Today, Feb. 11, marks the 75th birthday of the Mayorov boys, Boris and Evgeny. Geez, the things you learn on this blog. Boris and Evgeny were a little too old to play in the 1972 Summit Series, with both calling it quits in 1969 after long and fruitful careers with Moscow Spartak. Boris was the [...]

I must be pretty dense. All along I thought Ilya Kovalchuk was flirting with staying with his St. Petersburg SKA team because he loved his country so much and was finally eating his favourite foods again. It barely registered on me that SKA, and probably the KHL head comrades, were offering him millions to stay. [...]

There goes 2012. Maybe it’s a good thing. The Habs were disturbingly mediocre in 2012, finishing 15/15 in the Eastern Division, one point behind 14th place Islanders and two behind the Leafs. I still feel nauseous. Along the way, Hal Gill and Andrei Kostitysn were shipped to Nashville and I miss Hal. The other guy – not so [...]

Ilya Kovalchuk, Alex Ovechkin, Sergei Kostitsyn, Pavel Datsyuk and a few other Russians are now saying they might just stay in Russia. Are you feeling bad about this? Nobody forced these guys to come to North America, and when they did come, the vaults were opened and they dove in head first, drooling and panting. [...]

A nation on the edge of their seats. A series tied with one game to go. Team Canada knew now that Canadians were behind them. The strong negativity, expressed profoundly in Vancouver, had melted like ice in a spring thaw, and the players no longer felt that they could play only for themselves because they hadn’t lived [...]

As I wait impatiently for the Grammy Awards to start, I’ve decided to show a few pictures because….well, just because. Hope you don’t mind. And is it true the Grammys people have set aside a few minutes tonight to honour  Johnny Bower’s “Honky the Christmas Goose?” Will Johnny and Lady Gaga sing a duet? Will the Rinkydinks come [...]

Answer to yesterday’s quiz. I thought you might never get this in a million years, but Marjo nailed it. It’s Lester B. Pearson, and the scribblimg either says Pearson or PM, it’s hard to know. Way to go Marjo. For those of you who haven’t heard of this fellow, he was the Canadian PM from 1963 to ’68, [...]

To help take your mind off the wacky world of this year’s Habs, at least for a few minutes, I thought I’d mention a couple of tidbits about good old number 22, John Ferguson, that I found while re-reading my book Breakaway by Charles Wilkins. First, an autograph I got from him in the mid-60′s. Fergy was sitting in a restaurant [...]

Yes, indeed, P.K.Subban picked up the puck in glorious fashion in his end, whirled and dashed to the oohs and awes of me and many others, and promptly lost it to the enemy, who then took off and scored on Carey Price. It was a young man’s mistake, learned from years ago when he most certainly [...]

Inexcusably, I failed to mention the late, great John Ferguson during all the Winnipeg hoopla of the past few days, and I’m bad and I know it. Because John Ferguson, the ex-Hab, ex-ornery on-ice policeman, was extremely vital in the growth of the Winnipeg Jets, and for him to witness the return of his Jets in a game against his Montreal [...]