‘My heart is with the Oilers’
Asked about the Game 6 goal called back on Florida due to an offside, Cherry said, “That deflates them. It really, really deflates them. It would have made it 2-1. It really deflates them.”
Cherry is no fan of video review of offside calls. “I still they they should let it go. And it will all come out in the wash.”
Cherry said when he coached and played, he wanted shots to be blocked by penalty killers. “I was one of those guys blocking the shots and nobody cared whether I got hurt or not.”
Asked if McDavid and Draisaitl would be mad about being taken off the kill, Cherry said, “They never blocked many shots. Let’s put it that way. Penalties killers are Nugent-Hopkins, Janmark, McLeod and Brown and they’re doing a pretty good job.”
Cherry had earlier picked Florida to win Game 5 and take the Stanley Cup that night. Now the pressure is on the Panthers, he said. “Because they were up three-to-nothing. They got the pressure on them now. I think they’ll come out smokin’ and I think they’ll win… My heart is with the Oilers, believe me, it is. But my brain says pick Florida.”
My take
1. Cherry always did love the big, rock ’em, sock ’em teams so it’s no surprise he’s picking Florida, a team that has done well with that style of play in 2023-24.
2. Having watched Cherry religiously on Hockey Night in Canada through the 1980s, I always got the feeling that Grapes wasn’t the most enthused of commentators about Wayne Gretzky or the Oilers and their run-and-gun style. Maybe I’m wrong on that, but I never got the sense that Oil’s free-wheeling was his favourite brand.
I’m not sure how he feels about this current incarnation of the Oilers, a team that also marked by superstar offensive talent, but glad to hear his heart is with the Oilers.
My own heart and head are with the Oilers who have been the better team all series, with 13.5 Grade A shots per game, 9.5 per game for the Panthers. That’s a full goal per game difference.
4. I’m joined in picking the Oilers by the one prominent commentator who has been around even longer than Cherry and is still strong, the magnificent hockey maven Stan Fischler. age 92. Cherry is just 90.
Said Fischler today, “Dictions and Contradictions aside, my gut remains in the same position — Oilers win Game 7, That, however, in no way suggests that I’m rooting for them. I am rooting for the American team from Dixie and I’ll leave at this: may the better team win, fair and square Period!”
