Hypocrisy takes on various shapes and forms, I always thought...
But this the freaking cake - and the friggin' cherry on top of it!

Don Cherry (no pun intended above - at all) is threatened of being sued by three goons (the three stooges on ice?) for having inferred very clearly that they are being quite the hypocrites now in their harsh criticism of NHL goonery and assorted culture of violence that surrounds Canadian ice hockey and most specifically the National Hockey League.

But, guys - did you take too many shots to the head or what?
You made a living at it - you wouldn't have had any sort of career, short-term, middle-term, much less long-term, in the damnable NHL if you hadn't been thugs-on-skates - muggers who could lace them up - gorillas on ice!!!

Even the Magnificent Hypocrite, Mario Lemieux, did not threaten Don Cherry with any sort of "legal action" (to my knowledge) after being labeled as what he definitely is - for he speaks against violence in the league when his team harbors the most sickening, revolting, not to mention cowardly dirty player not only in ice rinks across the land today, but, I would say, all-time...! (Yes, all-time! Alex Burrows, Maxim Lapierre, Léo Labine, Ken Linseman, even Sean Avery and the Hanson Brothers - they were all choir angels compared to one creepy-faced, execrable Matt Cooke.)

And speaking of Cooke...



Now, about the hypocrisy call - former NHL tough guy Georges Laraque sided with Cherry on this. But most others will not. Heck, several other free thinkers out there will be diametrically opposed to this opinion - and attempt to ridicule it via the most ill-conceived comparisons anyone could ever think of... I have particularly in mind here a critic from some daily rag still (somehow) published on a daily basis (what a terrible waste of paper - but I digress) back in Montreal and that dared to voice his criticism of both Cherry and Laraque simply due to the fact that the latter is a local and a newly-recruited political figure back there, too. And so, Mr. ChoseBinne du Culbec chose to compare repentant tough guys from the NHL to reformed prostitutes speaking out against that terrible underground culture and business... I suppose that it means that NHL owners and coaches are pimps, by default, then? C'est des pimps de la violence alors...! Faut le faire, ChoseBinne, faut le faire...

Aside from these and other comparaisons boîteuses, nothing was made of the comment by Cherry in the backstage scene where hockey players trade elbows, walk on stilts, skates or on thin ice, where tough guys actually still live, thrive, threaten and carry on their dirty business on a routine course, very nearly... But, everywhere else, and among some of the former thugs (or pukes, as Cherry called them, too) resentment grew to fully-worded malcontent (quite an achievement for the goon, it must be underlined) and threats of legal recourses were indeed issued - perhaps not through normal channels, but somehow still issued, yes...

It is all about nothing at this point, alas, as Don Cherry, pressed by the CBC which cannot afford to lose a single dime on such a tight budget as they have, forced the tough old dog to deliver an apology the very next week on his very next segment of the ever-popular (even legendary by now) Coach's Corner; and here it is...

Though some critics received the apology as half-baked and devoid of sincerity, it was accepted by the trio of offended goons that were found in some dark corner of some dreary bar that Saturday night, each with a crocodile tear in their left eye, sipping and bawling silently as they hung on every word of Coach Cherry... It was good for, this time, they were not hung on every other word - nuance! Not that they got most of that, most of the time - but, once again, we are digressing and getting side-tracked here - so let's cut to the chase!

The three goons can have, indeed, wised up over the years - it is within the realm of the possible, true, absolutely true. They can have seen the error of their ways in inculcating a culture of rough playing and enforcer-on-every-team mentality for all of hockey. All three of them had a vital part to play in that - for they perpetuated this culture of violence and made it all the more "fashionable" to play the game that way. Generations of hockey players modeled themselves on these guys and others like them. How many more who never made it to the NHL modeled their style and toughness on them, as well? Is it not only due to the fact that several players, supposedly in the prime of their goonish careers (Boogard, Rypien - I forget a name here, I think...) suddenly keeled over dead, without apparent reason, that has these former goons speak out against the violence, now...? Otherwise, they might even try and sell their talents as tough guy coaches to all the prospective future goons of the league - goons of the future academy, yeah! Was it not, after all, their bread and butter, once upon a time?

Georges Laraque is a special case all unto his own - he knew his role and played that role, period. When no other NHL team expressed interest in his services, he simply moved on - unscathed, lucky him, but that was mainly due to the fact that he built his reputation early on, as "the undisputable heavyweight champion on ice" no less, and seldom had to fight anymore for the better part of his last two years in the NHL... For him to share Cherry's opinion is a given thing and a completely natural thing too. His critic from his own backyard, Mr. ChoseBinne there, simply had a bone of contention with Laraque due to the fact that Laraque's second (or third, or fourth) career these days is that of Male Deputy Leader -nothing less- of the Green Party of Canada - a political outfit that has about zero chance of scoring even two seats in the next elections. But if they succeed in making people realize the horrors of slaughterhouses and what it takes to get their ground beef and steaks into their plates, maybe it is worthwhile to have such a party - and such a position as "Male Deputy Leader" - but we are digressing once more.

Give me a former enforcer like Lyndon Byers - the erstwhile teammate of such luminaries as Ray Bourque and Cam Neely, whom he protected to the best of his ability pretty damn flawlessly until that fateful evening of May 1991 (or was it June - I forget the actual date of infamy and it is probably better that way) when Ulf Samuelsson got one in on an unsuspecting Cam "The Man" Neely... But let's not get into that (again) now!

Lyndon Byers is unapologetic about his days as an enforcer - he admits everything, pleads guilty as charged, and says it like it is: he did everything that was asked of him. He sees the problems and their awful results nowadays and goes something like this: until further changes and modifications that can only be brought in by the league itself, that is the way the game is to be played - CASE CLOSED. He will never go like those other guys and cry over past mistakes (of a lifetime? Come on! There is repeat offender and then there is lifetime habit: and there sure damn is a difference and a limit ot it!) and he will never recant what has gone on before and act all innocent about it...!

Whenever Byers faced off with one of those other goons/tools that were called out by Cherry, I always thought he was the better man, even when foolish sports commentators gave the edge to the other guys...

I was proven right - once again - but in a different arena for this type of modern-day gladiatorship.

As for Don "Grapes" Cherry - he takes a commanding 2-nothing lead over Team Hypocrisy; no matter what the critics and nay-sayers have to say about it...!