Goucher again calls Cup-winning season
A dozen years ago this past Thursday, Dave Goucher made one of the most satisfying and enduring calls of Boston professional sports’ 21st century championship era.
Goucher, then the Bruins’ radio play-by-play voice on 98.5 The Sports Hub, implored to “get the duck boats ready!” as the final seconds ticked away in the Bruins’ Stanley Cupclinching Game 7 victory in Vancouver.
It was such a satisfying call, capturing the joyous vibe of the Bruins’ first championship in 39 years and heralding the parade — duck boats included, of course — to come.
Goucher, who along with Shane Hnidy (a 2011 Bruin), now calls local television broadcasts for the newly crowned Cupchampion Vegas Golden Knights, said during a telephone conversation on the day of the anniversary that he thinks of that night in Vancouver often.
“It doesn’t seem like that long ago. It really doesn’t,” said Goucher, noting that Patrice Bergeron and Brad Marchand, who combined for all four goals in the clincher, and 2011 playoff scoring leader David Krejci were still with the Bruins this season.
“Shane and I talk about it almost every time we go to Vancouver. You can remember where everything happened. You remember the celebration, the locker room, all of it. Shane would tell you that he left the building with his suit coat on and no shirt. Not sure what happened to the shirt.
“Those moments, right after the team wins, you never forget those for the rest of your life.”
Goucher, who after 16 years of calling Bruins games on the radio became the Knights’ television voice in 2017, the franchise’s inaugural season, got to narrate another Cup-winning season this year. But he did not get the chance to add another signature call in the Knights’ clincher. TNT, the national rights holder, had the exclusive television broadcast of the Cup Final.
“It was a little bit of a different experience,” said Goucher, who stayed busy contributing to the pre- and postgame shows, hosting a daily podcast, and doing radio and streaming hits. “That’s the one thing that was a little bit strange. I don’t go to a lot of hockey games where I’m not working. It took some getting used to to sit there and watch and not be calling the game.”
Goucher had a very high approval rating during his time calling Bruins games. Occasionally in this corner of the sports section, we’ll hear from fans pining for the Rhode Island native and Boston University graduate to return to Boston someday as Jack Edwards’s replacement on NESN’s Bruins broadcasts.
Goucher, who just before our conversation had left the dry cleaner while trying to salvage the suit he wore in the champagnesoaked locker room after the Knights’ clincher, sounds content in his current environment.
“The quality of life is great,” said Goucher, who lives in the Red Rock Canyon area, 20 minutes away from downtown Las Vegas and The Strip.
“The weather’s great. There’s no real traffic. It’s not like the traffic back home, it’s not like legitimate traffic. Here, 20 minutes is usually 20 minutes, not 20 minutes turning into three days.”
He said the perception of Las Vegas to tourists and outsiders is different from those that live there. He doesn’t avoid the city’s enticing bright lights but keeps them dimmed.
“The city is one of the most vibrant places on earth and you go down there for a great meal, a great show,” he said. “But I learned pretty early on coming out here almost six years ago that most people want an identity away from The Strip. That’s not your life here. You live real lives, these real people with real families and real communities and real jobs that love this team.
“I say that if you live here, you dabble in The Strip. You’re not going to go down to Caesars every night. I’m too cheap. What am I going to do, gamble $5,000 in blackjack every night? There’s not a chance I’m doing that.”
As Bruins fans are well aware, Goucher and Hnidy aren’t the only Knights employees with Bruins ties. Coach Bruce Cassidy, dismissed by the Bruins after the 2021-22 season, will have his name on the Stanley Cup after being exactly what the Knights needed this season. Reilly Smith and Phil Kessel once wore Boston sweaters, and chief marketing officer Eric Tosi is a former director of communications for the Bruins.
“This is 30 years for me doing games, 23 in the NHL and seven in the minor leagues before that,” said Goucher. “And you realize along the way that it’s the people that make the job, the people you work with, the people you work for on a day-to-day basis. And we built a real special group here with our broadcast crew and our communications crew and the players and coaches. I love it.”