Brendan Batchelor will make his debut as the new voice of the Vancouver Canucks on Friday, when he calls the Canucks Young Stars game against the Winnipeg Jets.
Canucks fans have been spoiled by some excellent play-by-play commentators over the years, such as Jim Robson, Jim Hughson, and John Shorthouse. Batchelor hopes to make a name for himself now and brings a distinct voice, machine-gun patter, and years of experience calling games for the Vancouver Giants.
With Batchelor’s debut in mind, I asked Canucks fans on Twitter for some of their favourite play-by-play calls in Canucks history and got an enthusiastic response. The majority come from key moments in Canucks history, with a heavy dose of recency bias, as I and many other Canucks fans have never heard play-by-play calls from before the 90’s.
Will Batchelor get to call some classic Canucks moments of his own in the coming years? Here’s hoping. Until then, here are ten of the best Canucks play-by-play calls.
GREG ADAMS! GREG ADAMS!
This is one of the biggest goals in Canucks history and it gets a classic treatment from Jim Robson. There’s something about excitedly yelling a player’s name repeatedly that gets the job done more than any flowery words.
They tied the game!
John Shorthouse’s voice cracks with excitement as he cries out, “Naslund! Into the zone! Dekes! Scores!” and then caps it off with an incredulous, “They tied the game!”
Why is he so shocked? Because the Canucks were down 5-1 heading into the third period. The Canucks scored four unanswered, with Naslund’s tying goal coming in the final minute to push the game to overtime.
Mats Sundin ruined it with the overtime game winner, but the emotion in Shorthouse’s voice makes this a classic call.
Brendan Morrison! A silencer!
Chris Cuthbert delivers a wonderful vocal crack on “Scores!” for this triple overtime gamewinner against the Flames in round one of the 2004 playoffs, ending what was then the longest game in Canucks history, a fact so conveniently supplied by Cuthbert in the call itself. Cuthbert caps it off with an emphatic, “And we WILL have game seven.”
Shorthouse’s radio call at 2:25 is solid as well, though he can’t quite match Cuthbert on this one.
And they’re still alive!
Game seven against the Flames in 2004 didn’t end well for the Canucks, but it still gave us this iconic moment in Canucks history.
Chris Cuthbert’s call is a masterclass in play-by-play. Notice all the details he casually drops in, while still building the excitement of the moment:
“Debris on the ice and 15 seconds left. Iginla has the stick knocked out of his hand and he falls at centre. Naslund dashing in. 10 seconds left! Markus Naslund to the net. Stopped...scores! Scores! Matt Cooke cashes in! 5.7 seconds left! And they’re still alive!”
He creates a countdown with the mention of 15, then 10 seconds left, amping up the tension. He notices the debris on the ice and Iginla getting his stick knocked out of his hands away from the puck. He even gets in a quick “stopped” in during the split second between the initial save and Cooke scoring, but his “scores!” comes at the exact moment the crowd realizes the puck is in. It’s brilliant.
Daniel to Henrik in overtime!
As some longtime Bulies will know, this quadruple overtime against the Dallas Stars is where the name Pass it to Bulis came from. Shorthouse’s call on Henrik’s quadruple-overtime game winner is a strong one, even if it's just a couple names, that shows up repeatedly on radio promos for the Canucks and it’s one of my favourite Canucks calls.
It’s a wonderful day for an exorcism.
Jim Hughson’s prolonged “Scooooores!” deserves some attention, but it’s his line
“Finally, after three seasons and 19 playoff games against Chicago, for Vancouver, it’s a wonderful day for an exorcism.”
It’s an unexpected line, delivered with panache. It’s incongruous — when do you ever hear “wonderful” and “exorcism” in the same sentence — but perfectly captures the moment, as Alex Burrows exorcised the Canucks’ playoff demons against Chicago with a series-winning goal.
They slayed the dragon!
Whether you prefer Hughson’s call of this goal or Shorthouse’s is a matter of taste, but “They slayed the dragon!” has become a more common part of the Canucks parlance.
Alex Burrows has done it again!
Jim Hughson can’t believe how clutch Burrows is and the disbelief in his voice as he says, “Alex Burrows has done it again!” makes this a great call. This was the moment when every Canucks fan was certain Vancouver was going to bring home the Stanley Cup.
YEAAAGH! aka. Brown to Bure
This call gets remembered as “Brown to Bure,” but that’s not what was said. Instead, Jim Robson says, “Brown, a long pass to Pavel Bure. In the clear, right in!”
What makes this an all-time great call, however, is Tom Larscheid going full homer, screaming a nearly incoherent “Yes!” before Jim Robson even says, “He scores!”
He’ll play on crutches!
The moment that truly defines the hate Vancouver has for Mark Messier and the iconic moment in Trevor Linden’s playing career with the Canucks was immortalized by an all-time great call by Jim Robson.
Making it even better is how it could not possibly have been planned for in advance: how could Robson have known that Messier would take Linden down away from the play? I mean, other than Messier’s entire dirty career?
So when Robson says, “He will play. You know he’ll play. He’ll play on crutches!” it feels so authentic and real. It’s a true statement borne out of Linden’s character and the emotion of the moment. This is undoubtedly the defining play-by-play call in Canucks history.
