A Cool Melbourne Moment

If you're not aware of Sunrise on Channel 7, that's ok because it likely means you don't live in Australia. Sunrise on Channel 7 is like most basic morning variety shows where news, weather, and sports have topics of local interest between the news breaks, so it's not like they're doing anything groundbreaking with their morning shows in the Land Down Under. One of things we featured nearly all winter on The Hockey Show was a segment called "The Melbourne Moment" where we gave listeners some sort of funny or goofy news from Australia, and I'm proud to say that HBIC will feature a "Melbourne Moment" today thanks to some questionable puns and a connection to Winnipeg!

Tuesday morning in Australia is actually closer to dinner time in my part of North America, so I wasn't watching this clip from Sunrise on Channel 7, but the morning show sent weather specialist Katie Brown down to the O'Brien Icehouse where she interviewed Melbourne Ice head coach Kerry Goulet after reading the weather where the hockey puns were on full display from the blond meteorologist.
Officially, I wasn't counting, but Katie Brown may have used somewhere between "stop using them" and "enough already" in the number of puns she squeezed into that thirty-second clip alongside Goulet. When the camera flashed back to hosts Natalie Barr and Matt Shirvington eight seconds into the interview, it was pretty clear that they had no clue that Brown was trying to set a Guiness record for puns in an interview. Goulet, to his credit, played along well.

There was a second clip with Goulet, and I have that as well. This one, however, featured Brown in a new role where she continues to toss around hockey puns in between screams of terror.
The fact that Brown watched the 2010 Vancouver Olympic hockey final is pretty impressive, but a couple of those glove saves she made seemed like the shooters were aiming for the trapper. I'll give Brown credit for being a good sport, though, as it does take some courage to jump into the goalie gear and try to stop pucks!

How this comes full circle is that Kerry Goulet is a former player who grew up in Winnipeg and now lives in Toronto. The 65 year-old Goulet actually celebrates his birthday today - happy 65th birthday, Kerry! - but he made his name in hockey playing in Germany where he bounced between teams in the Oberliga, the third-highest division, and the Regionalliga, the fourth-highest division. You might think that's not much of an accomplishment, but we haven't mentioned what he did in those leagues because he dominated to say the least.

Goulet twice broke the 200-point mark as he reached 221 points - 89 goals and 132 assists - in just 43 games in 1992-93 for ETC Timmendorfer Strand in the Oberliga before breaking that mark once more in 1997-98 for EC Timmendorfer Strand when he scored 236 points - 99 goals and 137 assists - in 53 games in the Regionalliga! In ten seasons in the Oberliga, Goulet amassed 1067 points - 386 goals and 681 assists - in just 352 games, and he added 484 points - 199 goals and 285 assists - in 137 games in five seasons in the Regionalliga. #29 now hangs from the rafters for the Timmendorfer Eisbars who retired his jersey after he scored his 2000th point in German hockey at the age of 52!

In a rather cool twist, Goulet played alongside former Manitoba Bisons standout Mark MacKay in Germany who was inducted into the Bisons Hockey Hall of Fame in 2020! I had the honour of emceeing that event, and it was a pretty cool evening in meeting MacKay who was the only man in the room that had scored on Martin Brodeur! In any case, MacKay's jersey was also retired by the Eisbars as two Manitoba kids lit up the German leagues!

Back to Goulet, for a kid who played MJHL hockey in Canada with the Assiniboine Park Monarchs who became the Winnipeg Monarchs before being traded to the St. Boniface Saints, it was hard to imagine that Kerry Goulet would become a scoring sensation in Germany. His last season in the MJHL in 1977-78 saw him score 45 points in 39 games, but it was nothing like what he did when he decided to resume his career in 1988-89 with EC Eschweiler in the Regionalliga. That season saw Goulet score 42 goals and 62 assists in just 20 games!

You may ask what he did for those ten years in between his ice hockey seasons, and you should know that Goulet didn't put the stick down because he became one of Canada's best ball hockey players! Playing for the Winnipeg Grasshoppers, they represented Manitoba in eight national ball hockey championships, winning the championship in 1985! His work in ball hockey earned him an induction into the Canadian Ball Hockey Association's Hall of Fame in 2006.

Today, Goulet is one of the founders of StopConcussions, along with former Philadelphia Flyers captain Keith Primeau, as well as being co-chairmen of the Shoot For A Cure campaign. His love of hockey never faded, though, and he founded the Australian Ice Hockey Classic that features international teams playing hockey in Australia in support of Stopconcussions and Shoot For a Cure.

With his work in Australia bringing him some notoriety, the Melbourne Ice made the decision to hire Goulet as their head coach in 2023 on a multi-year deal, and that's how Goulet found himself on Sunrise on Channel 7 this morning, being peppered with Katie Brown's hockey puns as he answered questions.

Whatever Goulet is doing this season with the Ice seems to working. They are the only undefeated team in the AIHL right now at 6-0-0, and they've outscored their opponents in those six games by a combined 41-10 score! The Ice visit the 1-6-0 Canberra Brave this weekend for a pair of games, and they could easily be 8-0-0 if they continue to play at the high level they've shown so far. Clearly, Goulet's got his team rolling early in this 2024 AIHL season!

It's pretty cool that a morning show in Australia resulted in an actual "Melbourne Moment" featuring hockey, and the person being interviewed is a Winnipeg-born former hockey player who now coaches in Australia in their highest professional league. You never know where hockey may take you, and Kerry Goulet is a fantastic example of that fact!

Until next time, keep your sticks on the ice!