OT: 1997 or 1998 Red Wings Playoff Games on CBC? (Bob Cole is hockey's Keith Jackson)
As another terrible Red Wings season draws to a close, I fire up YouTube and watch those 1997 and 1998 games, ones that were recorded on CBC, and I remember those months of May and June in Detroit over 20 years ago being absolutely electric.
It was insane how much fun those 97 and 98 teams were to watch. They had lost in such heart breaking fashion in both the 1995 and 1996 seasons, and to see them pull through in 1997 was incredible to watch.
ob Cole, who retired from CBC in 2019, was hockey's Keith Jackson. There was just something special about that generation of announcers - they were the golden voices of the era.This is a shot in the dark, but - does anyone have VHS recordings of the 1997 or 1998 playoff run, for the games broadcast on CBC, on VHS?
If you do, please e-mail me - mgovault at gmail dot com
I enjoyed the Wings - Avalanche rivalry when that was hot. Seeing Patrick Roy be on the losing side of *two different* goalie fights (Mike Vernon then later Chris Osgood) was a thing of beauty... and later when they broke him in the Playoffs and he retired the next day.
Those were fun days.
Hate to spoil the narrative, but Roy did not retire the next day after a playoff loss to the Red Wings.
He played through the 2003 season, and retired a month after the Avs got knocked out by the Wild.
Still, that fact takes no shine off the joyful memory of the Wings absolutely lighting him up with six goals in Game 7 of the '02 conf finals. He got yanked late in that one, much to our merriment and his shame.
I remember him announcing the retirement the following day, but I wouldn't be surprised if he back tracked on it.
I remember him giving up 6 goals in that game, getting pulled, breaking his stick over the goal before leaving the ice; he had a press conference the next day.
That game 7 was pure bliss because it was essentially over in 15 minutes. But man, the first six games were some of the best playoff hockey ever. Anybody who grew up in the salary cap era, needs to go back and watch that series. Two uber talented teams stacked with HoFers made for some great entertainment.
I went to an job interview in the afternoon on April 1, 1998. That night, I got to go to the Joe and witness the Roy-Osgood fight.
Wings won.
I got the job.
23 years later, I'm still working at the same place and wishing the Wings were the same team.
I was The Joe on the night of the Osgood / Roy fight. When the Wings went up 2-0, the expectation of what was coming was intense - total strangers would nod at each other as if to say "It's coming." When it touched off, everybody was on their feet screaming - and when Ozzie skated out of the net to meet Waah at center ice, we went nuts, screaming for Patrick's blood, teeth, and whatever else he could lose.
Those vermin from Colorado are the only team I've ever hated as much as the ones from Columbus. If you weren't around back then, I'm truly sorry for you. You missed some great stuff.
Anytime the Wings/Avs fights come up on this board I have to plug the relevant Down Goes Brown article. You have to scroll halfway down to find the breakdown of the Youtube clip of the 1998 Roy-Osgood fight. The line "wait, did anyone just hear the Undertaker's gong music start?" gets me every time. Patrick Roy was and is hated for all the obvious reasons, but there's no doubt he was great for the game and the rivalry with Detroit specifically. Those 8 years were the gold standard of hockey rivalries, and sadly nothing since has come close.
No doubt, and it was even richer / ironic because we were the catalyst that let to him getting shipped out of Montreal and to the Avs.
I learned just the other day that earlier that season, Colorado's first game in Denver was a win over the Wings. One more thing to add to the rivalry - the first thing, in fact.
My seats were lower bowl (section 102 row 14, just went to check my old ticket stub collection) behind Osgood when the brawl broke out. My favorite part was Osgood slowly approaching center ice and taking his gloves off; kind of like saying "well, ok...if you insist." I remember learning to hate Jeff Odgers that night too.
The next season, the Avs kept calling up Scott Parker from the minors just to play the Wings and fight; because they thought he was He-Man. Jerks.
It seems like another lifetime ago, but hockey really was a major sport not only around here but nationally as well. Locally, there were ice rinks being built, leagues were full, and inline hockey was booming as well. Now, inline hockey is basically dead. The sport really had a lot of buzz in the 90s that began to decline even before the lockout of 2004-05.
Those cup runs of '97 and '98 were probably the among the best championship runs in the city, and the 2002 All-Star team that won the cup was a ton of fun as well.
I'm not sure if it is possible for the NHL to reach the heights of the mid-90s, but I have to think there could be more to be done. Perhaps now with ESPN back with the NHL they will push the sport more as they love to do when they have rights to a league (look at what they've done with UFC, boxing, and MLS).
I think the Might Ducks movie fueled an excitement into the game as well.
I don't think it's any coincidence that hockey at its cultural peak was also when the sport was the most entertaining from an on-ice perspective. The 80s were a little too offensive and the late 90s/early aughts were almost unwatchable because of defensive systems like the left-wing lock and the adoption of the butterfly goaltending style and giant equipment. I'm not a "keep fighting in hockey" guy, but it's hard not to feel 10 years old again rewatching those Wings/Avs brawls.
But the early-mid 90s had the perfect blend of offense and defense. You had legends like Gretzky/Lemieux/Messier where they were still useful players, along with new international stars like Fedorov/Jagr/Bure, and those intense on-ice rivalries.
I believe the NHL is on the verge of a renaissance, but it needs to look different than it did in the 90s. The sport needs a new generation of coaches who believe in puck possession and free-flowing hockey and not system coaches who simply preach "no mistakes" and puck-dumps. Soccer has become so much better to watch over the last 20 years now that teams believe in ball possession (thanks to Spain/Barcelona's tiki-taka), which allows defenses to press far more aggressively and create turnovers. If NHL teams start valuing possession, that will allow heavy forechecking and uber-aggressive systems of play on a league-wide scale.
I feel like the salary cap really did in the NHL for me. It was supposed to help the small-market teams compete but it seems like pre-cap there were always these upstart teams from Canada or Southern markets that were able to wreak havoc with their young hungry players vs monied veteran teams and play for the Cup occasionally (e.g. Ottawa, Tampa Bay pre-Y, Calgary, Edmonton, Carolina), not so much anymore. The ability to build teams and keep players like the Wings did is now gone, e.g. the Blackhawks were loaded for their 2010 but them had to let players go for salary cap reasons. This is detrimental to long-term fan interest, I think, especially if you are a fan of a strong-market team. The sport was better for having a few marquee teams (who, unlike in the NBA, do not win all the time) and some Little-Engines-That-Could from Alberta or wherever vs. whatever the NHL has become today.
Holy shit I think I may have found at least game four for 1997 and 1998, full CBC broadcasts, on an obscure torrent site. It's downloading!
WHOOOAAAAAA Konstantinov!
My favorite Bob Cole call. I suck at embedding but see 2:58 mark. 4:00 mark is also pretty cool with Stevie Y.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o9LFvgLit_I
Joyful memories. I really appreciate you embedding that ... my now deceased grandfather is in some of that footage. Always super fun when a video pops up and I get to see him.
Very cool...whoever put that video together seems to have really liked the Wings and Leafs because that is the majority of footage...
Thank you sir! I wasn't able to post anything other than the link...
That Konstantinov hit ended Hawerchuk's career. He never played again.
Also, I'm not sure if that first clip was from game 7 of the '93 WCF, but that was maybe the most fun non-Red Wings game I've ever seen. Gretzky putting the dagger in all of Canada's hopes for a Leafs-Habs Cup final that year was poetic.
That 2nd replay of the Konstantinov hit was the equivalent of a motorcycle hitting a semi truck.
I recall that 93 Leafs/Kings series and being very happy since the Leafs knocked out the Wings in Game 7 OT that year. Wings had a painful playoff run from 93-96 before finally breaking through.
A very apt comparison. From the thread title, I could instantly hear both Cole and Jackson in my head. One sounded like college football, the other very much like hockey. And they always will in the soundtrack of my mind.
Foster Hewitt in the gondola and Danny Gallivan's cannonading drives weren't bad either, although we're talking 50s here and four Wing cups. Jesus, am I getting old!
Danny Gallivan calling Montreal games from the Forum in the 70's is a great childhood memory for me. His delivery was poetic, and the way his pitch would rise was awesome. I read that there was a terrible blizzard in Montreal one Saturday morning and he couldn't get out of his garage. So he walked 6 miles to the Forum. When he got there, he learned that the game was cancelled.
Uh.....this is awkward....but I've never heard of this Bob Cole. I do have, however, a dad who's name is actually Bob Cole. And while he roots for the Red Wings, I can tell you with sincere honestly that he was not hockey's Keith Jackson. :)
Good luck with your search.
CBC was blessed with two great announcers. Those of us in Michigan grew up with Bob Cole because he primarily covered the Toronto games. But those in the Montreal coverage area got to listen to Dick Irvin. They are like 1A and 1B at the top of my hockey announcer list. If Bob Cole is Keith Jackson, then Dick Irvin is Bob Cole.
EDIT: Gotta thank you OP. This has been a great trip down memory lane. With Doc Emrick retiring and people reminiscing about Gary Thorne, it's nice to see the broadcasting legends north of the border get some love.
3/26/97: The Day it All Changed.
I was hitchhiking through South America doing the 1998 run, was able to catch some games here at there at the youth hostels but mostly missed it.
I sure wish I still had my "Screw Lemieiux" t-shirt I bought outside the Anchor Bar, that would be a holy relic by now.
I need to jump on the Bob Cole train. His three-syllable pronunciation of "DeTROYet" always bring a smile. Thanks, Don, for posting the highlight video.
(I also find it amusing when Gordon Lightfoot does it in The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald.)
Definitely miss the feverish pro hockey heyday of the late 80s through late 90s. I think the last time I was excited about pro hockey was the 2010 Olympics. It's largely ceased to exist since then.
I have to disagree with your last few sentences. There have been some really, really excellent games and series in the last 10 years.
I still upvoted because, as someone who grew up watching snowy Hockey Night in Canada in Flint via over air broadcast on Channel 9, I always got a kick out of the old school Canadian accents, including DeTROYet. Thanks for the memory jog.
"Those Stastny boys can really put the puck in the net."
Absolutely love how WJR brought Bruce Martyn back for game 4 in '97. Growing up in Cleveland, having no cable, WJR was the ONLY way I got to enjoy Wings games. Many times, riding home with my Dad from our lake house way too late on a school night after we'd gone out to do some work on the place. When I was a teenager, my Dad and I didnt agree on much but we could always enjoy Bruce calling a game together