ChesterNimitz
governed by the principle of calculated risk
- Jul 4, 2002
- 6,209
- 13,657
Thank you for your kind words.
I'm not quite yet moribund as I manage a large amateur sport organization that includes the pleasant and challenging task of selecting midget aged hockey players who compete at national level championships. I don't make the final selections as I have a large number of managers, coaches and scouts who have that task. But having been involved with hockey for almost seventy years, as a player, coach, manager, scout, consultant, league administrator, hockey parent and, for about a 3 hour period, a professional players' agent, I try to impart my accumulated knowledge and experience in the selection process. I come from a hockey background with my father having played for St. Mikes and the RCAF hockey team during WWII. Most importantly, I have been a devout fan of the Montreal Canadiens for my entire life. I could post volumes about the owners, coaches, managers, players, scouts, agents and broadcasters that I met and had dealings with over the past half century. But that will have to wait until I retire. What I can say however is that first time since 1983/84, I have hope for the future of my team. There's a level of talent, swagger and excitement that I haven't witnessed since, a similar young team composed of Roy, Richer, Chelios, Lemieux , Corson, etc., served notice of the team's resurgence.
Whether as a result of incompetence, misguided priorities or just bad luck, this famous franchise has stagnated for the last half century. While we won two Stanley Cups which we backed into because the prohibitive favorite in those years was upset by other teams, the 'Yankees of Hockey' have become irrelevant and worse, boring. But with Suzuki, Caufield, Slafkovsky, Dach, our young defensive group; numerous promising prospects and 5 first round draft choices over the next three years, there is real hope for better times. And as Andy Dufresne said: "Hope is a good thing."
The first Stanley Cup parade I went to was in 1971 when Montreal had its most improbable win. The parade was festive. I remember seeing the great and majestic Beliveau. The Mahovlich bothers. Henri Richard. Cournoyer. Houle. Tardiff. Dryden and so many other now legends. It is my hope that I will be able to attend another parade before I shed this mortal coil. That hope may well become a reality. Soon. It better.
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