Tuesday, June 28, 2016
Hockey Hall of Fame 2016 Inductees
The 2016 Hockey Hall of Fame Inductees were announced
yesterday in Toronto
The players entering the Hall this year are: Sergei
Makarov, Eric Lindros, and Rogatien “Rogie” Vachon. As is always the case,
there is some discussion about who will walk through as a member of the Hall,
and those who are remaining at the threshold.
There are decent goaltenders who will likely get an
invitation some day-Curtis Joseph, Chris Osgood, and Tom Barasso. Some skaters
overlooked this time: Rod Brind’Amour, Keith Tkachuk, Vincent Damphousse, Mark
Recchi, Alexander Mogilny, and Dave Andreychuck. All in good time, girls and
boys.
The selection committee is composed of individuals from
all walks of the game. They put their heads together, likely trying to avoid
all of the lobbying that takes place prior to the selections. They know their
choices are never popular. They have
broad shoulders, and can take the heat.
Rogie Vachon joined the Montreal Stanley
Eric Lindros. At times, he brought a lot of controversy
on himself. Most of the time, it seemed to follow him. As an Oshawa General, he
towered over the smaller Belleville
That was the beginning of the “Concussion Era” in the
NHL, for better or for worse. Even his towering brother had his career
shortened as a result of hits to the head. It is a good thing that more care is
taken in that regard in the game today. All pro sports monitor those situations
much more carefully nowadays. The days are gone when they trainer said, “What
day is it? Count my fingers. He’s good to go, coach.”
Sergei Makarov began his NHL career at the age of 31, in
1989. It was the year after the Flames had won the Cup. He had experienced
great success on the International stage, and managed to average 25 goals per
season in his first five years in the NHL. He had 86 points in 80 games in his
first NHL season, and won the Calder Trophy as the rookie of the year. That did
not go over well with many hockey purists, as he had not come up through the
normal ranks. He had spent 13 years in the Soviet Union
at the professional level. He was involved in a big trade with San
Jose Hartford Dallas
The 2016 Ceremony takes place in Toronto
James Hurst
Sportslices.blogspot.com
Tuesday, June 21, 2016
Gordie and Red Kelly
From the pen of Roy McGregor, related in The
Globe and Mail.
When Red Kelly left the Wings to play in Toronto
Early in the game, a puck was dumped into the
Leafs end. Kelly took off after it. As he neared the corner, he felt someone
closing in on him fast. He slowed. It was Howe.
“He slipped an arm around my waist, like a
lover,” Kelly recalled, beautifully.
Howe leaned in – and here Kelly leaned in as
well, to demonstrate the intimacy of the gesture – and whispered, “Hey, Red.
How’s the wife?”
Kelly turned to answer …
“And that’s when Gordie knocked me out.”
Kelly told this story in the living room of
his Forest Hill home 40 years after the fact. It was his favourite Maple Leaf Gardens
Kelly shone throughout the telling of it. He
was trying to convey something elemental about Howe – his duality, and a great
part of what made him special.
Off the ice, he was a gentle soul. On it, he
was on a seek-and-destroy mission. His targeting apparatus did not recognize
faces, only enemy colours.
Howe typified a brand of hockey that’s long
since disappeared – brutal, but not vicious; vengeful, and never contrived.
He was the last great link with what most of
us still romanticize as the authentic game. A game played by farmers, factory
workers and car salesmen, back when hockey was a job, and not yet a vocation.
It was a game in which civic borders were more
than a liminal space. They were absolute, uncrossable boundaries. You did not
just play against men from Chicago Montreal New York
Back in the 1950s and 1960s, clubs travelled
together via train between a home-and-home. One team would have to walk through
the other to get to the dining car. Those were genuinely fraught moments. A
cross word here could ignite a years-long vendetta.
They were hard men, and none harder than Howe.
He wasn’t especially big – six-feet tall, a little over 200 pounds. But his
hands hung at the end of his arms like wrecking balls. His torso was
cantilevered forward like some sort of industrial machine. He was built to
ruin.
Despite his reputation as one of the top
pugilists in the history of the game, he averaged less than a fight a year
during his career.
The legend was based largely on one bloodbath
in 1959 with Rangers enforcer Lou Fontinato. The Rangers goaded Howe into high
dudgeon. He needed to be shown the cape before the red mist would descend.
Sometimes Howe’s personal Iago, Ted Lindsay, supplied it on the bench;
sometimes an opponent was foolish enough to bait him on the ice.
Fontinato landed the first few blows. Howe
shrugged them off. Then he took hold of Fontinato and collapsed his face,
breaking his cheekbone, his nose, splitting both lips. The day-after pictures
remain some of the most gruesome in sport.
Howe fought even more rarely after that.
Everyone had seen the photos. He didn’t need to fight
any more. And since Howe took no particular pleasure in beating people up, he
stopped.
He continued abusing people with the rest of
his body, and at speed. Which was probably worse. He continued to pile up
points with such marvelous dependability, it tended to obscure his excellence.
If Howe hadn’t been quite so metronomic over
so many years, we’d probably talk more about his skill. Quiet efficiency
doesn’t rate on the heat scale.
Fifty years on, what we remember about Howe is
his soft sense of menace. He was a ruthless player. Dirty, even. But never
thought of with malice.
That would be impossible now. We’re too binary
– people are good or bad, never nuanced. We have slo-mo replays. We’d be going
over the Fontinato fight trying to pick out the moment when Howe should have
stopped swinging.
Imagine all the shots Howe delivered with
those swinging elbows. He would occasionally pin a man against the boards with
his hip and ride him the length of the ice, knocking his head back and forth like
a flesh piñata. He was a terror.
But thankfully, there is no video. So instead,
we get to remember Howe gauzily. Like the time in which he played.
Red Kelly, 2015 Christmas, going over his list.
Maybe he didn’t always do what we’d consider
the right thing, but he damn well did it for the right reasons. He stuck up for
himself and his teammates. He gave no quarter. He waited until you asked for
it, and then he gave you a lot more than you’d anticipated.
He’s gone now, but he’d long ago become a
feature of our imaginations. Howe’s name summons up a game we’d no longer
recognize and an idyllic, illusory vision of the sea-to-sea-to-sea.
What he represents now is Canada
He is an idealized vision of ourselves –
tough, decent and uncompromising.
Gordie Howe didn’t enjoy fighting, but he’d
happily go to war at the right time.
On some very basic level, that’s how we’d all
like to define ourselves
Monday, June 20, 2016
Mr. Howe-Mr. Hockey
Amongst other things, Gordie Howe was perhaps the
greatest ambassador for the game of hockey. On the ice, and off the ice, he was
Hockey.
As is the case with so many other fans, I have had a
couple of opportunities to chat with the late Mr. Howe. Always genial, always
most affable, he paved the way for young players in the game. He taught them
how to relate to the public. Simply put, he said that if someone was going to
wait for him to sign an autograph, then he would take the time to sign it. As
you know, that is not always the case today.
Bobby Hull was the same way. There are countless tales
told about buses having to wait while Bobby signed the last few autographs.
Only a couple of years ago, I was chatting with a seated
Bobby Orr at a Panthers’ game in Sunrise Florida
Later that evening, Gordie asked me where I was from. I
told him I was from the Belleville
Last weekend I had one of my “catching up chats” with my
oldest and best friend, Peter Carver. I owe a great deal of my sports
enthusiasm and knowledge to Peter, and to his dad, George, who was the sports
editor at the Intelligencer in Belleville Belleville Rednersville Road
They often visited with a scrap medal dealer from Detroit County
Gardens
Almost twenty-five years ago, son Arty and I attended a
card show in Toronto
Howe turned around and stated, rather curtly, “Young man,
until you are polite about it, with a ‘Please’ or ‘Thank you’, I won’t sign
anything.” Arty apologized, and rephrased his request. Gordie signed a blowup
of the 1954-55 topps card for him. Lesson learned.
Over the past week or so, I have heard many different
stories about encounters with “Mr. Hockey”. Many local fans met Gordie and
Rocket Richard at the Quite Mall. That would be a combination of two of the
greatest players of all time, from both of Canada
When the photo was taken at the Hockey Hall of Fame with
his son Mark, Gordie elbowed me as I was trying to look pretty for the camera.
I asked, “What did you do that for?” He replied: “I’m famous for that!”
Meet me at the Quinte Sports Centre this Thursday at 11:00am , for the unveiling of the
historic plaque recognizing the efforts of Jack Laviolette, one of the founders
of the Montreal
James Hurst
Monday, June 13, 2016
A Tribute to Jack Laviolette
Jean-Baptiste Laviolette was born in Belleville
The family moved to Valleyfield ,
Quebec Montreal Montreal
In 1909, Laviolette was given the responsibility of
establishing a team in Montreal Stanley
He played with the Habs in their first year in the NHL in
1917. In the summer of 1918, Laviolette was involved in a serious accident at a
track while tuning a car. He lost his right foot, ending his hockey career. In
1921, Leo Dandurand arranged a benefit hockey game for Laviolette. The former
Habs star had a special artificial foot designed, laced up his skates, and
refereed the game! Those who watched him said he could skate better than most
men with two legs!
He was inducted into the Canadian Sports Hall of Fame for
his prowess as a lacrosse player, and in 1962 into the Hockey Hall of Fame as
one of the great early players.
On June 23rd, at 11:00 am , the Ontario Belleville
Lalonde Laviolette Pitre
“Newsy” Lalonde was born in Cornwall Valleyfield
The statement from the Heritage Trust: “In honour of
their contribution to the early history of the Montreal Ontario Ontario Ontario
Laviolette was inducted into the Belleville Sports Hall
of Fame in 1988. He died in Montreal
James Hurst
Tuesday, June 07, 2016
Ali Has Left the Building
Muhammad Ali passed away
this week and is mourned by people he touched throughout the world. No matter
where he went, he was surrounded by fans who adored him.
Born in 1942 in Louisville Kentucky
Occasionally, his temper
flared. When his bike was stolen, he was furious. Fortunately, a Louisville
Although it is seldom
noted, Ali had great physical gifts which suited him to the ring. He had
height, and a rock solid physique. He had quick hands, and quicker feet. He
could take a punch, and show patience. To all competitors, he was the most
infuriating opponent they ever faced.
Before a fight takes
place, there are occasions when fighters just happen to be in the same room. It
might be for a weigh-in, or simply an opportunity for the media to grab a note
or two to hype the fight. Ali relished those opportunities, and always
dominated those occasions.
He would announce that he
was going to “Float like a butterfly, and sting like a bee”. He often denounced
opponents as being ugly, and that the champ had to be beautiful. “Ain’t I
pretty?” he would ask.
He was branded with many
names throughout his career, one being “The Louisville
Gorgeous George
Prior to his professional
career, Ali won a gold medal at the Rome
In 1966, Ali refused to be
conscripted into the American military, at that time involved in Vietnam
There are many wonderful
movies and documentaries about Ali. He even has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. It was placed vertically, not horizontally,
according to his directions. He did not want people walking on his name.
The question always arises
as to whether or not he was the greatest of all time. Very difficult to answer,
Certainly, Rocky Marciano comes to mind as a great heavyweight champion. He won
all 49 of his fights, and his career was tragically cut short when he was
killed in a car accident.
Joe Louis, “The Brown
Bomber”, knocked out James Braddock to win the title. He then defended the
title 25 times successfully over a 12 year period. Louis later earned a few
extra dollars in the wrestling ring as a referee, even at the Memorial Arena in
Belleville
Another former Heavyweight
champ also worked the wrestling ring in the small towns. Jack Dempsey fought 64
times, winning 49 by knockout. His most memorable bouts were against Gene
Tunney and Jack Sharkey.
James Hurst
