Liam Responds
Letter to Toronto Sun Oct 11, 2000
October 11, 2000.
cc- Hartley Steward.
Dear Lorrie,
I had to respond to your column that ran in Tuesday’s Sun. I’ll break it down point by point but suffice to say, as you will not or would not like to take seriously McSorley’s fellow players and enforcers, one of them being Wayne Gretzky, I and others like me find it very difficult to take someone such as yourself seriously after you unleash the same old tired clap trap about Canadian hockey.
How long are North American hockey fans going to continue to pay world class prices for what is rapidly becoming second rate hockey compared to Europe, Russia and beyond?
They will continue to pay forever. Reason being Russian and Europe hockey is garbage. When was the last time you saw a game overseas? When was the last time you talked to anybody who has seen their league play overseas? Sweden are in an all-out crisis right now. Their junior program almost was relegated the last two years. Their club play is abysmal and the stick work is so bad players are actually leaving to go play in other countries hoping it’s somewhat better.
Russia is in a total state of chaos. Attendance is down, the club teams are brutal and the mafia is linked to pro hockey and to the NHL stars. Their junior program is somewhat better but they’ve won two gold’s in the last ten years. How did they fare at the World championships? I’m curious how you would gauge their performance.
The Finns are the same they’ve been for twenty years. Average. They probably have the best club leagues in terms of skill although the best overall hockey is played in Germany. Reason being there are more Canadian players there than in any other league. Don’t believe me? Please, check it out.
The best of the lot collectively is the Czech republic. At least in the last three or four years but that’s including their players from the NHL. Their club leagues probably fall somewhere around the Finnish programs but nationally the big boys have Hasek and Jagr. Personally I thought the semi-final game against the Czech’s in ‘98 was great. To tie it in the last minute on that goal was so typically Canadian, our never say die attitude. Lindros created the whole play crashing behind the net and setting Linden up. It was beautiful We almost win it in ot, an overtime period that we completely dominated and then we lose a shootout. Reichel hit’s a post and it goes in, Lindros hit’s the post and it stays out. C’est la vie. It was a great effort despite the absence of Kariya and Sakic.
If you want to attack something why not attack the attitude that say’s gold or nothing? To anybody who knows the difference between a puck and a basketball Canada clearly shut it down against the Finns and therein lay the problem. Reason I use the past tense is because I feel our Juniors are once again leading the way in terms of changing our thinking. Their come from behind win for that bronze last year was a thing of beauty. Complete and utter dedication to a game plan, resiliency, the Canadian never say die attitude that we’ve so often seen in the gold medal games but this time for a bronze medal. And even more refreshing was the post game interviews where the players were saying we really wanted to come back with a medal. This is all good.
Who really believes anymore, when we watch the NHL playoffs, that Canadian-style, smash-mouth hockey really continues to dominate on the world stage?
Would you concede that there is a difference in the CFL and the NFL? Same sport, essentially, yet totally different. Different rules, different governing bodies, different officiating, yet the ‘same’ sport. What you have in the NHL and what you have overseas is two totally different brands of hockey. Think there isn’t an NHL team that wouldn’t want Conn Smythe Trophy winner Scott Stevens on the team? How effective were Ken Daneyko and Colin White in the post season? Did you watch any of it? Where were they born? Who scored the Cup winning goal? Where was he born? How was his play in the post season? The Devils have the most diversified winning team in NHL history ever in terms of birth places. Last year on the Cup winning lineup were one Pole, three Czech’s, four Russians, five Americans and nine Canadians. How did they beat the Leafs? They pounded them physically, were better on special teams and their captain played like a man possessed unlike Toronto’s. This is NHL hockey. You may call it Canadian smash mouth but it’s played very well by a significant number of non Canadian born players. You think there’s anything that even remotely resembles that overseas? Tell you what, just grab a press pass and go down to the Leaf dressing room and ask the Europeans what they think. If you won’t take the horses mouth as gospel on the McSorley issue maybe you can get your mind cleansed on this issue because you are sadly, very sadly mistaken.
Content to rest on our laurels over what we naively thought would be our perpetual dominance of the game, we’ve neglected to focus on skills for a generation, while concentrating on teaching kids to be big, tough, lumbering enforcers.
What I wonder first when I read this, and it so often graces our major news publications, is where were you people when we needed a last goal with 34 seconds to play in 72, when Team NHL were crushed in the third game of the Challenge Cup in ‘79, when the Americans were the talk of the hockey world for the "Miracle On Ice" in 1980 and when we were badly humiliated right in our own country in 1981? Where were you? What dominance of the game was Canada exhibiting in that time period, one that is now nearly twenty years old? Let’s not forget about the juniors in 1981 who sulked in with a solid seventh place performance that year. When you write what you’ve written, it sounds as if you and the rest of your ilk, have no idea about these performance’s and that the result of the ‘81 Canada Cup final forced Canadian hockey to rethink itself. We developed a national program of excellence. It was instituted initially through the junior ranks, the coaches and managers right down to our twelve year old’s but the big boys took notice as well and went about putting a team together for the Canada Cup in ‘84 of a much different variety.
The program of excellence has had unparalleled success. The under 17 program was so successful that Canada was broken up into five regions to compete with the rest of the world.
The Under-18's just a few short weeks ago won their 6th straight gold medal and 7th in the last nine years. Were you aware of that? The World Juniors, well, that is a story right out of Hollywood, at least 1995 was anyway. Since Canada first sent a junior team to compete on the world stage in 1973, on only one occasion were we actually represented by our best players. The lock-out year of 1995. We crushed everybody and cruised to the gold medal. We pumped eight goals on the Russians and it was so easy the players were actually laughing at the end of the game. I’ll hazard a guess someone like yourself not only doesn’t remember this but probably did not watch any of it anyway. Each and every year come WJ time Canada is without it’s best players who are kept by their club teams yet for some reason people such as yourself continue to say we aren’t developing any skill. Last year was the worst by far. Seven Canadians were kept by their NHL teams and still we erase a 2-0 deficit to win the bronze. If we aren’t producing any skill why does the NHL keep so many of our Canadian juniors each year?
You also need skills. The result? We’re continuing to fall behind the rest of the world in hockey skills while continuing to insist that our way is the best way, the only way.
I’ve enclosed the text from my on air editorial last April after the NHL regular season was over. I wonder if in the contents of that you can point out to me where we are falling behind the rest of the world in hockey skills? Incidentally, that was before Canada dominated once again at the NHL awards.
If you can’t even keep up with ‘em on the ice, who cares if you can beat ‘em in the alley?
Before I wrap, if you do care to respond, perhaps you can tell me which player has been timed the fastest in the NHL, most accurate shooter and hardest shot? And what country are they from? No matter, suffice to say, your message is completely bogus. You have to understand a couple of things.
The rest of the world caught Canada 28 years ago. It was reinforced in 76 when we beat the Czech’s, hammered down our throats in that two year period from 79-81 that I’ve already mentioned and then just when we thought we finally had it figured out along came the Swedes to give us a good scare in 84. In a span of twelve years, from 72-84 four other nations emerged as every bit the power that Canada was in hockey and that was done in some cases by close losses but also by them beating us big time.
In the past ten years our best have played in three tournaments. We have a first, a second and a fourth. No question if everybody is healthy we will be a gold medal threat in Salt Lake City but the days of it being open or shut for anybody are not only long gone but on the world stage with the best playing I don’t think it’s ever been a foregone conclusion. Even in 87 what many call the greatest three games ever played between two teams, two of them went into overtime, one in double ot and the last one was decided on a goal with 1:26 to play. Where’s the dominance for Canada in that?
In closing, let me reiterate. Your fundamental mistakes were the following. Canada has not been dominant on the world stage of hockey since the early 1950's. That is statistically and factually correct. Canada has done everything but rest on any perceived laurels and you do a great dishonor to the program of excellence and it’s success with that statement. Our skill level has never been higher and the scouts who watched this edition of our Under-18 say it was the best ever and Jason Spezza didn’t even play. Go figure.
Heart may only get you so far but it’s the same for skill. You need both to win the Stanley Cup. It’s the toughest of any major trophy to win, four grueling rounds of intense, best of seven hockey and only the strongest and fittest survive. It was that way in the days of Eddie Shore, Rocket Richard and Gordie Howe and it’s that way now with Bobby Holik, Patrick Elias and Scott Gomez.
If you don’t like the hockey you’re watching then don’t. European hockey is the most boring brand of hockey I’ve ever seen in thirty plus years. How about that scintillating 0-0 tie in this years WJ final? How about the gold medal game in Nagano? Did you watch that? Thank God for the NHL players that were there or it would have been the cure for insomnia.
And lastly, if you can’t read a bit and research a bit about your column, please, don’t write it. You owe Canadian hockey fans and your readership an apology for that piece.
I’ll be talking about this on my radio show this Saturday. Each week I peruse the web for people like yourself who perpetuate the myth about Canadian hockey. You’ll be the fodder for this weeks show. If there’s any element of what I’ve written you’d care to debate, please, by all means, you are welcome to join the show, it would be my pleasure. Below are my contact numbers, my email address, my two numbers for the studio line and if by chance you do not get this note in time for this Saturday, you are welcome any Saturday that you like.
The only way I can punch a hole through the dark ever present cloud of media negativity in this country is to continue to go after people like yourself who occasionally foray into the world of hockey, specifically Canadian hockey.
I’m not attacking you personally, just what you wrote. I don’t think we’ve met but I do know of you and I think we have some mutual friends. I worked at the Ottawa Sun for four years. I was hired by Rick Van Sickle. I know Hartley Steward from Ottawa as well. I look forward to any response or a phone call for the show.
sincerely
Liam Maguire
