You don’t need Hockey Night in Canada to learn that Don Cherry is in the Edmonton Oilers’ corner.
Just tune in to Cherry’s Corner. We have the scoop you won’t get on CBC or Rogers Sportsnet.
Yes, folks, by request of many readers, we went back to visit Grapes for another instalment of the popular Cherry’s Corner so he could set up Wednesday night’s opening game of the 2025 Stanley Cup finals between the Edmonton Oilers and the Florida Panthers.
No Ron MacLean. No problem.
Joined by legendary Toronto Sun photographer and Boston Bruins fan Jack Boland, I did my best to bring Canada the coach once again.
Of course, Cherry is all you really need. You can also enjoy Grapes every week on the Don Cherry Grapevine Podcast with his son, Tim, who is equally as knowledgeable about hockey as Cherry, and his grandson, Del.
“Last time you guys were late, and I was going to send you both Rochester,” teased the 91-year-old Canadian treasure.
Once NHL coach of the year, always coaching. We didn’t dare be tardy this time.
And there was the iconic former coach of the Boston Bruins and almost 40-years on Coach’s Corner on Saturday nights, ready, waiting and reading the book — The Don Cherry Story — his late daughter Cindy wrote just before her passing of a sudden illness last summer.
Don said reading the book from Cindy’s perspective has been emotional for him but also cathartic. The personal stuff, professional stuff, the public stuff and the relationship with a country he loves.
“It’s all true,” he said, adding he finds it hard to believe “I went through all of that. She did a great job.”
Cindy Cherry and her dad, Don Cherry.
From Bobby Orr to his departure from Rogers on Remembrance Day 2019, the book is a nice piece of Canadian history.
Needless to say, it has been a tough year for Grapes with both Cindy and his brother, Richard, dying. But the tough coach is putting one foot in front of the other, trying to keep going and admitting the NHL playoffs have helped a lot with that.
“It’s been great,” he said. “I’ve been watching and I will be watching.”
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He’s really looking forward to this puck drop between the Panthers — champs of 2024 — and the Oilers.
So who does he like this year?
“They are two outstanding teams,” he said. “But I have to go with Canada, all the way. I am sticking with Oilers to win.”
But he doesn’t think it’s going to be easy. No finals are ever easy. He should know.
He lost to the Montreal Canadiens back in the day. An inch here, a bounce or penalty call there, and who knows?
But he believes this is the Oilers time.
As much as he loves the Oilers players like Corey Perry, Jeff Skinner and Leon Draisaitl and Darnell Nurse, he also likes Sam Bennett, Sergei Bobrovsky, Matthew Tkachuk and Aleksander Barkov, too.
“The Panthers play like the Bruins, so you have to be ready,” he said. “But Connor McDavid is the best player in the world. And he’s playing great.”
Like most of Canada, he is hoping this is No. 97’s year.
With two good coaches and two top goalies — and the best players in the world — Grapes thinks it could be classic.
“I am really looking forward to it,” he said. ‘Let’s go.”