WHEELIN' WEDNESDAY-CONGRATS PENS! PK DRINKS LISTERINE-SID DRINKS OUT OF THE CUP! MATT MURRAY NEXT GREAT CANADIAN GOALIE!

 WHEELIN' WEDNESDAY 

THE HOCKEY WORLD ACCORDING TO LIAM MAGUIRE

SEEMED LIKE THE RIGHT THING TO DO, WRITE ONE MORE. 

 Loved that Pittsburgh win, just loved it. I'm a huge Sidney Crosby fan, Pittsburgh are my third favourite team after Montreal and Edmonton so this was great, congrats to them. Repeating was not something I saw from anybody let alone a team losing their number one goalie in warm up prior to game one of the playoffs, missing their number one D for the whole playoffs, plus various others in and out of the line up, just unreal. There's no doubt in my mind the game five explosion took the starch out of the Predators who should not hang their heads at all, what a fantastic run. If Ottawa's run was exceptional which it was then the Predators was a notch above that. Congrats to them as well. As much as it would have been a great thing for Mike Fisher it was equally good for Ron Hainsey. And the tradition of the Cup going to the most deserving continued when Sid handed it off to Hainsey, great stuff. 

As improbable as it's been for anybody to repeat you look now at what the Penguins could ice for a team next year if healthy and how do you not table them in for a 3-peat? Wouldn't that be something? One thing is for sure, never count Sid out. We've seen that countless times for Canada so the question now is, where is his rank all-time? Can he slide into the Mount Rushmore of greats, Orr, Gretzky, Howe, Lemieux? Next on the list for most people is Rocket Richard. I see Sid right there; he's elevated to the plateau the vaunted five sit on, at least for me. Is he ahead of any of them, no...can't do it...not yet.....but he's close, very, very close. He is by far the greatest player since Mario in his prime, no one is close. To think of the years he lost due to injury, to be able to come back and play at that level, the level he's been at for the past two seasons is a credit to his perseverance and dedication. 

   What a final series, so reminiscent of Boston-Vancouver 2011 which was a total homer series until game seven. Let's talk about a few other players from the series. 

PK Subban...wow, way to make it about yourself PK. It was inevitable and I got sucked in again. Like he did to me countless times when he was in Montreal he sucked me right in. It appeared his playing in the 3-hole and second unit pairing on the power play for the majority of the season gave PK a new lease on NHL life. He played way smarter in his own end; the turn-a-rounds at center were gone, the bad pinches, the shots always blocked, the JC Tremblay sky pass, instead we saw a guy with a booming shot, smart exit plays, sharp crisp passes, excellent positioning against the rush but, slowly the worm turned. He can't help it, it's his nature. As Nashville continued to stun the hockey world it empowered Subban and slowly but surely his natural ego-driven self took over. First came the public admonishment of Ryan Ellis. After jumping around at the point like a twelve-year old in practice he exploded on Ellis on the bench and it was on. This was the PK we saw on CH24, this was the man with the million dollar body and the ten cent head. Watching that, seeing Ellis cringing under the verbal barrage, I thought to myself, 3yrs tops then it's onto destination number three. Matching up against Crosby, even if he wasn't the desired match up for Nashville against Crosby it gave him the perfect opportunity to take the series over off the ice.The exchanges with Sid about the bad breath and the whole Listerine thing was the final straw for the coaches; no more microphone for you. He was told to zip it but the damage was done. PK talked off the ice, Sid did his talking on the ice. And that ladies and gentlemen, is why Montreal made the trade and won it hands down. 

Matt Murray; unreal. Two Cups and he's still a rookie. A few other rookie goalies have won individual awards two years in a row. Jamie Storr, a goalie with LA was voted to the all-rookie team in consecutive years. Far cry from two Cups. Ken Dryden deserves honourable mention with a Cup, a Conn Smythe followed by a Calder Trophy followed by another Cup and a Vezina trophy. Terry Sawchuk also deserves mention with a Calder trophy followed by a Stanley Cup and a Vezina and had their been a Conn Smythe in 1952 he wins it hands down. Murray is in a league of his own with this accomplishment and will undoubtedly get to prove that on the international stage for Canada next big event, whenever that is. That position is Carey Price's still but one falter and it's Cujo-Brodeur in Salt Lake or Brodeur-Luongo in Vancouver. I read some where about two years ago there were no more good Canadian goalies. In fact the reporter in question actually went to Finland or Sweden or Siberia or wherever to justify his story and came back saying hey Canada, we're screwed...no goalies for you. Funny how that works out. Hope he enjoyed the flight. Probably drank a lot of wine spritzers...

EXPANSION DRAFT

Can't think of another time I was this jacked for any draft. It's simply fodder to try and figure out if Ottawa should go 7-3 or 8 skaters for the simple reason of the side deal. The way I see it, if Dorion can make a deal to protect Methot and Ceci he'll go 7-3. If he can't, he'll go 4-4 and risk losing a forward. Every single team with maybe the exception of Toronto are in some sort of quandary. Twitter will have all eyes on deck at 10am EST Sunday.  

LAST RADIO SHOW

 One day in early May in 1981, thirty-six years ago, as I sat on the top of the zamboni at the Manotick arena and ate my lunch I was listening to radio station CFRA as we all did in those days and the late Hal Anthony was on the air doing his talk show and he was doing a trivia show. He was giving out two numbers; one to call in with a question, the other to phone in if you had the answers. I was a Rideau Township employee at that time; living at 294 Woodfield Drive in Nepean; driving a 1971 Volvo, 142DL ( green ) I was 21, a few weeks before my 22nd birthday; I was very fit, had a ton of friends, went out 8 of every 7 nights, could drink like ten men, played hockey non-stop and really didn't have a care in the world. My whole life changed in an instant. I called the show. There were a few hockey questions outstanding so I answered them. Giving it was the last fifteen minutes of the show Mr. Anthony asked me to throw out a hockey question even though I was on the answer line so I did. I asked,'what year did Montreal win their first Stanley Cup?' People who had phoned in to answer other questions tried mine; 1915-no, I said, that was the Vancouver Millionaires. 1917? No, that was the Seattle Metropolitians. 1914? No, that was the Toronto Blueshirts. Mr. Anthony asked me if I had a book in front of me, I said no I did not. 

 I heard through the grapevine that Mr. Anthony was trying to find me. In fact by the time I did connect with him in a private conversation he exclaimed others had phoned in saying they were the guy. Ever see the movie Turk 182? Every time I see that scene where Timothy Hutton is trying to say he was Turk I think of that conversation with Mr. Anthony. Too funny. I was invited in to the station, as a guest on the air for the full two hours! On May 21, 1981....can't even believe it as I write it. The day before my 22nd birthday I was paid 75$ to answer NHL trivia questions on CFRA. 36yrs, 27 days later, I've made appearances on every national radio and TV show in Canada, I've hosted and co-hosted my own shows, I've made 2000+ live appearances, written three books and Saturday I will do what I expect will be my last paid show. 

 Could something still change, for sure. Rogers may say later this summer, hey, we'd like to bring you back. Maybe the Bell boys will say, hey, we have a spot. And at least for the short term I'll still do my Vancouver hits on Monday mornings but sometimes your gut feel is the right one and I feel this is it and frankly, I'm totally fine with it. I'd go in to other things to explain that but this is already long enough and if you've read this far you're already bored to tears...Pour another one! I already have. 

I don't have much planned for this Saturday. Fairly normal show but Dan Geoffrion will be on and I'm really looking forward to that. I've never interviewed him, he's part of the greatest hockey-family story in NHL history so what a way to go out, bringing that to you from one of the actual family members. Because I love to write I intend to submit a story here hopefully each week, probably more like every second but every now and then, sort of a personal historical tome with reference and deference to those that did extraordinary things, in some cases they have gone before us, in other cases they still walk among us and through the written word and social media I will try and do just that, walk among you still. Until we meet for our next cold beer, have a great summer, stay healthy, stay safe, enjoy, gidday!!