I’ll never forget when I volunteered at the Shaw charity classic for the 2nd year in 2014 (I was a standard bearer in 2013!) and I was a Marshal in 2014. In 2014 though I also signed up for being a caddy to one of the Amateurs in the groupings that went out with a pro in the first 2 days, the pro I ended up going with was Chip Beck and it was awesome apart from the guy that I Caddied winning a wedge set and adding them to his already 14 clubs bag lol. Anyways before I went out there was Eric Francis and I couldnt help but strike up a conversation about the Flames and how exciting Monahan was in his rookie year, he told me the it was good to see but we needed a lot more pieces. I brought up Gaudreau and how he scored that goal in the last game against the Nucks and how excited I was following him through his college seasons after being drafted and he scoffed at me! He said that Johnny was a long shot at best and I told him Johnny would play meaningful hockey that year. It was the greatest feeling ever seeing Johnny shine that year and Eric has held a grudge against him since the very start; I even remember how smug he was when Johnny was pointless in his first 5 games and how he was right that he needed to go to the AHL and then Johnny scores that wrap round goal against the Jets and never looks back.
It is truly maddening to see how much disrespect Johnny gets from CANADIAN media on a CANADIAN team. Watch the Jets series I could understand why the calls seemed to be a little bias towards the Jets, it never really shocks me when it’s Louie Debrusk calling but Cuthbert was annoying at times. Especially the Dallas series..... the calls all seemed to be centred around the stars between whistles or coming back from breaks and if it was about the Flames it was a negative take. With Eric Francis I’m not shocked anymore, he’s a hack and if Johnny does move on I would look at idiots like Francis who take blatant liberties.
Look I don’t want to have a journalist like Staples or the other fanboys in Edmonton who both serve and drink the koolaid they’ve been having for years but I also don’t want to see constant flybys from them either and Francis deals unprofessional blows to the team he’s assigned to report on at a nauseating rate.
|