Dennis Kane’s Excellent Montreal Canadiens Blog

The Olympics are over, it’s late August, and school’s not far off. Which means two things: NHL training camps are soon to open, and retired people will take over the roads in their RV’s.

Which brings me to my questions. When swimmers do the backstroke, how do they manage to stay in a straight line? They can’t see. And how can retired people afford gas for their RV’s?

And because the gods have presented the city of Buffalo and its hockey team the extreme honour of hosting the Montreal Canadiens on Oct. 10, is the city of Buffalo preparing properly for this incredulous occasion? 

Will Montreal’s hotel in Buffalo be scrubbed down properly and the silverware polished so it glistens?  

Will the Sabres make the visitors dressing room more lavish and comfortable than just any old dressing room for any old team?

Will there be a parade and ceremony in honour of this Pope-like visit?

Will the Montreal Canadiens be given the key to the city of Buffalo?

All important questions, I think.

This is, of course, a Habs site but the following is a football thing. But there is a Habs connection at the end of the story.

Several days ago I posed three questions, one of which was, “could a good US college team beat a Canadian Football League team?”

I got some mixed answers, and so I phoned a friend of mine, Al Ruckaber, who’s now retired and living in Powell River, but was a long time sports editor for the Calgary Sun. Al covered the CFL for years, and is now a member of the media section of the Canadian Football Hall of Fame. He also lived in the US for many years, and football, whether it’s Canadian or American, is his passion. 

His answer of who would win is this:

Forget about the hundreds of US colleges with football programs down there, just think about the big ones, like Ohio State, Southern California, Miami, etc.

If one of these top US college teams came up here and played on a Canadian field, which is much wider and even slightly longer, and played Canadian rules, which is three downs instead of four, then a CFL team would win.

The American players would spend the whole game doing a lot of chasing. The Canadian game is more open, the American game more defensive.

If a CFL team went down there and played on the US field, with four downs and the smaller field, with much more of a running game, plus the tight defensive game, the CFL team would lose.

But, Al added, it would never happen. The NCAA would never allow their players to play professionals.

And because this is a Habs site, I thought I’d throw in that Al spoke to Red Fisher many times over the years.

Can a good US college football team beat a Canadian Football League team?

Excluding Tiger Woods and the better equipment players use now, are golfers better now than they were years ago?

Is Henrik Zetterberg the best player in the NHL?