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About Mike Boone
Full Name
Mike Boone
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http://www.canada.com/montrealgazette/columnists/mike_boone.html
About
I grew up in Park Extension, within walking distance of Dickie Moore's Dairy Queen on Jean Talon. Moore had a place on L'Acadie Blvd., and we used to see him driving around in his convertible with a Samoyed and a very dishy wife.
While "studying" at McGill University during the 1960s, I used to attend games at the old Montreal Forum. My fellow undergraduate reprobates and I would scramble up the stairs to get centre-ice spots in the top standing room section, where aged ushers didn't know or care what we were smoking.
I stood out in the cold for six hours to get tickets to the 1975 New Year's Eve game between the Canadiens and Central Red Army. With the exception of the birth of my daughter, the 3-3 tie was the greatest event I've ever seen in my life.
The Canada-U.S. Gold medal game comes close .... but I wasn't there.
I've been a professional journalist since 1974, when I joined the Montreal Star sports department. I've covered the 1976 Olympic Games, the 1979 Expos, pop music and MSO tours of Europe and Asia (classical musicians are WAY more fun to drink with than athletes). I wrote a TV & Radio column for 20 years and, since 2000, have written a City column for The Gazette.
The best part of being a Habs Inside/Out contributor is attending games at the Bell Centre. I think it's a great building: noisy, raucous and packed to the rafters with Montrealers and visitors who live for hockey.
And I still get goosebumps every time Michel Lacroix booms out "Accueillons nos Canadiens ..."
Having seen the Boston Red Sox win two World Series and the Pittsburgh Steelers add a couple Super Bowl titles, I suppose I can die happy ... but not before another Stanley Cup parade. And I'd really like my daughter to see a historic New Year's Eve game.
I like all the players. Covering baseball gives me a profound appreciation of pro athletes who aren't jerks.
My weltanschauung was summarized by the late great Bill Hicks when he said "all matter is merely energy condensed to a slow vibration, we are all one consciousness experiencing itself subjectively, there is no such thing as death, life is only a dream and we are the imagination of ourselves."
Have a nice day.
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Just let them play together: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nmfYOB3LsDo&feature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vuuIuK1ugnw
Bill Waters toronto this a m on 640.Canadiens arent going anywhere.Same as two years ago when we finished
!st,What an expert
I've heard this "Martin swearing at SK74" wayyy too frequently mentioned. I thought it was funny, but I don't see the big deal. When I used to play sports, my coach swore at us all the time (when deserved). It's merely an illustration of one aspect of the player-coach relationship!
Ex nihilo nihil fit
Agree whole-heartedly. Coaches swear at players, players swear at players and sometimes players even swear at themselves...it's really not particularly newsworthy, and probably would not have merited mention if it hadn't involved one of Sergei Kostitsyn or Andrei Kostitsyn, who are rounding nicely into this year's whipping boys.
I swore at the ref Saturday in our Rugby game, got a 10 minute Sin Bin out of it. I was right though!
Franklin the Beagle, 7/1/2002-7/13/2009
OMG, that candid is AWESOME.
Sergei, the props department from Lord of the Rings called. They want their wigs back.
_______________
Chorske's Rule #1: as the Habs' lead in any given game increases, the probability of a HIO poster predicting an imminent Stanley Cup championship approaches one.
If that isn't our system, why did the Breeze constantly attempt that pass?
LMAO....I knew that hair reminded me of something.
I may be a secret moderator. Or not.
Why are we bring up Sergei's accomplishments what he did in London? meh!
"That was then this is now" as the saying goes and performed by the Mosquitos in 1985 (great tune I must say!).
Oooh I love Jacques Martiin in the driver's seat, with his "my way or the highway" approach to this team.
Wish the kid good luck, he's got a long way back to the NHL.
BTW, great post Boone! Respect!
"We will win the Cup one day only with a mature Carey Price in the nets"
Come on Mikey. It was only yesterday you showed me an amazing clip of Grabovski ion Hamilton and today what happened in the past is irrelevent?
Go Habs Go!! "I can't hear what Jeremy (Roenick) is saying because my Stanley Cup rings are in my ears" - Patrick Roy
"Why are we bringing up Seigei's accomplishment for what he did in London?" The same reason people always bring up what Price did in the World Juniors and Hamilton. Because neither of them have shown anything consistently great in the NHL...yet. And no, I'm not one of the habitual Price bashers.
Granted yes, but Price winning a World Junior Championship and then an AHL title (plus playoff MVP) far surmounts Sergei's 131 points along side Sam Gagner and Patrick Kane - a pylon could rack up a solid 50 points with those two guys.
I suspect that a number of goalies in the CHL could also have won world junior gold with Team Canada that year. It's not provable, but being lucky enough to be born in Canada or Russia is usually a good start towards winning a gold medal in the World Juniors or World Championships when it comes to hockey. :)
You may be right, but Price also was named Tournament MVP and Top Goaltender after going 6-0 with 2 shutouts, a 1.14 GAA and .961 save percentage.
Not a number of goalies in the CHL could have done all that.
Go Habs Go!! "I can't hear what Jeremy (Roenick) is saying because my Stanley Cup rings are in my ears" - Patrick Roy
Exactly
Via Russia, I suspect. Dude's a child, and no one needs a child in the dressing room.
From what I read, this is the real deal. I guess this year the Habs will really think that last year's was a total nightmare and gets them to wake up. If Carbo gets them to play bowling after a horrible losing streak, then Martin wants them to play hockey with bowling balls; see how they're toughing up!
-----I'm back on the addiction. That's right, I'm on the Habs!-----
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cE93qG-0gzY&feature=player_embedded
this is a great montage to add some cheer to our day
I have a poll up on the future of SK74 if anyone is interested..It's in the top right,
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Ya! The Habs Rule! now on Twitter!
I'm your Huckleberry. I say SK74 doesn't last a round v. Martin: Jacques has made his ethique quite clear: get with the program or get out.
...for Myself ...Sergei and Andrei are/were(?) The Key between a middling season and great season ...IF They would emerge, They represented the tipping-point when it came to We being competitive with the Washingtons and Penguins ...let alone the Bruins and Hurricanes, etc.
...the move by JM to send Sergei Was Right for the Team ...and THAT is The Bottom Line
...ALL We can do is hold Our breath hoping Sergei realizes He deserved it Himself
...I believe He prefers to play in North America ...and HOPE that will motivate Him to ...as Mike says ...extricate His brains from His anus
...a bit of dialogue cribbed from Forrest Gump may apply to Sergei:
First: "Stupid is as stupid does"
OR, Second ...IF there is hope for His future on Our Team ...AND a Great Season for the Habs
Jacques Martin: Sergei ! ...What's Your sole purpose in this Team ?
Sergei: To do whatever You tell me, coach !
Jacques Martin: G#d d**n it, Sergei ! You're a G#d d##n genius! This is the most outstanding answer I have ever heard. You must have a g@@da@@mn I.Q. of 160. You ARE g$dd$$n gifted, Sergei ! Listen up, people...
Sergei: [narrates] Now for some reason I fit in the Team like one of them round pegs. It's not really hard. You just make your passes real neat and remember NOT to take stupid penalties and ALWAYS answer every instruction with Yes, COACH MARTIN ...SIR !!!
Jacques Martin: ...Is that clear Sergei ?
Sergei: Yes, Coach Martin ...SIR !!!
Habitant means PASSIONATE HOCKEY
http://www.nationalpost.com/news/story.html?id=423049
Jacques Martin: ...Is that clear Sergei ?
Sergei: Yes, Coach Martin ...SIR !!!
Jacques Martin: Good, I just hope you have a safe trip to Hamilton now.
Sergei: Yes, Coa.... whaaAAAaaaa???
-----I'm back on the addiction. That's right, I'm on the Habs!-----
Sergei Kostitsyn (on phone): Andrei, I was sent to Hamilton.
Andrei Kostitsyn: Don't worry, my little Sergei. They have lots of Russian women there.
Sergei Kostitsyn: Two things, my brother. Do you have a map? And do you have any blow before I go?
------------------------
"Why is a puck called a puck? Because dirty little bastard was taken."
--Martin Brodeur
If you had a job interview and were late and had a crappy attitude, would you get a second chance to prove your worth to the company?
I doubt it.
He's really fortunate to get paid to play hockey.
He should consider his other career options back home in Belarus and get his head out of his butt.
This is from the article on cyberpresse that nightmare posted... Will do my best to translate...
Nous avons eu une bonne conversation et je lui ai conseillé d'honorer son contrat et de se rendre à Hamilton. Il a bien sûr été secoué par cette décision, mais Sergei devrait y être demain conformément aux directives de Bob Gainey. Quant à la possibilité qu'il rentre en Russie, je n'ai pas perçu cette hypothèse comme faisant partie des plans immédiats», a indiqué l'agent Don Meehan lors d'un entretien avec La Presse lundi midi.
"We had a good conversation & I advised him to honour his contract and head to Hamilton. He was quite a bit flustered by the decision, but Sergei will be in Hamilton as of tomorrow. As for the possibility of bolting for the KHL, I do not feel this is something Sergei is thinking about right now" Don Mehan said in a interview with La Presse.
The rest is re-iterating what we've all heard over and over.
Loads of talent, kind of a slacker (Plekanec said this of Sergei)
etc etc.... I found the Don Meehan part the most interesting myself.
http://www.nationalpost.com/sports/story.html?id=2044124
just an overzealous headline writer. Hickey was simply putting it out there that the KHL is an option for him. move along.
Posted this same reply to this link on another thread...
Shall we start calling Hickey ... Hick-lund ?
National Post is a crappy newspaper anyway, even Eklund hasn't chimed in on this one I believe. Sergei just needs to be a point-per-game man in Hamilton (which he can do) and he's back up here before Guy Bertrand can write another inane nationalistic rant about the ethnic composition about the Canadiens.
- I shall always remember Captain Koivu.
LOL
Ex nihilo nihil fit
LOL
Go see who wrote the article...
Oh crap! The H I/O Secret Police are going to put me on file.
- I shall always remember Captain Koivu.
lol welcome to the club! lol
I was about to say the same thing about the post...then saw that Hickey wrote it.
This does not bode well, my friends. But Martin does have a point...well, like Boone said, one way or another this team is going to be a team. The country club has closed.
hmmmm Just watchng That's Hockey on TSN.... Ovechkin's playoff goal against the Rangers was #2 ... NOticed a certain new Hab just sitting there watching OV8 pass by him and is teammates......I don't want to see him in a clip like that again...
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Ya! The Habs Rule! now on Twitter!
Mara wasn't the first guy to be amazed by Ovechkin, and he won't be the last.
I think it might be better for him if he got "screwed up"! The unscrewed up version is not cutting it.
Ex nihilo nihil fit
I remember Martin kept sending Spezza back down to the minors for some of the same stuff when all the fans and media thought he should stay up with the Senators.
S.K. will turn himself into a man from a kid, or he will stay in the minors.
or he'll go to the KHL.
Good point Ian. I remember that as well. Nobody could understand (especially Spezza himself) why he kept getting sent down. However he wasn't ready mentally for the NHL and Jacques knew it. The same can be said for Sergie.
Thanks Ian. I did not that so did a bit of digging and found some sites and articles with a variety of views on the subject. Whatever transpired with Spezza he was indeed sent down to sharpen his skills. It's actually more complicated since Ottawa at the time was loaded with experienced talent and as good as he was he needed more experience. He came back in better shape and a better player.
So the whole "demotion" thing takes on an even more interesting angle. Martin may see something in SK that he really likes and this is his way of putting it to the test. Not just strictly a punishment.
That a boy Dave, people are now starting to understsnd How Martin runs his ship, Bob knew what was needed here.
With all due respect Ian, I think we will only know whether Bob knew what he was doing (the second time) in 5 years.
Exactly.
Ex nihilo nihil fit
Some old dogs can learn new tricks. Just takes us a bit longer that's all.
... from Tennessean.com - Inside Predators : Looks like the Cube has found a home .....
Goalies are obviously Pekka Rinne and Dan Ellis, and defense is pretty clear as well: Ryan Suter-Shea Weber; Dan Hamhuis-Kevin Klein; Francis Bouillon-Alexander Sulzer.
Suter and Weber, that's a hell of a 1st line D.
What's your favourite D line for this upcoming year, other than Markov/Spacek of course?
Keith/Seabrooke? Timmonen or Coburn/Pronger? Phaneuf/Boumeester? Doughty/Johnson? *cough* Kaberle - Komisarek *cough*
--The Montreal Canadiens 100th Anniversary - Worst. Birthday. Ever.--
timo/pronger is scary..
Neidermayer-Whitney
“It's not the size of the dog in the fight, it's the size of the fight in the dog.” -Mark Twain
Lidstrom - Rafalski
I tend to agree Mike. I have been around some of the very best juniors in the country and the ones that make a good buck at this game, are the ones that catch onto what team concept is. They must play for there team mates first, to be successful. To put a player on the roster for his talent alone will certainly infect team play.
It's hard to believe that it's less than 2 years ago since he was called up, & took over Ryder's spot on one of the top 2 lines, & the PP. He showed such skill, vision, & we felt that he was going to go places fast. Afterall, he was just out of junior, & had spent part of the year in the AHL. Then last year, he had that ongoing battle with Grabovski. Now Sergei is back in the AHL, but we all know that he is an NHL caliber player.Let's hope that the coaches in Hamilton can get him back in line.
Ed - I almost forgot about SK74 taking Ryder's spot but i didn't forget what we got for Ryder, zip.
We got cap space. A valuable commodity in todays NHL.
we sure did spend that valuable commodity quickly.
You can have all the gawd given talent in the world ED, but if you can't get it together between the ears, your all but done at this level.
Just ask Mr. BUGS. ( Could not resist)
I'll settle for a top 8
Two years ago, Sergei seemed to be a special player. Now? I don't know, and I really don't care. Sergei can get with the program or he can go back to Belarus.
Are these guys tickling him?
http://assets.sbnation.com/assets/71772/Sergei.jpg
Bachelor party? Rite of passage? Belarusian bar mitzvah? (You don't want to see a Belarusian bris).
alll I think of when I see that pic is Queen's "I want to break free video"....not that there's anything wrong with that!
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Ya! The Habs Rule! now on Twitter!
Haha, nice.
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Chorske's Rule #1: as the Habs' lead in any given game increases, the probability of a HIO poster predicting an imminent Stanley Cup championship approaches one.
There will be Bris.
He looks like Mick Jagger...creepy...
Ha that is a funny picture. Does that look like a guy who we want facing Lucic, Chara and the Bruins with.
I guess it's a form of Belarussian bonding
Timo may have found the source of the problem.
That is @#$% hilarious!!!
I to think SK is a player ... but for some reason strage things are happening .. and what's with his brother ... every picture I see of him he has a deer in the headlights look .... get me outta here ! I hope he has a good opening road trip and can pot a few ...
3 more sleeps
Hillarious collage..... my rating says its Boone's best so far.... CAMP II appraisal was bang on as well and Moen accordingly was on the fourth line this morning.
We need the talented Sergei in our futur but right now what we need most is for our short camp retreat to deliver on the fruits of its intention and its no surprise if SK was tossed aside against such an overwhelming priority from our coaching staff.
Hopefully SK will regret not being part of our launch and will do what needs to be done to get back with the big Club....... hopefully AK will connect deeper at camp and become more significant than he has been so far.... we shure are going to need him this year if we want this team to deliver up to its full potential.
My guess is that this has more to do with getting A. Kost to gel with the top line guys. I got nothing to base this on...but I wonder if its easier for A. kost to build relationships with teammates when S. Kost is not around. I also suspect that when they are together their bad habbits are worse then when there are not together.
Richard B
yeah, maybe they didn't want to see the two bros hanging together for four days, talking in their own language, disrupting team chemistry? Andrei needs to feel more a part of the team perhaps.
Pretty sure I saw SK74 hitch hiking down the QEW Sunday.
My thoughts are that they threw him off the bus on the 401 before making the 410 cutoff.
Seriously though, his agent has said that he's not looking at jumping to the KHL.
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Ya! The Habs Rule! now on Twitter!
Someone in the other thread said that RDS reported that he is unhappy with the demotion and has asked for a trade.
"RDS reported...": actually it was a poster on the RDS site (ie: some schlep just like you and me): there's no substance to it.
ok cool, I just read that earlier and wasn't sure if it was true.
Sergei needs to grow up and Martin is sending the right message. And ... we will finish no worse than 4th in the east.
Like I said on another thread, after seeing those accomodations he'll be more than happy to be at the Hamilton Hilton. Where would you put a Porche out there anyways.
But seriously, I hope he'll be back sooner and not later. I've been a fan since day 1 and he's like the little girl with the curl (no that's Pleks). He's got so much talent and vision it's a shame to see it go to waste.
Sergei will tear it up with the Bulldogs once he's down there I'm confident, he'll be back before Christmas.
- I shall always remember Captain Koivu.
you know in retrospect it doesn't say much about how the habs are feeling about SK74 right now. Bringing the team and AHL players fighting for a spot (Pacioretty..Maxwell..Chipchura..Stewart..Weber among them) for 'team building' and then sending SK off to the Bulldogs who ... I am not even sure when they arrive back in Ontario.
I'm curious as to the timing. Why not try and keep SK74 for the team building field trip and send him down before the season starts? Seems like the Habs think having him on the team for 3 days of getting to know your fellow teammate would do more harm for the team than shipping him off to the minors when that team isn't even in Canada yet.
I find that interesting... doesn't seem to bode well at all for S Kost.
Hmmm. That's the kind of treatment you reserve for a "bad apple" - so it doesn't infest the rest with its rot.
Agree that if anyone should have been the beneficiary of team-building (ie: learning good habits as opposed to bad), it's SK.
The trade-off is that Martin is clearly sending a zero-tollerance message to the whole crew. Unfortunate that S Kost has to be the whipping boy.
s.kost will be back.
-I will not respond to destructively about: D'Agostini, Price, Plekanec, O'Byrne
Boone, I like the pep speech and I agree with it (he missed the bus? What an ***...).
We're gonna lose a lot of games this year, but I think we're always going to be in them. SK needs to soak his head (some more).
Boone: So what grade were you in when the picture was taken? And what had you done to deserve that punishment?
_____________________________________ "Deserves" got nothin' to do with it.
Third time in Grade 5. Caught passing notes with rude references to the teacher (whom I was dating on the side)
I thought I recognized you from somewheres.
http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x1wbo_van-halen-hot-for-teacher_extreme
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Chorske's Rule #1: as the Habs' lead in any given game increases, the probability of a HIO poster predicting an imminent Stanley Cup championship approaches one.
Boone you a playa.
"The Montreal Canadiens 100 Anniversary - Worst. Birthday. Ever."
Just the thought of that is mildy disturbing... but hysterical.
P.S. I liked the crazy monkey reference the other day.
If I don't like what I see on Thurs night, I just might throw some feces at the screen....(that practise almost always guarantees me a seat on the Go train.)
Isn't he eligible to be picked up on waivers? I'd hate to lose him for nothing, this kid has the potential to be a legitimate threat if he can get his head in order...