Today it was announced that Barry Melrose, the face of hockey on TV in the US of A for the last three decades, is entering retirement after recently being diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease. You figured Melrose would eventually retire in the upcoming years from being a mainstay for the NHL on TV, but not on these terms. Not sure if the announcement of this gut punch for hockey was planned for NHL Opening Day, but this news sucks regardless of what day it is.
We’re in an era where 90% of sports “analysts” on TV are either a) former players that were average at best and knew a guy or two at ESPN/FOX or b) simply saying arrogantly stupid takes to get guys who do nothing but watch sports talk shows and fart into their couch riled up (looking at you Skip Bayless and Max Kellerman). Barry didn’t do that. When you tuned into ESPN to get their ~30 seconds of hockey coverage so they can talk about Lebron’s Starbucks order the other 23 3/4 hours of the day, you got actual insightful analysis and opinions from a guy who really knew his shit. Not only that, but you’d get it with some entertaining hockey chirps from a guy in a sometimes hilariously flashy suit + a mullet that set the standard for mullets all across America.
Imagine hearing a hockey take from this guy and thinking “nope, I don’t believe that guy”. It can’t be done.
And if you’re asking yourself if Barry was liked behind closed doors at ESPN, here you go from one of the few entertaining guys left at ESPN (with a voiceover from the greatest hockey player of all time).
Barry was a rare mix of knowing what the hell he was talking about, entertaining, and doing it with class. It wasn’t for clicks for him, he just wanted everyone to love hockey like he did.
When you think of the who’s who for football on TV you can think of many names. John Madden, Chris Collinsworth, Joe Buck, etc.
When you think of baseball TV analysts/commentators you get Joe Buck again, Harry Caray, maybe Matt Vasgersian.
When you think of soccer analysts on TV, you try remembering the last time you watched soccer on TV.
But unless tonight is your first time watching hockey when you think of hockey on TV in America, Barry Melrose is the first person that comes to mind and it isn’t even close.
On the bright side we do have a solid lineup of guys for NHL on TNT with Gretzky, Paul Bissonnette, Messier, etc for years to come. But hockey won’t be the same without Barry Melrose.
Steve Levy pointed out today that although Melrose had a -119 rating in his illustrious 300 game NHL playing career (and an impressive 728 penalty minutes in those 300 games), he deserves a spot in the hockey Hall of Fame. Normally I think 95% of what ESPN does is garbage, but in this case if you disagree with Levy there then you deserve to take a slapper from Ovi to the jaw.
Stick taps to the legend.
The Morning Skate 