Follow @james_tanner123 One of the reasons I love hockey so much is because when I was a kid I had the first ten of Don Cherry's Rock 'em Sock 'em VHS tapes and I watched them religiously, as I suspect is probably a pretty common experience for people my time and place.
Cherry's hilarious persona, the way he preached a respect for the game and for how you carry yourself - plus the awesome hits, fights and goals, made him probably the first person I didn't actually know that I looked up to.
I never got why people don't like him, it seems like a sad commentary on our society that you apparently can only like a person if you agree with most of the things he says. Cherry is polarizing, but he shouldn't be: he's an actual good guy who teaches kids about respect, charity, empathy and hockey.
On top of it all, he has two important qualities that our society doesn't respect close to enough: he doesn't take himself too seriously, and he goes his own way instead of just saying what people want to hear, dumbing it down or niceing it up.
Don Cherry teaches you how to act respectfully while being yourself. He teaches you about dignity and integrity and does the unpopular but necessary task of point out who is an idiot. What more of a role model can you ask for?
I have this long running joke with my best friend from childhood where we would always ask "would Don Cherry respect that?" But the thing was, it wasn't really a joke and it still crosses my mind all the time.
Anyways, this morning I was lucky enough to be reminded of the greatest clip in the history of the world. I don't want to oversell this, but I honestly believe that if you watch the following video it will make your day.
Don Cherry remains, after 30 years, still the biggest and most important voice in hockey. He is the best.
I salute Don Cherry.
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The Coyotes game last night pretty boring, but overall OK.
They won 2-1 and seem like a way, way better team with Martin Hanzal in the lineup.
Next up is Nashville, at home, on Saturday.