KANDAHAR, Afghanistan — Coach’s Corner came to Kandahar for Christmas.
Hockey commentator Don Cherry helped spread some seasonal cheer to Canadian soldiers at outposts across southern Afghanistan.
Chinook helicopters ferried Cherry and other dignitaries, including Defence Minister Peter MacKay and Gen. Walt Natynczyk, the chief of defence staff, to forward-operating bases.
The 76-year-old Cherry worked the mostly French-Canadian troops at each stop with the Kandahar version of his long-running “Coach’s Corner” segment that airs during the first intermission of NHL games.
“Is this your favourite team,” he asked, holding up a Washington Capitals logo.
“No!” the troops shouted.
He held up a Calgary Flames logo. “Is that your favourite team?”
“No!” came the reply.
“What about that one?” he asked, a Montreal Canadiens logo in hand.
The troops erupted. But the biggest cheer came next.
“Les Nordiques!” someone cried as Cherry held up the logo of Quebec City’s former NHL franchise, which the city is trying to bring back.
And so it went as Cherry and company hopped from one outpost to another. He posed for photographs and autographed everything from jerseys to heavy artillery. He mused about inscribing a message to the Taliban on one shell, but settled instead on “Good luck, Don Cherry.”
MacKay was joined by International Development Minister Bev Oda and his parliamentary secretary, Laurie Hawn, a former fighter pilot. All three thanked the troops for their sacrifices.
Quebec musician Dany St-Arnaud played songs for the troops on his guitar at each stop.
The defence minister unwittingly got into the act at Forward-Operating Base Tarnak, singing along with St-Arnaud to the Elvis Presley hit “Suspicious Minds.”
As St-Arnaud strummed his guitar, MacKay gamely belted out the line “I still see suspicion in your eyes” to a whoop from the soldiers.