This is hockey night
A behind-the-scenes look into iconic Canadian television program
It’s 9:30 in the morning on a Saturday and Don Cherry is at his home in Mississauga when the phone rings.
Cherry answers, as he has for 33 years: “Don’s Bicycle Shop, Big Wheel Don talking.”
It’s Ron MacLean the other end, at his home in Oakville. He doesn’t have the foggiest idea why Cherry answers the way he does. But with Cherry — not surprisingly — there’s a story.
“You know who told me that? I’ll tell you who told me that. Not to drop names, but I was coaching the Boston Bruins and the phone rang and Bobby Orr was in my office and he picked it up and said, ‘Don’s Bicycle Shop.’ And ever since then, I’ve been fooling around with that. Bobby Orr gave me that.”
Cherry and MacLean talk for about a half-hour, supposedly beginning preparations for that evening’s Coach’s Corner, but really just catching up.
“We don’t hang around. He travels in different circles,” Cherry says of MacLean. “I talk to him at 9:30 and I see him now. That’s it. People think we’re bosom buddies. We’re not. He’s left wing.”
Says MacLean: “We’re dear friends. He’d be loathe to admit it. Don, he’s a construction worker, and beverage-hall guy, and Ron, he’s living on the wealthy side of Oakville drinking Chablis. That’s the portrait he’d paint. Whenever we have time together, it’s a magical time.”
Cherry may be the Yin, MacLean the Yang of Hockey Night in Canada, but there is so much more to the show. From executive producer Mitch Kerzner to a staff of more than 91 in two locations dealing with 32 in-rink cameras and about 100 screens — each subdivided into more screens — able to show live feeds and replays instantly. There’s producer Brian Spear, who oversees the storytelling of the pre-game and intermission segments at the 10th floor of the CBC building. A few blocks away, by the dumpsters in the basement of the Air Canada Centre, producer Sherali Najak barks orders for shots and replays within a truck, overseeing the live action.
“It’s like the old adage of the duck swimming along smoothly,” says playby-play man Jim Hughson, “Underneath, his legs are going like crazy.”
The Star went behind the scenes on March 17 — the Maple Leafs were play- ing the Montreal Canadiens — to see how Hockey Night in Canada comes together.
The morning skate
It’s 10 a.m. at the Air Canada Centre, and the media has begun gathering for a hockey tradition: The morning skate. The home team — the Maple Leafs — will hit the ice at 10:30 a.m. The visitors go at 11:30 a.m. The media watch for things like line combinations, if anyone’s missing, etc. In the Leafs’ case, Frederik Andersen, Leo Komarov and Nikita Zaitsev are not skating. For Chris Johnston, the Sportsnet insider who follows the Maple Leafs closely, an alarm bell rings.
When the Habs come out, most of the media is concerned with call-up Michael McCarron. If that’s what the pack’s doing, then Elliotte Friedman will not. The more senior Sportsnet insider had noticed something earlier this week no one else seemed to pick up on about Noah Juulsen, a rookie whom coach Claude Julien had played against some of Pittsburgh’s best players.
An informal story meeting is held in the hallways, sometimes in a message group. Spear and Najak need to know what’s up. Get the right highlights. Prepare the right graphics.
“When you watch it, you realize how much work someone has done to get those plays, put them together, mark them,” Friedman says. “You realize how much work somebody did to get from an email with a bunch of suggestions to a finished piece.”
Nick Kypreos, the former hard-nosed player who tells things from a players’ perspective, is looking for a way to get to the heart of the Leafs’ power-play success. Everyone else is talking about James van Riemsdyk — about a week after Kypreos already had. Kypreos inferred van Riemsdyk would respond to the call-up of Andreas Johnsson, another left winger and a scoring threat. Van Riemsdyk is a pending free agent and would not take lightly the possibility of losing his job on the power play.
Van Riemsdyk responded with a powerhouse week. But that news is old. In watching and rewatching highlights, Kypreos noticed how the power play runs through Mitch Marner. That would be his talking point.
But there’s more: the GMs are about to meet and the panel has to discuss the hot-button topics, namely goaltender interference and offside review. The replays have to be found to back up their points.
Story prep While Hockey Night studios at the10th floor of the CBC Broadcast Centre are state-of-the-art, the empty spaces in the back are cavernous, like abandoned warehouses. Johnston and Friedman have spent much of the last hour on opposite ends, on their phones. Both pacing wildly. Maybe it’s habit. Maybe it’s nerves. Maybe it’s habit to be nervous.
Johnston has nailed down his story: Komarov’s knee will keep him out two weeks, not day-today like the Leafs have said. Not season-ending, as others have suggested. The Maple Leafs are a secretive organization. For a reporter to get any news about a player in that organization these days counts as a huge win.
At 5 p.m., the story meetings are about to begin — for the 6:30 p.m., pre-game show, Hockey Central Saturday, for first intermission’s Coach’s Corner, and for second intermission’s Headlines. The run-throughs begin. Spear has conversations with about six people all at once. The groundwork has been laid. He’s down to the details now. Spear is a voice in an earpiece for the talent on the set. He sees all from the control room.
Van Riemsdyk is a key part of the opening. Friedman wants to talk about why the Flyers traded him with old highlights of how JVR used to play. Kelly Hrudey wants to talk about his current play in front of the net. Kypreos is determined to talk about Marner and the power play.
Spear suggests MacLean handles the segue from JVR to Marner for Kypreos. Then tongues get tied.
KYPREOS: Before it gets to JVR. It goes through Mitch, especially the last six power plays.
SPEAR: It’s not the last six. They had a run of six in a row. It’s been broken. KYPREOS: Yes. SPEAR: They had a run of scoring on six power plays in a row. KYPREOS: They had run of scoring on six power plays in a row, and most of them came through Marner.
SPEAR: (Talks to video operators)
KYPREOS: Is that OK to start it that way? SPEAR: Yes. KYPREOS: They had a run of six power plays in a row ...
SPEAR: Phrase it this way ... They had a run of scoring on six consecutive power plays. KYPREOS: They had a run of scoring six goals on six ... on consecutive power plays.
SPEAR: They had a run of scoring a goal on six consecutive power plays.
MACLEAN: I understand, six power plays in a row they scored. SPEAR: That’s easier. When it gets to air later, Kypreos says it as: “They scored six straight goals on consecutive power plays.”
“Through Brian and a few other people, I think I’m tighter in my presentation. Shorter. Just get in, get out,” Kypreos says.
Friedman’s Juulsen story is also going into Hockey Central, a piece that is part of a larger narrative of the assembly of young Habs about to face the Leafs. Friedman had noticed in his research that Juulsen played against the Penguins’ big guns, notably Sidney Crosby. But he also took short shifts.
The presumption by the hockey world was that Julien was keeping Juulsen on a short leash against Pittsburgh’s stars, giving him a taste of what they were like to play against, but getting him off before anything bad happened.
It’s often not a question worth asking. But Friedman asked anyway, and got a surprising answer.
“I thought it was the Cana- diens saying get this guy off the ice against Crosby,” Friedman explains to MacLean on set. “They told me this morning no, they wanted him to stay on to get the experience. He was being overly cautious, leaving the shifts early. As the game develops, he stayed on longer. Then, on the winning goal, Malkin took him.
“They talked about the learning experience of don’t be afraid to play against these guys.”
As the two watch the prepared highlights that are being played, MacLean notices Juulsen is always looking at Crosby. That becomes part of it.
All the while, producer Kathy Broderick and others have been scanning the screens for small scenes that will tell the story. Alex Galchenyuk was filmed stickhandling on the ice while standing on the bench. That’ll get used.
But remember, it’s St. Patrick’s Day and the players are about to arrive at the rinks.
“I’m looking for green,” Broderick says.
“We want to keep it fresh,” says director Heather Jenken, who sits to Spear’s right. “We never do the same show twice. Every Saturday is a completely different experience. “
On this night, the difference in the show — broadcast on both CBC and Sportsnet — is the onset appearance of reporter Christine Simpson. She’s got a big Tomas Plekanec interview that will resonate in Toronto and Montreal. She introduced her segment in a rarely used upper studio.
“We never shoot in that location,” Jenken says. “We haven’t had her in in a while. So that was something different.”
Coach’s Corner By 5:30 p.m., Maclean has wandered to the set of Coach’s Corner, when Cherry approaches.
“Here he comes to save the day,” Maclean sings.
There’s a lot on the plate: Alex Ovechkin no longer hot-dogging on big goals. Patrik Laine (pronounced LANE in rehearsals by Cherry) using the same curve as Ovechkin. Matt Duchene’s terrific second-half in Ottawa. University hockey. Sledge hockey. But Cherry is most animated about one thing.
“Now there was five fights last night, 16 fights in the last week,” Cherry says to MacLean. “The best one was Kesler. Did you see it? It was a beauty.”
They chat as they watch highlights of the fights. The highlights aren’t that good. Mostly bear-hugs.
“Are you trying to show how much they love each other?” MacLean jibes at Cherry.
“Let’s see them fight, really. Let’s see them throw,” Cherry tells Kathy in the control booth.
“Who’s picking these fights out,” Cherry mutters. “Let’s see Matt Martin.”
Cherry loves his underdog and now wants to talk about Austin Watson, Nashville’s enforcer/ penalty killer on a bit of a scoring run.
“Show us Auston Matthews, three short-handed goals,” Cherry tells the booth.
“Austin Watson,” MacLean corrects.
“I call him Matthews,” says Cherry, watching the videos. “Here’s a guy I picked out in junior hockey would make the NHL blocking shots. OK, there’s a short-handed goal by Auston Matthews (again, meaning Austin Watson) ... Ah ... Good goal. Austin. Watson. American, too.”
MacLean has some say, and wants video of the University Cup in the segment. He doesn’t like the videos they have of Paralympic sledge hockey. He asks for better ones.
The run-through over, MacLean leaves. “Now comes the most important part of the show,” says Cherry, standing up. “Do I look good?”
It doesn’t sound like a question.
Cherry is in full regalia. Green shamrock-print jacket, white shirt with the high-necked collar, green striped tie. He straightens it. Checks his cuffs. Sits in his seat. And for him — or, more precisely, for his outfit — the camera angle, the lighting — are adjusted until they are right.
“Beauty,” says Cherry, looking at himself in a monitor.
They have kept it light, perhaps deliberately. But there’s a sad undercurrent whose emotion is not truly felt until the show goes live in the first intermission. Cherry eulogizes two young hockey players who died, one in a car accident, one killed in his own home, victim of a triple homicide.
Cherry gets through most of it, but at the very end, he chokes up and doesn’t finish his thought. His silence said more.
Hockey Night in Canada MacLean delivers a St. Patrick’s Day-themed opening while Spear is looking at his screens and calmly telling his staff what he wants as visuals.
With a multitude of things happening at once, an economy of communication has evolved. One word means so much. Each colour represents something pre-recorded, like a replay or a highlight. Each number represents a live camera.
“Six shots on silver, three colour shots, three player shots. Purple. No music attached on blue. Cue Ron. Swap. Swap. Go purple. Swap. Blue. Go.”
Another voice: “Orange is next. The orange. Full orange. Here’s No. 5 coming in. Camera 3 stand by.”
A voice explains there’s a problem with the feed from the Columbus game. It’s quickly fixed.
More voices, more colours, more numbers. MacLean has spoken two minutes. There have been 18 different visuals: some from an Irish pub, some live at the rink or the studio, some highlights or old still photos, two graphics.
The game is about to begin. MacLean joins Cherry in a viewing room, not to be disturbed in the run-up to Coach’s Corner.
Kypreos, Friedman, Johnston, David Amber and Hrudey go to a lounge that looks like it got couches and chairs handed down to it from a university dorm. But the TVs are high end, and plentiful, filling a wall with every live hockey game available. There’s salad, fruit and cookies. Water. A Keurig coffee maker. Kypreos has had something delivered. Looks Greek.
Puck drops It’s 7:13 p.m. at the Air Canada Centre when the puck drops. The action moves from Spear to Najak. While Spear has the luxury of space in the CBC studio, Najak works in cramped quarters inside a tractor-trailer. It’s a mobile studio that is parked in the basement of the arena. Roughly the same number of people, the same number of monitors. Just far less space.
Najak works with a pointer, fidgeting with it constantly. When he says “blue” or “silver” he’s pointing at the monitor. It seems to matter only to him.
Najak is far more animated, amped up. The energy at the game pales in comparison to the energy in the truck. His staff feed off it, not wanting to be the weak link in the chain.
In each game there are key moments — moments that are bigger than the game itself. The Montreal-Toronto game has its share.
In the second period, Kasperi Kapanen scores what looks to be his second goal of the game.
Najak: “Go to red now. Ready brown. Brown. Go to brown. I need ref cam. Here comes the ref. Calling it a goal.”
Najak’s quick replays show Plekanec and Habs goalie Charles Lindgren colliding before Kapanen shoots.
Najak awaits the inevitable, for Montreal to challenge the call. It’s a talking point in the hockey world at the moment. And Najak is determined to tell the story of this call, through visuals and with words of Hughson and analyst Craig Simpson.
While Najak is in their ear, there is no communication. Hughson and Simpson know what’s coming. They’re monitoring the live feed.
“I see cherry,” Najak says. “Give me red as well. He’s challenging the goal. Watch Babcock. Show me Babcock. Ref mic, give me ref mic. Now it’s a challenge. Go to red. Play red. Ready cherry. Then give me the ref cam. Ready brown. Ready blue. Then ready X, give me Babcock. And Julien. We’ve got Julien on red. Babcock. Look at him. Go live ... We’ve got to have Babcock’s reaction.”
Between live shots of Kapanen’s goal and Mike Babcock’s glower when the goal is called back, Najak has shown 45 different shots, including the goal from multiple angles, the live faces of players, coaches and the crowd, as well as a similar goal called back in a game between the Leafs and Penguins. Hughson and Simpson have gone from thinking it’s a good goal, to one that would be called back.
They debate, basically acknowledging the league has a problem on its hands.
The second intermission panel — for its Saturday Headlines segment — seizes on the call as more fodder for the upcoming GMs meetings.
The game is over. The Leafs have won.
“It went the same way most Saturdays go,” Spear says. “It wasn’t overly challenging. But it had its moments.” MacLean is on his way to Cornwall for Sunday’s Hometown Hockey. Amber takes over as the host of the late game. Pizza has arrived for the crew, who will be doing this all again for the late game.