As he enters his 50th and final season as a National Hockey League broadcaster, understand there’s a reason why Bob Cole will go in the history books as the best there was at his craft.
It’s quite simple, really. Comes down to a love and passion for the job.
“You have to love what you do, and I’ve loved every minute of it. I still do,” he said Friday, a day after Sportsnet announced he’ll be in the broadcast booth for 10 games this season, starting on Oct. 6 when the Montreal Canadiens visit Pittsburgh to play the Penguins.
“I’ve been pretty lucky to get this opportunity,” he said. “I never dreamed it would happen, but I got a chance. The right at the right place, I suppose.”
April 24, 1969, is a long time ago, but Cole’s memory is like a steel trap. He remembers that date like it was yesterday, the first NHL game of a Hall of Fame career — it came on the radio — when another chap who also happens to be in the Hall, Jean Beliveau, scored in double overtime to win it for the Canadiens in their Stanley Cup playoff game against the Bruins at old Boston Garden.
It was, believe it or not, the only OT playoff goal in Big Jean’s illustrious career.
There are many highlights in Cole’s career — too many to mention, actually. There was the epic call on Mario Lemieux’s playoff goal against the Minnesota North Stars. His call of the Canada-U.S. gold-medal game at the 2002 Salt Lake City Olympics.
Everyone remembers Foster Hewitt’s call in 1972 — “Henderson … has scored for Canada!” — but Cole’s play-by-play on the radio was pretty damn good, too.
Then there’s my favourite, from the old Philadelphia Spectrum in 1976 when the two-time defending Stanley Cup champion Flyers beat up the touring Russian Red Army squad.
“They’re gonna go. They're goin’ home. They’re goin’ home. Yeah! They’re goin’ home,” a charged up Cole told millions of viewers.
“In ’72, in Moscow, we stayed and we took it all. And in ’74. And now, the Philadelphia Flyers goon it around a little bit and they're goin’ home!”
“The best two minutes of broadcasting I've ever been involved with,” former HNIC producer Ralph Mellanby once said.
A lot has changed since Cole was perched high above the ice in the Montreal Forum, Maple Leaf Gardens and Chicago Stadium, the trademark hand cupped over one ear.
“In terms of what I do, there aren’t that many changes,” he said, “but I suppose there’s more emphasis on replays. TV covers the game pretty thoroughly these days. It’s a different atmosphere from when I broke in doing radio.
“But the game has changed, too. It’s so fast now, and everything happens so quickly. You can’t be blasé because you better be ready.”
Through 50 years, Cole’s called them all, from Henri Richard to Orr and Hull, Esposito, Lafleur, Perreault, Gretzky, Lemieux, Crosby and Ovechkin.
Many, especially Gretzky and Orr, are close friends.
“I enjoy the game,” he said. “Not all of them are terrific, and I’m certainly not perfect. Never will be. But I have all the respect in the world for these guys because they’re the best in the world at what they do.”
You’re not bad, either, Bob.
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It’s exactly two weeks before the Newfoundland Growlers make their ECHL debut — and a couple of days before training camp opens — and there seems to be more skepticism than anticipation awaiting the new league which replaces the American Hockey League that operated out of St. John’s for 20 years.
Single-game tickets go on sale today at Mile One Centre, and the general feeling is fans want to take in a couple of game first before deciding to invest in a season-ticket package.
As the old saying goes, you only have one chance to make a good first impression, so the Growlers better be good in their first few or half-dozen games.
So on that note, here’s a suggestion: open up the game. I want a speed, and I want scoring. I don’t want to see a rigid defensive game. Fed up with that. I watched enough monotonous rubbish in the AHL — an offshoot of the NHL game that’s already choked by ‘systems’ — so I don’t want to see it in the ECHL.
And, you know what, if there’s an odd scrap, all the better.
To brush this off this is to deny what the vast majority of hockey fans prefer. I guarantee it.
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Seems like it’s all but a done deal that Irwin Simon, the New York billionaire owner of the St. John’s Edge, will purchase the QMJHL’s Cape Breton Screaming Eagles.
No surprise given that’s what Simon had wanted all along, a hockey team.
He looked at the Screaming Eagles two years ago, but when it became apparent they weren’t for sale at the time, he turned his sights towards St. John’s, where a vacant Mile One Centre made sense for a new hockey team.
Simon and John Graham tried to lure a QMJHL franchise here, with no success. So they did the next best thing, and got a pro basketball franchise in something that was called the NBL Canada. That was done, if for no other reason, than to have their foot in the Mile One door for when a hockey team became available.
Simon said it was all to do about giving back to Atlantic Canada where he’d grown up (he’s from Glace Bay, N.S.).
Right.
We all know by now Dean MacDonald came along with his ECHL franchise, which led to a big stink over who had the rights to hockey at Mile One.
Eventually, everyone kissed and made up and Simon was given some kind of piece of the Growlers’ pie. There was even talk he was to take over the management of Mile One (we haven’t heard a peep on that lately).
Here we are, a year later, and the St. John’s Edge were a big success in their initial season, Simon was happy as a clam, and everyone can’t wait for another winter of pro hoops in downtown St. John’s.
One question, however: when Simon takes over and sinks his teeth into the Screaming Eagles (he says it’s Memorial Cup or bust), how much of his attention will be on the basketball team back in Newfoundland? The same basketball team that makes little or no money? Will he even be bothered now with Mile One, what with a new toy in his old stompin’ grounds?
Will he, in a word, even care anymore about the Edge and St. John’s?
Nobody asked me, but …
Gander’s Blair Bursey enjoyed a top five finish in his first pro golf tournament, the Montreal Honda Players CCPT Tour earlier this week. Bursey will be heading to Arizona shortly where he plans to train for the next couple of months before heading off to Q School for the Latin America tour … If anyone has a photo of Jack McCarthy, the former softball and baseball ump in the 1960s and ’70s, softball historian Bill Barron would love to have a copy. Reach Bill at [email protected] … Newfoundland had been looking into the new Major League Rugby setup. That league currently has teams in California, Texas, New Orleans, Seattle and Salt Lake City, with more coming next year and in 2020, including Toronto. But it was nothing more than a kick-the-tires thing. That venture would be very costly, and I’m not certain fan attendance would be enough to support pro rugby for five or a half-dozen home games … Softball Canada released its 17-man national senior men’s team roster for the world championship next year in the Czech Republic, and there’s only one player from Ontario on the squad. And seven Newfoundlanders. That is, without question, a first for national team programs, in any sport … Good to hear there will be curling ice at Bally Haly this year … Speaking of curling, think there’s enough interest in the region for a third club, say in C.B.S. or the new Galway development? … The Memorial Sea-Hawks men’s basketball team is a youthful squad and coach Peter Benoite is, through a Memorial University news release, preaching, “patience and understanding regarding the process of improving and getting better.” How long is this process going to take? It’s been 10 years, and the Sea-Hawks have one playoff win. During that time, the team is 45-159. Patience? Process? Huh? Am I the only one missing something here? …
Robin Short is The Telegram’s Sports Editor. He can be reached by email [email protected] Follow him on Twitter @TelyRobinShort
