There’s certainly a lot going on in sports these days. So, let’s start with congratulations to the Carolina Hurricanes … a team that, admittedly, I’ve never paid much attention to. Obviously a team without a lot of top stars, but a team that (and this is not an original thought of mine) definitely resembles their coach Rod Brind’Amour and plays a stifling brand of team-first hockey. Their first championship in 20 years, and the neat thing about Brind’Amour is he’s just the fourth man in NHL history to both captain (2006) and coach (2026) the same team to the Stanley Cup. He joins Hall of Famers Cooney Weiland (Boston), Hap Day (Toronto) and Toe Blake (Montreal) in that little club.

In Toronto, the Maple Leafs farm team the Toronto Marlies seems well on their way to the American Hockey League Calder Cup championship for the second time since 2018. Hardly seems like a boatload of their players will suddenly turn the Leafs into Stanley Cup contenders, though. I’m sure Easton Cowan has gotten some useful experience, and perhaps goalie Artur Akhtyamov has vaulted himself up the pecking order … especially with the recent trade of Joseph Woll. But it’s not like the Marlies’ 2018 champions did much to bolster Maple Leaf playoff pursuits in recent years. And who the heck is Jim Hiller? I mean, I guess I must have known who he was when the was a Maple Leafs assistant coach under Mike Babcock and I was still working on the NHL Guide & Record Book. And I may have been vaguely aware of his being fired by the LA Kings this season … but I feel like when the Leafs hired him on Wednesday that was the first I’d ever hear of him!

Then there was the news on Tuesday that Hockey Night in Canada will no longer air on the CBC. It’s a blow to history and tradition (and an evil triumph of money above everything else), but really, it hasn’t been Hockey Night in Canada since Sportsnet took over in 2013 (or maybe dating back to 2008, when CBC dropped the theme song!) even if Saturday night and playoff games still aired on the CBC until a few days ago. Funny thing is, you can watch hockey on some channel (mostly a Sportsnet channel) every night of the week, but I don’t watch nearly as much as I did when we got one Wednesday night Leafs game and Hockey Night in Canada on Saturdays during my youth. But I feel bad for anyone who doesn’t have a cable package that includes Sportsnet and will either have to pay more or stop watching.

And of course, in Toronto and Vancouver, and in a host of other American and Mexican cities, (and cross most of the globe) the big news in sports is the World Cup. Never been much into soccer myself. I get that it’s a big deal all around the world. And I know my brothers and my nephews are into it. I don’t want to discourage anyone who’s enjoying it now … and I’m sure I’ll tune in later today when Canada faces Qatar. Because, you know, Qatar. Who doesn’t want to watch Canada versus Qatar? Playing soccer…

But interestingly to me at least, the recent sports news I’ve found myself thinking about the most is the New York Knicks’ NBA championship. I’m the furthest thing from a basketball fan these days, but I guess there’s something about the first title since 1973 that’s appealing to even a don’t-live-and-die-with-’em Maple Leafs fan. It was sort of fun watching the New York-born celebrities getting so excited about it. But I had my own odd sort of personal connection.

I used to watch basketball more than the almost none I watch now. I remember the commercials for NBA games on the American channels of my TV childhood — “Buffalo, home of the Braves!” And, of course, I knew of their star, Bob McAdoo (whose distant cousin Charles is currently with the Blue Jays). I never saw the Braves play at Maple Leaf Gardens when they’d occasionally play home games there in the early 1970s, but I did see the Harlem Globetrotters!

I first got into basketball in 1979 when we were skiing in Colorado at March break and the news on TV was hyping the NCAA championship featuring Larry Bird of Indiana State and Magic Johnson of Michigan State. I continued to follow those two during their NBA rivalry with the Celtics and Lakers. Their basketball heyday coincided with my basketball heyday when I worked with Digital Media, a small “electronic newsroom” in Toronto from 1986 to 1990. We watched, and wrote about, a ton of NBA and NCAA basketball in those days … and that’s where my tiny Knicks connection comes from.

I knew (though I don’t remember how or why) about Willis Reed’s heroic turn on a badly injured leg in Game 7 versus the Lakers inspiring the Knicks to their first championship in 1970. And about he and Walt Frazier leading them to another in 1973. And about the team’s run of mediocrity after that, which was already seeming to be a pretty long one by 1988–89 when they were suddenly a contender again. We at Digital Media had access to satellite channels in those days that no one I knew had at home, and I guess we were sometimes watching Knicks games on MSG (Madison Square Garden) Network or something like it. And I remember this commercial. As I recall, it was full of 1970 and 1973 Knicks footage interspersed with highlights of the current team with a Carly Simon song playing under it:

I know nothing stays the same.
But if you’re willing to play the game.
It’s coming around again.

I’ve been trying to find it with Google and YouTube searches for a while now with no success. But, I’m pretty sure it was a real thing! I’ve certainly thought of it a lot over the years.

I thought about it in 2015, when the Jays suddenly got red hot down the stretch to win the American League East for the first time since the World Series years of 1992 and 1993.


I thought about it a lot last year when the Jays finally made it back to the World Series

I thought about it on behalf of Knicks fans as their team got red hot in the playoffs.

I don’t like change … but I do know nothing stays the same. And, I guess, sometimes, if you’re willing to play the game, it really might come around again.

So, hang on Leafs fans. I’m not sure about the new management yet. But, maybe…!