Ron MacLean, left, and Don Cherry on CBC's Hockey Night in Canada. The show was on Canadian airwaves for 95 years, and on television for the last 74 seasons.The Canadian Press
As far as national touchstones go, it stands somewhere above poutine and “Eh?”
For those of us who grew up on Voltaire’s “few acres of snow” over most of the past century, Hockey Night in Canada – its familiar theme song and blue blazers, Murray Westgate wishing “Happy motoring” and on-air controversies over flipped pencils and poppies – was our Saturday night neighbourhood.
With apologies to Stompin’ Tom Connors, as of now it’s, “Hello out there, we’re OFF the air,” so far as HNIC is concerned, the most iconic of sports programs gone from the CBC after 95 years on radio and 74 years on television.
CBC to stop airing NHL games after 74 years, marking end of free hockey on Canadian TV
To love hockey and grow up in the broad middle of the last century was to arrange your week around the Saturday night hockey broadcast from Toronto or Montreal – best of all when the Leafs met the Habs.
As part of a family without television in the early 1960s, our weekend ritual was to hike over to the home of our father’s cousin, who owned one of those magical, mysterious boxes. We would sit in a group around the rabbit ears and cheer for our heroes while the men popped beers, rolled cigarettes and sniggered at the “great lungs” on the popular singer who followed the game. We kids thought they liked her music.
It was, with apologies, a very different time.
Different, as well, for the game itself. Players took summer jobs then. This week, a player named Darren Raddysh – surely you’ve heard of him – is said to have signed with the Toronto Maple Leafs for eight years at more than US$8-million a season.
It makes one think of Gordie Howe, one of the gods of Hockey Night in Canada, who came from rather poor stock in Floral, Sask., now part of Saskatoon.
Detroit Red Wings teammates surround Gordie Howe on the occasion of his 544th career goal, which tied the NHL record then held by Maurice Richard, in 1963.Alvin Quinn/The Associated Press
During the Great Depression, Howe’s mother, Katherine, gave a few coins she could ill-afford to an even-harder-up neighbour in exchange for a gunny sack that contained, among other things, an old pair of skates. Katherine handed one each to Gordie and his sister Edna.
The young Howes stuffed their single skate with heavy woollen socks, tied the skate up and pulled a winter boot onto the other foot. They headed off for the nearby frozen slough, where each hopped about on one foot and skated on the other.
Gordie loved the feel of that moment. He wondered how fast he might go if he had two skates instead of one. Edna said she’d sell hers to him. He had but a dime, which Edna thought a fair trade … and a Hall of Fame career was soon on its way.
That’s 10 cents for a pair of passable hockey skates.
At SportChek this week, a pair of CCM Tacks – once the prime choice for young players – goes for $599.99; a pair of JetSpeed FT8 Pros will cost an ambitious parent $1,399.99, plus tax.
CBC’s Hockey Night in Canada, as Canadians know and remember it, is also a victim of the financial explosion of sport.
Andrew Coyne: The cozy world of Hockey Night in Canada and the CBC hasn’t existed for some time
Sportsnet’s new 12-year, $11.2-billion deal with the National Hockey League will see it broadcast the Saturday games exclusively beginning this fall.
It’s possible the name “Hockey Night in Canada” may survive in some other form – professional women’s hockey, for example – but Hockey Night in Canada as Canadians have known it, a part of our heritage, is gone forever.
CBC, of course, is the national broadcaster. It’s free for anyone with the equipment or the capability to receive the broadcast. It’s not known how large a chunk of the Canadian hockey audience is CBC only.
Sportsnet, of course, is not free. It’s a business. Big business.
This inevitable development is troubling for many who have taken the CBC broadcast for granted their entire lives.
“I feel bad for anyone who doesn’t have a cable package that includes Sportsnet and will either have to pay more or stop watching,” writes well-known hockey historian Eric Zweig.
Nick Suzuki's Montreal Canadiens appeared for the last time on Hockey Night in Canada on May 29, when the eventual champion Carolina Hurricanes eliminated them from the Stanley Cup playoffs.Bruce Bennett/Getty Images
No matter what, this marks the end of one great Canadian tradition.
“It’s over,” Don Cherry told Postmedia this week. “What are you going do?”
What you can do is appreciate what was for nearly a century. Cherry’s “Coach’s Corner” may have ended on a sour note some years back – the “you people” shot at those failing to wear poppies – but at one point the controversial commentator was popularly hailed as “the prime minister of Saturday Night.”
There are memories of great games and great players, of course, but also the memories of the many great play-by-play announcers – Foster and Bill Hewitt, René Lecavalier, Danny Gallivan (“Savardian Spin-o-rama”), Dick Irvin Jr., Bob Cole, Dan Kelly, Jim Robson, Jim Hughson, Chris Cuthbert, etc. – and the hosts, from Ward Cornell and Dave Hodge through Ron MacLean.
It is the end of an era, one more piece of pure Canadiana sent off to the dusty bins of history.
Kind of sucks, eh?