Canada’s Blowhard

The New York Times is looking north of the border, with a profile of Don Cherry. In case you’re terminally American, he’s the one in full plumage.

Without taking sides, the profile does a fairly nice job of establishing his ethos as one of the most powerful men in hockey: high school dropout; minor-league defenseman; one game in the NHL; five uneven seasons as a head coach; failure as a used-car salesman. (Well, okay, he was the NHL’s coach of the year in 1976.)

Yet as one general manager says, “There’s not a general manager who won’t take his call. He has access to the commissioner.” Of course commisioner Gary Bettman’s credentials are hardly better than Cherry’s.

My only regret with the Cherry piece is that they photographed him on a day when he was wearing a relatively tame suit.