Oh, baby
Hockey loses an icon, and some thoughts on the Toronto Maple Leafs
Bob Cole passed away on Thursday at the age of 90, which led to a round of deserving tributes for the legendary broadcaster. I’m sure I missed many of them, but enjoyed these two, from friend and former colleague Sean Fitz-Gerald, and also friend and former colleague Bruce Arthur.
I spoke to Bob a couple of times for interviews back when I was covering television, but once ended up chatting with him for a good stretch while we both waited for a media bus at the NHL playoffs. This was in 2014 or 2015. It was routine stuff, talking about the weather and lineup changes and such banalities, but it was also wildly surreal. Bob’s voice was so familiar to me as representative of one specific thing — hockey — that hearing him talk about the meal he had for dinner the night before or whatever it was almost didn’t compute.
I tweeted something about it at the time that it was like having a conversation with your childhood.
The way the broadcast landscape is changing and splintering, I don’t think it’s incorrect to say that there will never be another voice of hockey who is heard by so many people for so long and so consistently.
RIP, Bob. And thanks for chatting.
The Leafs in crisis? You don’t say.
My latest piece over at theScore, which is an app you should all have on your phones and use regularly, considers the state of the Toronto Maple Leafs after three games and two losses against the Boston Bruins.
Nothing that has happened so far is particularly surprising, which itself should be surprising. Isn’t weird stuff supposed to happen in the Stanley Cup Playoffs?
(Seriously, though, if you don’t have theScore on your phone, why even have a phone?)
Programming note
Thanks for your patience while Unobstructed Views travelled abroad and watched some footy. More on some of that later, but we’ll return to a more usual output next week. Happy Friday.