'It's A Really Hard One To Win': Retired Hockey Night in Canada Broadcaster Jim Hughson Discusses Challenge of Calling Maple Leafs Games
Hughson retired in September 2021 after a year of only calling Vancouver Canucks games during the 2021 bubble season.
If you're a hockey fan, you know the voice of now-retired broadcaster Jim Hughson.
Whether it was on EA Sports' NHL franchise from 1997 to 2009 or during Hockey Night in Canada and Sportsnet broadcasts from 2005 to 2021, you knew who was calling the game immediately when you heard his voice.
Born in British Columbia, Hughson was an avid Vancouver Canucks fan. He called countless Canucks games before moving into the main Hockey Night in Canada seat to call mostly Toronto Maple Leafs games in 2008, replacing hockey icon Bob Cole.
On Monday, Hughson appeared on the Sekeres & Price Show and discussed the challenges of being a national broadcaster and calling Maple Leafs games on Hockey Night in Canada, while also looking back on the Canucks' trip to the Stanley Cup Finals in 2011.
"I still have really, really, really great memories of that (Canucks playoff run) in some ways. That was really different because, I found that, as a broadcaster, and everybody knew that I was a Vancouver guy and that I lived in the city. Local people didn't think I was a big enough fan. And the other guys thought I was too much of a fan," Hughson said.
"When I broadcasted the Maple Leafs, one of the downsides of having the top chair on Hockey Night in Canada is, basically, you become a Toronto Maple Leafs broadcaster because you're there every Saturday, whether they're good or bad. And as the years have gone by, I've noticed a real change in fandom, and part of it is social media, I think."
The 62-year-old now-retired broadcaster added that it's difficult to please all the fans on a national broadcast, given the supporters of a team such as the Maple Leafs are spread from coast to coast in Canada.
"But it's just the way everybody in a local fanbase expects their broadcasters to be like them. They want fans, and if you're not, you must hate them. And that's the problem you get when you're broadcasting on the national level out of Toronto is that they want a local broadcast, but at the same time, the broadcasters are broadcasting to every corner of the province," Hughson added.
"And you might be broadcasting a game with the New York Islanders playing, and the young men who play for the Islanders are from all different parts of Canada as well, and their people are invested in it. It's really a hard one to win, in that sense."
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Hughson has called almost all of Toronto's most recent playoff collapses. He was the broadcaster for three of the last four playoff series' against the Boston Bruins (2013, 2018, and 2019).
He was also the main voice for the Maple Leafs' five-game series against the Columbus Blue Jackets in 2020 where Toronto lost in Game 5 after making a miraculous comeback in Game 4.
[embed]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zy08q7TnxqY[/embed]
The Hockey Hall of Fame honoured Hughson with the annual Foster Hewitt Memorial Award in 2019 for his outstanding contributions to hockey broadcasting.
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