The collected Twitter wisdom of Don Cherry

Don Cherry's tweets are often as colorful as his renowned jackets. (Andre Ringuette/NHLI via Getty Images) ByAllan Muir Collecting Don Cherry's finest moments

Don Cherry's tweets are often as colorful as his renowned jackets. (Andre Ringuette/NHLI via Getty Images)

ByAllan Muir

Collecting Don Cherry's finest moments on Twitter as he approaches the 1,000 tweet milestone might seem a bit like a band putting out a greatest hits compilation right after their first album.

That just goes to show how often the Hockey Night In Canada legend tweets pure, unadulterated gold.

Back in the early days, Cherry simply linked to Coach's Corner videos online, but has since graduated to offering up hot sports opinions and the occasional day-in-the-life stuff which, of course, is the premium material.

We all know Don doesn't actually send these tweets himself. He's a moderate Luddite when it comes to this stuff: he avoids technology himself, but understands the way it can enhance his brand so he has Kathy Broderick, a producer at Hockey Night, do the actual work. Top marks to Kathy, because she does a bang-up job of capturing Don's voice while translating him into English. No small feat, that.

Here are some of our favorites so far as we look forward to to next thousand.

The Raccoon Incident

1. I was driving along in our neighbourhood and I see a white van and it’s an animal control guy and he gets out with a raccoon in a cage.

— Don Cherry (@CoachsCornerDC) April 10, 2013

4. He’ll go into one of the houses.” He pays no attention to what I said but starts yelling “Don Cherry, Don Cherry, I see you on tv all

— Don Cherry (@CoachsCornerDC) April 10, 2013

3. a new home in another. So I stop and say to the guy “hey don’t let that raccoon go in a neighbourhood. Take him to the woods.

— Don Cherry (@CoachsCornerDC) April 10, 2013

4. He’ll go into one of the houses.” He pays no attention to what I said but starts yelling “Don Cherry, Don Cherry, I see you on tv all

— Don Cherry (@CoachsCornerDC) April 10, 2013

5. the time. “Yeah, that’s great” I say “but don’t let anymore raccoons go in our neighbourhood.” Still he doesn’t pay attention yelling

— Don Cherry (@CoachsCornerDC) April 10, 2013

6. "Don Cherry, Don Cherry, I am getting a camera” He keeps hollering my name . Now a jerk in some Volvo pulls up behind me, stops

— Don Cherry (@CoachsCornerDC) April 10, 2013

7. and starts honking his horn at me. A tanker can get by, but no, he sits there and continues to honk the horn while the animal control

— Don Cherry (@CoachsCornerDC) April 10, 2013

8. guy is taking pictures shouting my name. How did I get myself into this situation? When will I lean to mind my own business?

— Don Cherry (@CoachsCornerDC) April 10, 2013

TV Stars in Stripes

1. The NHL is trying to speed up games and you have these linesmen throwing guys out time after time. 90% of the time they drop the puck the

— Don Cherry (@CoachsCornerDC) April 9, 2013

2. 2nd time after they get noticed on tv. Bad enough they do this but they always lecture the new guy coming in. They want people to know

— Don Cherry (@CoachsCornerDC) April 9, 2013

3. they just don't call offsides and icings, they have power. Look I throw out Sidney Crosby.. I am very important person. Teams now will

— Don Cherry (@CoachsCornerDC) April 9, 2013

4. send out 2 centremen so the one will bait the other guy so they both get tossed and and the other centreman will take the draw.

— Don Cherry (@CoachsCornerDC) April 9, 2013

5. What a joke and very irritating. Where are the linesmen like Ray "Scampy" Scapinello?

— Don Cherry (@CoachsCornerDC) April 9, 2013

Ken Dryden still stickin' it to Grapes

1. A few years ago I was talking to Kenny Dryden on the phone about something and I said you know Kenny in that overtime you were on your

— Don Cherry (@CoachsCornerDC) March 26, 2013

2. knees looking the other way and Terry O'Reilly had the puck and he shot it and if you had been any other smaller goalie we would have won

— Don Cherry (@CoachsCornerDC) March 26, 2013

3. The Stanley Cup. And He said ah Donny you're lucky. You would have been one of those run of the mill coaches that won the Stanley Cup...

— Don Cherry (@CoachsCornerDC) March 26, 2013

4. He knew how to hurt...

— Don Cherry (@CoachsCornerDC) March 26, 2013

Steve Bernier's Cup Final goat horns

Picture Bernier sitting in dressing room listening to the roar of the crowd after each goal. Imagine how he felt knowing game was over

— Don Cherry (@CoachsCornerDC) June 14, 2012

I understand he met every player coming in the door. That's courage. Feel sorry as that's the guy they'll remember like me with too many men

— Don Cherry (@CoachsCornerDC) June 14, 2012

MacLean is always on

As we were walking on the air plane, I picked up a 10 cent piece. As I picked it up, MacLean says you can always stop on a dime. Wise guy.

— Don Cherry (@CoachsCornerDC) January 29, 2013

The Greatest Ever

1. Happy Birthday Bobby. The greatest defenceman to ever play the game turns 65 today. He was rookie of the year. won the scoring title

— Don Cherry (@CoachsCornerDC) March 20, 2013

2. twice, only defenceman to ever do so, had 100 minutes of penalties every year, was no sweetheart, one of the best fighters. He was MVP of

— Don Cherry (@CoachsCornerDC) March 20, 2013

3. the league, the playoffs, won 2 Stanley cups, and the MVP of Canada. In Bobby's last year he had 46 goals, 89 assists and was +128.

— Don Cherry (@CoachsCornerDC) March 20, 2013

4. He could hit, fight, score and make plays. As Serge Savard said, there's players, stars, superstars and Bobby Orr. Sad thing is he only

— Don Cherry (@CoachsCornerDC) March 20, 2013

5. Played until he was 28 years old, that's when most defencemen are in their prime.

— Don Cherry (@CoachsCornerDC) March 20, 2013

You have goldfish? Please, go on...

1. 5 years ago I went into a pet store to buy a goldfish. I saw 2 older fish in a small tank stuck in the plants. They couldn't move.

— Don Cherry (@CoachsCornerDC) March 12, 2013

2. I asked the guy "how come?" He said "somebody dropped them off they didn't want them anymore. I don't know what to do with them."

— Don Cherry (@CoachsCornerDC) March 12, 2013

3. I took them, the guy still charged me 60 bucks. I have a great 100 gallon tank and only 2 fish. They have really enjoyed life. They have

— Don Cherry (@CoachsCornerDC) March 12, 2013

4. Always been together. But I see one is now having a tough time and he's not swimming right. Kind of sad.

— Don Cherry (@CoachsCornerDC) March 12, 2013

Wait...Kaleta is cheap?

1. Buffalo's Kaleta got 5 games for running NYR's Richards. If ever a guy should get 5 games for anything it's this guy. He's a guy who runs

— Don Cherry (@CoachsCornerDC) March 5, 2013

2. Around sticking and backstabbing and not dropping the gloves to back it up. I must say he is a cheap shot artist.

— Don Cherry (@CoachsCornerDC) March 5, 2013

And at the end, Ferris Bueller tells them to go home

Things are so bad in Philly that when it's a powerplay the announcer has to tell the fans it is a powerplay.

— Don Cherry (@CoachsCornerDC) February 26, 2013

Basketbrawls

Just saw on one of the tv channels the 5 greatest brawls in basketball. Are ya kiddin me? They were slappin each other.

— Don Cherry (@CoachsCornerDC) February 28, 2013

Everyone's a critic

1. Went to see The Life of Pi movie. Pretty good. I really liked it. The tiger was terrific. But I've got to say, when you pay 12 bucks for

— Don Cherry (@CoachsCornerDC) February 1, 2013

2. A movie and a small fortune for chips, popcorn and pop is it too much to ask not to have to sit thru one half hour of goof ball movies,

— Don Cherry (@CoachsCornerDC) February 1, 2013

3. coming up, commercials and games? By the time the real movie comes on I am sick of the whole thing.

— Don Cherry (@CoachsCornerDC) February 1, 2013

Or however you say it

Stars beat Kings last night. Jammy Jagr has his 12th of the season. It was the game winner. Lehtonen made 40 saves for the shutout

— Don Cherry (@CoachsCornerDC) March 22, 2013

Luongo's Contract

1. Folks if you want an example of money can't buy happiness just look at Roberto Luongo. 10 years left in his contract for 40 million

— Don Cherry (@CoachsCornerDC) April 4, 2013

2. dollars and he says his contract sucks. 40 million and it's no good? Think about it, he's set for life. Roberto says he'de scrap the

— Don Cherry (@CoachsCornerDC) April 4, 2013

3. contract if he could. Perhaps he and GIllis should have worked out a new deal? If you believe that I've got a Brooklyn Bridge for sale.

— Don Cherry (@CoachsCornerDC) April 4, 2013

4. No you can't have it both ways. Sit tight Roberto and ride it out til the summer. Season is not over and anything can happen

— Don Cherry (@CoachsCornerDC) April 4, 2013

Dey terk er jerbs!

Read a write-up about my saying that I want more Canadians playing in the Canadian Hockey League. Some of the words used are pretty funny.

— Don Cherry (@CoachsCornerDC) January 8, 2013

I don’t know what they mean. I must look them up in the dictionary. I’ve been described as Jinogistic, short sighted, exenophobic, trash

— Don Cherry (@CoachsCornerDC) January 8, 2013

newton in nature, and terk er jerbs. All of this because I want more Canadians in the CHL. Beauty! I love it!

— Don Cherry (@CoachsCornerDC) January 8, 2013

UPDATE: This post has been Don Cherry approved

https://twitter.com/CoachsCornerCBC/status/322385571165126657