been across the Atlantic.             He had seen the canals of Venice along with Doge’s Palace and the San Marco Campanile, the Eiffel Tower, the Arc de Triomphe, the Pantheon, the Colosseum, the Trevi Fountain, …

Thirteen days that shook the north

            Thirteen days. That’s all it took. Thirteen days.             Thirteen days that upended the North Division of the National Hockey League. Thirteen days to save the jobs of the GM, head coach and who knows how many other scouts and assistants.             Thirteen days to knock the Maple Leafs Stanley Cup train off the …

A league in need of shock treatment

It’s all so drearily familiar. Player goes berserk on the ice. Someone is injured. While the injured player is down, his teammates try to get at the offender. The guilty party pleads his innocence. His coach defends him to the max. Fans of the team with the injured player demand justice. Fans of the other …

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 …

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 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 …