Before the seventh game of the recent Sabres/Canadiens playoff series, I truly hoped the NHL would somehow modify the rules to allow both teams to win. Drastic and impossible I know, but both teams were so great and ruggedly likeable. All the players deserved to move on to the third round.

They all skate so fast now. When we watch highlights from the 1960s, it seems they were playing slow-motion hockey. Not that long ago.

I don’t think any sport has changed as much as hockey during the past 60 or 70 years. Back in the day, most of the players came from Canada, so we could say with straight faces, “Hockey: it’s our game.” We still say that, but with our fingers crossed.

Then, Flin Flon. Now, some stars from Phoenix. Then, Shawinigan. Now Stockholm.

Then, Kirkland Lake and Kapuskasing. Now, Kazakhstan. And both Montreal and Moscow.

Back to the original point, the quality of the players is beyond belief now. How they skate, pass and shoot, and receive passes. The physical pounding they take. NFL players play one game each week, while during the playoffs, our hockey heroes go at it basically every second night.

Just imagine how hard the boards and the plexiglass are, and the players are speeding along on skates, on ice — fast.

I will continue to ramble about hockey. Back only two generations, the ice surface was white. Almost sacrosanct, with only a few painted markings for the blue lines and the checkered red line and faceoff circles and goal creases. The experts were certain there would never be advertising on the ice surface.

Now, the ads scroll continuously, and I find the whole thing distracting and confusing. Do we really need to have puck carrier names printed on our television screens?

The boards were white too, with only a few blue and red markings. Thank goodness they attempt to be humorous and clever now, sometimes to a fault.

Big games demand a Big Mac. Buds make time for playoffs. That’s what Buds do. Genesis, the official luxury car of the NHL. Hyundai, for those who drive hockey. Tylenol, the official pain relief partner of the NHL. Caterpillar, there is no off season. And some potato company has become the official fry of watching hockey. Lay’s is a bit presumptuous by challenging, “Betcha can’t pick just one.”

Back now to the quality of the hockey we are seeing now. And the speed at which the Sabres and Habs played all seven of their second round games.

Not playing favourites, but my favourite player is Cole Caufield of Les Habitants de Montreal. OK, the Habs. Born and bred in Wisconsin, and the winner of the 2021 Hobey Baker award as the top NCAA ice hockey player. He seems to play the game as it was played back in the good old days, just a lot faster and more skilfully.

Hockey can be such a great game, when played properly.

This season, he became just the seventh Montreal Canadien to score 50 goals in one season. Illustrious company, with Joseph Henri Maurice Richard, also known as the “Rocket,” and Guy Lafleur. After he scored one particularly beautiful deke goal on a breakaway, my daughter asked me if I ever did that. Honestly and humbly, I replied, “I tried it once, but got my feet tangled up, and fell down. A faceplant.”

My hockey career was unremarkable, but nobody had more fun or met more interesting people. Carl Brewer was the most unique. A former Stanley-Cup-winning Toronto Maple Leaf, and absolutely a man way ahead of his time. He quit the NHL while still in prime physical condition and decamped to Finland to teach them how to play hockey.

Among many other great Finnish hockey players, remember Teemu Selanne? Not only a great NHL career, but he played in six Olympic Games.

Carl and I travelled to Germany several times in the late 1970s to work at trade shows in Cologne and Munich. We always stayed an extra few days to ski in the French Alps. A book could be written.

The results of his long ago efforts are seen today in the NHL, where so many Finlanders stand out with their incredible, high speed skills. Carl is still known as “the father of Finnish hockey.” I went to his funeral years ago in Toronto, and met several of his Finnish fans. Carl was a humble hockey legend who said, “If your IQ is 90, and everyone else in the room averages 80, you seem to be really smart.”

I also went to the funeral of Maurice Richard back in 2000 in Montreal. Some 5,000 of us walked behind the Rocket’s casket, along Rue Ste-Catherine and Rue St-Denis to Notre-Dame Basilica in Le Vieux Montreal. Over 15,000 of us were inside and outside the church. That’s a lot of people bidding Adieu to the Rocket.

Stop me, before I ramble out of control.

The other teams want to win the Stanley Cup. The Canadiens need to win the Stanley Cup.

Enjoy the rest of the hockey season. Vas-y nos glorieux.