Report: Maple Leafs Radio Crew of Joe Bowen and Jim Ralph to Travel For Stanley Cup Playoffs After Calling Games From Non-Toronto Broadcasts From Home
The radio crew had been grounded for road games since the COVID-19 pandemic but did travel for Round 2 of the playoffs last season.
It looks like the radio crew of Joe Bowen and Jim Ralph will be hitting the road when the Toronto Maple Leafs open up their 2024 Stanley Cup Playoffs next week.
According to The Toronto Sun's Lance Hornby, Bowen and Ralph will be on-site instead of calling games from a studio.
The longtime radio duo has been calling visiting games from two different studios in Toronto for road games since 2020 when the COVID-19 pandemic took hold. As things returned to normal, the radio duo remained grounded for regular season games. That continued into the 2023 playoffs where Bowen and Ralph remained in Toronto as the club defeated the Tampa Bay Lightning in six games to win their first playoff series in 19 years.
After not being on-site for the club's first playoff-round victory for the first time in 19 years, Bowen and Ralph were back on the road for Round 2 against the Florida Panthers. When the Leafs were eliminated by the Panthers in Game 5, Bowen openly pondered if that was the duo's last radio call. Both were renewed for the upcoming season later that summer.
The radio rights, which are equally split between Bell Canada and Rogers Communications, are hosted on TSN 1050 and Sportsnet 590 THE FAN. Both parent companies each hold a 37.5 percent stake of the Maple Leafs' parent company, Maple Leaf Sports & Entertainment.
The Maple Leafs are one of the few radio crews across the NHL that do not send voices to be on location for road games. It's a bit shocking, considering measures like that are made to cut costs for lower-budget teams rather than the most valuable franchise based on current valuations.
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