Glenn Kubish

For days lately, I have resembled nothing out in the world more closely than Los Angeles Kings goaltender Jonathan Quick lying face down after McDavid tore through his defence and tested positive for greatness in Game 7. Covid has brought me down.   Here is Three Things podcast, episode 70, a triptych tribute to that goal.                                              1. The pass   When Shell built a filling station in the field behind our house in the northeast end in the 1970s they also put up a big wooden fence to keep us alley kids from cutting through a grassy patch on our way north to Londonderry Mall and the wilds of Dickensfield. That fence was our introduction to the attempted corporate control of our free movements. We resisted. For years we knocked one plank out of the fence every time it was nailed back into formation.          ...

No music. No introduction. No criss-crossing spotlights. No confetti gun. And certainly no smoke. He just walked in. Carrying the Stanley Cup. While two Mounties in red serge watched, the people in the hall clapped politely. And then waited. What do we do next? He put the trophy on a table in front of a printed sign that congratulated him for winning the Cup, and then he motioned for people to line up, come forward. And they lined up. He was Darryl Sutter, the coach of the Los Angeles Kings, one of the favourite sons of Viking, and what he walked into was the Viking Community Hall. And what it all was was a great Canadian moment. Five bucks got you a picture with the coach and the Cup. The money went to Viking minor hockey. The line of fans curled around the hall and out the door. When we got to the front of the line, and it was our turn to get a photo taken, he was the first to speak. "Hi, I'm Darryl, thanks for comin'," he said to Shelagh. "You...