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It was the first stop on the Ron & Don Road Show to celebrate the 60th anniversary of Hockey Night In Canada.
The Edmonton Oilers were in Calgary to play the Flames on the eighth day of the lockout-shortened season and just prior to the game they brought out Ron MacLean and Don Cherry to perform the ceremonial opening faceoff.
There was an overwhelming response as the fans used the opportunity to express what they felt about the place HNIC has had in their lives and to welcome Grapes and that other fella who have been the face of Saturday night telecasts for so much of that run.
?We won?t be doing that again,? said Cherry.
?I kinda felt funny out there, with the players looking at me dropping the puck. After all these years, I?m still an old player and I couldn?t help but think how I?d feel about some guy out there in a plaid suit dropping the puck.
?Yeah, people told me the response from the crowd was something. But you don?t really know that out on the ice. It really felt funny.
?The previous time I dropped the puck it was in Boston and 6-foot-7 Zdeno Chara was out there and I felt like I came to his knees. But in Calgary for that game ? Ron didn?t like it, either. It felt like we thought we were big shots being out there like that.?
So tonight when the Ron & Don Road Show plays Rexall Place, there will be none of that.
?We?ll do the setup on the ice before the game and after the first period I?ll go into the stands to do our segment. Howabout that instead? I got a real beauty of a suit, too. Blue. And not just a jacket. A suit.?
It was actually Cherry?s idea to go out on the road for a visit to each Canadian city in the league when Hockey Night was thinking of ideas on how to celebrate their 60th. But that was long before the lockout.
?It?s tough when you only have half a season to get it done,? he said.
Cherry did a game in Winnipeg last night to work it all in.
?I don?t think I?ve ever done a Friday night game before, but I really wanted to go to Winnipeg.?
Cherry said going out to do games on the road like this didn?t used to be such a special occasion.
?I thought it would be a good idea because I think some people think we?ve kind of become Hockey Night In Toronto.
?We used to do it all the time. We probably went to Edmonton more often than anywhere else back then, because of the team they had and the number of games we did there in the playoffs.?
Cherry remembers two incidents rather well.
?Once, the night before the game, Glen Sather took me to a friend?s place place. The guy had an English bull terrier just like my Blue. He had his dog with an Oilers sweater on and he had me sit and take a picture.
?Well, the next day it?s in the Edmonton Sun. On the front page! I got a lot of hassle over it, too.
?I went on TV that night and said ?Blue, I know you love Toronto and Boston and I know you must be dispirited and down seeing that picture of me. And, Blue, I just want you to know that bitch doesn?t mean a thing to me.?
?Well ? I thought it was funny. But a lot of people didn?t.?
Cherry still thinks it was funny.
But another one that came out of his mouth once when he was here, he should never have said.
?It was a game there against Chicago and Dr. Randy Gregg of the Oilers went in on a breakaway and flubbed the shot. I said ?With hands like that you wouldn?t want to have him working on your heart.?
?My mother called me. She told me I never should have said that. That?s the only thing I ever said on TV I really regretted.?
Cherry said he used to love going to Sherlock Holmes pub ?back when I used to be able to go to a bar. And I spent a lot of time in the Westin Hotel sauna.?
He said it?s good to get back out West again, especially this year with the 60th anniversary, because it reinforces the connection between the nation and HNIC. And it reminds him of to what extent the show is about Canada and not Toronto.
I figured it was appropriate to pass on Taylor Hall?s quote from earlier this year.
Talking about the number of games jammed together in such a short span on the 48-game post-lockout schedule, Hall inadvertently tossed out the quote which may have said it all about this 60th anniversary season.
?I never know what day of the week it is unless we?re playing on Hockey Night In Canada.?
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terry.jones@sunmedia.ca
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