Hard, accurate shots are fired throughout Hockey Central@Noon
Updated Thursday, June 13, 2019
This year’s NBA Finals have provided insight into Toronto, its electrified Jurassic Park and a culture that makes me envious. Some NBA commentators can’t understand why Kawhi Leonard would consider leaving a pristine city where dozens of restaurants place signs in windows that proclaim, “Kawhi eats here for free.”
Low crime, cheap dollars, doctor’s office open on Sunday with no appointments needed. People who are as polite as the Brits but without the attitude. If there’s one thing Canadians do not have it’s swagger, and the world is better for it.
Rory McIlroy, Northern Ireland’s greatest golfer, basked in Toronto’s love while winning the Canadian Open. As he strolled to the clubhouse after finishing on Sunday, one fan handed him a red Raptors jersey (not a cheap gift), which he jauntily slung over his shoulder.
Paul Pierce, happy to be part of the NBA television caravan, gushed: “What’s not to like about Canada?”
As one who was frostbitten during a September afternoon gale in Winnipeg, I can think of a reason why Kawhi might prefer LA, taking his chances on the mudslides, the fires and earthquakes.
Best of both worlds? Live in one of the lower of the Lower 48 and capture Canadian TV programming on satellite.
News without blowhards, bias or BS. Commentators who are concise, candid and witty. Now I’m talking Hockey Central@Noon.
This is an hour-long show, Monday-Friday, carried out of Toronto by NHL Network. No sport cries out for expert analysis like hockey – skaters so much faster than runners, the puck faster and thinner than a baseball thrown by Max Scherzer; an ambiguous rulebook that’s often blithely ignored.
As Jeff Marek, moderator of Hockey Central, observed, “On every shift you could call at least one penalty, if you followed the rulebook to a T.”
Anthony Stewart, Hockey Central panelist, said, “The game is so fast that the refs are missing easy calls. And the fans see that on the Jumbotron. We need that extra eye in the sky to get the calls right.”
Stewart, 34, was a fringe NHLer who provides a youthful perspective. He’s more open to revolution than a couple of other regulars, Brian Burke and Doug MacLean, both former general managers of NHL teams. They’re like your favorite college professor, making intricacy seem fascinating.
Burke has been GM of five NHL clubs, one of which won the Stanley Cup (2007 in Anaheim). And he was president of another NHL team, the Calgary Flames. And by the way, he has a law degree from Harvard.
MacLean as a rookie coach guided the Florida Panthers to the Stanley Cup Final in 1996. In 2003 he was coach, GM and owner of the Columbus Blue Jackets – all at the same time.
These guys are filled with wisdom that’s deftly gathered by 49-year-old Marek, who long ago acquired the nickname Gentleman Jeff. Without causing pain he probes sensitive topics, such as asking if the sport’s highest-paid coach, Mike Babcock -– just a few blocks away — should be fired by the Maple Leafs for losing track of Auston Matthews’ minutes in their elimination game.
Burke dives into controversy like it’s a lake by his summer cottage. He slammed the Carolina Hurricanes’ celebratory “Storm Surge” as “amateurish, pee-wee garbage stuff.”
More seriously, he said the St. Louis Blues try to “cripple” opponents with bone-crushing, stick-whacking forechecks. But he correctly predicted that the Boston Bruins would not be able to withstand the Blues’ physical assault if the officials would let them get away with it.
MacLean’s jabs are lighter but still sting. “I don’t care about William Nylander’s scoring chances. I don’t care about his looks. He needs to put the puck in the net.”
Here’s his summary of Wednesday’s Game 7: “Jordan Binnington in the first five minutes won the game for the Blues. He got in the Bruins’ heads.”
He pointed to their worst mental gaffe: “Brad Marchand is a great player, but he makes a monumental error when he goes to end his shift — exhausted with 10 seconds left in the first period — and gets caught flat-footed. Alex Pietrangelo scores, and that was a killer. . . . The Bruins need to add one top-6 scorer. They miss that second-line scorer.”
Another regular on the show is John Shannon, an Emmy winner who’s venerated in Canada for his unsparing objectivity. He does not give a pass to the winners.
The morning after Boston routed St. Louis 5-1 in Game 6 of the Stanley Cup Final, Shannon said, “I know he had six shots on goal, but this was not the same Patrice Bergeron we’ve seen time in and time out. He didn’t even get to 50% in the faceoff circle.”
In fact, as Shannon suspected, Bergeron had a groin injury that probably will require surgery.
Shannon agreed with MacLean that the real MVP is Binnington and not the actual Conn Smythe winner, Ryan O’Reilly.
Analysts on the non-hockey networks spouted nonsense about how a goalie shouldn’t be MVP unless he played splendidly every time, and Binnington did get yanked from a game.
So you’re saying O’Reilly excelled in every game of the playoffs? For the record, in Game 1 of the Final he didn’t have a point, and he was under water on plus-minus.
While watching a Stanley Cup game, I’m recording it to see again after Hockey Central tells me what I missed.
For example: Mike Zigomanis on Bruce Cassidy’s coaching: “Bruins were playing a bit of a zone defense. They were not running around, they were taking away the middle. Any time a puck goes up the boards and a D-man is on that forward, he’s not going with him. He’s letting the centerman go to him.”
At the end of Monday’s show, Marek said to Shannon and Ziggy: “You’re good teammates. Thanks for carrying me.”
What could be more Canadian?
