Yesterday, in the Oval Office, Team Orange went full Broad Street Bullies 1973. The Orange King was playing the tough guy, but….no wait, I don’t recall any of those Flyers ever skipping big games because of bone spurs.

Maybe JD was the muscle? Trying to be as tough as Dave the Hammer, but looking like a pretender. I’ll give him his due though – he served, bone spurs or not. Still, nothing rhymes with orange and someone might want to point out to JD that perhaps he peaked and his 50 goal season was his best-selling book several years back.

Zelensky, well, I’ll give him full marks for channelling his inner Borje Salming. Team Orange was out to get him in full public, and he was outgunned. But he went into the corners anyway. He took his lumps, got the shit kicking he probably knew he was going to get when he laced up. But then, his other divisional rivals are playing the heavy game as well so, not much choice for him. I see now how his vocational choice could lead to a coke addiction to ease the pain, as per Borje. I wonder how often he thinks of the irony that he was once a comedian, and not all that long ago.

Like those 70’s games at the big ol’ Carlton Street Cash Box, all of us watching yesterday via our socials were channeling our inner Canadian / Roman at the coliseum ethos and were both enthralled and outraged. Some no doubt liked the blood, but most hated to see it coming from the home town / good guy side. The cops were called a few times after those famous Leaf-Flyer tilts, and some of those Flyers doing the beat down, even ended up needing a lawyer. The difference back then was that the cops weren’t on the side of the squad doing the beating.

So home Zelensky went, no doubt feeling like the walls are closing in. If his side loses, and that sure looks like their imminent fate, he has accomplished something worthy anyway. He has answered the bell and fought the good fight. Good on him and his team for that.