Shaun Newman Podcast - Ep. #114 - Hockey Night in Canada Scott Oake

Episode Date: September 16, 2020

Originally from Sydney Nova Scotia, he got his start with CBC back in 1974. We discuss his journey to Hockey Night in Canada, Hosting the After Hours show & covering the Olympics. We discuss at length losing his son to a drug overdose and the new passion of the Bruce Oake Recovery Centre in Winnipeg. Let me know what you think     Text me! 587-217-8500

Hi, this is Brandon Holby. Hey, this is Tanner, the Bulldozer Bozer. Hi, this is Brian Burke from Toronto, Ontario. This is Daryl Sutterin. Hello, everyone. I'm Carlyagro from SportsNet Central. This is Jay On Right. This is Quick Dick, quick, tick coming to you from Tough Moose, Saskatchew. Hey, everybody, my name is Theo Fleary.

This is Kelly Rudy. This is Corey Krause. This is Wade Redden. This is Jordan Tutu. My name is Jim Patterson. Hey, it's Ron McLean, Hockeynet in Canada, and Rogers' hometown hockey, and welcome to the Sean Newman podcast. Happy Hump Day, folks.

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visit shan numapodcast.com in the top right corner. Hit the contact button and send me your information. Just a little blur about what you're listening. looking for maybe and we'll find something we got lots of things here that we can work together and find something that works for the both of us now let's get on to your t bar one tale of the tape originally from sydney nova scotia he initially went to school to become a doctor but found his way to the campus radio station in 1974 he started full-time with the cbc from 79 to 89 he was in winnipeg as anchor of c bw t's 24-hour sports show

In 89 he was hired by Hockey Night in Canada where he's worked ever since. 2003, you won a Gemini Award for Best Host or Interviewer in a Sports program. He's now covered well over 10 Olympic Games. You can find him on Saturday nights co-hosting a cult favorite after hours, which is broadcast after the late game on Hockey Night in Canada. I'm talking about Scott Oak. So buckle up. Here we go.

Hi, this is Scott Oak. Welcome to the Sean Newman podcast. Welcome to the Sean Newman podcast. Today I'm joined by Mr. Scott Oak. First off, thanks for taking some time out of, I mean, your busy schedule, but you're stuck in the bubble, so maybe not that busy of a schedule. Not so busy right now, Sean. This is day two of my four-day quarantine for me before I'm allowed to move around in the bubble for the NHL playoffs here in Edmonton. It's been a bit of a process.

But look, I'm here in the luxurious J.W. Marriott. and I can get through the four days with no problem because all I have to do is look out the window and you can almost see a homeless shelter adjacent to Rogers Place. Any one of those people would give everything they have to spend one night in this hotel. So it's not that much of an imposition and I'm looking forward to being able to get into the bubble. But you are correct. I have time on my hands. So here we go.

Well, you know, you speak about it. You're experiencing a part of life that very, very, few of us. I mean, you know how many are sitting in the bubble get to experience. What's life in the bubble like? Just, you know, being kind of off on your own, not being able to interact with the bigger society. Like, what has it been like? Well, I'm not in the bubble yet. It's going to take a couple of days before I'm free to move around. I think my quarantine period is over on Thursday morning just in time to work on game three of the Western Conference final. But life in the bubble, according to some players and coaches I've talked to,

is a bit of a challenge because it's about, you know, battling boredom, repetition, etc., missing your loved ones. If you're a younger player with a young family, you miss your wife and kids if you have children. So you have to worry about all of that, I guess. but the flip side of it is, there are absolutely no distractions here. So your total focus can be on hockey. And I think that's why we've seen some high event games in these playoffs.

And I should have phrased that better. What is you're sitting in confinement or whatever you want to call for four days? How has that been? I mean, you talk about the homeless shelter and looking at it and you go, well, that puts it in perspective. But what are you been doing to keep yourself occupied? Four days isn't a whole. of a long time, but at the same time, if you're stuck to the confines of a room, I assume it's rather boring at times.

This is a very nice room, but I can walk from one side of it to the other in about nine seconds. But look, again, no complaints whatsoever. I look at a lot of video, hockey video. I take a lot of time in the morning to read the hockey clips, the news stories, watch the games that are on at night. You know, I've often said I do nothing better than anything. And so it's not hard to kill four days.

Sure, it's a bit of a trial after a while. But as I say, you just need some perspective. I'd like to think I have that. And it's not bad. It's fine. Have you picked up any hobbies through the COVID-19 pandemic while being sitting at home? Have you read more or I don't know, maybe crossword puzzles? Well, the last book I read actually, and I regret to say that I haven't read a lot during the pandemic.

I have Brad Thor's book. It's just underneath a computer here so I can get a better angle of my lovely face. Brad Thor is one of the great authors about counterterrorism, and I've read most of his books, and I imagine myself to be that guy fighting terrorism. So it's down to that now, right? and before that I read John Grishman's book, but what I, his last book, but mostly like everybody else, my wife and I tore through Tiger King, Ozark, the Last Dance. So a lot of Netflix, and as for hobbies, no need to develop any of those,

because we spend a lot of time and even through the pandemic, working on our project to build the Bruce Oak Recovery Center. a lot of meetings and you know zoom meetings etc to conduct what uh role we have in it to conduct the business of the of building the bruce oak recovery center so that takes up a lot of our time well i want to get to the bruce oak recovery center i know we were talking about it before we started but before we get to that um with all my guests i like to find um you know a little bit about their backstory i'd read a little bit of up on on you um that you had started out as a med student and then through one way or another you slowly slide into

broadcasting but you're originally from Nova Scotia correct right yeah we were all born in Cape Breton Sydney Nova Scotia when I was in my early teens just starting high school my father took a job in Newfoundland so I went to high school there but high school only went to grade 11 and after that I went to university it wasn't it was a pre-med course I was in it wasn't a met student by any stretch of the imagination, taking science courses, basically. But I started hanging out at the university radio station. It was called Mun Radio.

I'm not sure what it's called now. And I fell in love with the sound of my own voice there. I guess there's a case to be made for that. But I was drawn to sports coverage. And we covered Memorial University hockey games, sports casts on Munn Radio, etc. I did a lot of those. And so somebody said to me one day, you should apply for that summer relief sportscaster job

at CBC and CBMLAF. CBNT were the call letters of the St. John station. Probably still are. So I applied for the job, and I didn't hear anything for about two weeks, and so I phoned over. And the guy who answered the phone was one of the sportscasters. They had two at the time.

And he said to me, as a matter of fact, you're the only person to apply. So why don't you come in and start on Monday, which proved from the outset that the only way for me to get a job was if no one else applied. I did that summer relief job for two years. At the end of the second year, one of the full-time sportscasters quit to go to law school,

so the full-time job came open, and I applied for it, and don't ask me how, because at the time, I spoke faster than the speed of light. I thought I knew everything, and if I had to, I could get it all out in one long sentence, but somehow I got the job. And my father was, he was anywhere from out of sorts with Gus up to Furious because he had come from that working class generation that to him meant he just wanted his kids to do a little bit better than him. And for him, that entailed a university education.

And I'd been in school and university for two years, I guess. And then I, you know, I said, don't worry, I'm only going to do this job for a year. then I'm going to go back to university, get my degree. Then I got to go to the Olympics. This is a long story, isn't it? No, that's good. Excuse me. So then I got to go to the Olympics in 1976. It was 22 years old. I was the youngest guy there as far as commentators went. And that was it for me. Then I was not going back to school because I thought I had made it in the business.

I mean, it was an honor to go to the Olympics in 76 to be sure. But it was the first endeavor by any host broadcaster to have commentators in Canada, to have commentators for almost every sport and on the air for, oh, I think it was $12 or $14 a day. So basically anyone who could speak English was picked to go. But I didn't quite get that at the time. I had made it, I thought. And as a result, I didn't go back to school.

And I think my father asked me almost every month. month until he died about six or seven years ago when I was going to go back to university to finish my degree so I'd have something to fall back on when the CBC and hockey night in Canada and now Rogers figured out I was no good I still wait for that phone call but anyway I never did go back and so here I am I guess this is now some 40 42 43 years later a hell of a career a hell of a career. A long one, I think, is the best way to describe it. I think you're too hard on yourself. You've covered, what is it now, 12 Olympics? Actually, I counted that up a while ago. It's 15. Is it 15? Yeah. I didn't go to the last Winter Olympics in Korea because I was then required to work on

Hockey Night in Canada, and the schedule was, as you know, hockey continued. So it wasn't possible for me to take time off and go to Korea for those games. So 15, again, pardon me. And being stuck in my hotel room here has got me all kind of flamed up. But I don't know if I'll do anymore. Probably not, but, you know, 15 is a good number. 15's impressive, yes. I was going to ask, where in 1976, where were the Olympics? Montreal.

Oh, yeah. And what is maybe, you know, as being a young guy there, I can just imagine, you know, your eyes must have been wide open. What were some of the things that stuck out about your first Olympics? What did you even cover? I cover wrestling. And again, as I said earlier, back then I thought I knew everything. And when it came to wrestling, I went out with a few wrestlers at the Memorial University of Newfoundland to learn the basics. And they threw me around the mat at will. But, you know, I headed into the 76 Olympics as the main announcer for wrestling. the analyst, the color commentators, guy named Oly Sorensen,

who had wrestled in the Olympics in Munich in 1972. But that didn't bother me because my main goal seemed to be to do all the talking and not let him talk at all because I had a lot of information to get out. This is one of the curses of a young broadcaster thinking he knows everything and trying to stake his claim to a sport and get his depth of knowledge out there as quickly as possible. I look back on that and think it was a good lesson.

Many, many years later, I do defer to those who really know what they're talking about. But back then, I guess you've asked what my most vivid memory was was that I did a lot of talking and managed to not give Oli as fair share of airtime. But, you know, we worked together. We worked together many times after that, and it was a good lesson for me. Growing up, you mentioned being on the rock out on Newfoundland. Was radio something you just stumble into? I know you say you fall in love with it at university by getting to the college campus radio station.

But was it something growing up, you're like, yeah, I wouldn't mind doing that someday? Or you literally had no thoughts of it? No, I did. it wasn't like I just fell into it and thought, well, this is pretty neat. When I was a kid growing up in Sydney, Nova Scotia, hockey night in Canada on Saturday night was appointment viewing. And Danny Gallivan did the Canadians games. And back then, you either got Montreal or Toronto on a Saturday night. And Danny Gallivan was from Whitney Pier in Sydney.

So we had an association with him. And I used to listen to him and just marvel over, you know, what a, what a, what a, colorful play-by-play announcer he was. Danny and Bennett words, a cannonading drive. And some university professor wrote him once and said, there's no such word as canaanating. And Danny wrote back and said, now there is. And my father was from Whitney Pier as well.

And there was a little bit of, you know, look at Danny now with his big words. Who does he think he is? That was sort of the attitude of a lot of people in Cape Breton. But I used to listen to him with great admirer. And that kind of got me interested in the prospect of working and broadcasting as an announcer because, you know, like a lot of kids back then, I had a lot to say. And, you know, sort of piqued my interest at that point. And I was very, very fortunate years later to have an opportunity to try it out at Munn Radio on the campus of Memorial University.

And that's where it all started. I find that fascinating that just you hear it in a lot of people's stories. Some people call it luck. Some people call it timing. Some people just over go. There's no point in looking at these events. But just, you know, college campus radio. And then you apply for a part-time job.

You're the only guy who applies for it, which is kind of hilarious. Well, the reason for that was that back then, that would have been 1973. So, broadcasting, believe it or not, back then, CBNT St. Johns was still black and white. And broadcasting was seen sort of as not, it's not fair to say a novelty, but it wasn't the widely pursued career that it's become. If that job was to come open today, I'd have no chance of getting it, probably, most likely. and the lineup for people, you know, trying to get it, pardon me, would apply for it, would have stretched for miles. But, you know, I was fooling around at the University Radio Station. I don't know how many people knew the job came open.

If it was even posted somewhere, it wasn't in the paper, I don't think. And so, you know, that was one of the reasons, I guess, that I was lucky enough to be the only one. Yeah, timing. You're talking about timing and different, you know, if it'd been 10 years later, chances are the opportunity wouldn't have presented itself the same way. What was a guy back then making? Do you remember what you made your first, you know, going to the Olympics and covering that? Do you remember how much money you're making back then? Well, let's go back before that.

My first job was my father had become a manager of a steel plan in Newfoundland. and I worked there in the summer and a couple of times during the winter break in between the first and second semester, so probably three weeks during the winter. I made a buck 80 if I worked on the bundler or a buck 90 an hour if I worked on the hotbed. And you were lucky if you worked a lot of overtime. At the end of that week, you'd come out with $100. And I thought I had made it. I bought a used Volkswagen, I think, for $350 was my first car.

So fast forward to getting the job at CBC and Newfoundland. I think the first salary there was about $8,500 or $9,000 a year. And I thought I'd made it. I was living at home. I bought a Triumph Spitfire sports car. So, you know, I was ready to go around town. I was a man about town. And I might argue that I was better off financially than I am now.

No, that's not true because, you know, I've worked a long time. But it would have been true, maybe, perhaps many years ago. But, yeah, those were the salaries. And, you know, things had changed appreciably, but markedly. But that was the way it was back then. You know, you mentioned several times that you thought you'd made it. you thought you'd made it. When did you realize I haven't made it?

It's a good question. I honestly have never viewed it that way because you're only as good as your last show. And, you know, I've had some that I've screwed up royally. Other people might not view it that way, but they bothered me. And my goal has always been to be good enough on one show to get invited back to do the next one. and that's how I've always viewed it. I've never really thought that I've made it, even though I'm a lot closer to the end of my career than the start.

But I'm still driven to do as good a job as possible and hope that at the end of the broadcast, I get up out of the chair and go, hey, that was okay. They'll probably have you back for one more. But at some point along the way, you must have went from thinking, man, You talk about getting $9,000 a salary.

I've made it. This is awesome. This is amazing. At what point did you go? Ooh, there's a lot more road to go here. Like at what point did you realize, wow, there is a lot left to do? Probably when we had kids. My wife and I were married.

We've been married now for 40 years. Congratulations. Had our 40th anniversary last month. And pardon me in June. I guess, having kids changes your perspective on everything. By the way, the 40 years of marriage has only worked

because I've only been around for 20 of them. That's one of my standard lines. I've used it many times. But when you have children, your outlook and everything changes because the day our first child, Bruce was born, I thought to myself,

I have to provide for him now, probably for the, you know, up until he's 20, 21. and quite likely for the rest of his life, I'll have to be there for him. And so everything changes then. And that's when I realized that, and Darcy was born two years later, that, you know, you, not that I didn't take it seriously before then, because I certainly did, but that I needed to really be secure in this career

to know that I could provide for my family. Yeah, that's, well, anyone who's had kids knows, exactly what you're talking about. That is, you wake up one morning and there's a bundle of joy sitting there and looking at you and squirming and everything else that comes with it, pooping black and all that good stuff. But the responsibility that goes on your shoulders as soon as that happens is something you've never, ever experienced up until that point, ever.

Yeah. No, that's true. And, you know, our kids for everything to us and still are. It's a difficult question when people say, and I know we'll get to this, but, you know, Bruce battled addiction in the last five years of his life and he lost his battle in 2011 when he was 25. People often ask us, how many kids do you have? And I say one because it's easier, but I'm not very proud of myself when I do that. My wife takes the harder road and she says we have two, but only one is living. And that, of course, is Darcy.

So we never forget Bruce, but, you know, our kids were and are everything. Bruce will live forever in the Bruce Oak Creek Harvey Center, which is another topic that we'll get to at some point here I know. So, yeah, it's being a parent is, well, there's lots of books on it, but really you find yourself making it up as you go along in a lot of ways. And, you know, we treasured our time with our kids still do. We can talk about it. I'd love to hear the story of Bruce. I was saying to you before we started, I got three kids four and under. I guess he's slowly getting past four.

But one of the things I've mentioned many a time on this, talking to different people from all walks of life, is one of the things, you know, we talk about the responsibility that comes with having your first child and any child after that. One of the first things you think about at some point not long after is all the things that you want to try and find a way to steer them around. How can I map out it so they never come in contact that?

And drugs is a big one. And obviously, you know, most people know your story, but I think it would be great for you to share Bruce's story and the Bruce Oak Recovery Center and just a little bit about it because you've went through it. You're still obviously doing things to try and help now. And I think it's great to talk about. So Bruce was born 85, August of 85, a bundle of joy, a very precocious kid.

When Ann and I speak in public and often will answer requests from different groups to come out and tell Bruce's story and what we're doing with the Bruce Oak Recovery Center. And I insist that I drop a few anecdotes in there to give people an idea of what. Bruce was like as a kid. One is that when he was about, I think, three and a half, we were in front of the house playing street hockey. He by then had figured out that dad does something on TV. He had a fair idea that mine wasn't just the ordinary job that I was in broadcasting. I don't mean to disparage any other jobs, but to him it was kind of special, I guess. And so we're again in front of the playing street docking. I'm like any father, I'm telling him, this is how you hold the stick, this is how you shoot, this is how you stick handle. And pretty soon he'd had it with my

litany of instructions. He stopped cold. And he looked up and he said, you know, dad, if you know so much about it, you should be playing it, not just talking about it. So at that point, he had figured out that his father was pretty much nothing more than a professional gas bag. But, you know, that was part of his precociousness. He was a talented athlete. He not naturally talented, but he survived a lot on guts. He was very courageous. He was a Canada Games boxer. As a kid, he would get into the ring as, you know, 15 years old

and fight somebody three years older and do okay. He did, though, make one classic error, mistaken judgment. He thought that because I could talk about boxing, because I covered it at a couple of Olympics, thought that I could talk about it, that I could actually do it. And so when he was training for the Canada games, I would go to his training sessions. And after every one of them, he would ask me to get into the ring. So he wanted to see what the old man had.

I knew that was a loser's game. And so I wisely declined every invitation until one day we were at one of the boxing clubs that he worked out at not too far from our house. He was the last one there. So he was going to be turning out the lights. And he was just doing some heavy bag work at the time. And actually, Darcy and I went to get him. And I thought, what's the worst that could have? happen. There's no one here to see it except Darcy. And so I don't ask me why, but I accepted the

invitation. And got into the ring, gloved up, and within 20 seconds, I was bent over against the corner turnbuckle, blows raining down on my kidneys, hoping that I'd be passing blood for only about two weeks. And, you know, it's funny because a lot of teenagers, you know, 14, 15 years of age, probably have had this thought, I could take the old man, right? But in a loving, caring home like ours, why would Bruce have had any reason to find out? But sadly, he had his answer at the age of 15.

And the deepest cut of all came on the way home. We were driving home. He said, you know, Dad, if a criminal broke into our house, I'd have to save us. You couldn't do it. So we trade on those memories a lot. By the way, he also made the varsity basketball team high school. He was a very talented hip-hop artist.

He used to go into a lot of rap battles and win them. One night when he was in his final year of high school and was out of town visiting a friend, so I was in charge of the household. And he asked me if he could go to a rap battle at the University of Manitoba. I said, sure, go ahead, but be home by 10. 10 o'clock came. He's not home. 11 o'clock he's not home and I'm getting angrier.

By midnight I'm standing at the front door waiting to invoke all manner of punishment when he comes to the door. And he comes to the door and disarm me immediately by waving five crisp $100 bills. And he said, look, Dad, I won the whole contest. And I said, son, that's the way to come home late and I'll get to bed. So those are, you know, we have a lot of great memories about Bruce because his life was about more than his addiction for sure. But the last five years of his life was a roller coaster of active addiction recovery relapse. In high school, it was a bit of weed, I guess, which doesn't separate him from a lot of kids. But Bruce was diagnosed at an early age with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, ADHD,

which made him right for taking chances. So from weed it was ecstasy, I guess at parties on the weekend and Crystal meth after that. And from those drugs, it wasn't a giant leap into the opioids and the drug that eventually claims his life, heroin. And we never lost touch. Never lost touch with Bruce. We were always on him to get himself straightened out. And we always said to him, if there's a problem, come to us and we'll help you. But at the time, we didn't know much about the signs of drug addiction.

And, you know, sadly, that was the five-year journey of active addiction, recovery relapse ended tragically. You go from weed to ecstasy to crack. Once again, I live, I should probably state this very start. I probably live in a box, shelter from people, and so take this with a grain of salt. Isn't that a giant jump or am I just off of my rocker? Not for a lot of people. It's the path that many an addict has followed. Pardon me again.

It's a common path. It happens. If you can accept the fact that addiction is a disease, it's defined by many medical personnel as a chronic brain disorder. And if you are an addict, you can take that path. And that's what happened to Bruce. It may seem like a giant leap to, and to us at the time it was,

but the more we came to learn about it, we could understand how it happened. No matter how hard you try to protect your kids, unless you're going to be the helicopter parent that sits over them 24-7, they're going to be faced with choices in life. You have to hope that you've educated them enough, that they will make the right choices. But you have a kid who has ADHD and almost certainly had the addictive gene.

And there are some arguments about that. But we believe it to be true, then that path is not all that uncommon. Well, you talk about helicopter parents, even a helicopter parent. Eventually, there's going to be a moment where they're not there, right? Like, that's impossible. So you've got to educate me acting, you know, not taking your advice off the hop. My thought is with children is you got to educate off the hop. I mean, they're going to be exposed to it.

I just told you before we started, four siblings, five of us kids, all of us exposed to it in different ways. I'm sure yourself at a young age, at some point, you're exposed to different things, and you're the one that has to make the choice. Well, of course. Look, we had two children, separated by two years. Bruce born in 85, Darcy in 87, two boys raised in the same loving home in Winnipeg, children of privilege, really, but raised the same way.

I mean, you have to make some adjustments depending on children's needs as you go along, but the general principles of how we raised our kids were the same for both. And Darcy has gone on to become an internationally renowned illusionist, making this way in the world just fine. And the other guy fell victim to addiction. So if we wanted to introduce that question of, is it nature versus nurture, we are here to say, as there are many other families, who would have children headed in similar directions,

one right, one wrong, that it's not nurture, because our kids were raised the same way. So we believe firmly that it was nature. nature that, you know, the diction grabbed hold of Bruce and would not let go. And it didn't happen to Darcy. So, you know, we believe firmly in it being nature as opposed to nurture. I hate to pry and I don't know if it is even prying.

And you told me not to apologize before we started. But when you look back at it then, there's no like if we would have done this differently, maybe it would have turned out differently? No. we don't lose any sleep over woulda, coulda, shoulda. And I think in large part, that's why we were able to to deal with our grief in such a positive way is to establish a much-needed long-term recovery center

in Bruce's name. We did everything we possibly could to keep Bruce alive. We perhaps wish we had known more about the signs of addiction when it first happened to him. But we did the best we could. We did everything we could. We were with Bruce every step of the way. We took him to three long-term or treatment centers.

He was in detox eight or nine times at our urging. And he wanted a better life and he fought hard for it. But he just could not overcome his addiction. It happens. For some addicts, talk about rock bottom. Tragically for some, rock bottom is deaf. And that's what it was for Bruce. A lot of families don't get through the death of a child

because a lot of finger pointing starts after, right? You did this and I tried to do this, but you wouldn't support me. But my wife and I were always, Ann and I were always on the same wavelength. We never argued over what we thought or what helped. We could give Bruce how we could help him. getting him to treatment, to detox, etc. We were always on the same wavelength, which is why, you know, we and Darcy as well,

why we came out of Bruce's passing probably stronger as a family than we were before. So, yeah, we don't look back on it and go, why didn't we do this? Why didn't we do that? We did the best we could with what information we had. and when the information became more and more critical, we acted and tried our best. You mentioned the early warning signs if you had known maybe what to look for. In the beginning then, there was nothing noticeable. I don't even know.

I don't even know what the signs of hard drugs are. but in the beginning there was no noticeable change then that you well for we we knew that there was some drug involvement but we we didn't know that he had become addicted until we were at my parents place in nova scotia for my mother's 75th birthday and bruce had called to say that he wasn't living at home then he was living with a buddy of his in a house in a in a in a difficult area of Winnipeg. We were on him every day to get work, to get us life straightened out. So we were not those parents who ever said, go, go, and don't come back. Do you get it sorted out? There's an expression in AA, I think it's called, let go and let God.

But we didn't do that. We always wanted to know that our kid was safe, that we wanted the best for him, and we were hard on him to get his life sorted out. But we never really knew the depth of his addiction until he called that one day when we got my parents' place for my mother's birthday and said he'd been assaulted by a gang member. And we hadn't seen him at that point for, I think, two or three weeks. And when we got back from Nova Scotia and Darcy brought him to the house, it became clear to us then that he had a very serious addiction problem.

My wife is a nurse, so trained medical professionals. trained medical professional, she was able to identify it right away. And off we went to emergency at Health Sciences Center where we sat for probably six or seven hours before a doctor could see him. The doctor identified the problem immediately and said he could put Bruce on the waiting list for Addictions Foundation of Manitoba, which is the public service for addiction recovery addiction treatment. But it was going to be, I think he said at the time four to six weeks, or we could

go private and we wanted this problem solved immediately and so we said he would go private so just fast forward here we I got on the internet and found this place that um I thought it was the first one day you know Google searches you can prioritize how quickly you appear on a Google search I guess algorithms or whatever it is I thought this place was in Winnipeg and I called them and said uh our son's in trouble and I want to want to bring them and they said okay we're in Toronto That shocked me, but I said fine. So he had to detox at health sciences for about four or five days, and he did. And then I took him to Bellwood.

That's the place in Toronto. And he was there for six weeks at great expense. But we were willing to pay any amount of money to get this sorted out. But sadly, that was just the start of that journey that I talked about earlier, where it was five years of active addiction, recovered and relapse. in the five years I said five it's a summer between four and a half and five

not that the number it doesn't matter was there times during that span where you thought it was beat yes there are a number of books that my wife and I read

one that she read that I didn't but she passed this on to me was a woman And the book was called Addict in the Family. And a woman in that book was quoted as saying, last year I was so happy that my daughter got into Harvard. Tonight I'm so happy because she's in jail.

And I know where she is. And she's safe tonight. So that's how fast it can happen, right? So we took heart when Bruce was in Belwood because we thought that this was going to fix the problem, that six weeks would be enough to get everything. everything sorted out and we'd all go back to our happy lives, which turned out to not be the case. But when we got him to this long-term place in Calgary, it was after Bell would he moved to Halifax.

And he was there for less than a year before everything went off the rails because Halifax as a port city means that there's easier access to opioids. They came in on boats. and within I think seven or eight months of his time in Halifax he'd become an IV addict so we dragged him out of that mess and got him to a long-term facility in Calgary called Simon House and that's when we had real hope because Simon House is a long-term facility where there's three phases you'd spend whatever time it took in phase one to get to phase two usually about 12 13 weeks Bruce was almost a year in phase one and went into phase two and and couldn't handle the freedom as it turned out. But during his time in Simon House, we had real hope because he'd been there for almost a year. And we thought, you know, this is, we were secure in the knowledge that he was safe and that he was really trying hard.

And that gave us a lot of hope. But as soon as he got into phase two, he failed a drug test and had to leave. And again, the cycle of active addiction, recovery relapse took hold. Over, like, you guys are, you mentioned you're currently building the Bruce Oak Recovery Center. Is the long-term centers, then, that's what you learned out of this entire journey. Was that the best, you think, for people who are addicted to substances, that's the best hope? Is a long-term facility that...

Yes. Yes. Yeah. 100%. One of the critical lessons learned during Bruce's journey was that 21 days, 45 days, 90 days, again, pardon me, are not nearly long enough for someone who was profoundly, as addicted as Bruce was. If you're an IV addict, if you're slamming heroin in your arm,

and you think 21 days it's going to fix anything, then you're probably dreaming in technical. And maybe the same for 45 and 90 days. A lot of people in the world of addiction recovery refer to those shorter term programs as rinse and wash or spin drives, just enough to get to feeling not bad and away you go and you start again.

And that's what happened to Bruce, a number of times. The Bruce Oak Recovery Center will have two major cornerstones. And it's modeled after a facility in Calgary, will be modeled after a facility in Calgary called Fresh Start. Fresh Start three times, if not four, has been named the number one Recovery Center in Canada by the Fraser Institute. It has an astounding success rate of 56%. And those are real numbers because it's not measured on a 21-day or a 45-day or a 90-day program.

If you're running a 45-day program and three-quarters of the people get through it, then you can easily say we have a 75% success rate, right? Fresh Starts success rate is measured on one year of sobriety after entering the program. So 56, I think it's now 57% is astronomical in the world of addiction recovery. So that's the program we're going to run at the Bruce Oak Recovery Center. It's long-term. As I mentioned earlier, three phases. Phase one, you go through the hardcore.

12-week program in the main facility. Phase two, if you're ready, and you don't move out if you're not ready, you can stay in the main facility until you are ready, but if you are ready, you move into transitional housing, you get a job, you remain committed to the program, you live under a lot of restrictions, and then phase three is where you will live under less restrictions and hopefully be ready at some point to move back,

into society living independently. You can stay for as long as it takes to get it right. It can be a year, it can be two years, but even be three, whatever it takes to get it right. So a continuum of care is everything in the world of addiction treatment, addiction recovery. And we will offer that consistent with what Fresh Start offers. And the second cornerstone is anyone who can't afford to pay will not be turned away. They'll be covered by a combination of social assistance and fundraising. This has worked at Fresh Start for a quarter of a century, and we know it's going to work at the Bruce Oak Recovery Center. So a continuum of care and addiction and recovery at no cost is, that's a game changer, we think, in the world of addiction recovery.

And we're delighted to say that those will be the cornerstones of the Bruce Oak Recovery Center. I assume it's given you, you know, with losing a son, that. A could not have been horrendous, right? I can't think of the word to say. But by having something like the Bruce Oak Recovery Center, it gives something, I would assume, to put your energy, your emotion, everything into, to make his name live on and to try and help some people.

Well, his name will live forever. This will be his legacy. When you lose a child, you have a lot of choices you can make. You can choose to compartmentalize your grief and carry on as best you can. You can choose to grieve in any way you like. There's nothing wrong with what people do if it works for them. Our choice was to give voice to our grief and to try to make Bruce's life mean something. And ultimately, to provide a service that will help ensure, it's not going to fix everything,

but will help ensure that people in Bruce's situation don't have to lose their lives. And that's been our driving force. We acted on that soon after Bruce died. We finally got traction with the government and at all levels of government, city and province, both levels, I should say, and we're still working on federal contribution. you know a couple years after after Bruce passed away and traction finally occurred well I guess three or four years ago and the Bruce Oak Recovery Center I'm proud to say is now anyone can go on our website Bruce oak.c.c.a or bruce oak recovery center.

dot CA and see the progress we've made the building is what's approaching half done now 43,000 square feet in the west end of Winnipeg and in a beautifully beautiful residential neighborhood with a lot of serenity around it, trails, et cetera. It's a gorgeous location and it's going to make a difference. Well, and you're in the position to make that happen. You're a national figure, whether you wanted or not, you're on a, you know, hockey night in Canada. It's pretty much the gospel in Canada.

You can't get any bigger than that. So to have your voice behind a project, I'm sure helped immensely. But even then, thinking about that, like 2011 until now, that's, that's like, that's a long time to get a project up. I should explain. Yeah, I should give you the time frame. And then I'll talk about how, you know, I was able to use my platform and Darcy as well because Darcy's well known. in the business of entertainment as well. But the time frame was such that when Bruce died,

we were grief-stricken and didn't know really what to do. A friend of ours said, well, let's go to the Winnipeg Foundation and we'll start a fund in case we ever want to do anything in Bruce's memory. And that was the seedling of the Bruce Oak Recovery Center. And then along the way, I guess, over the course of that of the first year of Bruce's passing, we talked about what we could do. And our first thought was, let's get a fun going. And then we can send people to rehab.

we can pay for people to go to treatment centers. And that was going to be our fallback position if the Bruce Oak Recovery Center didn't work. Then it was happenstance. We met someone from Fresh Start who said, why didn't you talk to us, see if we can help you, and Fresh Start's been great throughout this whole thing.

There was a period of about four years where we were going in circles. You know, unless you have someone to advocate for you at the government level, it's going to be hard to get anywhere. We finally met that person about six years after Bruce died, seven years, I guess it was. And that's when I say we got traction because she knew how to navigate. Her name is Marnie Larkin.

She knew how to navigate the halls of the legislature and city hall. And she began driving the bus force. And that's when everything changed. So, yeah, there was a long period of time where we were going in circles. Knew what we wanted to do. But found ourselves in that situation where you met with somebody, one month and then you know six months later you're back meeting the same person so we needed to have that advocate and we found her just by luck I was emcing at dinner one night that

she was running and she said why don't you come see me tomorrow maybe I can help you and that was the start of how things took hold and over the course of we launched our first capital fundraising campaign last August so just about 13 months ago on Bruce's Bruce's August 22nd and we raised our first $10 million in about seven months. So the community responded in a way that was overwhelming. But you don't have to shake a family treat too hard to get an addict or an alcoholic to fall out, right? So this is a common problem in society and we found that a lot of families, a lot of companies, a lot of businesses were in fact eager, didn't have to be talked into it, we're eager to make a commitment.

get committed. So in total, we've raised about $60 million, which is enough to get the building up and gives us a little leeway to run it. And we're soon going to be launching a second capital fundraising campaign to address operating costs. So we're going to be up and running, the Bruce Oak Recovery Center at the end of May of 21. That's a lot of money. Jeez. But that's impressive. Well, okay. So yeah. And so let's address platform. As you, you, you, you mentioned a moment ago, Sean. I don't apologize for using what platform I had to better, to make the world a better place. Well, there were a lot of people when we started saying he's taking advantage of his position.

We encountered a lot of opposition from residents of the area. There's a thing called NIMBY, not in my backyard, right? Okay. You should expect that when you're trying to establish a, recovery center in the middle of a residential neighborhood because people don't know what they don't know. So you are required really to run an educational campaign. And I'm proud to say we did that. So in people's minds, just so I can clarify this, by having a recovery center in the middle of a residential area, the thought process going around is there's going to be drug.

addicts running. Yes, they're going to be roving bands of drug addicts will take over the neighborhood. We will not be safe in our house. The real estate prices here will collapse. Consider if you're in your 80s and you're still unreasonable health, you're living in the house you've been in your whole life, it's your single greatest investment that you've ever made. And you know that when you can't stay there anymore, you can sell it and move into an assisted living facility, you know, have the money to pay for that. But there were a lot of people who were fearmongering and convinced a number of the area residents that this horror, horrid scenario that I just outlined, you know, drug addicts taking over the neighborhood was going to take hold and that they wouldn't be safe to leave their houses. When in fact, the opposite is true. Crime, studies prove crime is more likely to occur around a grocery or a liquor store than it is around a recovery center.

there is no business for drug dealers around a recovery center. And in fact, in the case of the Bruce Oak Recovery Center, we were gifted an old arena in the west end of Winnipeg that had been shuttered for but four or five years. All manner, a large dark building and all manner of bad behavior was going on around that building at night. So we made the case that we're going to make the neighborhood better. It's going to be safer than it is now.

And we did conduct that educational campaign that involved flyers to hundreds of homes in the area. We can see many elongated email exchanges with community leaders, meetings with community leaders. We established a community committee. And we had four public information sessions where people could come and state their case and articulate their fears.

And we listened. We listened to the extent that we altered plans for the facility to include public use of the gymnasium because the residents were concerned that they were losing a recreational facility. The rink had been shuttered for years. but still, I guess they clung to the hope that it was going to reopen, which it never was because it was way past its best before date.

There were no plans to reopen it. But we listened to that concern about a recreational facility and the loss of one, and we altered the plans to include public use of the gymnasium with a separate public entrance, public change rooms, etc. And along the way, I'm proud to say that our message began to sink in. Residents realized that they have nothing to fear from the Bruce Oak Recovery Center, that the men of the Bruce Oak Recovery Center, as the men of the Fresh Start Recovery Center in Calgary are,

will be good neighbors. They'll be there to help out. They'll be focused on one thing, their recovery. They will not be engaging in drug use. They will be solid neighbors, and it has been proven. I mean, some people subscribe to the notion that recovery centers are best off in rural or industrial areas where those seeking recovery are neither seen nor hurt,

from. Most clear thinking people in the world of addiction recovery know that those seeking recovery have their best chance when they're included, when they're not ostracized or judged and sent away to an outpost somewhere. So this is how addiction recovery works these days and we got our message through and the people who were in favor of it were I guess not as loud as the ones who were against it but we won the battle eventually and and I think we've already had some emails from residents of the area saying the building has already spruced up the neighborhood and we're looking forward to it so so it was a difficult and sometimes frustrating battle but you have to expect that and and we persevered well you're

dealing with misconceptions and people fearing what they don't understand, right? I mean. Yeah. And if someone comes along and fans the flames of that fear, then pretty soon you can have a flammable situation on your hands. And there were people that fan the flames of fear that didn't know what they were talking about. But we took the high road.

We never got down in the gutter. And we just worked hard and got our message through. So it's going to be a happy day in another. When did you say it's supposed to open? And in May. And in May 21, yeah. Well, the day is fast approaching. I know we still got many months ahead of you, but I mean, considering where you started from,

it's not that long away and you're going to have the center up and running. What are you most excited for? excited for the opening and the first people who become clients of the Bruce Oak Recovery Center because that's the day we start it's not the finish line right to get the place up and it's the start line the day that we can start saving lives and that's what it's about it's saving lives you know we're caught now in a in a pandemic that has changed the world and probably will forever the The need for addiction services, recovery beds, before the pandemic took cold, was already acute. On the other side of this pandemic, whatever it looks like, the need for services like the Bruce Oak Recovery Center is going to be through the roof. Because that's just a simple fact of life, people losing their jobs and losing hope and ending up in substance abuse situations. So, you know, we're excited to be able to provide a service that can address that in whatever way it does. And that's 50, 50 beds in a long-term recovery center.

What advice would you give other parents that are going through something like what you've gone through? Is there anything you can share that would, if they're listening, maybe they could help them along, help them with what they're going through? Well, to each his own, there's a million people out there will tell you how you should feel and what you should do. But Anne and I are of the firm belief that how you feel is how you feel and you deal with your grief the best way you can. So if you're talking about families that have lost children, Anne and I have spent a lot of time talking to them. But we're not the ultimate authority on losing a child. And we're not recommending that anyone who's lost a child to addiction should run out and try to raise $16 million.

to build a recovery center. But if we have one message, I guess it would be that you can find your place. There is a way to give voice to your grief and to trade on the good memories. And we always say that trade on the good memories, right, of your child. And in time, find your place and do what we can to make your child's life mean something. No, I think that's great advice. I would say hop in there one. You said, you know, not everybody can go out and raise $16 million, but not everybody has to.

You know, you're in a position where, you know, like I said before, you're on a nationally broadcasted show. So your lack of a better term, sphere of influence, let's call it, is big. But for people who, you know, I think a good lesson for anyone. listening, whether they have, you know, children or anyone that's going through this or not, is you can still help your area, whether it's just volunteering down the street or what. You don't need to raise a big sum of money to be a benefit to the people around you. You can do things that can help.

And just by doing things like that can, you know, really bring a positive spot to your life. and, you know, in a world right now where it just seems like every day, you know, things are starting, you know, school starts tomorrow, for my wife at least. And by the time I guess this airs, it'll be a weekend, but things are maybe slowly kind of going back. We got NHL back plan and, you know, we're having something to watch is great. But for the most part, the last six, seven months have been, shall we say, interesting. and positivity at times is hard to find. And I don't think everybody has to go and do something giant. You can do little things.

Little things add up. And if everyone went and did a little thing, I mean, think of what you could do and the positivity you could spread all around the planet, let alone just your little area. Well, the greatest calling in the world is to be of service to others, right? And there are lots of ways to do it if you choose to do it. If you want to give voice to your grief in any way possible, sure, it can be volunteering. It can be anything whatsoever. And the only thing I would say about it is that, you know, it will give your life some purpose.

It will allow you to feel like your child's life means something. In whatever form you choose to do it. Simple as that. Well, I do appreciate it. you hopping on to talk about this. It's been an interesting hour. Has it been an hour? Yeah, pretty close.

I think my first answer was an hour. That story about how I got my first job. I've pledged to try to get that down to two minutes, but it's just not possible. Are you excited to, you know, flip it over to hockey for a sec? Are you excited to be in the bubble or are you kind of like, ah, it's going to be kind of weird? Yeah, I've already been in Edmonton for a month, but not in the bubble. So Chris Cuthbert, Louis DeBrasco and I, now Kyle Poccas is here as well, not in the bubble, would go in to Rogers Place through a separate door and be at a higher level and come and go as

be pleased and come and go from our hotel as you please. but I've gone into the bubble at the urging of our producers so that we can have better access to players when it comes to conference final, which the West started last night and east night. And I guess specifically the Stanley Cup final, when that celebration takes place on the ice, you want to have better access to players

than them being pulled into the studio at ice level and you up on the seventh floor talking to them. It's very impersonal. It's worked so far. It's making the best of a bad situation, but we can do better than that. So that's why I've gone into the bubble. And I'm interested to see how it works.

When I get out of incarceration here on Thursday morning, I guess part of the good news is that will be what, the 10th. So there's only about 20 days to go before the whole thing is over. But look, the NHL deserves full credit. here because they provided a lesson to all pro sports as to how things can work. There was a, the latest release came out just today, testing for the sixth week of phase four, and this is not for the whole six weeks, but in just the most recent amount of testing is 2,534 tests all negative.

There has not been a single positive test. So me being quarantined here for four days is part of the reason. and that this is working. So, you know, you have to be respectful of that. And it's, this was a huge undertaking that a lot of people were thinking is not going to work. I mean, the first thing people thought was they're not even going to get to the bubble because they're holding training camps in places like Texas and Florida where, you know, those states are on fire.

If there's an outbreak at either the Florida Panthers or the Dallas Staris training camp, the whole thing could just go up and smoke. They won't even get to the bus. bubble, but they, they did. And, uh, and restrictions, um, in the bubble have all been proven to be valid and it's working. And so kudos to the NHL is, uh, pulling this off has been, uh, logistically, uh, incredibly complicated. Um, some would call it a nightmare, but they've done it and they've done it beautifully. You know, and over the playoffs, uh, let's call it, I don't even know, the last 15 years, you've given some of the best. Um, you've given some of the best.

interview moments that I could think of. I was thinking back to when I think it was, now correct me if I'm wrong on this, Scott. Was it Ottawa and Anaheim in the finals when you had Snoop Dogg in the stands? That was 07. 07. And then you had the heartbreak kid back when the HBK line was a thing for Pittsburgh. You've had some just downright awesome people in the middle of playoffs. I highly think you're not going to get that this year. No, I don't think Snoop will be showing up at Rogers Place. You won't be in the bubble or anyone like them. Be lucky if some

family members can get there to see the games. That's proving to be a challenge as it turns out. The Snoop Dog interview was as a result of the game being an ally and he's from Long Beach so it wasn't too far away. And he'd become a bit of a hockey fan. And if we've got time for this story? Absolutely. We got time for another hour if you really want. Fire away. This might take as long as me getting my first job story took. So our producer, Shirelli and Ajax, said Snoop's coming to the game tonight. I want you to interview him. I think it was going to be at the end of the second intermission heading for the third period. And I knew who Snoop Dog was. So, you know, at least I had that starting point, but I wanted it to be special. I wanted it to be different. I wanted it to be different.

just, well, here I am with Snoop Dog, what do you think of the game? And so when he told me this, I phoned Darcy, our son, Darcy knows, much more attuned to current events or, let's just say, hipper with more street grid than I have ever had. And so I called him, I said, I'm going to be interviewing Snoop Dog tonight. And if I had told him I was going to be interviewing Jesus Christ reincarnate, he couldn't have been any more excited. So I said, what am I going to say? And he goes, okay say this and write it down he said i'm with the dogfather d o double jizzy big ups on this crunk planet what's crackleaden nephew that might have been rushing to me when he first said it so he said now read it back to me and i read it back just that way and he said if you say it that way he's going to hit

you he's going to have one of his guys beat you up it will sound like you're making fun of him you got to say it with more conviction and so he told me how to say it and i uh or how i should say it and i got in front of the mirror for, oh, God, I had to do an opening and some other stuff that night, but I wasn't worried about any of that. All I wanted to do was get this right. And I rehearsed it in front of the mirror for, it might have been two hours. And so it came time to interview Snoop. I went over and he had his entourage around him. He had, oh, these guys were Biamuth. They were easily six, five, six, six each, guys looking like they weren't up for any fooling around, right and I but I had about I think five or six minutes to sit with Snoop before it came time for us to do the interview

listen to me call him Snoop like he's my buddy but we had a nice conversation and and during that time I thought he's a pretty nice guy I'm going to try this I'll try it and see how it goes so we're on I have to welcome people back from commercial and with one of the great contemporary musicians of our time I'm with the dogfather do double jizzy big ups on this crumb plant i was crack at a date nephew and uh he looked at me for a second as if to say you know i wasn't quite sure that if he was going to get mad or he liked it but he looked at me and he said you know i'm doing good baby and i love the way you said that and i went thank you jesus thank you jesus i'm not going to be beat up from thrown out of the ring today and uh and it went from there and uh that got more reaction than any interview i think i

ever done to that point, including, you know, anything with Wayne Gretzky or prime ministers or whoever else I had spoken to. And it was neat. Some guy wrote in one of the U.S. dailies a couple of days later that it was a pathetic attempt by an old guy to sound hip and that I sounded like some loser who had got in front of the mirror for an hour to practice it. And I wanted to write him back and say, you're wrong. I was not in front of the mirror for an hour. It was two hours. But anyway, it was neat. You can still probably find it on YouTube.

Oh, you certainly can. I don't know how many hits its head, but, yeah, sadly, that was the peak of my career, and it's all been downhill ever since. It's funny that even at the peak, you got your detractors, guys who were just like old guy trying to be fun. I thought it was hilarious. I still, like, well, heck, how many years? You said 2007, it's 13 years ago.

And I still remember watching that. Obviously, you know, the Ottawa jersey and San Wade's from, you know, Hillmont, Saskatch. You can imagine this area was well in tune with that playoff run. And that was awesome. Like, I mean, even for Snoop, how much stuff is he done with the NHL now in the last 13 years? And it probably stems from that interview. Well, yeah, I think they invited into the game. And he eagerly accepted the invitation.

He was quite taken by the game of hockey quite liked it. And they had him at All-Star in Los Angeles a couple of years ago. And I actually was supposed to interview him then. I think it was the, he was there on Friday night for the skills. He DJed and introduced everybody. There was some raw language in there, as you only recall. And I was supposed to interview the next day, but he never came back. And I had some, Darcy had given me some new stuff to throw at him.

And sadly, I never got to use it on him. But anyway, what was the new stuff? Oh, I can't remember now. I knew the job was dangerous when he took it. Scared, go to church. I don't know, something like that. Who the heck was it? Wasn't Kendrick Lamar?

It was Snoop, I think. It was a Snoop lyric that Darcy had given me. But anyway, you can see how well I've done. I'm trying to remember it. You know, we've talked an awful lot about Bruce and you mentioned Darcy. Him being an illusionist, I think, is probably, is that his title? Yeah. Like, I've watched some of his videos and that stuff always baffles me.

Do you go to his shows and just like, let me pull that off? Like, are you as a person? Yeah, we do. We do. There was a time when Darcy was a lot younger when he got first involved in magic that he would rehearsed in front of us and so we had a rough idea of how things worked but as he got more proficient at it and his reputation grew and he doesn't tell us anything now and and we're we're happy to watch and enjoy it he's he's pretty good he uh darcy when he was younger was

uh i shouldn't say he's pretty good he's great um when he was younger he uh was on the manitoba uh diving prospect team um it's good athlete tremendous balance long and lean and they identified him as a future prospect and he he'd like diving until the coaching got serious and the yelling started and then he didn't like it so he uh from that he joined the juggling club at school learned how to juggle saved up all his money so he could uh ride a unicycle and juggle and he mastered that and then he decided he was going to go into a like a lot of kids sit, you know, around 10, 11, 9, whatever it was. I think he was around 9.

He got a magic kit for Christmas, and most, that happens to a lot of kids, and they grow out of it, but he never did. And from the juggling club and the unicycle, he took up Magic, and he wanted to do a few contests at a community club and won them, and that was it. When he decided magic was going to be his life. And we used to say to him up until about the age of 19, you better have a plan B. and there ever was a plan B. There wasn't.

And he was good enough to get jobs on cruise ships. And then he went on Britain's got talent and everything exploded from there. Yeah, now he's been all over the world. Yeah, yeah, he has been. And so like every other entertainer during the pandemic, there's not much going on. He's doing some online stuff. But, you know, he said he had a tour scheduled in Britain that just as the pandemic took hold had to be canceled. It's been rescheduled for, I think, November or December,

and there's still a question mark as to whether that will go on. Probably not. They'll likely be delayed again. But he's been busy, and he's done some great things. You don't go, magicians, illusionists. I don't know how they do it. It almost hurts your brain when you watch some of the stuff they pull off. You should just enjoy it.

You shouldn't be one of those guys that Google it or. I got to be honest. I don't Google it, but... Have to have the explanation. Enjoy it. Just enjoy it. I don't have to have the explanation. But I'd be lying to you if my brain doesn't look at it and go,

how is that possible? Oh, yeah. Well, that's part of it. Right? Like... And it's difficult now. It's even more difficult than it was for magicians and illusionists of previous eras because of social media.

YouTube, for example. Someone does something on YouTube these days. you can, you, you have a way to slow, to look at that 50,000 times and slow it down and freeze it to see, you know, where the magic actually occurred. So you've got to be really good these days to make it. Yeah. Wow. Yeah. I know. I should say that, uh, well, I, I should say that, uh, well, if you want the explanation, you can find it. But sitting, sitting, sitting around maybe not. Most people, the one thing Darcy always says is he'll have people clap and, and they'll say, I know how you did that and tell them.

And you said most often it's wrong. So I remember years ago watching a magician right in front of us at the Lloyd Fair of all places. And there was probably only, you know, it was one of those miserable nights where it rained all day. And, you know, the vent planners must have just been cursed in the heavens. There was only a handful of us sitting in this venue because the weather had been so horrendous all day. And we're sitting there. and this magician got up and he did like two or three tricks

and you talk about, you know, like you could slow it down, you could film it and you could break down. Right in front of your eyes, it was so fast and so like hard for your brain to comprehend what he just pulled off with making a girl disappear and appear. You're right.

You could have went online and figured out exactly how he did it and went, oh yeah, that makes sense, right? But not just sitting and talking about it is an awful lot of fun. trying to figure out how the hell he pulled it off.

Darcy's best trick. You used to be making our money disappear. He's past that now. That's probably all children. Exactly. You know, over your career, you know, 40 plus years, you've got to sit down with some awfully interesting people. Now, I've mentioned Snoop,

but is there other people that just stick out like that was fun? Well, we do our post-game show. It's called After Hours on Hockey Night in Canada every Saturday night. It is at the conclusion of the second game of the double-header. And on that show, we do our absolute best to get away from Hockey Talk as soon as we can. Because we've already had six and a half hours of pucks on net with traffic mixed in and get pucks deep, et cetera. And we're inclined on that show to try to learn about the guest as a person. what makes them tick.

The show survives more on stories than it does hockey stats, et cetera, stories about growing up or heroes in their life, influences, et cetera. And I'd like to think that we come away from most of those After Hour shows thinking, hey, that's pretty good. I didn't know that about the guy or, you know, people get a chance to learn what he's all about. I'd say this about that long-form interview format of After Hours. it can change people's perception of you.

And I think it did for, and a good example, would be Roberto Luongo in Vancouver. It wasn't universally popular with Kinnock fans for his first few years in Vancouver. And he started coming on after hours and people got to see that he had a very, you know, wry sense of humor. He was engaging.

He was willing to tell you stories. And it helped. I think he's made, when he was at Kinnock, about four or five. appearances on the show, was more than willing to show his personality. And it helped change people's perception of him, certainly Kinnock fans. Another guy would be Kevin Baxa.

I mean, he's one of the principals now in our Stanley Cup coverage. And without probably his appearances in after hours, we don't find him in that role. So there have been a lot of people that, you know, I think had a chance to show their personalities on that program. And as for ones that, you know, I remember best of all, Brian McGratton has been on a couple of times. It's got, I think, almost 10 years of sobriety now. And he was special because he had a message that really resonated with a lot of people in both of his appearances. But I'd like to think that, as I said earlier, there's always a side of the person or something about them that you find out that you might not have not

on before the show began. And, you know, it's probably the most pleasing part of the program. Who came up with the idea for After Hours? After Hours was a show that was originally done just locally in Vancouver. I don't know that it was called After Hours. It was called – it might have been called Hockey Talk or something. I don't know what it was called. I can't remember.

But it was when the second game – of the double header was over, they would come on in Vancouver and talk to a player for 15 or 20 minutes and was there only in Vancouver. And it proved to be popular enough that they adopted the format basically for half an hour to get to the bottom of the clock for the network. And we called it after hours and that was the genesis of the program. Is that your favorite, you know, you talk about getting away from a bit of hockey talk and the dump and chase and being disciplined and blah, blah, blah. It's the one time. during the night where you kind of get to see some color out of the players and actually even

the broadcasters well the look the answer to every question in hockey is either puck's deep or you know as I said pucks on net with traffic mixed in how many times talk in fact I've said to a couple players most recently I think I said it to Ryan Nugent Hopkins in edmonton this year I said I'm going to ask you a question and you cannot use get pucks deep in the answer he looked at me and he said, you've, you've stolen my answer. So, you know, we have a lot of that during the two games of the doubleheader, the intermissions, pregame show, et cetera. And that's not to say I don't enjoy the game. I love it. I love being part of it and part of the broadcast. But by the time we get through two games and intermissions and the pregame show, we're ready for

something different. And that's why I really enjoy after hours. Yeah, well, actually, you know, when we talked on the phone, he said, I'd rather not talk about, you know, I don't know, the playoffs going on. How much are we talked about the playoffs going on? And I laugh because I go, honestly, if you really want the sports talk, what are the 24-hour network that just sits and talks about it the entire time? Yeah, Sportsnet and TSN each have five channels. So there's no shortage of places to find hardcore hockey talk.

And there's a market for it and people love it. Well, hell, I love it. I just, I always go back to, if you really want to know what's going on, you go to, well, and Mr. McKenzie is, is, uh, off TSN is retiring, but you go to the guys who, who know, you go to the Ron McLean's and the panel, you go to yourself, you go to, you go to a whole whack load of people who've been doing a long time who know a heck a lot more than this guy. I'm just sitting here, um, you know, I just like, I'm, I, the after hours resonates with me

because as a kid, I watched it if I was ever allowed to stay up that late. Well, that's the problem. We get our audience that we like to say from guys getting home from bars in the east of the country, gassed, and they'll watch it or the guy just waking up on the couch who can't find the remote and goes, oh, the heck with it, I'll just watch that. And how many times have we done that, right? You can't find the remote. And so whatever's on, you just stare at.

Well, we'll take our audience any way we can get it. But actually, on a more serious note, that show does get, for that hour of the night, it does get very respectful, respectable numbers. Well, and I mean, all it takes is the right guess. Somebody and then an interesting story. I mean, it's the same with anything. You get the right people on their talking. It's awesome. I mean, the storyline goes a long way.

You know, you've had, I didn't realize this. You know, I guess maybe I didn't. I didn't. I just kind of overlooked it. But, you know, we talk, I hear you talk a lot about Ryan. and Reeves and I'm sure you you know your connection to him um him growing up near at well best friends with your kids and and near your home and the different stories there but the shenanigans he's pulled with you over time has been another thing that has been quite humorous and enjoyable to watch

it's fun to have watch from where I sit and probably a lot of people sit to watch an interaction happen that just seems like not so I don't know right out of a can to say Like it's got some human elements to it and it just feels natural. Yeah, it's not your basic walkoff interview with him, certainly. If it's me doing it because he's like one of our kids. He grew up across this kitty corner to us and best friends with Bruce and Darcy's right between them and age. Darcy was best man at Ryan's wedding and I was the MC. My payment for that was two hockey sticks.

One of, and the way I play, I'm still using the first one. one. I don't think I'll ever break it. So, you know, Ryan is very close to us. And if anyone thinking that I'm just going to do your standard, what do you have to do in the third period interview here, it just doesn't work with him. It's like, as I say, talking to one of my kids and people have probably expected, come to expect something, you know, special, buffoonish, maybe when I talk to him. But I'm okay. with that because I my writer or a qualifier when I talk to Ryan is don't expect me to adhere to any journalistic principles talking to him because you know I saw him grow up and a lot of it in our house

so it's just not possible and it's okay I mean I as long as people understand that I think they get it you know it's fine I think most people get it I mean people who don't get it aren't really paying attention but it's yeah i don't know i i've thoroughly enjoy it when you get things that uh you know as a as a viewer you can kind of get into like the transit like yeah here it comes and there it goes and all sudden you two get talking and it's just you get a what that what is this going on here like this is enjoyable now it's it's real good i'm sure it'll be exciting once you're actually in the bubble if you get a sit a chance an opportunity to sit and chat with them i mean We'll see how they do here over the next couple weeks.

But once again, Vegas right there, like they've been just a heck of a story since they were formulated. And Reeves has been, you know, the poster child for him. He's been fun to watch. Well, he's become, I suppose, second only to Mark Andre Fleury, the most popular player on the Vegas Golden Knights. You know, Ryan is cultivating life after hockey already. He's got a 7-5 beer that he's associated with, part ownership, I think, and he's done a number of things in the Vegas community.

So he's got a high profile, and plus he can play. That's the thing about Ryan is that, you know, I know Vancouver fans wouldn't be nearly as complimentary as I'm going to be, but, yeah, he's a fourth-liner who can make a difference in a game, and he can play a bit. So, you know, he's a valuable player in that way. and has been rewarded accordingly with a new contract by Vegas. And he's doing well there.

He's as an important ingredient on that team. Listen, Vancouver fans, got time for Vancouver. I'm a die-hard oiler fan, so bear with me. But Vancouver fans would love to have them on the team, right? Like, they just had to deal with them for six games where they just got, or seven games, sorry, seven games where they got, that guy is running around. They got no answer for them. even when they try it.

Like how many teams have an answer for Ryan Reeves? Not too many. Not too many. Now, he's probably the reigning heavyweight champion in the NHL, and you're right. He can change the complexion of a game. Again, Vancouver fans wouldn't necessarily agree with that, but I know that that's how he's viewed in Vegas,

and that's why he's still there, and it will be for a few more years. Yeah, well, once again on the old Vancouver, I think they got outshot about 200 to 1 in the last three games. So without their tendi there standing on his absolute head, it could have been over a heck, but I will give them this. As an oiler fan, I would have loved to have been in that position and experienced the game 7 and still got beat. Like, I mean, we can't seem to find where we're going.

Now, we can go down that rabbit hole a long, long way. But we're going to go to the crewmaster final five. I've been talking to you now for it. You're laughing that we've been in an hour. at an hour and a half. So let's go to the crewmaster. If anybody is still watching, send me your an instant message and I'll call an ambulance for you. Hey, you know one of the cool things, and I said, I've said this before to a bunch of my guests. One of the cool things, it puts out, you know, on podcasts, they put out statistics on your episodes. And my average

listen is about three minutes before the end. In the last little bit, I have just like a little segment and so it means people are listening and they listen to the end i think it's super cool i think a lot of people specifically in my area you know we're not well and probably the cities too would be the same way we commute a lot and so people are tired of listening to the radio or what they have their ways right and to flick something on like this and hear along if as long as it's entertaining now who knows what people will say about this scott they might have turned it off a while ago but a lot of them and I'll hear about it. Listen right to the end.

So first off, thanks off for coming on. Now let's get to the Crude Master Final Five. Five questions, short as long as you want to go. I'm not worried about it. So don't feel like you're taking up too much time. On your after-hour show, you've talked to a lot of people. If it wasn't just hockey guys, is there one guy that you wish you could have on after hours

to sit and pick their brain like we're doing? interesting question I would say Barack Obama Interesting What would you ask him what I would ask him what? I would ask him

What do you think of the state of U.S. politics? We know that, right? But how we can all get back on the on the same side of decency Which we seem to have lost Certainly south of the border It's a very polarized country right now, and it's discouraging to see.

I would say that feels like most of the world right now is very polar. It's just very black and white, but it just feels like you're on one side of the other. But once again, Mr. Obama's even got pulled into that, right? Like everybody's been pulled into it. They've been pushed to a side. You can't have, it doesn't seem like you can have a conversation anymore, which is really strange. People don't want to listen to that, I guess. Yeah.

Well, there's no time for other people's opinions. It's either, you know, you're either right or right or you're wrong. And it's unfortunate. You've covered a lot of sports. I mean, you're known for hockey night in Canada, but with all the Olympics going on, you've done different things. And I assume it to be very, very beginning of your career. You had to do other things than just the NHL.

what is maybe one of the sports you've done play-by-play for or something in your career that most people don't know you did? And you were like, I can't believe I'm about to do play-by-play or broadcast for this. Well, I'm not strong at play-by-play. I think the only reason I was able to do skiing, alpine skiing at a number of Olympics, was, first of all, I was carried by Karen Lee Gardner. the 1992 Olympic gold medalists. And secondly, because there's only one person on the course at a time, so I really couldn't screw it up. I don't know.

I've done all manner of different sports. One that I think back on was the world canoeing championships in Montreal. And I prepared diligently and had all my notes on a nice, piece of foolscap written in sort of marker and it rained and all my notes washed off the lost every bit of them just before the event started and I thought this is going to be a disaster. Somehow I was able to bluff my way through that. In the Olympics in Seoul in 1998, pardon me, 1988. The executive producer called me and said, I need you to go call the final game for Canada basketball and around Robin tomorrow and I've never done basketball before and I and his

attitude was everybody should be ready to do any any sport and Ron Lancaster the great Ron Lancaster was the color commentator on basketball that year and he was really good so I knew he'd carry me but when I got there it was Spain against Canada and three of the starting five on this and I knew the Canadians and three of the starting five on on Spain were named Fernandez so the margin of there was greatly reduced and I was able to bluff my way through that. Fernandez, over to Fernandez. Fernandez shoots it.

Exactly. Well, not even a goal. It's a three-pointer. Yeah. So there have been a few situations like that, but I'm, I'm better off doing what I'm doing, which is talking to people and doing it in-ring hosting. How about best piece of advice you could give? Maybe go back to your 20-year-old self, a young guy starting out in broadcasting.

What was something you learned along the way that if you could go back and impart that on your 20-year-old self, you'd give? Shut up and listen. As I said to you earlier, when I got my first job, I was amazed that I was able to get it because I thought I knew everything and couldn't wait to get it out. That was reflected in a lot of the work I did, like the Olympics in Montreal, where I was very proud of myself at minimizing the contribution of someone who got. actually wrestled when we were covering wrestling, right? That was wrong and over the course of time I realized that you don't need to to every time you speak you don't need to tell people how smart you are. There's nothing wrong sometimes that's just saying what went wrong in the second period something like that right so I like to think that I've over the

years have become a better broadcaster by the advice that I should have given to myself at the age of 20. How about your bucket list? On your career side of things, you've had a very successful career. We've got to go to places and see things most people dream of or wish they could. What's one thing that you still want to do? I want to do the perfect broadcast. I want to get up out of the chair and go, that was perfect, and now I retire, undefated.

There really isn't anything. I have been so fortunate to work at 15 Olympics, countless Stanley Cup finals, world championships all over the place. I can't honestly think of one thing that I would consider to be missing from what I've done in broadcasting. I'm delighted with the way it's gone, and most of all, I'm delighted to still be working, because this is a shrinking industry, and to just have a job these days is a major accomplishment,

and I count myself lucky. I'm going to, if you were, we'll say, sent on assignment to Toronto tomorrow, and you could bring one other broadcaster with you, who was going to be a really, roommate. Who would you bring and why? Oh my goodness. Well, fortunately, neither the CBC nor Rogers makes us share hotel rooms. I don't know. I'm a big fan of a lot of broadcasters. I marvel at Ron McClain's ability to be the same person on the air as he is off the air. That's his greatest gift, right? Because I think for most of us in this business, when that red light comes on, you change. You change a little bit, whether you're, I didn't say nervous, but you just become a little bit more intense, I suppose.

The greatest gift you can have in this business, well, Ron has always said, the greatest gift, the key to broadcasting is sincerity. And once you can fake that, you can do anything. But the greatest gift in this business is to be exactly the same person on the air as you are off the year. year and that would be him. So I'm a big fan of his. I was a big fan of Dave Hodge, his predecessor on Hockey Night in Canada, because Dave never shied away from an issue or a question back when a lot of other guys weren't doing that. So to name one that I would want to have as a roommate, here's how I would view it. Anybody who would want to be my roommate, I wouldn't want to be their roommate. But the old Groucho Marx, any club that would have me as a member, I

want to be a member of. That's my answer to that question. Anybody could want to ruin with me. I want nothing to do with. Well, I really appreciate you hopping on. It's been enjoyable. Best of luck going into the bubble. And we look forward to probably seeing you very shortly on the airwaves. And thanks again. My pleasure, Sean. Thanks for having me on. Hey, folks. Thanks again for joining us today. If you just stumble on the show, and like what you hear, please click subscribe. Remember, every Monday and Wednesday a new guest will be sitting down to share their story.

The Sean Newman podcast is available for free on Apple, Spotify, YouTube, and wherever else you find your podcast fix. Until next time.