Posts with the Grant Fuhr tag

Barris Beat

So what, if it’s only the first round!

Written by Ted Barris on . Leave a comment
Joe Bowen never holds back his emotions during Leafs play-by-play.

For me, Saturday night was one of those “Where were you?” moments. I’d spent the day travelling to and from Brantford and made it home just in time to plunk myself down in front of the TV for part of game six of the Leafs-Lightning first-round Stanley Cup playoff.

I caught the end of regulation time with the score tied 1-1. Finally (because I sometimes watch games on CBC and listen to them on radio simultaneously), I heard Joe Bowen’s call as John Tavares’s shot trickled past Tampa netminder Andrei Vasilevskiy at 4:35 of overtime:

“They scored! They scored! Holy Mackinaw, they scored!” he shouted. “The Leafs are going to the second round!” (more…)

Barris Beat

Time to confront the trolls

Written by Ted Barris on . Leave a comment
Team Canada captain Maxime Comtois in his penalty-shot attempt.

It was one of those breathless, white-knuckle moments. At the end of regulation time, the quarter-final, elimination game at the World Junior hockey championship was tied – Canada 1, Finland 1. Then, a couple of minutes into sudden-death overtime, a Finn rushing to catch a Canadian forward on a breakaway, slashed the Canadian’s hands from behind. The referees awarded a penalty shot, and Coach Tim Hunter chose Team Canada captain Maxime Comtois to take the shot.

“I was thinking (I have) to score,” Comtois told Canadian Press later, “and I didn’t. … It hurts.” (more…)

Barris Beat

Hammers, nails and words

Written by Ted Barris on . Leave a comment
Writer’s garret.

It was a few weeks after summer had officially begun. I was up in my writing roost – a.k.a. my upstairs office. With the start of summer, I had just started writing a book. I’m not being presumptuous. It’s often what I’ve done over the past 15 or 20 years – I’ve taken the summer to complete a manuscript, I hope for publication soon after the summer is done. Anyway, I heard an SUV pull up next door and a man stepped out and began assembling his survey equipment. I asked him what was going on.

“They’re going to start building here,” he said. “They’re just waiting for this survey.”

(more…)