Sweet Talk With The Sweet Coach Tom Renney

What I'm about to tell you is something you won't believe, but I'll tell you anyway.

During Gentleman Tom Renney's reign as Rangers coach (2004-2008) he and The Maven developed a reasonably close relationship.

I was covering the Rangers as MSG Networks reporter while Tom was trying every which way to get the Blueshirts into the playoffs.

What's significant here is that rarely, if ever, did I talk hockey with my hockey buddy. That was for others such as MSG Networks Sam Rosen, John Davidson and John Giannone, among others.

Renney and I were only interested in one thing – jokes.

The gags were told  by me and listened to – and laughed at by the head coach and it all was done outside the clubhouse at an assigned time, at least an hour before the opening faceoff. I always after Sam Rosen had completed his taped pre-game show.

Once Sammy and Tom were done with their schmooze, coach and I moved to a cozy corner, always accompanied by Rangers p.r. boss John Rosasco.

I never could tell whether Rosasco was pissed off at me for the joke interlude but, in all fairness Johnny  played the "Mum's The Word" game and also never laughed at the punch line.

I never worried because Tom was the best audience I ever had and I had made sure there was variety in my gags.

My radar told me whether Sir Renney was in a hurry or not so I made sure I had a couple of Henny Youngman one-liners ready, just in case. The following one was my favorite quickie:

A guy runs into a bank, goes straight to the lady teller and says: "Can you check my balance?" So she pushed him!"

Or, a horse wanders into a bar and orders a tall one. The bartender says, "Hey, fella, why the long face?"

Or, one more: "A guy ate a dinner that was so big, when he asked what he could wash it down with, the waiter said, "Lake Erie!"

Of course, The Maven's gags were much longer and not all of the Good Housekeeping variety.

But, win or lose –  good mood or less mood –  om always showed and invariably exited laughing.

P.S. I continued the joke act with Renney's successor, John Tortorella. Not surprisingly, the gags were the same but Torts' reactions were not the same as Tom's!

But that's for another column!