National Post

Kypreos an open book

FORMER NHL PLAYER TURNED BROADCASTE­R SHARES HIS STORIES AS A HOCKEY TOUGH GUY

- Scott Stinson

Finishing the NHL season in a modified isolation bubble was not, by many accounts, easy. No fans, no atmosphere, a general loss of connection to the outside world.

Nick Kypreos says he would have been fine with it.

“We’re told we’re the most competitiv­e people in the world,” he says. “And all I know is, when you’re that competitiv­e, you only care about one thing and that’s winning.”

Kypreos, who spent eight seasons in the NHL and another 20 as a Sportsnet broadcaste­r, says that competitiv­eness extended to everything: ping- pong, cards, chess. Even cribbage.

“Mike Liut punched me,” Kypreos says. “We’re playing cribbage on a commercial flight early in my career” — they were teammates with the Washington Capitals in the early ’ 90s — “and Mike Liut punched me, and I’m like, ‘ I’m the tough guy on the team and you’re the goalie. Are you sure you want to do that?’ It was because he thought I skipped a peg.” Well, fair enough.

“So, it doesn’t matter. It doesn’t matter for these guys whether you’re in a bubble, or Madison Square Garden. If we’re going play, I’m playing to win.”

For Kypreos, playing to win in the NHL often meant trying to do things other than score goals. In his new book Undrafted: Hockey, Family, and What It Takes to Be a Pro, the 54-year-old describes how he went from a talented youngster in Toronto hockey circles to a junior standout in North Bay to, eventually, an NHL career that spanned 442 games and four teams.

His playing career ended in 1998 — not that long ago, but also a wholly different era. While he scored in junior — 111 goals in his final 110 games with North Bay — and into the AHL, he became a fighter in the NHL. It’s all but extinguish­ed from the modern game now, but fighting was how players who couldn’t quite crack the top of a lineup managed to keep their jobs.

He fought 80 times, unofficial­ly, and it was a fight, in the 1997 pre-season while he was with the Toronto Maple Leafs, that ultimately ended his playing career.

It’s hard not to read Kypreos’ accounts of those days, the way violent clashes were a routine part of the sport, and wonder how he might have fared in an NHL that didn’t tolerate fighting, as it does not today. If he hadn’t turned to fighting, would those skills from his junior days eventually have translated to the pros?

“I don’t know the answer to that question,” he says. “All I know for sure is, I saw a window of opportunit­y.”

When he was playing with the Caps early in his career, his team went to Madison Square Garden, and Kypreos fought Kris King. His coach, Bryan Murray, singled him out for praise, telling him the Caps needed that kind of spark.

“You got a pat on the back from your coach, whether it was scoring a goal or a big hit or a big fight or big defensive play. All you cared about was the pat on the back,” Kypreos says. “So, I said, ‘OK. I’ll try it again the next game and hope to get another pat on the back.’”

“All I wanted was to play in the NHL. All I wanted was a hockey card.”

And so, a fighting career was born.

Years later, well into his second career as a hockey broadcaste­r, Kypreos’ fighting past gave him a unique perspectiv­e when an increased awareness of the risks of head injuries, and the early deaths of a number of former NHL fighters, caused hockey to reconsider the routine violence of its sport.

“I often found myself with my own internal conflict of interest, and I had a tug of war with it,” Kypreos says. “Because I like my hockey a certain way. I still think … I don’t mind watching a good fight.

“But I also know that, as athletes, we just can’t keep pounding our heads and feel like there’s not going to be repercussi­ons.”

No one in hockey media had a more direct experience with the impact of fighting on the game than Kypreos. It’s what made his NHL career, and it also ended it: He was knocked out on his feet by former Ranger Ryan Vandenbuss­che, hitting his face on the ice after he went down. Doctors later told him he risked long- term brain damage if he kept playing.

“Some days I feel more like … a responsibl­e citizen to say that we, we can’t keep doing this to ourselves, and then there’s other days when I just want to be a hockey fan and say, you know, go beat the crap out of that guy, he’s getting away with murder on the ice. I went through that off and on for 20 years.”

Kypreos began his media career right after his playing career ended, stepping in as a Day 1 hire for Canada’s second all- sports network, then called CTV Sportsnet. Thanks in large part to its hockey coverage, it grew to rival TSN, and then the entire industry dynamic was turned on its ear in 2013 when Rogers spent $ 5 billion on the NHL’S national rights package. It was at once a coup, but the burden of the costly deal soon became evident. Cutbacks followed, formats were changed, and the senior executives who beamed with pride that November day at having scooped NHL hockey out from under TSN and the CBC have all left Rogers.

By the end of the 2018-19 season, Kypreos and some of his most familiar sparring partners, like Doug Maclean and John Shannon, had also left.

Did Rogers and Sportsnet fly too close to the sun?

“Well, there are smarter people than me who can answer that,” Kypreos says.

“But I just knew, even from Day 1 ( of that deal), that we felt the pressure on a daily basis to try to make it work. And it just seemed like it was an uphill battle, you know, right from the get- go. They’re halfway through the deal now, and it just seems like they’re still trying to find a way to make it work.

“But for me personally, to take my competitiv­e juices off the ice, and put them up against TSN for 20 years, I loved every second of it,” Kypreos says. “I loved hating them every second of my broadcasti­ng career. It was fun.”

The 2019-20 season ended up being, for obvious reasons, a pretty good time to step away from full- time hockey broadcasti­ng. Kypreos had started working on his book when the season began, and was also working on a beverage company venture with his wife, Anne- Marie, and friends.

“And this was the first time since I was seven that I didn’t have to worry about a hockey season starting,” Kypreos says. “And I’ve got to be honest with you, I loved every second of it.”

After the pandemic put the NHL season on hold, Kypreos ended up signing on with Line Movement, an online sports media venture with a gambling focus. Once the third rail for pro sports, leagues are lining up to cut gambling deals now that wagering has been legalized in many U. S. states. He was back to doing hockey commentary, opposite Maclean, when hockey resumed.

As for whether it will resume again, Kypreos expects the NHL will return for 2021, but everything else is very much unknown.

 ??  ??
 ??  ??
 ?? Robert Laberge / Allsport ?? Nick Kypreos played 442 regular-season games in eight seasons with four teams includ
ing the Rangers. He was a scorer in junior who carved out a pro career as a pugilist.
Robert Laberge / Allsport Nick Kypreos played 442 regular-season games in eight seasons with four teams includ ing the Rangers. He was a scorer in junior who carved out a pro career as a pugilist.
 ?? Ethan Miler / Getty Images ?? His career as a hockey fighter gives Nick Kypreos a unique perspectiv­e as a TV broadcaste­r. He fought 80 times, unofficial­ly, including a pre-season bout in 1997 that ended his career.
Ethan Miler / Getty Images His career as a hockey fighter gives Nick Kypreos a unique perspectiv­e as a TV broadcaste­r. He fought 80 times, unofficial­ly, including a pre-season bout in 1997 that ended his career.

Newspapers in English

Newspapers from Canada