Kudos to Jim Hughson for letting the game speak for itself during the dying minutes of the Kings’ Stanley Cup triumph Monday night. With empty net goals going in and the game well out of reach, the veteran Hockey Night in Canada play-by-play man wisely kept his mouth shut and allowed the compelling pictures tell the story.
This has been going on for a few years now–not sure who started it–but it is a lovely way to end the season.
It was fun to see LA get its hockey freak on after 45 years of waiting for the cup. (Cool to hear James Brown’s “I Feel Good” playing over the Staples Center P.A.). Seriously, what other city’s fans would tolerate such a crazy long stretch of time between Stanley Cup runs…oh, yeah.
As usual the CBC post game crew–particularly the always steady Scott Oake–did a fine job wrangling sound bites from the victorious team. I swear, however, some two year old is going to get run over by a camera crew now that every kid gets automatically tossed onto the ice immediately following a Stanley Cup victory.
Dustin Brown may be a shy captain but he said all that needed to be said last night. Asked if those two losses to the Devils threw a scare into his team, he said, “We had an opportunity to do something special on home ice and we did and we’re champions.”
Martin Brodeur was gracious and valiant in defeat, an articulate spokesman for the other side.
Ratings for the final round rebounded after, with no home team to cheer on, many Canadians tuned out rounds two and three. Monday’s clincher brought 3,133,000 viewers to CBC. Saturday’s fifth game drew 3,109,000 overnight viewers. Last Wednesdays fourth game scored 3,014,000 and Monday before that netted 2,155,000.
3 Comments
C’mon, Scott Oake is a disasterous interviewer. Every year it seems he puts out a few gaffes. Last night he was asking the U.S. born captain (born in NY state; playing in LA for many years, winning on home ice), if he would take the Stanley Cup to his Jr. Hockey stopover in Guelph, Ont.? Sure, that’s gonna be his first choice.
Good call about those small kids clustering about. I worry more about them catching a skate from one of the game-tired players being mobbed.
Brown set Oake straight right away, said the Cup will follow him back to Ithica, N.Y. Oake was just waving the flag for CBC. It’s a tough job, like working a red carpet where everybody is sweaty, exhausted and on skates.
Glad to see somebody else — somebody who knows what he’s talking about, that is — credit Jim Hughson for the silence-is-golden routine during those last 2 minutes.
Knowing when to keep the trap shut is an old Vin Scully signature but, hey, doesn’t make it any less classy.