Sports Publications

Going to Hockey Night school

Sporting News, The, Oct 8, 2001 by Fritz Quindt

It has been a TV institution, a coast-to-coast seance, for decades. The rousing theme song signals citizens to mass and watch the national sport and hang on an announcer's every word. Traffic jams clear, malls and theaters are empty, the crime rate falls.

Not for Monday Night Football, hoser. If this is Saturday, it must be Hockey Night In Canada, starting its 50th year on the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation.

CBC's doubleheaders attracted 1.2 million viewers last season, in a nation of 31 million--a favorable exchange rate, and double ESPN's sales for the same product down south. Betting Disney's annual $120 million investment that the secret to finding an NHL audience is consistent scheduling, ESPN this season will show games on 23 consecutive Wednesdays. Instant Hockey Night In America, eh?

"I don't know if you can appreciate Hockey Night unless you grew up in Canada," says Barry Melrose, Saskatchewan-born studio analyst for ABC, ESPN and ESPN2. "Saturday nights were a family affair in our home. Dad, grandfather, grandmother, mother, brother always watched." Canucks regarded the Maple Leafs as Canada's Team; they got stoked hearing Foster Hewitt's opening, "Hello, Canada, and hockey fans in the United States and Newfoundland!"; they requested Dolores Claman's HNIC theme music for weddings. Also, no one complains about the puck being hard to see.

CBC's productions (also available on DirecTV's Center Ice subscription) have long been state-of-the-art--"almost-instant replay" film of goals was introduced in the mid-1950s, ice-level microphones and cameras in the '60s. "They had a leg up because they're government-owned and never worried about making money," Melrose observes. "Now (ESPN/ABC) is just as good, if not better." CBC executive producer Joel Darling can't disagree.

What's kept HNIC on top for the last 20 years is Don "Grapes" Cherry, a folk hero, whose between-periods "Coach's Corner" segment combines Dick Vitale's enthusiasm with G. Gordon Liddy's sensibilities. He champions goons, disses "sissy" Euros, infuriates and inspires. Beauty! Says Darling, "Grapes is probably the most recognizable face in Canada." Says Melrose, another ex-NHL coach who has been America's facsimile of Cherry since 1994: "He loves hockey, Canadian hockey; that's what I get out of him. I hope when people see me they say, `Barry Melrose loves hockey.' We're just two guys you'd talk hockey with in a bar."

But hockey isn't a great pick-up line here, and Hockey Night any day of the week has as much chance of dominating the Yankee screens as Sunday Afternoon Curling. Different strokes, different folks. Bud is our king of beers, not Molson; Krispy Kreme is the doughnut of choice, not Tim Hortons. So, why are there 22 NHL teams in the United States and six in Canada?