It's wall-to-wall hockey today. This ought to harden you for the task at hand. The Stanley Cup playoffs begin Wednesday. I'll give you my dark horse pick to win it all at the end of the column.

Thursday I was chatting with Jeff Marek on Hockey Night in Canada Radio and was telling him about an article in the The Hockey News on Oct. 7, 1988, in which Bob Bourne recounted highlights of his 14-year NHL career.

On Friday, the Juno Cup was played at Ricoh Coliseum in Toronto.

It pitted stars of the music world like Blue Rodeo's Jim Cuddy, Sarah Harmer, Barney and Dustin Bentall, George Canyon, Kathleen Edwards, Andrew Scott and Chris Murphy (Sloan), Jon Gallant (Billy Talent) and many more against NHL alumni such as Valerie Bure, Gary Roberts, Russ Courtnall, Paul Coffey, Brad Dalgarno, Mark Napier and Curtis Joseph.

Upon hearing stories about the superstitious ways of Marc Savard, Don Cherry felt a kindred spirit in Savard and the way Marc spoke to his equipment. Don had been extremely finicky throughout his playing days about caring for his battle armour.

Two years ago, Don spent an entire Coach's Corner showing examples of Savard caressing and addressing his stick when he was sitting on the bench. Don said that when he was young he would actually take his favourite stick to bed and advised kids to do the same.

It's unfortunate Marc will not be able to play tonight when the Boston Bruins visit Toronto. He's sidelined with post-concussion syndrome. Don misses Marc, and so do the Bruins.

American writer Lewis H. Lapham says "the law of nations becomes the rule of money."

It's one of the elements suddenly at play in the fallout over the unfortunate injury to Max Pacioretty this week.  

I shan't break ground with the statement  - Thinking you can and Knowing you can are entirely different concepts - but I thought I'd share a little bit of my story, and how it's reflected in the career of Jonathan Toews.

My strength has come gradually, through repeatedly saying yes, torturing myself for having accepted an invitation, a challenge, and then succeeding. Always outside my comfort zone. Knowing it was the price.

I was in beautiful Fernie BC this week for a few days of skiing with friends from Alberta,  but of course, I was all about hockey.

The Fernie Ghostriders of the KJAHL have a terrific team that draws around 1200 fans per game. They swept Kimberley Dynamiters in their first round of playoffs and were  enjoying the reward of time off, so I did not see them play, which was too bad. It's a real family affair.

Hockey Night in Canada will feature six games this weekend, and in between games there will be segments with Luke Richardson and his family, and Olympian Clara Hughes, to talk about depression, an issue that affects millions of Canadians.

Bruce Boudreau began his career as a head coach in 1992-93 with the Muskegon Fury of the Colonial Hockey League. The CoHL was at the lowest rung of professional hockey's ladder. I was one of the league's referees.

I remember thinking, "What a nice guy," and as I watched him "go off" on the HBO 24/7 series, I wondered if his players felt now as I had then. That no matter how "hot" he got, it was never about him. It was about a greater good.

Tonight's theme. Second thoughts and showboats.

Three years ago we nearly changed the name of our second intermission feature, The Hotstove. That would be messing with 70 years of tradition.