news: OLN changes their name to 'Versus'.
Gilles' view: How can changing your
name to a word most people mispronounce and can't spell be an
improvement? Even "Spike TV" identifies the channel's affiliation
with the airwaves. 'Versus'? That sounds more like
Britney's new scent.
news:
Don Cherry praises Radek Bonk as the prototypical hard-nosed Hab
player, then tells NHLers to lay off the refs making tough calls during
Coach's Corner.
Gilles' view: Quick -- someone check Don's CBC mug for illegal substances!
news: John Madden records a hat trick for the Devils
versus ® the Rangers in Game 2.
Gilles' view:
OLN reporter Bob Harwood found the real hat trick, as he interviewed a
giddy Devil fan in the stands who had just recovered his toupee after
accidentally hurling it onto the ice with his cap in his
euphoria. A hair-raising feature.
news: Anaheim defeats Calgary to force a Game 7.
Gilles' view:
Of all of the competent hockey announcers looking for playoff
employment out there, from under which rock does OLN unearth Jack
Edwards to call this series?
news: Red Wings eliminated in 6 games
Gilles' view:
Giving credit to the Oilers for their spirited effort, and paying due
diligence to the Wings' age and always fragile goaltending... but the
main reason this series was lost was one man -- Mike Babcock.
Babcock may present a hard jaw line and bark like he means business,
but when it came time for him to do something -- anything -- to change
the Wings' fortunes, he froze solid. Never shortening the bench,
never trying new combinations to get his players going, never
maximizing his assets to try to overwhelm the Oilers with speed or
skill, Babcock continued to send the same old tired quartet of lines
over the boards game after game.
The Wings marched to their destruction like so many IBM lemmings in the
infamous Macintosh '1984' Superbowl commercial -- as if preordained.
His worst infraction was leaving Stevie Y, one of the great players in
NHL history and, even more to the point, probably the Wings best player
in Game 6, on the bench for the final minute, needing a goal to prolong
the series. It was really enough to make you sick.
Gilles Moncour
[email protected]
