Scotty Bowman

Today's featured attraction is another compilation from Watsatheo, this one featuring Paul Mara.

It was a tough call, because he (or she?) has done a nice one on Hal Gill, also. But Mara's includes a Darcy Tucker beat-down .... and a Michael Jackson classic.

• Video from the Canadiens web site of Scott Gomez, Mike Cammalleri, Brian Gionta, Travis Moen and Mara visiting the Brossard training complex. And some photos of the lads in their new unis, with Mara and Moen bookending the wee guys.

• Lions in Winter on Language and Hockey.

• The Globe and Mail's Stephen Brunt on Jim Balsillie and Eric Duhatschek on the Olympic Team.

• Jim Kelley of SI proposes new rules.

• William Scott Bowman only the seventh greatest coach of all time? Behind Don Shula? And Vince Lombardi? Really? And Red Auerbach won with only one great team, Bowman with three ... in three cities .... and he wasn't that shabby in St. Louis or Buffalo. I rate him 1-A with John Wooden.

• Five Who May Surprise includes Gomez, Gionta ... and Huet.

• From James Mirtle's web site, a list of Twitter accounts hockey fans should follow.

• TSN has unearthed a video of Red Fisher talking to Dave Hodge about the Canadiens' move from the Forum to the Bell Centre. It's in colour. And there's sound! And U2!!

• Stephen Brunt on the mess in Phoenix. How about they just fold, hold a dispersal draft and send Shane Doan to the Canadiens?

• The Hockey News Fantasy Poooler doesn't think much of our new-look team. He rates the Canadiens a C+, down from A- a year ago.

• Lions in Winter, a Canadiens blog we really like, has interesting pieces on Guillaume Latendresse, Jaroslav Spacek and the genius of Scotty Bowman.

• Robert L. writes about a Canadiens' prospect with a funny name.

• Big shout-out today to the blogger's muse. The bodacious barrister is getting married this morning – not, as she would have liked, at centre ice of the Bell Centre with 21,273 singing Here Comes the Bride, but in the wedding pavillion of Disney World. Warmest congrats to the awesome avokitten of Section 301 from all of us (and one of us in particular) at Habs I/O.

Red Fisher, the Living Legend of Sports Journalism, is tanned, rested and ready to offer some thoughts on Scotty Bowman joining the Chicago front office:

"... while the Sundin story is all about money, Bowman's is all about family. It's about what really matters. It's about Scotty's son, Stan, 35, who's entering his second season as assistant general manager in Chicago. It's about a father supporting his son on the ice - and a lot more off it."

•  •  •

Jack's back. 

Todd advises Canadiens fans to temper their enthusiasm if they think the addition of Mats Sundin would clinch the Cup. But he thinks the team will be better regardless.

Even without Sundin, the Canadiens are, on paper, one of the top five or six teams in the league - and they do need another impact forward to get over the hump and stage another parade. (It says here that they also need another stud defenceman and they will have to pray that Carey Price's psyche wasn't permanently damaged by the roughing-up he suffered in the playoffs but that's another story.)

How do you spell relief?

N-O-L-E-A-F-S

Better Saturdays may be in store for long-suffering Hockey Night in Canada viewers who yearn to see teams not wearing blue and white jerseys.

William Houston reports in the Globe and Mail that Jim Hughson and Craig Simpson are moving east to become HNIC's primary broadcast crew, and the national telecast "will not always involve the Toronto Maple Leafs, as it has in the past. If the Leafs struggle through a losing season, which is expected, the CBC's distribution of their games could be limited to Ontario.

"Hughson and Simpson would call a national game involving the Ottawa Senators or Montreal Canadiens. Cole and Millen would announce the Leafs' telecast in Ontario."

•  •  •

Well, it's August 1 and this just in from Stockholm:

One of the most astute men in the history of hockey is bringing his smarts to the Windy City.

In another step in the ongoing revival of one of the NHL's great franchises, Scotty Bowman has been hired by the Blackhawks, who also employ Bowman's son, Stan.

"This is a great day," said Chicago general manager Dale Tallon. "It's an historic day for our franchise. (Scotty's) arguably the greatest coach in the history of the game and a great man. He'll take us where we need to go."