Random Thoughts on the Opening Ceremony

I still love Bobby Orr

 

I still love Donald Southerland

 

I think the entire American team have A D D and they’ve taken them off their meds

 

Why do the totems remind me of an erection

 

I think David Hasselhoff and kd Lang share wardrobes. Hasselhoff is sexier.

 

Opera is 1000 people in the world imposing their will on the billions who hate it.

 

Was it impossible for Furlong to learn more French than mon amis and do a poor job of it. And he could’ve lost the Brit accent at the same time.

 

The rocky mountains are pretty majestic when not made out of sheets.

 

The budget for the opening ceremonies was 47 million. They spent it all at linen and things.

 

Nancy Green still looks like the kid who won the Olympic gold

 

Wayne Gretzky is suffering from the Phoenix situation. Check out the hair dye.

 

The lone Monaco athlete is 55 and didn’t carry the flag. I’m taking out my citizenship.

 

Who’s selling cigarettes.

 

My hero is Betty Fox

 

I’m shocked – it’s raining in Vancouver. Somebody can sling BS

 

I hope Canada wins the gold in hockey, men and women but I’m still mad that Cammalleri wasn’t even considered. What they don’t like smart guys!!

 

I bet Bob Costas was beat up more than I was as a kid

 

They should have made all the figure skating judges take the oath on the stage and let the crowd rate them

 

4.2          1.0          5.3          6.5

 

Did they get a deal on the Iranian hats. I. R. Iran – They thought it was all in upper case at first. Come on

 

It was very fitting the Irish were between the Iranians and the Israelis. Who better to control a brawl.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Fare thee well

Just like the chorus from Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young (he’s Canadian you know) Déjà vu track, I keep hearing voices raised high in a plaintiff and wistful drone, “we have all been here before, we have all been here before” and can’t help but feel that it is true yet again. The Bob Gainey era will now be left to the history books and the vultures known as Canadien fans who will pick at the road kill despite the dangers of the oncoming traffic. What I know is the job of general manager in the current NHL has got to be like being the impresario to the band on the Titanic -unbelievable talent and guts  being driven by a guy who can’t see icebergs (See Bettman). Being the general manager of the Canadiens is like having that band on that Titanic with tug boats latched to the side to see you don’t miss the iceberg.

 

For all the evidence one can muster on either side of an argument about whether Mr. Gainey was a good or bad gm,  the fact remains, his most recent predecessors didn’t make it to the party as often as he did.  The last icon player to hold the job of gm was Serge Savard ( I like Houle very much but let’s face it folks he wasn’t an icon) and at the time people ran him out of town with the lynch mob just waiting to heave his carcass on high from the nearest oak (thank god Drapeau had removed all of them from Sherbrooke Street). In retrospect, Savard was the last guy to bring not one but two Stanley cups to the city. In a place where one of the top two issues of hiring a gm is  that he must speak the language ( and Boivin made it very clear that it was one of the top two considerations) you are limiting yourselves. Whatever, people thought of Bob Gainey in terms of doing his job, they may find that the pickings are even slimmer now that he has departed.

 

When people raise the Gomez, Gionta, Cammalleri and Hamerlik deals as being terrible I’ll point to Briere, Lecalvalier, Brad Richards and Souray as all being worse and at the time, the outcry in the city for three of the four was resounding. The chorus of “he way overpaid” can be answered by the Komisarek and Kovalev negotiations where he offered fair market value and they took either the same or slightly better deals to go elsewhere and these were players who swore up hill and down dale they wanted to be in Montreal. It’s easy to be a manager when all you have to do is forget what you said yesterday and be the genius of tomorrow, but in these days of cap hits, taxes, climate and constant scrutiny it is easy to understand why players might take the easy road and go elsewhere. There is still nothing like playing in Montreal when you’re playing well (see Saturday against the Penguins) but lo the day when you play bad (see Sunday against the Bruins).  

 

Just like most fans in Montreal, I’m always disappointed when we don’t win a game, when we don’t make it to the payoffs, when we don’t win the cup and we blame everyone involved because of it. Fair enough. What I also know for sure is that there are 29 other teams who want to go to the dance and all of them have a crack at the same players that the Canadiens do. In fact because of their futility of floating on the bottom for so long they even got a better opportunity at the likes of Ovechkin, Crosby and Malkin. Unless Montreal is willing to forsake the playoffs for let’s say 5 or 6 years consecutively and finish in the bottom 5 teams at the specific point in time when some of the most talented new comers are on the way up, and they win the lottery to grab those players, then you’ll have to learn to live with the best that a gm can bring you while competing with the rest of the teams. If you think Bob was bad at that, hold on to your hats my friend because the winds of bad may be blowing up a hurricane.

 

Good Luck Bob and wipe that smile off your face.