It’s my Parting Shot for my Monday Musings…..
Anybody remember a pre-COVID Saskatoon on-air personality known as Greg Daniels or “Cranky?” They’re one and the same person and his real name is Greg Krienke. I bring him up because he’s the only person I know of who is a legit, been a long time fan of the Florida Panthers! Add me to the Florida bandwagon for the Stanley Cup final as there is no way in H-E-double-hockey-sticks that I would ever support the Edmonton Oilers!! That’s my heart speaking – The Fearless Predictor, also known as my head, will weigh in on the series on Friday!
As for the whole, how can you not cheer for a Canadian team, argument – I’m from Winnipeg, originally. During the 80s, the great Oilers’ teams were led by an obnoxiously smug and arrogant G-M and head coach in Glen Sather. As a reporter following the Jets, having to put up with his character was difficult and frustrating at best. Add in the fact that the Oil’s media relations co-ordinator at the time – with the help of a couple of newspaper writers and, so-called, television sports journalists, one of whom is a big-time national broadcaster today – acted as if they had something to do with the success of Gretzky, Messier, Coffey, Kurri, Fuhr, etcetera – and it was enough to leave a bitter and rotten taste in one’s mouth! Plus, some, and I repeat some, Oilers fans today need a dose of humility! One can only hope Paul Maurice, Aleksander Barkov, Sergei Bobrovsky and the Panthers can administer that over the next couple of weeks!
Again, it’s my fault for reading the fan forums on-line, but some comments about how the host team shouldn’t be allowed in the Memorial Cup and how the Moose Jaw Warriors were an embarrassment as W-H-L champs smack of sheer lunacy and a lack of understanding how things work! In a perfect world, only the three champions of the Major Junior Leagues would qualify for the Memorial Cup tournament, but how do you determine a C-H-L winner? Do you play two more rounds of best-of-sevens and run the Major Junior season into July?! No!! You can’t run a tournament format with just a few weeks of lead time in order to do it properly and a neutral site without a host team doesn’t draw flies! So, the present format remains and a non-league champion as host can win, as the Saginaw Spirit did last night. They won 50 games in the regular-season and lost a series to London, whom they beat last night. As for the Warriors, they won 16 times in the W-H-L playoffs. They were the champs out this way and came up short nationally. That’s the way it goes, they did alright in my humble opinion! Let’s leave it at that!!
That’s my Parting Shot. I’m Les Lazaruk…and it turned out nice again!…..
