A Hockey Post

Just rented one of the discs in a special series on the Great One. Seems to be a bit different than typical DVDs in that it's just raw tape of entire games, no in between interviews or clips or whatnot. I think one of the discs has that stuff, but not the one I watched. On it was the 1983 All Star Game, and 99's five goal game to earn him the 50/39 record. I love that these are entire games -- the footage doesn't revolve solely around Gretz, as say a tape on Stone Cold Steve Austin might. Tons of players from two eras, in sort of an overlap period in hockey. In '83, there were some of the guys I would watch starting several years later, plus plenty of greats from the 70's still going strong. Lanny had been recently moved to the Flames, there was an all-Oiler line for the Campbells, and an all-Isles line on the Wales team. A young Bourque, an old Dionne, John Garrett and Pete Peeters in goal, rookie Ron Francis, Mike Bossy in his prime... it goes on and on. And, the players were actually playing hard! Hits, penalties, busting their butts to the puck, it was very unusual. I suppose a new car for the player of the game may have been a big modivator back then. These days, a new car is chump change for these guys!

The best part of all was to hear none other than Jim Robson calling the play by play. Certainly one of the best ever, if not the best. I know he'd called plenty of games around the league for CBC, but the Robson I'm familiar with as a late-80's hockey bloomer was the radio voice of the Canucks, on the local stage instead of the national one. I've not heard much of Foster Hewitt or Danny Gallivan, who many folks regard as the best hockey voice. Some say Bob Cole or Jim Houghson, but for my money nobody beats Jim Robson. I highly suggest hockey fans pick up Disc Two of the Gretzky set for a bit of nostalgia!

NHL hockey is a mere three weeks away now. The Canucks are holding training camp here in town this week. I have media accreds, but don't know if I'll be doing any coverage or not. I have all desk shifts right through the thing. There's a chance I could help out a special Saturday broadcast for the inter-squad game, but I haven't heard the plans on that front. If it doesn't happen, hey, it's only the Canucks.

Looks like we'll be at the Grizzles home opener tonight, which is at the 'M'-Centre instead of their usual ice at Bear Mountain Arena. The Canucks opted for the better rink -- closer to the golf course. Plus, BMA is simply a superior sheet of ice. Better dressing rooms, and it has the old scoreclock from the Barn on Blanshard. BMA is a far better hockey arena from both a fan's a player's perspective.

I mentioned the M-Centre -- that's the name I use for the SOFA. Cory Boss came up with that one, and I use it on the air all the time now. My thing is, why should Save On Foods get a free commerical on our station, when it's just the arena operators who get the cash? I'll simply call it the M-Centre, or the downtown arena, unless reading 'Save On Foods' will clear up some kind of confusion. A few others at the station get upset when they hear anything but the building's proper name, but I've yet to be rebuked for leaving out the corporate brand. It's a practice I picked up from Tom Leykis, one of my inspirational radio heroes. He would never say the corporate part of an arena/stadium name on his national U.S. talkshow, but put out the offer for any of those companies to contact the ad people if they'd like a mention. Staples actually did that for the L.A. home of the Lakers and Kings, and Tom started to use it. They get a lot of mentions too, as he's a big sports fan. Leykis has influenced me plenty in my radio career -- I'll get into that in a future post.

Have a great weekend, it's actually sunny out there! We're going to tackle Mt. Finlayson today, maybe slam a few drives onto the Bear Mountain GC fairways below.