Saturday, February 23, 2002

Cole's classic call 'one for the ages'

By PERRY LEFKO -- Toronto Sun
 Oooh, baby. Hockey announcer Bob Cole called one for the ages in last night's 3-2 loss by the Russians to the U.S. -- or the United States of America as it is identified on CBC.

 Here's a sample of some of Cole's calls yesterday. Call it Cole's notes:

 "This is some kind of hockey. It's for all the marbles or a chance for all the marbles."

 "Is this exciting or what?"

 "Thirty seconds left, can the Russians muster one more attack?"

 "Twelve seconds left in a game that looked gonzo a long time ago."

 "Three seconds left, (Mike) Richter down, everybody's holding their breath."

 "They both have realized their ambitions. They both meet here Sunday, ice hockey, don't you dare miss it!"

 Oooh, baby, we won't. Let's hope it's more exciting than that 7-1 Canada-Belarus clunker.

 SPEAKING THE TRUTH:

  As soon as CBC switched from Cole to Brian Williams, the veteran studio host provided a perfect editorial comment: "(NHL commissioner) Gary Bettman gets his wish in spite of the spin he tries to deliver."

 It was Bettman, in an interview with Ron MacLean the day before, who did a Savardian spinarama when asked about the importance of Team USA making it to the final. MacLean insisted it would be great for the 25 American owners in the NHL and growing the game in the U.S.

 "This competition was never about who wins," Bettman insisted. "It was always about the hockey."

 MacLean didn't believe it and neither did anyone watching Bettman. He wanted a Canada-U.S. final and now he has it.

 CBC will carry the game live at 3 p.m., but NBC is only expected to show the first two periods on MSNBC, then pick up the action live in the third period on the main Peacock channel. That's bush for a game of this magnitude. NBC picked up part of the game yesterday, but wasted too much live action in the third with commercials.

 A HARRY MOMENT:

  The Russians almost made a fool out of wise-guy Harry Neale, who started the third period by saying the Russians are thinking of pulling out of the closing ceremony and the hockey team has already pulled out.

 Exactly 11 seconds later the Russians scored and added their second goal at 3:21.

 "Let's get a copy of (coach Slava) Fetisov's speech between periods," he said. "It must have been something."

 QUICK CUTS:

 TSN signed off its Olympic coverage last night to begin its marathon coverage of curling's Scott Tournament of Hearts. Gord Miller, Bob McKenzie and Pierre McGuire -- he's more charged up than Cole -- will continue to provide reports for TSN ... You can knock Don Cherry for his blatant pro-Canadian remarks, but give him credit for predicting after the Finland win that Canada would beat Belarus by four or five goals. Conversely, Cherry had a problem with his calculations, asking MacLean during Coach's Corner if the Belarus game was Canada's fourth so far of the tournament. Actually it was the fifth ... Great line by Kerrin Lee-Gartner on the German women skiers not having the funding to bring the sports psychologist they had been using most of the season but still bringing a hair dresser. "If you get your hair cut or your head topped, I guess it's the same thing." And after a brutal effort by a German skier: "After a run like that, she may need her head examined." ... CBC announcer Don Wittman repeatedly reminded viewers during the Olympics of the failures of Canadian curler Kevin Martin in international competitions and his desire to rid the ghosts of his past. Well, Martin's latest loss, 6-5 to Norway's Paal Trulsen in yesterday's gold-medal game, put another ghost in his closet.

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