Don Cherry's Gripevine

My roommate DVRed "Don Cherry's Grapevine", a show (circa 1989) where Cherry interviews good ol' Canadian boys from either Nova Scotia or Thunder Bay. Al MacInnis was the guest interview and, probably because Don begged him, Doug Gilmour was there, too.



Exhibit A) He is supposed to be interviewing Al MacInnis and instead there is about 10 minutes of Don Cherry rambling where Al is silent. If you turned it on for just those 10 minutes, you'd have no clue Al MacInnis was the guest or that it was an interview show.



Exhibit B) Right around that time was when an influx of Russians were joining the NHL. (Yeah, you see where this is going.) In Calgary/MacInnis' case, Sergei Makarov was joining the fold. Federov, Mogilny, Bure and several others all started in the next couple seasons. Cherry literally asks MacInnis if he can believe that all these dirty Russians are bullrushing over to ruin their game. (Paraphrased slightly). Al's response was essentially, if the GMs think Russians will help the team that's their decision.

Exhibit C) Later, Doug and Al joined Don at a stuido bar set up. Grapes states that he thinks Russians will have a hard time dealing with the travel and asks Dougie his opinion. Gilmour essentially says that Russians are tough competitors and only time will tell. Not a 4 minute butt-ending major later, Cherry says to Doug, "It's gotta be tough to be a young kid 16 years old and having to leave your home to play junior hockey." Sure, it is. IT'S NOT AS TOUGH AS GOING TO A WHOLE NEW COUNTRY AS A TEENAGER. That's what a lot of these unproven Russians are going to have to deal with. Don't give them any credit though. Sure Khabarovsk to Buffalo is tough, but you should see the way city council in Sherbrooke treated that poor Red Deer boy. Never had a chance.

It amazes me somewhat that in 15 years, Cherry's xenophobia is unwavering. How can this be? The game is so much more exciting. The skill level has catapulted through the roof because we aren't taking just the best players from Ontario, we're looking at the best players motherhumping EARTH has to offer.

After this week's CC, I plan on dissecting Cherry's stupidity. Last week was all about the NHLPA/Paul Kelly debacle and nothing was really out of place. It won't be long before DC is right back in step. I'll be waiting...