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“We didn’t deny a shot; we actually saved it. We didn’t delay at the blue line; we stopped at the blue line. Nor did we take a wrister. What an insulting word. We took a wrist shot. Nor did we take a slapper. What an insulting word. We took a slapshot — and not the movie,” Richards recited. “And none of us from about the age of six months on ever needed a laser beam to follow a puck.”

Calling the phrases “odious,” he accused American hockey commentators of having “no respect for millions of Canadians” who love the game.

“Tragically, Canadians are often forced to listen to American play-by-play commentators if we want to watch U.S.-based teams in the first or second round,” he said. “I know, my fellow senators, that all of this seems petty, but nothing is petty about our game, nor the language we used to illuminate it. Our language enhanced and enriched every aspect of the play because our commentators actually knew what was happening on the ice.”

A few minutes in, Richards was making a point about how Canadians haven’t won a Stanley Cup since 1993, how 75 per cent of “our best players” are in the United States. He was taking significant issue with Fox News commentator Shep Smith when the speaker cut him off because his time had expired. Senators applauded.

His office provided the tail end of the statement. The last paragraph began, “My fellow senators we still have Winnipeg.”

In one of his first op-eds as a senator last week, Richards described an uphill battle to make language his life’s work. “I sold my first book for $200. I was a kid who quit university to write. That was the start of my career, over 46 years ago. When I was writing my third book, we sold the car to pay the rent. That was the year I earned $587.63.”