What happened?

Well I have had a great summer except when I think of the miserable state of the habs franchise. At least my memories have not faded of better times like the spring of 1971. As the 1970 -1971 hockey playoffs got under way, people were grudgingly accepting the Beatles had really broken up (but for how long), Jimi Hendrix and Janis Joplin were already dead, and Jim Morrison had a few months to live. In Quebec, the October 1970 crisis was over, James Cross survived but Pierre Laporte had been assassinated. Pierre Trudeau, Robert Bourassa and Jean Drapeau were our political leaders. Richard Nixon was waging secret bombing campaigns in Southeast Asia to bring about his peace with honor. Filming of the Godfather had begun and George C Scott had refused the Oscar for best actor for Patton the best movie that year.  Roberto Clemente was leading the Pirates to the World Series and he would be dead a year later. Kareem Abdul Jabbar was centering the Milwaukee Bucks to the NBA championship. M...

I am at poolside at an extravagant hotel and I am pissed. Well I thought all was well in Habsland. Finally coming to their senses management got rid of overpaid deadwood Josh Gorges and Brian Gionta. They terminated George Parros, Doug Murray, and Ryan White forgettable non- NHL calibre players. Could Travis Moen and Tomas Plekanec be far behind? I thought the reason for not keeping Gorges and not affording Gionta was simple -to re-sign the Norris trophy winning franchise defenceman PK Subban. Bergy gambled a couple of years ago when he signed Subban to a 2 year bridge contract. Even though most hockey pundits understood the superstar potential of Subban and the stats bore that out, Bergy newly hired wanted time to evaluate the star and leadership qualities of his inexperienced defenceman. Bergy was applauded two years ago for holding firm a little like Reagan when he fired the air traffic controllers as one of his first moves as President. In the ensuing two years PK did ...

Ahh it was forty years ago...In September 1972, Jean Beliveau one of the classiest hockey players of all time had been retired for over a year. I mention Jean Beliveau because in September 1972 Canada won the historic series against the Soviet Union but class should not be used to describe the victory. This series was incendiary, traumatic, and barbaric. It pitted Soviet athletes who were well-disciplined educated soldiers trained in a totalitarian regime versus barely educated junior-trained professional athletes raised in a capitalist regime. For Canada the series was a revelation in that we saw Canadian players we had grown up with and who we believed to be vastly superior demi-hockey gods turn into mere mortals. The once demi-gods also wilted to extreme and bizarre behaviour patterns. The first four games in Canada created severe stress for the rabid hockey fan and some went into shock. It wasn't that the Soviets won but my god how they won. They toyed w...