A/V club presents: Maurice Richard

While the Mats Sundin/Joe Sakic drama plays on and the ridiculous circus that is the Brett Favre drama plays itself out, I've been wandering around the YouTubes for some fun stuff. Mostly, I've been watching Huckleberry Hound cartoons. You gotta love that guy. He's got the best intentions but the worst execution. Despite his incompetence, his foolish pursuit of sisyphean tasks and his magnificent failures, he never became flustered and he never quit. It's this "Never give up, never say die" attitude that reminds me of Maurice Richard. I'm going somewhere with this. Trust me. For now, allow me to digress. For his quixotic persistence, Huck is either an idiot or a hero. Or both. One of my favorite episodes was Fireman Huck. It's one of the few times where he looses his zen-like cool, and one of the first times we saw the dog that would become his nemesis. It's also one of the only times that he doesn't botch the words to his favorite song "Oh My Darling Clementine". Check it out.

Anyway, Monday happened to be the birthday of Maurice Richard. He would have been 87. One of the coolest things I've ever seen is this video of a very touching tribute at the Montréal Forum, back in March of 1996. Before the final game in the building, there was a magnificent ceremony honoring the building itself and the great players who played there. No matter how many times I watch any part of it, I'm blown away by the ovation that the crowd gave and the way The Rocket reluctantly but graciously accepted the loving gesture.

Rumor has it that the ovation went on for up to 16 minutes. Clearly, The Rocket was humbled by the whole thing and he probably felt like the luckiest man on the face of the earth. Check out how excited Saku Koivu looks at 1:14 and how dumb Gary Bettman looks at 1:28. Those two couldn't be further apart.

I also stumbled upon this great 1983 commercial for Grecian Formula hair dye, starring Richard.


That "Hey Richard, two minutes for looking so good!" line is a classic.

Everybody's seen the classic cartoon "The Hockey Sweater". Even if you've seen it a million times, it's always worth another view. I just saw this impressive modern adaptation, which ties in Maurice Richard and brings this full circle back to Mats Sundin. Enjoy:


I love how the "pear say queue shun" from the original made it to the remake. And the "one of the defensemen was Bertuzzied" bit had me roaring with laughter.

Thursday will be the 21st birthday of Sidney Crosby. He will finally be able to legally drink beer in Pittsburgh.

Happy birthday to the Rocket (RIP) and to the Kid.

I've got loads of hockey cards arriving via UPS on Thursday. I'll do some box breaks of my quest to complete the 2007-08 Fleer Ultra set.