Cheers and Jeers – April 1st

The Good and the Bad of this past week.

It’s Friday Sunday. So we close out the "Week That Was" with our latest volume of… "Cheers and Jeers!"

This week, I make a beautifully produced video for the Canucks, David Booth and long-suffering Leafs fans and tell Max Lapierre that I’ll fight my own battles with the Canadiens’ front-office and disgruntled Vancouverites.

JEERS to me for completely mailing in Friday’s Game Preview. Blech. I’m just so damn tired of Canucks/Stars games. I guess I’m as unmotivated as the Canucks. Anyway… my bad. Better stuff next week.

CHEERS to David Booth for going back-country-mad-man on Mark Olver during the Canucks/Avalanche game last weekend. Olver and Booth were jarring heavily beforehand and the two decided to go at it. Max Lapierre tried to intervene and take over for Booth but Booth, being a woodsmanly type, shook him off and said, "NO! I’m fighting this very mean guy who hit me in a way that I found offensive!" (You see, David Booth is a good, god-fearing man who doesn’t utter swear words or things of that nature, so that’s the way he would speak in that particular situation.) And then Booth went apesh*t on Olver, landing several solid punches to Olver’s noggin. I’m definitely not a fan of the staged fight, but when a fight breaks out from sheer anger and frustration between two willing combatants, I’m all for it.

JEERS to anyone bitching about the City of Vancouver’s plan to avoid Downtown viewing parties, and opting instead to promote localized block parties. WE DID THIS TO OURSELVES, PEOPLE. We have proven that when we get together to "celebrate" the Canucks in the playoffs (specifically Game 7 of the Stanley Cup Final) that bad sh*t goes down. When you wreck stuff that isn’t yours, you get punished. For Christ’s sake, 4 year olds understand this concept. And yet, people are upset that this privilege has been revoked. If you are upset about this, then you don’t deserve to celebrate the Canucks anyway.

CHEERS to the fans of the Toronto Maple Leafs who chanted "Let’s Go Blue Jays" during the Leafs embarrassing 7-1 home loss to the Philadelphia Flyers. The Leafs could not have looked more disinterested in being there if they were a 15-year-old emo kid forced to go to his mother’s PTA meeting. They were so out of that game that Scott Hartnell asked Ray Ferraro if he could say happy birthday to his grandfather – MID-GAME!!! If I was a Leafs fan at that game, I would have gone ballistic, given how much it costs to get into that building to attend a game. Good on you, Leafs fans, for showing your team that you were totally dissatisfied with that effort and that it won’t be tolerated.

JEERS to the Montreal Canadiens for the odd finale to their horrific season. While I applaud them mildly for FINALLY coming to their senses and firing Pierre Gauthier and looking for a brand new regime by parting ways with Bob Gainey, this is way too little, far too late. And why would they bother doing this with time left in the season? Why wouldn’t they wait two more weeks until the season is over? Are they’re hoping that some GM candidate is going to magically appear? The timing off this huge shake-up seems totally bizarre. And JEERS to Serge Savard for coming out immediately and saying that the new GM will be required to speak French. Unbelievable. The Habs suffer their worst season in decades and they’re STILL putting restrictions on who they hire to fix this mess.

CHEERS to the Vancouver Canucks for their "This Is Our Home" campaign. While it is still incredibly upsetting and disappointing that this type of messaging was WARRANTED to begin with, the Canucks are doing their part to get their fans to behave responsibly.  The events that unfolded on June 15, 2011 truly had nothing to do with the hockey club, but they took a leadership position here to implore their fans and the community to act the way that they should.