Happy birthday, Grapes.
The iconic host of Coach’s Corner, Don Cherry, turned 81 on Thursday.
Cherry can still bring it — whether it’s on television or radio — so to celebrate his 81st birthday, we took a look at his best eight moments from the 2014-15 season, plus one bonus.
Ripping Toronto’s drafting strategy: Cherry kicked off the 2014-15 season of Coach’s Corner with a bang. Before the Leafs got into their annual free fall, Cherry criticized the club for not drafting enough Canadian players.
“On the other side of the world is [Los Angeles],” Cherry told host Ron MacLean. “They take the OHL guys. They take [Tyler] Toffoli, [Tanner] Pearson and [Justin] Williams — the MVP from Cobourg. No one comes here to Toronto, so you have to go through the draft. On the other hand, we have the Leafs. They draft U.S. college guys, a Swede and a Finn.”
Help Canada’s wounded soldiers: Cherry was at his best at an emotional time for our country. After October’s attack at Parliament Hill and the National War Memorial in Ottawa, Cherry paid tribute to Cpl. Nathan Cirillo and Warrant Officer Patrice Vincent and insisted Canadians should do a little more.
“If you think so much of them, let’s help them,” he said. “Cpl. Nathan and Patrice would want you to do this. Help the wounded. Help people like that. I know I will. If you think so much of those guys, you’ll help the guys that are in the hospital.”
Remembering Beliveau: Cherry shared his memories of the legendary Montreal Canadiens forward Jean Beliveau.
“What a guy. Class guy. You keep hearing class all the time, class, and he was,” he said. “Regal or something like that.”
Defending Doughty for Lou Marsh: Cherry didn’t want take anything away from Kaillie Humphries, but he was insistent that Los Angeles Kings defenceman Drew Doughty was the rightful winner of the 2014 Lou Marsh Trophy as Canada’s best athlete.
“L.A. won the Cup and he was the guy,” Cherry said. “He was absolutely fantastic when they won the gold in the Olympics, and everybody knows the most important thing in the Olympics is hockey.”
Chiming in on salute-gate: Remember the ridiculousness that was the Leafs’ non-salute? Well, Cherry took a different approach. Instead of criticizing the Leafs’ players, Cherry took issue with a few jersey-tossing fans.
“Everybody thinks that this guy’s a passionate fan,” he said. “This guy is a jerk that threw it on, that doesn’t care about the Leafs at all. He just wants to get his picture… that picture: ‘I did that — look, I did that.’ He’s a jerk, he’s not a fan at all.”
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Urging fans to stick with Edmonton: In the midst of a nine-game losing streak, Cherry provided words of encouragement to the Oilers’ faithful.
Blame refs, not Bernier: When everyone was piling on Leafs goalie Jonathan Bernier for allowing a Toskala-esque goal in late January, Cherry noticed a small detail on film that might’ve impacted the goal.
Lack of enforcers hurt McDavid: Cherry was upset after Erie Otters star Connor McDavid broke a bone in his hand as a result of a fight. He said enforcers, rather than superstars, should be doing the fighting.
“I don’t want him fighting,” Cherry said. “I’m not saying he shouldn’t have, but I don’t want him fighting. You never want a guy like that fighting.”
Bonus Cherry moment: This is our all-time favourite, so we had to include it. Nazem Kadri got the famous Cherry kiss a few years back, but it wasn’t as magical as the original.
